■AVIATION
American delays new route
American Airlines said on Friday it was seeking to delay by a year its planned Chicago-Beijing service, set to begin in April next year. The largest US carrier said it had filed a request with the US Department of Transportation for a waiver to allow it to begin service between Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Beijing on April 4, 2010. The request “cited the extraordinary adverse market and operating conditions affecting the entire airline industry,” American Airlines said in a statement.
■JAPAN
Fukui to advise firm
Former Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui, who stepped down in March, is set to become a member of Matsushita Electric Industrial’s advisory panel, a newspaper reported yesterday. Matsushita, which is best known for its Panasonic brand, will ask Fukui to join its global affairs advisory panel, which will be set up next month, the Nikkei Shimbun said. Matsushita aims to tap Fukui’s knowledge on macroeconomics and global issues, it said.
■MACHINERY
Mitsubishi invests in plant
Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd will boost its production of core nuclear power equipment by investing ¥15 billion (US$138 million) in its key plant, a newspaper reported yesterday. The nation’s largest heavy machinery manufacturer plans to double production capacity at its nuclear power equipment plant in Akashi, western Japan, the Nikkei Shimbun daily said. Construction would begin in January for completion in mid-2011, it added.
■AVIATION
Airbus delays deliveries
Delivery of a second Airbus A380 to Emirates, the airline of the United Arab Emirates, will suffer a further delay of two months, French daily Le Figaro reported yesterday. Emirates put its first giant A380 into service on Aug. 1 with a direct flight from Dubai to New York. The Middle East’s biggest airline hopes by next spring to take delivery of four more jumbos serving London, Sydney and Auckland as well as New York. A further 53 A380s are scheduled to be delivered by June 2013. Delivery, held up by problems laying out the cabin, would not take place before Oct. 20, nearly two months late, Le Figaro said.
■AUTOMOBILES
Tata plant remains shut
Protests against a factory being built in eastern India to make the world’s cheapest car forced a halt to work for a second day yesterday as vehicle giant Tata Motors mulled the plant’s future. “There has been no improvement in the ground situation so far, hence the conditions are still not conducive for resuming work today,” Tata Motors said. “We continue to assess the situation closely” at the plant in Singur in West Bengal state.
■BANKING
US crisis claims 10th bank
Integrity Bank of Alpharetta on Friday became the 10th US bank to fail so far this year, done in by the very business it was built on — real estate lending. Regions Bank of Birmingham, Alabama, is assuming all of the Alpharetta, Georgia, banks’ US$974 million in insured and uninsured deposits in 23,000 accounts, and about US$34.4 million of the bank’s US$1.1 billion in assets. The remainder of Integrity Bank’s total assets are being retained by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC said it estimated that Integrity’s failure will cost its deposit insurance fund US$250 million to US$350 million.
SMART MANUFACTURING: The company aims to have its production close to the market end, but attracting investment is still a challenge, the firm’s president said Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said its long-term global production plan would stay unchanged amid geopolitical and tariff policy uncertainties, citing its diversified global deployment. With operations in Taiwan, Thailand, China, India, Europe and the US, Delta follows a “produce at the market end” strategy and bases its production on customer demand, with major site plans unchanged, Delta president Simon Chang (張訓海) said on the sidelines of a company event yesterday. Thailand would remain Delta’s second headquarters, as stated in its first-quarter earnings conference, with its plant there adopting a full smart manufacturing system, Chang said. Thailand is the firm’s second-largest overseas
‘REMARKABLE SHOWING’: The economy likely grew 5 percent in the first half of the year, although it would likely taper off significantly, TIER economist Gordon Sun said The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) yesterday raised Taiwan’s GDP growth forecast for this year to 3.02 percent, citing robust export-driven expansion in the first half that is likely to give way to a notable slowdown later in the year as the front-loading of global shipments fades. The revised projection marks an upward adjustment of 0.11 percentage points from April’s estimate, driven by a surge in exports and corporate inventory buildup ahead of possible US tariff hikes, TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy likely grew more than 5 percent in the first six months
SUPPLY RESILIENCE: The extra expense would be worth it, as the US firm is diversifying chip sourcing to avert disruptions similar to the one during the pandemic, the CEO said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) on Wednesday said that the chips her company gets from supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would cost more when they are produced in TSMC’s Arizona facilities. Compared with similar parts from factories in Taiwan, the US chips would be “more than 5 percent, but less than 20 percent” in terms of higher costs, she said at an artificial intelligence (AI) event in Washington. AMD expects its first chips from TSMC’s Arizona facilities by the end of the year, Su said. The extra expense is worth it, because the company is
The seizure of one of the largest known mercury shipments in history, moving from mines in Mexico to illegal Amazon gold mining zones, exposes the wide use of the toxic metal in the rainforest, according to authorities. Peru’s customs agency, SUNAT, found 4 tonnes of illegal mercury in Lima’s port district of Callao, according to a report by the non-profit Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA). “This SUNAT intervention has prevented this chemical from having a serious impact on people’s health and the environment, as can be seen in several areas of the country devastated by the illegal use of mercury and illicit activities,”
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