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Hyundai plans expansion

South Korea's top carmaker Hyundai Motor announced yesterday it would invest more than US$11 billion next year to raise production and upgrade facilities.

Hyundai Motor and affiliate Kia Motors will spend a combined 4.5 trillion won (US$4.8 billion), including 3.5 trillion won for research and development. About 5.2 trillion won would be spent on an integrated steel plant, Chung said.

Hyundai started building the plant, with an annual capacity of seven million tonnes, in October last year to avoid shortages of the key raw material.

The group, which controls more than 70 percent of the domestic auto market, aims to become number five in the world. But growth has been threatened by competition, falling productivity and labour disputes.

China steelmaker invests in IMX

Tonghua Iron & Steel Co (通化鋼鐵), the largest steelmaker in China's Jilin Province, bought a 9.9 percent stake in Australian iron ore explorer IMX Resources NL and will buy all the output from its Cairn Hill project.

Tonghua agreed to buy 16.4 million shares for A$14 million (US$12.3 million), Perth-based IMX said yesterday in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange. The money will be used to develop Cairn Hill in South Australia state, it said.

China's mills have been funding iron ore companies in Australia as they seek to reduce reliance on Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton Ltd, the world's second and third-largest producers of the key steelmaking ingredient. The first shipment from IMX is planned for next year's fourth quarter.

Tonghua agreed to buy as much as 1.4 million tonnes of ore a year from the initial project for three years, IMX said. The sales deal with Tonghua is the Chinese company's first entry into Australia, IMX said.

Sharp to sell stake in Sampo

Japanese television maker Sharp Corp planned to withdraw its investment in local TV vendor Sampo Corp (聲寶) by selling its 6-percent holding in the form of global depositary receipts, Sampo said in a statement yesterday.

Sharp planned to sell those shares beginning next July as it was focusing on energy-efficient liquid-crystal-display and solar-cell businesses, the statement said.

By the end of this year, Sharp would resign its seat in the board of Sampo. The Taiwanese company is in a struggle to return to the black.

But, Sharp said it would maintain the current partnership with Sampo, which sells and makes some Sharp home appliances in Taiwan.

CPC delays plant reopening

CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), the nation's state-owned refiner, has delayed restarting a fire-damaged crude oil distillation unit at its Kaohsiung refinery by two weeks as it waits for approval from the government.

The unit may start next week after permission is obtained from the Kaohsiung city labor bureau, said a CPC official who declined to be identified because of company rules.

The 100,000 barrel-a-day facility was expected to be restarted in the week of Dec. 17, CPC spokeswoman Jessica Tang (唐苑莉) said on Dec. 13. She couldn't immediately be reached by telephone.

The plant in southern Taiwan has been shut since Oct. 26, when a pump leak caused a fire. Taipei-based CPC has three refineries with a total capacity of 720,000 barrels a day.

The unit is the main part of a refinery that heats crude oil to separate it into different products.

NT dollar firms

The New Taiwan dollar yesterday firmed by NT$0.027 to close at NT$32.499 against the greenback on turnover of US$974 million.
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