Search Results for: Thailand

BY MARK ROWE
WHEN the first two Harry Potter novels hit Singapore shelves, only 200 copies were sold. Now, the battle for sales resembles that between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Members of staff from the Kinokuniya bookstore, dressed as wizards shouted “Harry Potter books this way!”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is opposing the launch of a WTO case by Brazil, Australia and Thailand against EU sugar subsidies, claiming a successful challenge would undermine trade preferences given to Europe’s sugar imports from poorer African, Pacific and Caribbean.…

BY MARK ROWE
THAILAND is promoting the use of natural gas-powered taxis to improve its environmental record. Purchasers will be offered cheap loans and technical and logistical support for using clean-burning natural gas.…

BY MARK ROWE
LEADING Thai car and electrical appliance manufacturers have said they are prepared to switch to direct imports of cold-rolled steel amidst a looming shortage and expected subsequent price rise for domestic hot-rolled coils, a raw material for cold-rolled sheets.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE US government has signed a bilateral textile pact with Vietnam that gives the south-east Asian country the most generous access to the American market ever granted in an initial two-country agreement, according to a critical American Textile Manufacturers’ Institute (ATMI).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has agreed a complicated, but flexible, set of anti-dumping duties to be levied upon certain flat rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel from Bulgaria, South Africa, Serbia & Montenegro and Taiwan; plus certain iron and steel tube and pipe fittings from Thailand, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and Slovakia.…

BY MARK ROWE
Thainox Steel, the largest stainless steel manufacturer in Southeast Asia, expects to boost output this year and increase profits, defying the continuing decline in global stainless steel prices. Output at the company’s plant in Rayong, Thailand, is expected to top 160,000 tonnes, up 10,000 tonnes from last year.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE FIRST meeting of the world’s five largest sugar exporters has agreed to co-ordinate efforts to boost prices in the commodity’s international market from current record lows. Meeting in Bangkok, representatives of Thailand, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Guatemala agreed to speed up co-operation and seek to lift world prices without raising domestic retail prices.…

BY MARK ROWE
THAILAND’S wine industry, which could charitably be described as embryonic, has been given a significant boost after the country’s government announced it would start issuing quality assurance kite marks for producers.

The move is designed to help the best of Thailand’s wine makers compete in the international market by enabling them to promote their wines using kite marks which can be recognised and understood by international consumers and wholesalers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE THAI government has launched disputes proceedings at the World Trade Organisation over the reclassification of European Union’s customs coding for frozen boneless salted chicken cuts. In the past, they were classified as salted meat (duty rate15.4 per cent), now they are classed as frozen chicken at the higher duty of Euro102.4 per 100 kg.…