Textile manufacturer Lealea Enterprise Co (力麗) on Saturday said it would set up its first overseas factory in Indonesia this year.
Chairman James Kuo (郭紹儀) has made investing in Indonesia one of Lealea’s strategic priorities and set the goal of launching operations at the Indonesian site in the second half of the year, the company said.
Taipei-based Lealea, which makes polyester filament yarns and polyester chips, signed a memorandum of understanding with PT Taroko Indonesia and is to spend up to US$50 million to acquire PT Taroko’s production facilities in Bandung, Indonesia’s third-largest city.
PT Taroko is a joint venture between Taipei-based Taroko Textile Co (大魯閣纖維) and Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), a Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) subsidiary.
Taroko Textile is selling the facility because it wants to diversify its interests beyond the textile sector and Nan Ya did not want to continue its investment.
Kuo sent several delegations to Bandung to evaluate the 50 hectare site and conduct an assessment on how to upgrade the facilities, the company said.
The Bandung plant will initially be involved in the fabric dying and finishing business before expanding to yarn making, Lealea said.
The company believes that demand for textile products in the Indonesian market is strong, and because textile exports from Indonesia to Japan and South Korea have duty-free status, the plant will export half of its production.
The Lealea Group (力麗集團), of which Lealea Enterprise is part, also plans to have another subsidiary, Li Peng Enterprise Co (力鵬), set up open warehousing facilities in the US later this year.
The facility will store the nylon chips and polyester chips that Lealea produces at its plants in Taiwan and Southeast Asia and will be able to accommodate about 2,000 tonnes of products.
Despite its overseas investment, the Lealea Group said it remains fully committed to its manufacturing operations in Taiwan to enhance its sustainable development.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
RSS