■ TRANSPORT
Alstom slams Beijing
Alstom Transport, the world’s second-largest train maker, is calling on nations not to buy Chinese-made trains, accusing the country of shutting foreign firms out of domestic bids, a report said yesterday. Alstom chief executive Philippe Mellier told the Financial Times that China is also exporting trains with some foreign technology that was supplied on condition that it not be used outside China. “The [Chinese] market is gradually shutting down to let the Chinese companies prosper,” Mellier said. “We don’t think it’s a good idea for other countries to open their markets to such a technology, because there’s no reciprocity any more.”
■ELECTRONICS
Creative posts a loss
Creative Technology Ltd, the Singaporean maker of accessories for Apple Inc’s iPod, eliminated 2,700 jobs, almost half its workforce, last fiscal year after demand for its own music players tumbled. The company had 3,100 full-time workers at the end of June, down 47 percent from a year earlier, Creative said in an annual report filed to Singapore’s stock exchange on Dec. 31. “The markets that Creative targets are highly competitive,” the company said in the report. “Many of Creative’s current and potential competitors have substantially greater financial, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and other resources.” Creative posted a net loss of US$19.7 million on sales of US$736.8 million for the year ended June 30. That’s the lowest revenue in five years as sales of its music players slumped.
■AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai leads sales decline
Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea’s biggest automaker, led a decline in the country’s automobile sales last month, marking the second straight monthly decline, as a global recession sapped demand for new vehicles. Hyundai, Kia Motors Corp, GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co, Renault Samsung Motors Co and Ssangyong Motor Co sold a combined 406,051 vehicles last month, 13 percent less than a year earlier, Bloomberg calculations based on company data released yesterday showed. Sales last year gained 2.4 percent to 5.35 million units, as sales in emerging markets offset sluggish sales in the US, Europe and at home. “This year, the impact from the global economic crisis is expected to deepen and we’re standing in the middle of cut-throat competition for survival,” Hyundai chairman Chung Mong-koo told employees yesterday in Seoul. Last year, their local sales dropped 5.1 percent to 1.15 million units and overseas sales rose 4.7 percent to 4.2 million, the firms’ data showed.
■MEDIA
Subscribers keep shows
Millions of subscribers to the Time Warner Cable television network kept their favorite shows into the new year on Thursday after an agreement in principle on rights fees was reached in a bitter dispute with entertainment giant Viacom Inc. Viacom had threatened to pull Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, VH1 and 15 other channels from Time Warner and its 13.3 million subscribers at 12:01am on Thursday if a deal had not been reached. The companies said they expect to finalize the agreement details over the next several days.
■BEVERAGES
Pepsi to invest in India
India’s government approved a plan by PepsiCo Inc, the world’s second-biggest beverage maker, to invest an additional US$50 million in its local unit, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said. Sibal was speaking to reporters after a Cabinet meeting in New Delhi.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) is set to issue sea and land warnings for Tropical Storm Krathon as projections showed that the tropical storm could strengthen into a typhoon as it approaches Taiwan proper, the CWA said yesterday. The sea warning is scheduled to take effect this morning and the land warning this evening, it said. The storm formed yesterday morning and in the evening reached a point 620 nautical miles (1,148km) southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, moving west-southwest at 4 kph as it strengthened, the CWA said. Its radius measured between 220km and 250km, it added. Krathon is projected