■ Electronics
Local firms back new venture
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) will invest in a Taiwan government-led venture to make electronics parts used in automobiles, an English-language paper reported. Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) will also take stakes in the new company, while the Yulon Group (裕隆集團) will hold 50 percent, the Commercial Times said, citing an unidentified official at the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The partners, which include the government development fund, will probably found the venture next month or in October with an initial investment of NT$5 billion (US$155 million), the paper said.
■ Oil
CPC snaps up Nigerian field
Nigeria began awarding new petroleum-exploration rights on Friday as Africa's largest oil producer looks to boost production and confirmed deposits of crude. Early winners were Taiwan-based Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油), awarded an onshore field in the southern Niger Delta, and the local Northern Nigeria Development Company, which won rights to explore in two northeastern plots. A total of 380 local and global energy companies were angling for rights in 75 parcels stretching from Lake Chad in the northeast to the Gulf of Guinea in the largest exploration offering since oil was discovered in Nigeria nearly 50 years ago. The Nigerian government unveiled winners for six plots on Friday and announcements were likely to come yesterday for the deep offshore and shallow waters highly valued by leading oil multinationals, Nigerian oil officials said.
■ Oil
Tycoon ends hunger strike
Jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has ended a nearly weeklong hunger strike after hearing that his business partner Platon Lebedev has been transferred from solitary confinement to a regular cell, a lawyer for Khodorkovsky said on Friday. His attorney Anton Drel told reporters that Khodorkovsky ended the hunger strike on Thursday after learning about Lebedev's transfer from the evening news. He had begun the strike Aug. 19 to protest when prison authorities moved Lebedev to a tiny isolation cell. Drel said Khodorkovsky was feeling "not so well" and needed time to return to normal eating and drinking habits after refusing food and water for nearly a week. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were sentenced to nine years in prison for fraud and tax evasion after a trial widely seen as part of a state-directed campaign to punish Khodorkovsky for funding opposition parties, impede his presumed political ambitions, and boost state control over the lucrative oil sector by taking apart his company, Yukos.
■ Automakers
Hyundai strike continues
Hyundai Motor Co assembly lines shut down on Friday for a second day as workers carried out a partial strike aimed at winning higher wages. The union at Hyundai affiliate Kia Motors Corp also voted to walk off the job. Dayshift workers at Hyundai, South Korea's largest automaker, walked off the job for six hours at the company's three domestic factories. A similar stoppage was planned for the night shift, the company and labor union said. Hyundai workers want more pay, better working conditions and more say in management decisions. About 70 percent of Hyundai's 42,521-strong union voted late Tuesday in favor of the strike. The union has gone on strike every year but one since it was established in 1987.
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