■ ENVIRONMENT
City orders closures
Authorities in Tangshan, an industrial city in Hebei Province north of Beijing, have ordered 267 firms to shut down operations by Tuesday to improve air quality ahead of the Olympics, government and industry sources said yesterday. The firms include 66 steelmakers, as well as coke plants, cement firms and small power generators, a government official in Tangshan said. The companies would have to undergo strict environmental protection checks before they could resume production at an unspecified date, the sources said. The firms ordered to halt production were small, and their impact on Hebei’s steel industry would not be significant, analysts said.
■ELECTRONICS
Canon to build new factory
Japanese electronics giant Canon plans to build a new factory for digital cameras amid growing competition from domestic and foreign rivals, a report said yesterday. The firm will invest ¥15 billion (US$140 million) in the plant in Nagasaki, western Japan, to produce compact and single-lens reflex cameras, the Nikkei business daily reported without naming its sources. A Canon spokeswoman said the company would make an announcement next week in Nagasaki on the plant but declined to give further details. The plant, which will operate under a subsidiary, is scheduled to begin operating late next year with a production capacity of 4 million units a year and a workforce of more than 1,000, the daily said.
■SHIPBUILDING
Daewoo wins record order
South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering said yesterday it had won the world’s largest-ever shipbuilding order from Maersk Line of Denmark. Daewoo has signed a contract to build 16 container vessels for Maersk, the world’s biggest maritime transporter, for a record 2.44 trillion won (US$2.3 billion), the Korean firm said in a statement. All the ships will be delivered by June 29, 2012. “We won the world’s largest-ever shipbuilding order at a time when global market conditions are not so favorable. This highlights our competitive edge over rivals,” CEO Nam Sang-tae told journalists. With the latest deal, Daewoo has now won orders worth US$9.83 billion for 56 vessels so far this year.
■AVIATION
All Nippon may buy A380s
All Nippon Airways Co (ANA) is studying buying about five Airbus superjumbo A380s or other aircraft for long-haul routes, the Japanese carrier said yesterday. The nation’s No. 2 airline set up a panel on Thursday to decide which jets to buy, ANA spokeswoman Nana Kon said. “We have several options including the A380, from which we plan to choose the optimal equipment,” Kon said. The airline is also considering Boeing aircraft such as the 787 and 747, she said. the Nikkei reported yesterday that ANA’s panel is expected to decide to buy five A380 jets at about ¥100 billion (US$940 million).
■INFLATION
Rates jump to 14-year high
The Philippines’ inflation rate jumped to a 14-year high of 11.4 percent last month from a year ago as food and fuel prices soared, the government said yesterday. Last month’s index was higher than 9.5 percent in May and 2.3 percent in the same month last year, the National Statistics Office said. It is the highest inflation rate since May 1994. The increase to double-digit rates was brought about by “soaring prices of rice nationwide along with the upward adjustments of other food items,” the office said.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
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