China Steel Corp (中鋼) yesterday signed a syndicated loan of C$278.34 million (US$265 million) with 12 banks, as the nation’s only integrated steelmaker plans to use the money to finance its raw material investments.
The company expects such investments to increase its raw materials self-sufficiency rate to 30 percent by 2015.
In January, China Steel reported a self-sufficiency rate of 11.6 percent in iron ore and 2.9 percent in coal, when the company acquired a 3.68 percent stake in ArcelorMittal Mines Canada Inc’s (AMMC) iron ore mining.
The syndicated loan was led by Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀) and Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行), according to Bank of Taiwan.
“The completion of the deal will enable China Steel to secure sufficient funds and raw materials, increasing the company’s competitiveness in upstream steel industry,” the company said in a statement.
China Steel chairman Tsou Jou-chi (鄒若齊) told shareholders at the annual general meeting on June 19 that the company would spend NT$22 billion in capital expenditure and NT$38.3 billion in overseas investment this year.
The company’s capital expenditure is expected to decline next year as the expansion project for its Dragon Steel Corp (中龍) unit finishes and the company has no further large capital spending plans for next year.
While the company expects iron ore prices to be weak in the remainder of the year, while coal prices remains stable, its near-term outlook is clouded by oversupply in China and new competition from steel mills in Vietnam, the company said earlier.
In the first five months of the year, the company registered a pretax profit of NT$10.64 billion, 12 times as much as the NT$786.28 million posted a year ago, the company’s stock exchange filing showed.
In related news, the Taiwan Steel & Iron Industries Association (台灣鋼鐵同業公會) said yesterday that the government should urge China to lower its tariffs on Taiwanese steel imports and stop tax refunds for Chinese steel exports before Taiwan decides whether to liberalize steel imports from China.
The association’s comment comes after the government announced it is considering to allow 200 items of steel products from China to be exempt from taxation.
In a press release, the association said that after the government signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China in June 2010, 34 items of Taiwan’s steel products exported to China enjoy lower import taxes ranging from 3 percent to 8 percent, but there are 100 items of steel products imported from China that are exempt from taxes.
Furthermore, the association said the Chinese government provides tax refunds for steel exports, which puts steel companies overseas at a disadvantage.
The government should implement the necessary measures to counteract the tax refund in China, just as some Southeast Asian countries, the association said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last