China Trade Information

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, is being probed by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission after an activist group filed a complaint saying consumers are being forced to buy its Windows Vista operating system.

“We have received the complaint and are now conducting our own investigation, which may last around six months,” Chou Ya-shu, the antitrust regulator’s spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview yesterday. Microsoft can face fines of as much as NT$25 million and be ordered to halt illicit practices if found guilty of fair-trade breaches, she said.
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The Taiwan integrated circuit (IC) industry’s production reached NT$359.6 billion for the second quarter of this year, marking an increase of 4.9 percent over the previous quarter, the Industry and Technology Intelligence Services (ITIS) said yesterday.

Lee Pei-yin, an analyst at the ITIS, said the primer mover behind the growth was the IC design industry, which saw its preferential market share continue to increase and its production rise by 5.3 percent to NT$96.5 billion for the quarter.
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U.S.-based PPG Industrial Inc, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of transportation coatings, announced that its new automotive coatings plant in Wuhu city, Anhui Province of China has officially started production.

The Wuhu plant is in line with the company’s international business strategy which targets emerging regions, said PPG chairman and CEO Charles Bunch, adding that the expansion shows the company’s commitment to development in the Chinese market and support of the country’s homegrown brand auto makers such as Chery Automobile Co. Ltd, one of PPG’s largest and most important customers in the region.
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Malaysia-based Hong Leong Bank (HLB) announced that its Hong Kong branch has launched the first Islamic banking business window in Hong Kong, a platform for the lender to expand its international Islamic financial business.

HLB’s Hong Kong branch said it has won regulatory approval earlier from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and Malaysia’s central bank to open the business window providing innovative Syariah-compliant wholesale and investment banking solutions. The bank said in a statement that the newly opened business window will enable the bank to tap the West and North East regions and Mainland markets.
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Britain’s Barclays Bank Plc has secured approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) on its plans to buy into the Chongqing-based New China Trust & Investment Co Ltd, one of the country’s oldest trust companies, which allows Barclays to tap into the country’s fast-growing wealth management industry.

The London-headquartered lender is allowed to buy a 19.5% stake in New China Trust, positioning itself the second-largest shareholder in the latter upon the completion of the deal. It will also become the first foreign bank with shareholding in a Chinese trust entity, said sources familiar with the situation.
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Shenzhen Energy Group Co Ltd, the first listed power company in Shenzhen, announced that it plans to acquire 59.19 million shares, or 10.8%, of its sister company Shenzhen Nanshan Power Co from its parent group, said Shenzhen Energy in a statement filed with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

No financial details of the planned acquisition were revealed yet. Shenzhen Nanshan’s shares have been suspended from trading till Sep. 2, and by then a final purchase deal is expected to be signed.
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