■AUTOMOBILES
GM recalls 5,000 vans
General Motors Co (GM) is recalling about 5,000 heavy-duty Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vans because of a faulty alternator. The automaker also halted sales of the vans on Friday. It has also stopped production of them until it can fix the problem. GM spokesman Alan Adler says there have been no injuries related to the recall. The recalled vans were built in February and March.
■HOUSING
US moves on foreclosures
After months of criticism that it hasn’t done enough to prevent foreclosures, the Obama administration is announcing a plan to reduce the amount some troubled borrowers owe on their home loans. The multifaceted effort will let people who owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth get new loans backed by the US Federal Housing Administration. That would be funded by US$14 billion from the administration’s existing US$75 billion foreclosure-prevention program.
■AVIATION
EU seeks to end dispute
The EU’s trade commissioner said on Friday he hopes the EU and the US can solve a trade dispute over illegal subsidies to aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing. Karel De Gucht told reporters after talks with the US’ trade representative Ron Kirk that he wanted a “negotiated settlement” to avoid “mutual retaliation.” The WTO last week backed a US complaint over EU subsidies for Airbus and is expected to rule by the end of June on a parallel European complaint over US payments to Boeing.
■RECYCLING
US trails on can recycling
The US trails Brazil, Germany, Russia and some other countries in its rate of recycling aluminum beverage cans and Alcoa Inc.’s chief executive said Friday that needs to change. The Pittsburgh-based aluminum maker dedicated a US$24 million expansion project of its can recycling operation in east Tennessee. Alcoa president and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld said the expansion will help support a goal of boosting the current 54 percent rate of recycling beverage cans in the US to 75 percent by 2015. The rate in Russia is currently 75 percent, 91 percent in Germany and 95 percent in Brazil, Alcoa said.
■ENERGY
BP Solar closes plant
BP Solar said on Friday it is closing its landmark Frederick manufacturing plant as part of a reshaping of the US solar industry in a cost-cutting move that will eliminate 320 jobs. The company, a San Francisco-based unit of London-based BP PLC, said the sharply falling price of solar-power modules prompted it to shift its remaining in-house production to lower-cost joint ventures in China and India and contract with other manufacturers for the rest. The company said solar panel prices have fallen nearly 50 percent in the past 18 months.
■COMPUTERS
Fujitsu cedes iPad rights
Japan’s Fujitsu has ceded rights to the “iPad” name to Apple, just in time for the tablet computer from the California company to hit US stores next month. Fujitsu originally registered the iPad name with the Patent and Trademark Office in March 2003 in connection with a handheld scanner for retailers made by the Japanese company. The US Patent and Trademark Office records, obtained on Friday by technology blogs and PatentAuthority.com, show that the iPad trademark was assigned to Apple on March 17. The details of the transaction between Fujitsu and Apple were not available.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
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