■TRADE
PRC buying group in Taipei
A delegation from China’s Sichuan Province is arriving today to attend a procurement meeting in Taipei tomorrow, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) officials said yesterday. The delegation, led by Sichuan communist party secretary Liu Qibao (劉奇葆), is expected to place orders for agricultural products, consumer products, electrical appliances, flat panels and machinery, TAITRA said in a press release. Officials from 56 Sichuan-based firms will accompany Liu, including Sichuan Changhong Group (四川長虹集團), Chengdu Construction Engineering Corp (成都建築工程集團), Sichuan Changzheng Machine Tool Group (四川長征機床集團), Sichuan Kelun Pharmaceutical Co (四川科倫藥業公司) and Sichuan Yadong Cement Co (四川亞東水泥有限公司).
■CHEMICALS
Sinochem buys Peregrino
Sinochem Group (中國中化), China’s biggest chemicals trader, agreed on Friday to pay US$3 billion to Statoil ASA for 40 percent of the Brazilian offshore Peregrino field. The companies also agreed to jointly seek more opportunities in Brazil and elsewhere, Statoil CEO Helge Lund said. “Both companies see many opportunities for value creation through increased recovery and exploration for additional resources in the decades to come.” Statoil, Norway’s largest oil and natural gas company, said last year it was considering cutting its stake in Peregrino to reduce risk and raise funds to develop other projects.
■INTERNET
Facebook to tighten security
Facebook Inc, owner of the world’s most popular social-networking site, plans to announce changes to privacy settings after users said they wanted simpler ways to manage what information is shared online. The company will introduce the changes “shortly,” it said in an e-mailed statement. The company has been grappling with concerns about privacy after it introduced tools last month that let users recommend products and Web sites to their friends.
■COMPUTERS
HP expands laptop recall
Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) is expanding a voluntary recall of laptops due to the risk of fire from overheating batteries, the company and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Friday. The commission said that since an initial recall in May last year, HP has received additional reports of overheated and ruptured batteries.
■AUTOMOBILES
Ford recalls cars in Brazil
US carmaker Ford on Friday issued a recall of Ka models sold in Brazil because of an electrical defect that posed a fire risk. The recall affected Ka cars made since 2008, Ford said in a statement. That amounted to 155,000 vehicles, according to the National Automobile Dealership Federation. There was a “possibility” of the electrical system coming into contact with the chassis, Ford said.
■BANKING
FDIC settles WaMu case
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) has approved a global settlement of the bankruptcy case involving Washington Mutual Inc (WaMu), one of the largest US banks to fail as a result of the financial crisis. “This agreement will result in substantial recoveries to the receiver and resolve potential claims that could have taken years and millions of dollars to litigate,” FDIC’s general counsel Michael Bradfield said on Friday. WaMu was closed by regulators who orchestrated its sale to JPMorgan Chase on Sept. 25.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the