Trade delegation now in US
An economic and investment promotional mission, led by Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫), arrived in Los Angeles yesterday on the first leg of a weeklong visit to San Diego, Chicago, Delaware, Philadelphia and New York.
While in those cities, the mission will hold seminars on investment in Taiwan and meet with US business leaders.
The mission is composed of officials from industrial, economic, and trade promotional organizations, including the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the China External Trade Development Council and the Industrial Development and ministry's Investment Center.
Bid for China Pacific
Ruentex Group (潤泰集團) chairman Yin Yen-liang (尹衍樑) plans to invest more than US$100 million of his own money in a venture with Carlyle Group Inc and other investors that will buy a stake in China Pacific Insurance Co's life insurance unit, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday, citing Yin.
Yin, whose businesses include textiles, construction and engineering, is seeking a 24.9 percent interest in the life insurance arm of Shanghai-based China Pacific, China's No. 3 insurer, the newspaper said.
Yin is now aiming to expand his businesses across the Taiwan Strait.
In China, the businessman is expanding into grocery wholesaling, convenience stores, distribution centers, construction and garments, the paper said.
Taipower seeks oil contract
Taiwan Power Co (台電) plans to sign a contract to buy 73,000 tonnes of fuel oil between next month and October next year, a company official said.
Taiwan Power will tomorrow ask suppliers to offer 0.5 percent sulfur fuel oil for delivery under a one-year agreement, said Raymond Jen, an official from the company's fuel procurement department.
A notice will be posted on the Public Construction Commission's Web site today, he said. The deadline for bids is Aug. 19.
Bidders will for the first time be able to deliver fuel oil to Taiwan Power by truck, allowing Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) to compete with Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油).
Chinese Petroleum has traditionally supplied the company through a pipeline to its 1,085-megawatt Linkou power plant.
"We want to have more suppliers," Jen said.
Last year Chinese Petroleum supplied about 3 million kiloliters of fuel oil and will deliver between 2.5 million and 3 million kiloliters of fuel oil this year, he said.
NPL ratio falls to 8%
The bad-loan ratio at lenders fell to 8 percent as of June 30, from 8.6 percent at the end of March, after the nation's banks accelerated write-offs of troubled loans.
About NT$1.13 trillion (US$33 billion) of loans were classed as non-performing loans (NPL) or loans under surveillance, the central bank said in a statement. That compares with NT$1.2 trillion at the end of March.
Excluding loans at risk of default and under surveillance, the NPL-ratio fell to 5.7 percent from 6.1 percent at the end of March, the central bank said.
NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar was at NT$34.396 yesterday from Friday's NT$34.415, according to Taipei Forex Inc. A total of US$215 million changed hands. The currency has risen 0.3 percent in the past five days against the greenback, compared with 1.1 percent for the yen.
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