■ 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.
SHOW OF SUPPORT: As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan might collaborate with Manila against China’s aggressive actions, MOFA said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday hinted that Taiwan might join forces with the Philippines to protect navigational freedoms, days after Beijing blocked Philippine supply ships in the South China Sea. The ministry made the comment when asked whether Taipei would be willing to join forces with the Philippines to protect the latter from increasingly aggressive activities by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy and China Coast Guard. Taiwan “is willing to cooperate with any other nation with shared values in areas of common concern, including maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacfic region,” it wrote in a statement. A Chinese
WORK TOGETHER: The US cannot assume it does not need friends, Haley said, calling isolationism unhealthy and echoing Pence’s calls to stand with Taiwan Taiwan and the US should jointly call on the UN to hold a hearing on UN Resolution 2758 and curbing China’s aggression, former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said yesterday in Taipei. The UN General Assembly passed Resolution 2758 on Oct. 25, 1971, which states that the People’s Republic of China is the legitimate government of China, which led to it replacing the Republic of China in the UN. However, the resolution “never mentioned ‘Taiwan,’” and the UN should not “allow the Chinese Communist Party to hijack a resolution and claim it’s about Taiwan,” Haley told a news conference. Taiwan should
‘LIKE A BLACK HOLE’: The figure is about 7% of China’s reported military spending, although diplomats and experts say that number is often opaque or not fully inclusive China spent about US$15 billion, or 7 percent of its defense budget, on exercises in the western Pacific last year, according to a previously unpublished Taiwanese estimate, showing Beijing’s investment in military activity around Taiwan and its neighbors. The internal research by the military, reviewed by Reuters, offers a rare look into a slice of China’s defense spending as Beijing has ramped up its military presence amid rising tensions in the region. China claims Taiwan as its own and is also locked in disputes with several nations over sovereignty of large parts of the South China Sea and the East China Sea. “This
MAJOR JAM: The two tests are being conducted at sea because the system is powerful enough to disrupt civilian devices, a source familiar with the matter said Taiwan is next month to test a jamming device that might cause large-scale electromagnetic interference in the sea off Yilan County and along its coastline, a government notice to limit navigation in the test area said. Two radio jamming tests encompassing the coastal region between Toucheng (頭城) and Suao (蘇澳) townships and the nearby sea would be conducted from Sept. 2 to 6 and from Sept. 9 to 13, a Ministry of Transportation and Communications notice said. A source with knowledge of the matter said the tests are trials for a new mobile electronic warfare system developed for the armed forces