■RESOURCES
Sierra Leone, PRC ink deal
Sierra Leone’s mineral resources minister Alpha Kanu on Friday said a US$1.5 billion iron-ore agreement with a Chinese firm would create jobs and boost the economy in the resource-rich, but poor country. Speaking to reporters on a conference call from London, Kanu said the 25 percent investment by China’s Shandong Iron and Steel Group (山東鋼鐵集團) in the Tonkolili iron ore mine “would provide an added boost to impact the country’s weak economy.” Kanu said Shandong’s stake in London-listed African Minerals’ Sierra Leonean mine project would create some 2,000 jobs, increasing to about 5,000 in the next two years.
■TECHNOLOGY
Google purchases Metaweb
Search giant Google Inc says it has bought Metaweb Inc, a company that helps connect Internet search words to real-world things. Terms were not disclosed. Google director of product management, Jack Menzel, said in a blog post on Friday that the acquisition would help “improve search and make the Web richer and more meaningful.” In a video on its Web site, San Francisco-based Metaweb says search words themselves can be interpreted in too many ways to be useful. Instead, it has created an open database of more 12 million things, such as people, companies, movies and books, and how they relate to each other.
■RESOURCES
Honam acquires Titan Corp
Honam Petrochemical Corp will acquire Malaysia’s Titan Chemicals Corp in an all-cash deal valued at US$1.25 billion in South Korea’s biggest overseas acquisition this year. South Korea’s second-largest ethylene maker will buy all of Titan’s stock for 2.35 ringgit (US$0.73) a share, the Malaysian company said in a statement on Friday. That’s a 27 percent premium to Titan’s closing price of RM1.85 on Thursday. Honam will pay 1.5 trillion won (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase, the Seoul-based company said in an e-mailed statement.
■TRANSPORT
Narita-Tokyo line opens
A new high-speed railway line linking Narita International Airport with central Tokyo opened yesterday. The 64km line, Narita Sky Access, cuts the travel time between Nippori Station in Tokyo and the airport in Chiba, southeast of the capital, by 15 minutes to 36 minutes. Fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto designed the new “Skyliner” train for the service, which can run at 160km per hour.
■AUTOMOBILES
Daimler posts strong figures
German automotive giant Daimler posted strong quarterly figures on Friday on the back of soaring demand for its Mercedes cars and trucks, a weaker euro boosting exports and cost cutting measures. Daimler reported a second quarter operatng profit of 2.1 billion euros (US$2.7 billion), reversing a year-earlier loss of 1 billion euros and exceeding market expectations. The group said its sales in the three months to last month jumped to 25.1 billion euros from 19.6 billion euros a year earlier.
■BANKING
More US banks shut down
US regulators on Friday shut down three banks in Florida, two in South Carolina and one in Michigan, bringing to 96 the number of US banks to succumb this year to the recession and mounting loan defaults. With 96 closures nationwide so far this year, the pace of bank failures far outstrips that of last year, which was already a brisk year for shutdowns. By this time last year, regulators had closed 57 banks.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure