■ TRADE
US imposes duties on pipe
The US Commerce Department imposed duties of more than 106 percent on imports of Chinese steel pipe used for fencing and plumbing after determining that producers in China get unfair subsidies. If that decision is affirmed in a ruling by a trade panel, it would mark the first time that countervailing duties would be imposed on Chinese imports. The US began accepting those complaints last year. The tariffs on the pipe include both countervailing duties of 37.2 percent and anti-dumping duties of 69.2 percent on 31 of the largest producers. All other companies got a higher anti-dumping rate of 85.6 percent, the Commerce Department said in a statement.
■ PETROLEUM
BP at 'watershed': CEO
Robert Dudley, chief executive officer of TNK-BP, BP Plc’s joint venture in Russia, said the company is at a “watershed” as its shareholders feud over management control. “TNK-BP’s direction is not irreversible” and the “road ahead is risky,” Dudley said at a conference in Moscow yesterday. “It has arrived at a watershed.” London-based BP has rejected a demand by four Russian billionaires to fire Dudley, intensifying a shareholder dispute amid reports state-run OAO Gazprom wants to buy the company. Len Blavatnik, Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Viktor Vekselberg control half of TNK-BP, which was formed in 2003. BP owns the other half.
■ AVIATION
Workers volunteer for buyout
US carrier Delta Air Lines’ cost-cutting voluntary departure program for employees has drawn so much demand that 1,000 additional jobs will be cut, a company official said on Friday. There were 3,000 employees that volunteered for the buyout package, whereas the original offer was for 2,000 jobs, the official said on condition of anonymity. He explained that the bigger-than-expected response to the offer would give the company more financial flexibility to face soaring fuel prices, confirming that each request for a buyout would be accepted.
■ BANKING
Nomura to buy EU assets
Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan’s biggest investment bank, will form a 2.1 billion euro (US$3.3 billion) fund to buy European assets including equity and loans that lost value after the US mortgage crisis roiled global credit markets. Nomura will put up 25 percent of the fund and raise the rest from investors in Japan, Europe and the Middle East, Michiyori Fujiwara, spokesman at the Tokyo-based securities firm, said yesterday. The fund will seek assets in markets including Spain, France, Germany and the UK, Fujiwara said.
■ BANKING
Draghi blames oil prices
European Central Bank (ECB) council member Mario Draghi said record oil prices were dictating the level of borrowing costs. “The main element of concern remains the continued rise in the price of energy and other commodities,” Draghi said yesterday at the Bank of Italy’s annual assembly. This was “fueling inflation and limiting the direction of monetary policy. Medium-term price stability was and remains the objective.” The ECB defines price stability as keeping inflation just below 2 percent “over the medium term” and has struggled to meet that goal since taking charge of monetary policy in 1999. The central bank left its key rate at 4 percent on May 10 to try to curb the surge in energy and food prices. Still, the inflation rate in the euro economy rose to 3.6 percent, the ninth month it held above the ECB’s target.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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