■ 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.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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