China's premier beer brand, Tsingtao Beer, said yesterday that it does not contain methanol in the brewing process, refuting a Liberty Times report that many China-produced beer brands reportedly contain the cancer-causing chemical.
"Tsingtao has not added methanol to its beer for many decades," said Peter Tsai (蔡清富), deputy general manager of the company that distributes Tsingtao in Taiwan, the Taiwan Tsing Beer Corp (台灣青啤).
Tsai was responding to recent reports that Shenzhen-based Jinwei Beer Co (金威啤酒) claims to be the first Chinese brewery to not use methanol.
Methanol is a colorless, toxic, flammable liquid that can be used as an antifreeze, a general solvent, a fuel or a denaturant for ethyl alcohol. Medical studies show that continued consumption of methanol-containing alcohol is harmful to human health.
Tsai said Jinwei's claim is simply outrageous because it implies that most other Chinese beer brands use the chemical in the beer-brewing process.
Jinwei's claim has caused concern among local health authorities and consumers as China-brewed beer has enjoyed increasing popularity, where drinkers consume about 550,000 tonnes of beer a year.
Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (
"Our beer meets world standards of quality," said Morgan Hwang (黃營杉), chairman of Taiwan Tobacco. "We have never added that cancer-causing substance [meth-anol] to our product."
The Consumers' Foundation (
"If any Chinese beer is found of containing the banned substance, it should be pulled from shelves right away and the distributor of the beer should be held responsible for possible health damage," said Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏), secretary-general of the foundation.
In response, health authorities said they will look into China's beer inspection procedures and standards. In addition, the Ministry of Finance said it will check whether Chinese beer contains any methanol.
Tsingtao Beer and rival Beijing-based Yanjing Beer entered Taiwan's market last year following termination of the nation's alcohol-production monopoly held by the state-controlled Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Board (菸酒公賣局).
Tsingtao captured nearly 8 percent of the market last year and is expected to take 12 percent market share this year, Tsia said. But it remains to be seen whether the methanol report would affect Tsingtao's sales, he added.
Currently, Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp has about 74 percent of the domestic beer market with its Taiwan Beer brand. The company hopes to increase the beer's market share to 80 percent this year, Hwang told the Taipei Times in early May.
Taisan Enterprise Co (
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS