A small group of about 50 rubber farmers gathered yesterday in Thailand’s southern province of Surat Thani to demand more support from the military-led government for rubber prices, in defiance of martial law.
The law has been in place since May, the same month the military staged a coup to end months of political street protests. The law prohibits all demonstrations and political gatherings of more than five people.
The rubber farmers handed in a petition to Surat Thani Governor Chatpong Chatputi calling for government intervention, police said.
“There are still about 20 farmers gathered around city hall, but no violent incidents have been reported,” a police officer in Surat Thani who requested anonymity said.
Soontorn Rakrong, a spokesman for 14 farmers’ groups based in the south, said farmers had grown increasingly desperate because the government had failed to soften the blow from a collapse in rubber prices.
Weak demand, particularly from top importer China, amid a supply glut has pushed global rubber prices down to five-year lows.
Thailand’s benchmark unsmoked rubber sheet (USS3), which farmers sell to factories, was quoted at 43 baht (US$1.30) per kg on Monday.
Farmers are demanding that the government find ways to ensure they get 80 baht per kilogram, Soontorn told reporters at Government House in Bangkok, where he had gone to seek talks with ministers.
“We will give the government until the new year to solve plunging rubber prices. If they can’t, farmers from around the country will come to Bangkok to meet [Thai] Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha,” Soontorn said.
The government said on Monday that measures to push the price of USS3 up to 60 baht per kilogram were already in hand. It has also promised direct handouts to farmers. A state body is to buy rubber from the market under measures announced in October. To avoid building up costly stockpiles, the government has said it would only intervene in the market in that way if it had buyers for the rubber it purchased.
On Monday, Thai Deputy Agriculture Minister Amnuay Patisse said China’s Hainan Rubber Industry Group (海南橡膠集團) had bought 200,000 tonnes, after purchasing 208,000 tonnes last month, but a Chinese source with knowledge of the matter said the second deal had not yet been concluded.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last