■ENERGY
Temasek selling power firm
A Japanese-led consortium has won the bid for a Singaporean power company being sold by state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings, sources told Dow Jones Newswires yesterday. Japan’s Marubeni Corp heads the consortium and will pay Temasek about US$2.5 billion for Senoko Power, they said. Senoko is the second of three local power generation firms Temasek is unloading as part of efforts to liberalize the domestic energy market. Temasek said in March that it had signed a share purchase agreement with SinoSing Power Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Huaneng Group (華能), to sell Tuas Power Ltd for S$4.235 billion (US$2.96 billion). Temasek’s third power generator is Power Seraya.
■BUSINESS ETHICS
Court rules against Wal-Mart
Mexico’s Supreme Court on Thursday compared the practices of US retail giant Wal-Mart in Mexico to employer-worker relations during the dictatorship of former Mexican president Porfirio Diaz. The country’s top court backed a Wal-Mart employee who had complained that vouchers handed out by the company as part of its salary payments could only be spent in the company’s stores. The practice of vouchers “that come from the worker’s salary only to be exchanged in the management company’s establishment is similar to what happened in old company stores [during Diaz’s dictatorship],” the court said in its decision.
■BANKING
Seoul scraps limit on banks
South Korea will scrap the limit on purchases of non-deliverable forwards on the won, a finance ministry official said. The move will be effective from Sept. 8, Sohn Byung-doo, director in charge of the currency market at the ministry, said yesterday in Seoul. Banks may only buy a certain amount of this type of derivative. Non-deliverable forwards are derivatives that oblige traders to exchange one currency for another at a set price and date in the future. The derivatives are called “non-deliverable” because settlement is made in US dollars.
■MINING
Facility closed after deaths
BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s largest mining company, suspended operations at its Western Australia iron ore mines following the second worker fatality in 10 days, the company said yesterday. Both deaths occurred at the company’s Yandi mine, in the Pilbara region, with the latest incident occurring on Thursday night after a collision between two vehicles, spokeswoman Samantha Evans said. Officials immediately halted operations at its Western Australia mines due to safety concerns, she said. The company did not know how long operations would remain suspended, Evans said.
■PHILIPPINES
Inflation hits new high
Inflation rose to its highest rate in nearly 17 years last month, climbing to 12.5 percent from a year ago, the government said yesterday. The National Statistics Office said the figure brings the country’s consumer price index for the first eight months of the year to 8.8 percent, up from 2.6 percent for the same period last year. It said prices for almost all commodities rose except for food, beverages and tobacco. The inflation rate last month was the highest since December 1991, when it was 13.2 percent.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
CRITICAL MOVE: TSMC’s plan to invest another US$100 billion in US chipmaking would boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, the premier said The government would ensure that the most advanced chipmaking technology stays in Taiwan while assisting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in investing overseas, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The statement follows a joint announcement by the world’s largest contract chipmaker and US President Donald Trump on Monday that TSMC would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next four years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, which would include construction of three new chip fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The government knew about the deal in advance and would assist, Presidential
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