■ China Steel to raise prices
China Steel Corp (中鋼) plans to increase the local price of its products in the second quarter to reflect higher global prices and rising raw material and transportation costs as the global economy rebounds.
The company plans to boost prices for six types of products between NT$1,900 (US$57) a tonne to NT$3,200 a tonne starting April 1, the company said in a statement, without giving either current prices or the percentage increases.
Increased steel demand in China has caused a shortage, causing an increase the cost of raw materials such as coal, metals, scrap steel and steel slabs, China Steel said. The US, Japan and Europe are also buying more steel.
■ KG Telecommunications fined
Fair Trade Commission ruled yesterday that KG Telecommunica-tions Co (和信電訊) must pay a NT$200,000 fine for fraudulent commercials and that the company must stop the commercials immediately.
KG Telecommunications Co launched six TV commercials last May to promote its new package of services, boasting that calls made to recipients using the same network would be free of charge all day. But the free-of-charge offer only applied to the first five minutes of each call and users have to pay NT$1 per minute from the sixth minute of a call.
The commercials misled customers and violated Article 21 of the Fair Trade Law (公平交易法) and should no longer be aired, the commission said in its statement.
■ Bank lending soaring
Bank lending rose at the fastest pace in more than five years last month as record-low interest rates and accelerating economic growth spurred companies to tap credit lines to fund expansion.
Total lending by the nation's financial institutions rose 5.9 percent last month to NT$14.3 trillion (US$430 billion) from a year earlier, the central bank said on its Web site.
The increase is the biggest since a 6.4 percent gain in November 1998.
■ Interest mixed in pre-poll flights
To cope with a larger number of Taiwan businesspeople planning to return home to vote in the March 20 presidential election, some airlines are considering offering reduced ticket prices or adding flights.
A Dragon Airlines Taiwan manager said the company has decided to add one flight each day on March 17 to 19 on the route from Shanghai to Taipei via Hong Kong to serve returning businesspeople. Passengers who fly on these three flights will not have to change airlines, he said.
China Airlines (華航) and EVA Airways Corp (長榮) said that they have no plans to increase flights prior to March 20 because bookings for flights before that day are far from full. However, both airlines have agreed to provide cheaper group tickets for those who book seats through a Taiwan businessmen's association.
■ Cross-strait insurance plan eyed
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday his administration is studying the feasibility of putting together a package of measures to promote insurance service exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.
Addressing the opening ceremony of a seminar on Taiwan's insurance industry, Chen said the government is considering allowing local insurers to invest in the Chinese market by buying a maximum 25 percent stake in insurance companies there.
■ NT dollar dips slightly
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.059 to close at NT$33.311 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$579 million.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
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Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
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