■TRADE
China faces penalties
The US announced on Tuesday preliminary penalties on imports of some Chinese steel grating, saying the products were being sold at below-market value to gain an unfair trade advantage. The US this year has imposed duties on other China-made steel products because of alleged dumping or export subsidies, including steel pipes. The US Commerce Department said it had preliminarily found that Chinese producers/exporters had sold steel grating in the US at between 14.36 percent and 145.18 percent less than normal value. The Commerce Department is scheduled to make its final determination in April.
■SOUTH KOREA
Output up for fifth month
Industrial output grew for a fifth month last month, official figures showed yesterday, in another sign the economy is fast recovering from the global downturn. Statistics Korea said production in mining and manufacturing rose 17.8 percent last month from a year earlier, the largest year-on-year increase since September 2006. The steep rise was due mainly to the low base in November last year, at the height of the slump. The statistics office said strong demand for semiconductors and cars contributed to the increase. Month-on-month, output rose 1.4 percent last month.
■INVESTMENT
KDB buys Daewoo stake
Korea Development Bank (KDB) will buy a controlling stake in Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co through a private-equity fund for 2.9 trillion won (US$2.5 billion) to help replenish depleting cash at Kumho Asiana Group. The fund will buy 50 percent plus one share in Daewoo Engineering from the South Korean conglomerate for 18,000 won a share, KDB vice chairman Kim Young-kee said in Seoul yesterday. The price is a 41 percent premium to yesterday’s close. Kumho Asiana put Daewoo Engineering up for sale as it faces a cash call of about 4 trillion won from creditors who helped finance the acquisition of South Korea’s third-biggest builder in 2006.
■SPONSORSHIP
Woods scandal cost billions
The sex scandal that engulfed Tiger Woods may have cost shareholders of companies endorsed by the world’s No. 1 golfer up to US$12 billion in losses, a study by two economics professors from the University of California, Davis, showed. The study, released on Monday by researchers Victor Stango and Christopher Knittel, gave an estimate for damage to the market value of Woods’ main sponsors caused by revelations of alleged extramarital affairs that surfaced after he was involved in a minor car accident outside his Florida home on Nov. 27. “Our analysis makes clear that while having a celebrity of Tiger Woods’ stature as an endorser has undeniable upside, the downside risk is substantial, too,” Stango said in a statement released along with the study.
■MINING
Codelco braces for strike
Chile’s Codelco, the world’s No. 1 copper producer, on Tuesday braced for a strike at its giant Chuquicamata mine, after workers rejected a wage offer, stoking supply fears on global copper markets. A strike could start within days at Chuquicamata, which produces about 4 percent of the world’s mined copper. A strike could curb production at the complex by about 1,800 tonnes a day. The vote to strike Chuquicamata came after union workers at Chile’s Altonorte smelter on Monday began a strike. The smelter’s owner Xstrata had already cut output for maintenance work set to last nearly a month.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)