Source: Multiple media outlets

Image: Screenshot of the report

1.Taiwan's largest rubber company,TSRC to close southern Vietnam plant

December 7, according to media reports:

TSRC (Taiwan Synthetic Rubber Corporation) will cease all production activities at its composites plant in Binh Duong province, southern Vietnam, by the end of this year (2024).

In an announcement on Friday, TSRC said the decision followed a series of market assessments and business improvement actions undertaken by TSRC on its subsidiary TSRC Vietnam.

TSRC will continue to provide high-quality products and services to customers through other existing compounding plants, the statement said.

TSRC will take the necessary measures to stop production at the plant in accordance with local regulations. This action is expected to result in an impairment loss of US$7.41 million (approximately RMB54 million).

Headquartered in Taiwan, TSRC provides material solutions for synthetic rubber (SR) and styrenic block copolymers (SBC) to customers in the tire, footwear, plastic modification, adhesives and other sectors.

The company established TSRC Vietnam in October 2018 to support the development of its other subsidiary, Advanced Shoe Materials, in the field of footwear materials.

In the January-November period of this year, Vietnam's exports rose 14.4% year-on-year to US$369.93 billion, while imports increased 16.4% to US$345.62 billion. Footwear is Vietnam's fifth-largest export product, with an export value of $20.76 billion, up 12.9 percent year-on-year.

2.This shoe fetched 200 million dollars.

December 8, the Hollywood classic film “The Wizard of Oz” of the famous props “ruby shoes” last weekend in an auction fetched 28 million U.S. dollars (about 204 million yuan), breaking the historical record.

Hollywood's 1939 musical “The Wizard of Oz” has a special place in the history of cinema, with a far-reaching impact, not only by the authoritative U.S. film magazine “Variety” listed as “the greatest film of all time” in second place, and even the current global hit “The Wicked Witch” is a prequel to it.

Only four pairs of ruby shoe props made at the time have reportedly survived, one of which is held at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, while the pair currently up for auction had been loaned to the Judy Garland Museum by collector Michael Shaw, but were stolen in 2005 and not recovered by police until 13 years later.

As a result, these ruby red shoes were called “the Holy Grail of Hollywood memorabilia” by HA Auctions.