Long Life to be sold in China
The nation's most popular cigarettes, Long Life, will be sold in China next year, Morgan Hwang (黃營杉), president of the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司), said yesterday.
Hwang, who visited Chinese authorities in charge of tobacco monopoly sales recently, said Long Life will be sold in the Chinese market through a Chinese company in Hong Kong and Taiwanese distributors in various parts of China.
He estimated that sales of Long Life in China could reach 2 million cases per year, roughly equal to its sales in Taiwan.
His company will begin to select distributors soon.
China imposes duties on PVCs
China imposed import duties on polyvinyl-chlorides, or PVCs, from Taiwan, the US, Japan, South Korea and Russia because they sold the product at below cost in the country, cutting the profit of local producers, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its Web site.
Companies that export PVCs to China will be forced to pay duties based on the amount they sell and the price charged.
The additional duties will be in place for five years starting today, the Beijing-based ministry said.
Repurchase tax considered
The country is considering imposing a tax on interest earned from temporary purchases of bonds, transactions known as repurchase agreements.
The government hasn't made a decision, said Joanne Ling (凌忠嫄), income tax director at the Ministry of Finance, denying a Chinese-language newspaper report.
The move would help reduce tax evasion by wealthy individuals, the report said.
The government is proposing the biggest-ever budget deficit next year, calling for the shortfall to widen 13 percent to NT$257.4 billion (US$7.6 billion).
A tax on interest income may become applicable after the government changed accounting rules to treat repurchase transactions as a form of financing, Ling said.
In repurchase agreements, a bondholder such as an insurer sells securities to an investor such as a mutual fund for a set period, often for one day. At maturity, the securities are returned to the seller and the cash to the buyer.
Seminar to discuss EPZs
The Economic Processing Zone Administration under the Ministry of Economic Affairs will host a seminar in Kaohsiung today to introduce the investment climate in various newly built economic processing zones (EPZs), such as the Pingtung and Touliu EPZs, a spokesman for the administration said yesterday.
The administration will invite potential investors and companies from related industries to the seminar, the spokesman said.
Businesses approved to set up plants in those EPZs will enjoy low rent and investment incentives provided by the government, including a free-trade port area to be set up by the administration to help them sell to the world, he added.
NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, up NT$0.001 to close at NT$33.790 on the Taipei Foreign Exchange. Turnover was US$898 million.
The NT dollar pared gains on trader speculation the central bank sold its currency to prevent exporters' month-end demand from extending its gains, which threaten to slow exports.
"There's speculation that the central bank sold the NT dollar," said Jerry Ho, a foreign exchange trader at International Bank of Taipei (台北商銀). "It's probably anticipation of rising NT dollar demand from exporters toward the end of the month" that prompted the central bank to sell to prevent the currency from "rising too fast."
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS