■ MOTORCYCLES
Yamaha overtakes KYMCO
Yamaha Motor Taiwan Co (台灣山葉機車) was the top seller of new motorcycles in Taiwan last month, surpassing Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽機車), which stopped offering price promotions and discounts last month amid stiff price competition. Yamaha sold 30,821 new motorcycles last month, up 18.8 percent from a year earlier, helped by strong sales of its 100cc scooters, statistics compiled by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and Kwang Yang showed. Kwang Yang, better known as KYMCO, slid to the No. 3 spot last month with 28,325 new motorcycles sold, down 3.5 percent from a year earlier. The company was the only one among the nation’s three major motorcycle manufacturers that saw its sales decline last month. Sanyang Industry Co (三陽工業), which sells motorcycles under the SYM brand, ranked third last month by selling 26,916 new motorcycles, up 6.3 percent from a year earlier.
■ SMARTPHONES
AT&T testing new BlackBerry
A delayed top-of-the-line BlackBerry phone from Research in Motion Ltd (RIM) is still undergoing testing by AT&T Inc, and RIM’s co-CEO implied that the carrier wanted to avoid the chorus of complaints about performance that greeted the new iPhone this summer. RIM said in May that the BlackBerry Bold 9000 would go on sale this summer. It has gone on sale in some foreign markets, but is still not available in the US, and no date has been announced. RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said on Thursday the phone was still undergoing the certification process in which AT&T tests all new handsets to make sure they work well on its wireless network.
■ BEVERAGES
Coke bottler seeks support
Venezuela’s Coca-Cola bottler is seeking government support to end a conflict with former workers that it says has cost some US$5 million in lost sales. Coca-Cola FEMSA de Venezuela SA legal director Rodrigo Anzola says he has met with the president of Venezuela’s national assembly to solicit her help in resolving the conflict. More than 11,000 former employees began blocking plants and distribution centers belonging to the Mexican-owned bottler on Wednesday. They say the company owes them US$520 million in social security payments.
■ PETROLEUM
Myanmar oil, gas deal inked
A Vietnamese company has signed a deal to explore for offshore oil and gas in Myanmar, a state news report in Yangon said yesterday. The Petrovietnam Exploration Production Corp Ltd, Joint Venture Vietsovpetro and a private Burmese company, Eden Group Company Ltd, signed a contract on Friday for exploration, drilling and production of oil and gas in the Gulf of Martaban, the Myanma Ahlin daily reported.
■ AVIATION
AirAsia exploring options
AirAsia, the region’s largest low-cost carrier, said yesterday it is exploring “various options,” following a newspaper report that it may soon be privatized. “We have continuously been exploring various options at both shareholders and company level,” group deputy chief executive officer Kamarudin Meranum told reporters. “There is nothing to confirm at the moment,” he said in response to the report in business newspaper the Edge. “[AirAsia] has generated a lot of interest but there has always been skepticism about its business model from investors looking at short term returns,” the weekly cited an unnamed source as saying.
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
In a patch of South America rich in lithium, used to make batteries for electric cars and other tech, Bolivia is lagging its neighbors in the race to mine the key metal. An area called the “lithium triangle” which spills over the borders of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina is home to 60 percent of the world’s lithium reserves, according to the US Geological Survey. Bolivia claims to have Earth’s largest deposit of the metal, used to make rechargeable batteries for smartphones, laptops and other devices besides e-vehicles. However, Bolivia has undertaken only four pilot projects and is running just one
HON HAI LURKS: The ‘Nikkei’ reported that Foxconn’s interest in Nissan accelerated the Honda-merger effort out of fears it might be taken over by the Taiwanese firm Nissan Motor Co has become the latest buyout target in Japan as it explores a merger with Honda Motor Co and faces an overture from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally. Shares in Nissan yesterday jumped 24 percent, the most on record, to hit the daily limit, after the two Japanese automakers acknowledged that talks are ongoing to better position themselves for competitive challenges during a time of upheaval in the global auto industry. Foxconn — a Taipei-based manufacturer of iPhones, which has been investing heavily in factories to build electric vehicles — has also
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