■ METALS
Chalco confident in Guinea
Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco, 中國鋁業) chairman Xiong Weiping (熊維平) yesterday told reporters in Shanghai the company was confident Guinea’s government would approve its bid to jointly develop a huge African iron ore field with mining giant Rio Tinto. China’s biggest aluminum producer signed an agreement with Rio last month to establish a joint venture to develop the Simandou project in Guinea, with the Chinese company to invest US$1.35 billion in the project. Anglo-Australian giant Rio has been working on Simandou for about 12 years, but has run into trouble with Guinea’s military rulers.
■ RETAIL
Carrefour to sell business
French retail giant Carrefour plans to sell its business in Malaysia, a minister said, amid speculation the firm would also offload its Singapore and Thai stores and exit Southeast Asia altogether. “We heard that Carrefour is considering divesting. It is for the purpose of rationalization of their overseas business,” deputy trade minister Mukhriz Mahathir told reporters late on Monday. “They want to sell their business [in Malaysia],” he said, adding that “other hypermarkets are keen to take over” Carrefour’s 23 stores in the country.
■ SHIPBUILDING
Daewoo to build platform
South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering said yesterday it had signed a US$1.8 billion deal to build a floating oil production and storage platform for French energy giant Total. Daewoo, one of the world’s top shipbuilders, said it would build the platform by May 2013. The 110,000-tonne floating production, storage and offshore unit is designed to receive, process and store oil or natural gas, it said. It can be maneuvered to different locations.
■ TELEVISION
Toshiba plans 3D TV
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba plans to market the world’s first 3D television that does not need special glasses later this year, a report said yesterday. Toshiba will unveil three models of the television, which will cost several thousand dollars, before Christmas, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The company has developed a new system that emits rays of light with various angles from the screen so that viewers can see stereoscopic images without glasses, the daily said.
■ BEERS
Foster’s earnings up
Earnings by Australia’s Foster’s beat expectations yesterday, but the drinks giant recorded a net A$464 million (US$413 million) loss after write-downs in its wine business. The result, which follows a net profit of A$438.3 million a year ago, comes after the group faced impairment charges on its wine assets of A$1.3 billion. Excluding these losses, Foster’s posted a net profit of A$698.3 million — higher than the underlying earnings of A$673.6 million predicted by analysts.
■ ENERGY
Origin Energy profits up
Australia’s Origin Energy yesterday said full-year underlying profits were up 10 percent to A$585 million, but missed expectations because of gas exploration costs. Origin, which had projected a 15 percent rise in underlying profits, has expanded offshore exploration in Australia and Southeast Asia, including the drilling of six “significant” wells, during the year. The company said it expected underlying profit for the next financial year to rise by about 15 percent as it benefited from a number of new projects and acquisitions.
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,
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.
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
RSS