The Fair Trade Commission said yesterday it has launched an investigation into possible price fixing or stock hoarding by major corn importers and wholesalers. The probe was part of the commission's efforts to prevent commodity prices from rising abnormally.
The commission's latest move came after pork dealers complained that a recent spike in corn prices had forced them to raise the price of pork. Further price increases, they said, could hurt demand.
The commission began visiting food manufacturers and importers -- including Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), Dachan Great Wall Group (大成長城集團) and Taiwan Sugar Corp (台糖), among others -- on July 25 to check corn prices, Wu Cheng-wuh (吳成物), the commission's chief secretary, said during a telephone interview yesterday.
"As the investigation is ongoing, we will see whether any abnormal transactions have occurred before determining whether corn prices were illegally controlled," he said.
Wu said the commission would have results soon after finishing price checks with the retailers.
Based on the commission's preliminary data, the price of corn went up from NT$7.5 per kilogram at the beginning of this year to NT$8.7 in the middle of June, before sliding to NT$7.85 last week.
The price of corn in futures traded in Chicago, meanwhile, was down 9.77 percent, the commission said in a statement yesterday.
Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned. A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash. However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety. “Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and the company’s former chairman, Mark Liu (劉德音), both received the Robert N. Noyce Award -- the semiconductor industry’s highest honor -- in San Jose, California, on Thursday (local time). Speaking at the award event, Liu, who retired last year, expressed gratitude to his wife, his dissertation advisor at the University of California, Berkeley, his supervisors at AT&T Bell Laboratories -- where he worked on optical fiber communication systems before joining TSMC, TSMC partners, and industry colleagues. Liu said that working alongside TSMC
TECHNOLOGY DAY: The Taiwanese firm is also setting up a joint venture with Alphabet Inc on robots and plans to establish a firm in Japan to produce Model A EVs Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday announced a collaboration with ChatGPT developer OpenAI to build next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and strengthen its local supply chain in the US to accelerate the deployment of advanced AI systems. Building such an infrastructure in the US is crucial for strengthening local supply chains and supporting the US in maintaining its leading position in the AI domain, Hon Hai said in a statement. Through the collaboration, OpenAI would share its insights into emerging hardware needs in the AI industry with Hon Hai to support the company’s design and development work, as well
RSS