Tuesday, 19 January 2010

The Phnom Penh Post News in Brief



via CAAI News Media

Khon Kaen shares fall

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 15:00 Post Staff

KHON Kaen Sugar Industry Pcl, which plans to open its first Cambodian sugar mill next week, saw its stock fall the most in four weeks Monday in Bangkokas sugar prices droppped. The Thai firm fell 2 percent to 14.6 baht (US$0.44) at the close after sugar prices on Friday fell for the third time last week in New York. Khon Kaen is due to open a $91 million sugar mill in Koh Kong Monday but last week warned that it would only run at a third of capacity – processing about 2,000 tonnes – when the facility goes online, due a lack of suitable labour. Khon Kaen President Chamroon Chinthammit told Prime Minister Hun Sen of his firm’s problems in Cambodia during a meeting last week in Phnom Penh. The plant is 30 percent owned by Taiwanese company Vewong Corp. Philip Securities of Singapore warned in a June report that Khon Kaen’s operations in the Kingdom were likely to remain below the breakeven level during 2010, citing the labour problem.

Firms to go to South Korea

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 15:00 Post Staff

NINE Cambodian firms will travel to South Korea in March in a bid to find trade partners, officials said Monday. In an email to the Post, Kim Dohyun, manager of the Korean Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), said that businesses dealing in car parts, construction, engines, household products and household goods would travel to Seoul for the Buy Korea 2010 Exhibition. “Cambodian businessmen can see the products that they are interested in and meet Korean businessmen,” he said. Around 1,000 companies from more than 41 countries will join the exhibition. Bilateral trade between Cambodia and Korea sharply declined around 22 percent in the first 11 months of 2009, to US$256 million from $328 million in the same period of 2008, according to KOTRA figures. Cambodia primarily exported clothing, crude rubber, vegetables, fruit and textile fibres to South Korea which in turn exported mostly textile fibres, tobacco, footwear and vehicles to Cambodia. MAY KUNMAKARA

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