■ENERGY
Iberdrola targets US market
Spanish power company Iberdrola, the world’s largest renewable energy operator, said on Sunday that it plans to invest US$8 billion in the US between this year and 2010. The Bilbao-based firm is aiming to have a 15 percent share of the wind power market in the US by 2010, it said in a statement. It had a wind power production capacity of 2,400 megawatts in the US at the end of March and it expects to reach 3,600 megawatts by the end of the year, the statement said. Iberdrola chairman Ignacio Sanchez Galan has said he considers the US as the company’s most exciting growth market. The US is seen as a promising market for renewable energy sources as concerns over climate change and the rising price of oil boost demand for alternatives to fossil fuels.
■ENERGY
Morales warns investors
Bolivian President Evo Morales warned foreign companies on Sunday to step up investment in Bolivia’s natural gas industry or risk losing access to its lucrative deposits. Morales said his government is readying an “ultimatum” to Brazil’s Petrobras, Spain’s Repsol YPF, Britain’s BP and others. “I’ve asked my ministers to prepare a decree giving the companies an ultimatum to invest,” he said in the central town of Punata. “If they don’t invest in the areas where exploration has shown there to be plenty of petroleum and natural gas ... in a determined period of time, we’re going to take those areas back for [state energy company] YPFB.” Morales said YPFB would make any needed investment even if it has to do so on credit, but he did not give further details. Morales’ push for more state control has spooked foreign energy investment in Bolivia, home to the second-largest natural gas deposits in South America. An estimated US$876 million in investment that the government anticipates for this year is largely targeted to pumping existing fields, rather than developing new ones that Bolivia needs to feed growing demand in Brazil and Argentina.
■OIL
Boost won’t help: Libya
Saudi Arabia’s decision to increase crude output unilaterally may not lower prices because oil’s surge to a record has been driven by speculators rather than a supply shortage, Shokri Ghanem, the chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corp said. “I don’t know on what ground they took this decision, I think it came in response to the many requests” of the US, he said in a telephone interview yesterday from Tripoli. “If they think it will help the market, I don’t think so because the market is already very well supplied.” Saudi Arabia said two days ago that it would increase crude production next month in response to rising demand from its customers and a request by US President George W. Bush to ease the strain of record prices on the US economy.
■NORWAY
Aviation strike spreading
A strike by civil aviation employees expanded yesterday to partly affecting Oslo’s Gardermoen airport, the country’s largest. Five airports closed on Friday over the wage strike, and on Saturday a sixth airport was closed. Oslo Gardermoen, used daily by 60,000 passengers, would remain open, but 48 flights were due to be canceled, airport officials said. The civil aviation authority Avinor and unions have not held any meetings since mediation efforts failed on Friday, and six more airports could be shut down today. The closures were due to insufficient staff to respond to possible emergencies or fires. Passengers were advised to consult their airline Web sites over cancelations.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last