Consumers should not worry about rising flour prices in the near term because major retailers have sufficient stocks, the Fair Trade Commission said yesterday.
The commission checked prices at retail chains over the weekend after the Chinese-language United Daily News reported on Saturday that some wholesalers were hoarding flour. The report fanned speculation that the flour prices may go up again in coming months.
"The hypermarkets said they have no plans to increase prices of flour now," the commission said in a statement yesterday.
Supplies remains stable and the retailers have inventories ranging from 20 days to one month, it said.
The public should not panic, the commission said in the statement.
The wholesale price of a 22kg bag of flour rose NT$90 (US$2.70) earlier this year to around NT$400. Traders say the price could rise to NT$500 a bag next year.
Investigators checked prices and supplies at hypermarkets, including Carrefour, RT-Mart (大潤發) and Far Eastern Geant (愛買), as well as supermarkets such as Wellcome, Matsusei and those operated by Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co (台北農產運銷公司).
The commission also launched a large-scale investigation yesterday into flour manufacturers and wholesalers to find out what sparked the rumors of a price hike.
It stressed that increased prices due to rising costs or supply and demand inbalance are a natural market mechanism response.
The commission said it would keep an eye on suppliers and retailers to see if there has been any price fixing or driving up of prices.
Such practices can incur fines of up to NT$25 million, according to Article 41 of the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法).
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS