The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday fined 23 ready-mixed concrete and asphalt suppliers in Greater Tainan and Chiayi County NT$60 million (US$1.99 million) for collusion in a bid to drive up prices.
“Ready-mixed concrete and asphalt are essential materials for paving roads. The concerted action of these companies drove up prices, resulting in higher public expenses,” commission member Wu Cheng-wuh (吳成物) told reporters.
The commission fined seven companies in Chiayi between NT$500,000 and NT$6.3 million each for holding meetings and reaching an agreement to jointly raise their prices by NT$70 to NT$80 per tonne between February and March 2010; NT$80 to NT$100 per tonne in October 2010; and NT$100 per tonne in May 2011, Wu said.
The other 16 companies in Greater Tainan demanded that downstream buyers pay an additional fee of NT$200 or be forced to source their products elsewhere, Wu said.
The 16 companies were fined between NT$500,000 and 5 million each, depending on their size and whether they cooperated with the commission during the investigation, Wu said.
The 23 companies accounted for nearly 100 percent of the ready-mixed concrete and asphalt supply in Greater Tainan and Chiayi, as it is difficult to transport these products from other areas, Wu said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day