China Steel Corp (
The
"We are not in talks with Formosa Plastics to invest in a steel mill," said Wang Mao-ping (
China Steel shares fell NT$1.42, or 8.9 percent, to NT$14.60, on the announcement, marking an all-time low for this year.
China Steel Chairman Kuo Yen-tu (
Kuo was appointed chairman of state-run China Steel in June by Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs, replacing Wang Chung-yu (
The economic affairs ministry owns 40.5 percent of China Steel and traditionally chooses the company's chairman.
"It's no secret that Chairman Kuo wants to build a second steel mill at the [proposed] Pinnan [Industrial Complex], but it's premature to say which company we want to invest in this project," said China Steel's spokesman Wang.
Kuo has been pushing to build a steel mill in Pinnan Industrial Complex (濱南工業區) in southern Taiwan, although the plan has been opposed by environmentalists there.
China Steel is still evaluating plans for the mill, Wang said.
China Steel said last week it will ask Japan's five largest steelmakers to invest US$200 billion in the mill, which will double China Steel's production capacity. Kuo and other China Steel executives plan to visit Japan after July 20.
Meanwhile in related news, Tung Ho Steel Enterprise and Kuei-Yi Enterprise, the two Taiwan steelmakers named in a US anti-dumping case, announced yesterday that they have confidence in being cleared from the list of suspected violators.
US steelmakers charge that Tung Ho dumped its steel products at 40.28 percent below fair market value and that Kuei-Yi sold its products at 69.61 percent below fair market value.
However, Tung Ho and Kuei-Yi both claim that their products were sold at fair market value prices, with Tung Ho exporting only 20,000 tonnes at NT$10,500 (US$350) per ton and Kuei-Yi exporting approximately 30,000 tonnes at US$300 per ton.
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) determined Monday that there is "a reasonable indication" that the US steel industry has been "materially injured or threatened with material injury" by imports from Taiwan, China, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Russia, South Africa and Spain.
The ITC's determination moves the case forward to the US Department of Commerce, which is charged with continuing investigations into the alleged dumping of structural steel products.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that