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http://fukushima-diary.com/2011/11/mongoli...ars-from-japan/ Mongolia banned importing cars from Japan Having measured radiation from imported cars, Ulan Bator custom office and nuclear energy department of Mongolia decided to ban importing cars from Japan. They will start stopping importing cars from Japan as of 11/30/2011. Mongolian government have been checking imported cars since May, and 18 cars turned to be irradiated.

The Star/Asia News Network Sunday, Jul 24, 2011 By Eric Samuel SINGAPORE - Malaysia went down fighting to Singapore 5-3 in a nail-biting Asian Zone World Cup second round first-leg qualifying match at the Jalan Besar Stadium last night. The tense encounter, played in front of 6,000 fans, also saw both teams reduced to 10 men. It was tough for the gritty Malaysians to match the home team, who meant business when they started with all five naturalised players. The result was evident as all the five goals came from the physically superior imports. The towering Aleksandar Duric scored a brace (8th, 80th) while Qiu Li (22nd), Mustafic Fahrudin (44th) and Shi Jiayi (45th) added a goal each. Safee Sali scored a brace for Malaysia (1st, 70th) while substitute Abdul Hadi Yahaya (69th) added the other goal. There was drama on and off the pitch, too. There was a scuffle in the stands when Singapore trooped off leading 4-1 in the first-half. And four minutes into the breather, Malaysia were reduced to 10 men when skipper Safiq Rahim was sent off for a rash tackle on Harris Harun. Despite the odds stacked against the Malaysians, the never-say-die attitude of the players brought back the cheers to the partisan Malaysian fans. Singapore were also reduced to 10 men when their defender Ismail Yunos was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 54th minute. The Malaysians must be praised for their persistence even when the chips were down. They fought back from three goals down and reduced the score to 3-4 by the 70th minute. But Singapore's 41-year-old striker Duric had the last say of the game with his second goal in the 80th minute. Singapore now enjoy a two-goal cushion for the return leg at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on July 28. National coach Datuk K Rajagopal was disappoined by the team's sloppy defending, which he said was the cause of their defeat. "We had the best ever start when Safee scored after just 26 seconds of the game but after that, the whole defence collapsed and we gave away the goals just like that," said Rajagopal. It certainly was a goal feast for the Lions but the game could have gone Malaysia's way if only they were not so porous at the back. Wily midfielder S Kunalan got down to work immediately from the kick-off and his cross from the left opened up the Singapore defence, leaving Safee with a shot at goal. Singapore goalkeeper Mohd Izwan Mahbud did well to palm away the shot but the Pelita Jaya FC striker made no mistake from the rebound. But it was all Singapore's show after that shock goal. Duric caught the Malaysian defence off-guard when he latched onto Qiu Li's free-kick to easily slot the ball past goalkeeper Sharbinee Allawee in the eighth minute. Then, Qiu Li stunned Malaysia when he curled in a free-kick in the 22nd minute. Then, within a two-minute spell, Mustafic and Shi Jiayi punished the Malaysian defence with close-range goals in the 44th and 45th minutes respectively. Malaysia's fightback came in the second half with substitute Abdul Hadi Yahaya picking up a loose ball to score in the 69th minute before Safee added his second a minute later with a clinical finish from outside the box. Singapore: Mohd Izwan Mahbud, Muhd Safuwan Baharudin, Shi Jiayi, Aleksandar Duric, Qiu Li (Shahdan Sulaiman), Hariss Harun, Mustafic Fahrudin, Daniel Bennett, Shahril Ishak, Juma'at Jantan, Ismail Yunos Malaysia: Mohd Sharbinee Allawee, Mohd MUslim Ahmad, Mohd Fadhli Shas, Mahalli Jasuli, Mohd Asraruddin Putra Omar, Amar Rohidan, Safiq Rahim, S. Kunalan, Ismail Faruqi (Mohd Amirulhadi Zainal), Mohd Safee Sali (Izzaq Faris Ramlan), Ahmad Fakri Saarani (Abdul Hadi Yahaya) http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/...724-290670.html Wat can u say more... I can onli shake head at our Sing team...

Hmmm.....wonder if LTA is checking? If not, can imagine some unscrupulous PIs buying cheap, slightly damaged ones from jeepun dealers and shipping them here for chop-chop repairs b4 selling it as a 'new car'. http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews...329-270606.html

SINGAPORE: Tay Kien Chuan, a 33-year-old Singaporean, was fined S$10.8m or in default, 354 weeks' jail for evasion of customs duties and GST on car imports from Japan. The court also sentenced the car dealer to 42 months' imprisonment for furnishing false information to Customs officers on car imports from UK. The charges involved a total of 2,556 cars. Tay pleaded guilty to 327 charges and the remaining 1,668 charges were taken into consideration. The total duties and GST involved amounted to over S$2.5m. Tay set up a sole proprietorship, 8th Gear, in March 2006 to import cars for local sale. Most of the cars came from suppliers in Japan and were subsequently sold to local car dealers. Investigations by the Singapore Customs revealed that Tay used skype and MSN messenger to instruct Japanese suppliers to under-declare the values of the cars on the invoices. He would then pay for the shortfall of about S$3,000 per car in cash in subsequent face-to-face meetings. Tay set up another company in November 2006 with a similar modus operandi, and in mid-2008 also plotted with another dealer to under-declare 10 cars from the UK by about half their true value. - CNA/ir

Business Times - 23 Jul 2008 Sales of grey imports continue to surge Nissan is now a key parallel import brand due to the iconic GT-R model By SAMUEL EE PARALLEL imports continued to power ahead in the first six months of this year, with 11,860 units registered, or 23.5 per cent of the 50,549 new cars registered in Singapore during that period - up from 2007's 20.9 per cent market share. The parallel import (PI) figure for the first half is contrasted against that of the 36,891 units by the Motor Traders Association of Singapore (MTA). MTA is a grouping of authorised distributors, although not all such distributors here are members. The ratio of PI to MTA sales is about 1:3 - the same as in Q1. This means that for every car sold by a parallel importer, three were sold by MTA members. Last year's ratio was 1:4. In the grey market, Honda currently holds sway, unlike Toyota in the authorised realm. Honda, Japan's No. 2 car maker, accounts for 46.9 per cent of all new parallel imports sold between January and June 2008, while Toyota, the world's biggest car maker, makes up 41.1 per cent. Together, Honda and Toyota constitute 88 per cent of all first-half parallel imports. The pace of Q2 sales has not slowed down compared with Q1. In fact, Q2's volume is slightly higher than Q1's. One interesting feature of H1 2008 is that the Nissan brand is suddenly a PI favourite with 145 units sold during this period, compared with just 27 grey imports for the whole of 2007. This is mainly due to the overwhelming popularity of the high-performance Nissan GT-R sports car (88 units in H1 2008) and the compact Dualis SUV (37 units). The first GT-R arrived here in January as a grey import and it will only be available from authorised Nissan distributor Tan Chong Motor Sales sometime in the second quarter of 2009. The four Japanese brands combined - Honda, Toyota, Suzuki and Nissan - account for a whopping 94.4 per cent of all PI year-to-date sales. Among PI models, the most popular is the Honda Fit with 2,058 units. This diminutive five-door hatchback arrived here last November while the Jazz, the export version from authorised distributor Kah Motor, will only be ready for registration nearer year-end. The Stream compact MPV is No. 2 with 1,865 units, while No. 3 is the domestic Japanese version of the ever popular Toyota Corolla, called the Axio (1,406 units). Also noteworthy is the number of Mercedes-Benz cars - 142 units in the first six months versus 236 for 2007 - a fact that can be attributed largely to the new C-Class model (43.7 per cent of total Merc registrations).

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/05/08/s...8markets04.html < Chinese workers are just one constituency in Singapore's fast-growing foreign population, but they are the largest component, having crossed the 1 million mark last October and helping boost the population to 4.68 million in an otherwise chronically aging society. Foreigners make up about one-third of the national workforce. >

SONAX got promo @ Super Imports Nights, although I dun need it yet but decided to sve some $$ Every S$60 spent get F1 gift worth $20

http://forums.clubsnap.com/showthread.php?...016#post3532016

Business Times - 10 Oct 2007 Another record year for grey imports Non-authorised car dealers account for 20% of market, up from 4% in 2004 By SAMUEL EE THE demand for parallel imported cars has grown so strongly that the number of such vehicles registered in the first nine months of this year has overtaken the total for 2006. From January to September, parallel importers (PIs) sold 16,997 passenger cars, according to the Land Transport Authority. For the whole of 2006 - already a record year for PIs - total sales were 16,137. Parallel or grey imports are cars that are offered by sellers who are not authorised dealers or distributors. A large majority of these belong to the Motor Traders Association of Singapore (MTA), and in the first nine months of 2007, they collectively sold 63,652 cars. If an estimated total of 82,000 new cars were registered in Singapore from January to September this year, that would make the parallel importers' year-to-date market share a whopping 20 per cent. Compare this to the PIs' market share of 13.8 per cent in 2006, 5.7 per cent in 2005, and 4.1 per cent in 2004. As these numbers increase, so does the pressure on the sales of the authorised distributors or MTA members. And not only those distributors who sell popular PI brands like Toyota, Honda and Suzuki are affected by the boom in grey imports. Other makes, such as Hyundai and Kia, and even Ford and Proton, are also affected because their models are in the same price range as the PI offerings, thus making them face the same fierce competition as the Japanese dealerships. Another way of looking at the relationship between the PI trade and the MTA members is the rough proportion of non-authorised cars to authorised versions. For every one PI car registered so far this year, about four were sold by an MTA member, or 1:4. However, in 2006, this ratio was only 1:6. As expected, the most popular brand of PI car in the first nine months of 2007 was Toyota, with 7,964 units, or 46.9 per cent of all PI models registered. Also as expected, the runner-up brand was Honda with 6,937 units, or 40.8 per cent. Together, these two marques made up 87.7 per cent, or almost nine out of every 10 PI cars sold so far this year - roughly the same proportion as in previous years. But while Toyota was the top PI make, the top PI model was the Honda Stream, with 3,076 cars. This relatively new compact seven-seat MPV continued to trump the ageing Toyota Wish in the sales stakes. The Wish, with sales of 2,376, was the top grey import model here since it appeared in early 2003. The Stream was launched here only about a year ago. One surprise at the end of Q3 was that the No 3 PI model was no longer the Honda Fit, the Japanese domestic model which is available here as the Honda Jazz from authorised distributor Kah Motor. Instead, a new car, the Toyota Corolla Axio, is now the third most popular model with 1,589 units. The Corolla Axio is the Japanese domestic version of the popular Corolla Altis offered by authorised distributor Borneo Motors Singapore. The Axio is made in Japan, while the Altis is assembled in Thailand.

China rejects pork imports from U.S., Canada Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:47 AM ET BEIJING (Reuters) - China has rejected shipments of pork kidney from the United States and of spare ribs from Canada after finding traces of a banned growth agent in them, in the latest volley of cross-border accusations over product quality. The Xinhua news agency cited the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) as saying that the 18.4-tonne shipment of frozen kidneys and the 24-tonne shipment of frozen pork ribs had been returned to the exporters by local quarantine officials in southern Guangdong province. The growth agent ractopamine, commonly used in the United States, is at the centre of negotiations between U.S. and Chinese officials over the pork trade. China has banned use of ractopamine and refuses to import pork containing it. Richard Raymond, the U.S. Agriculture Department's undersecretary for food safety, said on Thursday following meetings with the AQSIQ that he hoped Beijing could change its stance on ractopamine if Codex Alimentarius, an international food safety body, could endorse tolerance levels for it. China has highlighted several quality concerns over U.S. products in recent months, in apparent response to complaints in Washington about the safety of Chinese exports ranging from toys to toothpaste. Beijing is also taking steps to clean up its own manufacturing sector, whose reputation has been tarnished by recent product recalls, including for lead-tainted toys. Separately, Xinhua said that authorities had reprimanded dozens of factories in eastern Zhejiang province after finding that 40 percent of the children's clothing they produced did not meet quality standards. The district where the factories are located, in Huzhou city, makes one fourth of the country's children's garments, Xinhua said. It cited the local quality supervision administration as saying their "quality index" was at its lowest since 2003. The garments had problems with their dyes, fiber content and stitching, Xinhua said, adding that none of the companies involved exported their products. The inspection was part of a nationwide campaign to improve product quality and food safety in the wake of the recent scandals, it said.

1. Ok, this one was extracted from another discussion thread and was based on BT 18/4. 2. "Parallel imports (PI) are the equivalent of pirated CDs, declares Teo Hock Seng, managing director of Komoco Motors. This is despite the fact that there are no parallel imports of Hyundai cars, of which Komoco is an authorised distributor. 'Parallel imports affect everybody because of their pricing,' says Mr Teo. But more importantly, he is concerned that buyers of PI cars have no recourse because of the lack of warranty on the product and a possible credibility issue with the seller. As a result, safety standards could be compromised and this is dangerous. 'Parallel importers have no warranty costs and no obligations to the buyer,' says Mr Teo, adding that they don't have high overhead costs either. 'I am so irritated that I am thinking of going into the PI business too.' 'PIs affect everybody because of their pricing,' explains Mr Teo. 'The high brand equity of the Japanese makes, at the same price as a Korean car, is eating into my market.' What do you think? Regards,

From BT: Published May 16, 2007 Parallel imports off to strong start this year Grey imports up to April hit 7,755 units against 30,596 for authorised versions SALES of parallel imported cars are accelerating strongly, with registration of the grey imports now accounting for about one out of every four authorised versions. Like hotcakes: Some 1,262 units of the Stream were sold from January to April, or 40 per cent of all Honda PI sales Last year, total sales of parallel imports (PI) hit 16,137 units, compared with authorised distributors' sales of 98,729 units, thus resulting in a ratio then of about 1:6. But in the first four months of this year, that ratio is now closer to 1:4 because the parallel imports collectively sold 7,755 units between January and April, according to the Land Transport Authority (LTA). This is against the authorised distributors' grand total of 30,596, according to the Motor Traders Association of Singapore (MTA). So it looks like 2007 is set to be another record year for the PI trade, which already experienced a boom year in 2006, when total PI sales made up an unprecedented 13.8 per cent of all new cars registered here. Of these, Toyota and Honda grey imports made up a combined 91 per cent. Total sales in 2005 were only 6,282 units. Even then, 2005's volume was a rebound from 2004, when the parallel import scene was on the verge of collapse after the government cracked down on rampant under-declaration of open market value and other high jinks. That year, PI cars posted a volume of only about 4,000 units, down from 2003's estimated 7,500 units. In the first four months of this year, the two most popular PI makes continued to be Toyota (3,723 units) and Honda (3,110). Together, these two Japanese brands made up 88 per cent of all PI units registered, down from the 91 per cent for the whole of 2006. As usual, the most popular PI model was the Toyota Wish MPV at 1,437 units, or 38.6 per cent of all Toyota PI cars sold. The Wish is not offered by authorised distributor Borneo Motors Singapore. More interestingly, though, overall sales of Honda PI cars were very close to those of authorised distributor Kah Motor, or a phenomenal 3,110 units against 3,382. This is probably due to the fact that the PIs have managed to bring in a Honda model with huge mass market appeal. All signs, of course, point to the Stream MPV, of which 1,262 units were sold from January to April, or 40.6 per cent of all Honda PI sales. This percentage is even higher than that of the perennially popular Wish and is likely to be because the Stream is a newer model. But the PIs may not have it so good for long. Kah Motor will be driving its authorised version of the Stream into its showrooms by the end of this month, with deliveries expected to begin as early as in July/August. Kah Motor says its Stream is properly set up for export specifications and homologated to full Euro 2 exhaust emission regulations. The latter required Honda Japan to test for proven reliability of the gearbox and other drivetrain components - an improvement over the domestic Japanese model offered by the PIs. So some interesting fact form the above report: 1) The ratio of PI cars to AD cars is 1:4 2) The ratio of PI Honda to AD Honda is almost 1:1 3) The ratio of PI Toyota to AD Toyota is about 1:2 4) 2 most popular PI makes continued to be Toyota (3,723 units) and Honda (3,110). 5) Most popular PI model was the Toyota Wish MPV at 1,437 6) For Stream MPV, 1,262 units were sold So, AD, please wake up and give us some model that we want