China ends dumping investigation

China ends dumping investigation

BEIJING: China on Sunday announced it was ending an investigation into the suspected sale at below market prices of imported animal feed additive lysine, but had extended a dumping investigation into imported acrylate, an industrial chemical.

The Foreign Trade Ministry found some dumping had occurred by lysine importers from the United States, South Korea and Indonesia, but that the actions did not cause serious damage to domestic producers, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

China launched the investigation in June 2001 after complaints from local producers. Lysine is a soybean-based amino acid used to promote growth in hogs and poultry.

Separately, the ministry decided to extend by six months the one-year-old investigation into acrylate imported from South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia due to the case's complexity, Xinhua said.

The findings of the investigation will be announced April 10, 2003. -- AP

China-Taiwan trade expands

TAIPEI: China remained Taiwan's largest export market in the first seven months of this year with trade between the political rivals continuing to rise, official data showed Monday.

During the January-July period, exports from Taiwan to China rose 30.8 percent from the same period a year earlier to US$17.6 billion, the Board of Foreign Trade (BOFT) said.

China accounted for 23.9 percent of Taiwan's total exports in the period, followed by the U.S. with 21 percent, the BOFT said.

China replaced the United States as Taiwan's largest overseas market in November last year.

Imports from China in the seven months rose 26.0 percent to $4.2 billion, the BOFT said.

Bilateral trade between the two sides during January-July rose 29.9 percent to $21.8 billion and the trade surplus in favor of Taiwan expanded 32.4 percent to $13.3 billion.

The surge in exports to the mainland was mainly due to strong demand for information technology components as more international firms set up assembly lines in China. -- AFP

Japan's industrial output rises

TOKYO: Japan's industrial output in August rose 1.6 percent from a month earlier but analysts warned Monday the growth in production remained vulnerable to the U.S. economic slowdown.

The August figure, which followed a revised 0.1 percent increase in July, rose on the back of stronger hi-tech and auto production, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a preliminary report.

Industrial shipments in August grew 3.3 percent from July, the first rise in three months, while inventories declined 0.9 percent, it said.

The ministry said output was on a moderate upward trend but it remained cautious over the U.S. economy.

"We need to carefully watch future movements in production," a ministry official told reporters.

The government forecast September industrial output would grow 0.4 percent from August and October output was expected to grow 0.2 percent from the previous month. -- AFP

South Korean consumer prices up

SEOUL: South Korean consumer prices rose 0.6 percent in September from a month earlier, threatening the government's full year inflation rate target of 3.0 percent, officials said Monday.

The consumer price index in September increased 3.1 percent from a year earlier, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said. In August, the index rose 0.7 percent from July and 2.4 percent over 12 months.

"The rise in agricultural product prices in the wake of a typhoon and an increase in industrial product prices after the suspension of special consumption tax cuts for cars were key factors," the NSO said in a statement.

The September core inflation index, which excludes agricultural and oil products, rose 0.3 percent from a month earlier, after a 0.1 percent gain in August, the NSO said.

The core inflation rate climbed 2.9 percent from a year earlier after a 2.8 percent rise in August, it said. -- AFP

German wholesale sales fall

WIESBADEN, Germany: Wholesalers in Germany reported a decline in business in August, more than wiping out the tentative increase recorded in July, data published by the Federal Statistics Office showed on Monday.

German wholesale sales fell by 6.3 percent on a 12-month basis in August in real or price-adjusted terms, the office said in a statement, and they slumped by 7.3 percent in nominal terms.

On a monthly basis, too, wholesalers reported a real or price- adjusted 1.8-percent drop in sales in August from July, the office continued.

That was equivalent to a nominal decline of 1.5 percent.

Taking the first eight months of 2002 together, German wholesale sales were down by a nominal 5.0 percent, compared with the figure for the corresponding period of 2001, the statistics office said.

And in real terms, wholesale sales fell by 4.0 percent in the January-August period, it added. -- AFP