Far Eastern Group (遠東集團), which controls Taiwan’s biggest textile company, has begun selling the nation’s first beer in plastic bottles.
The polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles Far Eastern makes “took much work to develop” so they can keep the flavor of beer, chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) told reporters in Taipei yesterday.
The group will sell the drinks bottled in a Far Eastern venture in Suzhou, he said.
At present, beer in Taiwan is mostly sold in glass bottles or aluminum cans, as traditional PET containers allow in too much oxygen, reducing the shelf life of the drinks.
Far Eastern’s PET bottles, produced with a coating to stop gas permeation, have the advantage of being lighter than glass containers and can be recycled, Hsu said.
The group controls Far Eastern Textile Ltd (遠東紡織), Taiwan’s biggest textile company, and Oriental Union Chemical Corp (東聯化學), which produces material used to make PET bottles.
Far Eastern will ship beer from Sino Belgium Beer (Suzhou) Ltd (中比啤酒), its joint venture with Belgium-based Brouwerij Martens, to the Taiwan market, said Fanny Liao, managing director at the Chinese company.
Taiwan’s NT$9 billion (US$273 million) per year beer market is dominated by Taiwan Beer, which is produced by state-run Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒), Liao said.
PROTECTIONISM: China hopes to help domestic chipmakers gain more market share while preparing local tech companies for the possibility of more US sanctions Beijing is stepping up pressure on Chinese companies to buy locally produced artificial intelligence (AI) chips instead of Nvidia Corp products, part of the nation’s effort to expand its semiconductor industry and counter US sanctions. Chinese regulators have been discouraging companies from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips, which are used to develop and run AI models, sources familiar with the matter said. The policy has taken the form of guidance rather than an outright ban, as Beijing wants to avoid handicapping its own AI start-ups and escalating tensions with the US, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
CHEMICAL FIRE: 10 Indian employees were injured by smoke inhalation at a Tata Electronics plant in Tamil Nadu state that produces components for Apple Inc At least 10 people received medical treatment, with two hospitalized after a major fire on Saturday disrupted production at a key Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd plant in southern India that makes Apple Inc’s iPhone components. The fire occurred at the plant in the city of Hosur in Tamil Nadu state that makes some iPhone components. It broke out near another building inside the Tata complex, which was to begin producing complete iPhones in the coming months. The fire was contained to one building and has been extinguished fully, top district administrative official K.M. Sarayu said. No decision has been made on when
RSS