SHIPPING
Egypt hurts Moeller-Maersk
Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moeller-Maersk said on Thursday it had partially reopened its activities in Egypt, but said the bloody revolt in the country would continue to impact its business. The world-leading container transporter had announced on Tuesday it was suspending all the Egyptian activities of its Maersk Line, Safmarin and Damco units, as well as its Suez container terminal. “Today [Thursday], Maersk Line, Safmarine and Damco offices have reopened,” the company said in an e-mail. At the Suez container terminal in Port Said, “there are limited vessel operations. There are also limited operations at the ports of Damietta and Alexandria,” it added.
OIL
Rosneft denies TNK-BP talks
Russian oil producer Rosneft said it was not in talks to buy out Russian shareholders in peer TNK-BP, following a report a possible sale was in the offing to resolve a row with BP. Four sources told Vedomosti business daily that AAR — a Russian shareholder consortium which co-owns TNK-BP, a 50-50 joint venture with British major BP — might sell its stake to Rosneft or the Russian government. “We are not in talks about buying AAR’s stake or TNK-BP itself,” Rosneft president Eduard Khudainatov told Interfax news agency.
TOYS
Mattel sued over Bratz dolls
MGA Entertainment Inc filed an antitrust suit against Mattel Inc, its archrival in the world of fashion dolls. The case is the latest volley in an ongoing dispute over MGA’s Bratz dolls. It was filed on Thursday in US District Court in Los Angeles and alleges unfair business practices and anticompetitive conduct. MGA claims Mattel used a “scorched earth strategy” to infiltrate confidential showrooms at industry events to copy new Bratz products, rearrange Barbie and Bratz displays at retailers, intimidate licensees and pay retailers not to buy MGA products. MGA says Mattel uses litigation instead of competition to protect Barbie’s monopoly over the fashion doll market and deprive consumers of choices.
OIL
India, Iran resolve dispute
An official said India and Iran have resolved a dispute over payments for Iranian crude oil, with India agreeing to set up a new mechanism that would allow payments in euros. The official said yesterday that the State Bank of India would route the payments through a German-based bank, ending a nearly six-week stalemate that had threatened to disrupt oil supplies to India. The payments for Iranian crude would be made through the Hamburg-based Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG, the finance ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media. Iran is India’s second-largest crude oil supplier and meets more than 12 percent of its oil needs.
INDONESIA
Benchmark rate raised
The central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 6.75 percent, a move aimed at helping curb inflation blamed on spiraling foods prices. Halim Alamsyah, a deputy governor of the Bank Indonesia, announced the decision yesterday. Hours earlier, senior economic minister Hatta Rajasa expressed hope that harvests, which have been disrupted in recent weeks by extreme weather, would soon improve, helping bring down the price of chilies, soy beans and other staple foods. The bank had held the rate at a record low 6.5 percent for the past 18 months.
INDIA
Inflation threatens growth
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday warned that high inflation was threatening the country’s rapid economic growth and needed to be brought under control with “great urgency.” Singh’s warning, in a speech to state government bureaucrats, came a day after data showed annual food inflation standing at 17.05 percent, driven by surging onion prices, a local dietary staple. “Inflation poses a serious threat to the growth momentum,” Singh said. “Whatever be the cause, the fact remains that inflation is something which needs to be tackled with great urgency.” The central bank has already hiked interest rates seven times in under a year in a bid to quell inflation and is expected to raise borrowing costs again at its March 17 policy meeting, if not earlier.
GRAINS
China corn imports to rise
China’s corn imports could reach a record 9 million tonnes this year after depletion of government reserves to slow inflation, the US Grains Council, an industry group, said on Thursday in a report. Grain supplies are as much as 15 million tonnes below levels needed to keep inventories close to 30 percent of consumption, council chairman Terry Vinduska said. He visited China last week. The country imported 1.3 million tonnes of corn in the year that ended Sept. 30 and an all-time high of 4.3 million in 1995.
INTERNET
Google flooded with resumes
Google Inc, the world’s biggest Internet search service, received more than 75,000 job applications worldwide last week, setting a record for the company as it embarks on a hiring spree. The flood of resumes topped a previous high set in May 2007 by 15 percent, said Aaron Zamost, a spokesman for the Mountain View, California-based company. Google, which had 24,400 workers at the end of this year, announced last week that it would add more than 6,000 employees this year. The company aims to hire more workers this year than in any year in its history, exceeding its 2007 record.
OIL
Australia to retain PTTEP
A Thai-owned oil rig operator has been given approval to continue working in Australian waters despite its role in Australia’s worst ever oil spill. Australian Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said yesterday that PTTEP Australasia would be subject to a rigorous 18-month government monitoring program of its production and exploration work. His decision came after an independent review blamed PTTEP and a lax regulator for the 2009 oil leak at the Montara oil field in the Timor Sea. More than 400 barrels of oil a day flowed from the Montara and stained the coasts of Indonesia and East Timor. PTTEP paid US$319 million for the clean up.
SMARTPHONES
App offers sumo makeover
Ever have a yen to be a sumo wrestler? Curious to see how you might look bulked up like a behemoth and with a traditional wrestler’s topknot? Now, an iPhone app can show you — and without even packing on any kilos. The “SumoBooth” app, developed by Tokyo-based MotionPortrait Inc, allows users to upload a photo of their face taken with their phone. The images are processed to add kilos and the wrestlers’ trademark hairstyle with a topknot. The app will also record voices and alter them to give users a sumo wrestler’s distinctive husky sound. MotionPortrait, a subsidiary of the Internet-linked So-net Entertainment Corp, offers the app for ¥115 (US$1.41).
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day