ENERGY
China doubts US wind probe
China expressed “deep concern” on Saturday after the US launched a probe into Chinese wind towers that it suspects of being unduly subsidized and sold at a loss on the US market. “The act will not only hamper bilateral cooperation in the field of new energy and harm the interests of US industries, but also go against global efforts to tackle the challenges of climate change and energy security,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said on its Web site. “China expresses its deep concern over the case.” The US Department of Commerce announced on Thursday that it had opened an inquiry on wind towers made in China and Vietnam, following a complaint filed by an association of four US manufacturers.
COMMODITIES
US court rejects challenge
A US appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit by the financial industry challenging new federal regulations aimed at cracking down on speculation in commodities markets, a move that will likely delay a decision over whether the rules pass muster. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association last month filed challenges to the regulations adopted last year by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed the lawsuit, saying that the case must first be heard by a lower court, an argument advanced by the CFTC.
OIL
Russian output hits plateau
Russian oil production reached a record 511 million tonnes last year, but output levels are unlikely to increase further over the next three years, an official said on Saturday. Russian Vice Minister for Energy Sergei Kudriashov said the output level was up by about 1 percent last year, a record for the post-Soviet period. “We understand that in the three coming years, we are going to have a lull in the operation of new deposits,” he said in comments broadcast on public television station Russia 24. “That’s why the principle task now is to use the resources we have and maximize the efficiency of work in old deposits.”
MEDICINE
Stent patents invalidated
Abbott Laboratories and Medtronic Inc won a US federal court ruling that invalidated two patents for heart devices controlled by Johnson & Johnson’s Cordis unit and Wyeth. US District Judge Joel Pisano in Trenton, New Jersey, ruled on Thursday that the patents did not fulfill the requirement that they describe what the company claims to have invented. Cordis and Wyeth had contended that Abbott’s Xience and Medtronic’s Endeavor stents were using the inventions without permission. The ruling was part of a long-running battle over inventions related to stents, tiny mesh tubes used to prop open heart arteries after they’re cleared of fat.
LABOR
Shopworkers awarded £68m
A British shopworkers union says that an employment tribunal has awarded nearly £68 million (over US$100 million) in compensation to 24,000 former Woolworths employees. The USDAW union said on Friday that it had won the compensation after successfully arguing that the bankrupt retailer’s administrators broke the law by failing to consult with the union before firing its employees. The money amounts to 60 days’ pay for each worker. Woolworths closed all of its 800 British outlets in 2009 after being unable to find a buyer for the business.
EUROZONE
Monti wants bigger fund
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti wants the lending capacity of the eurozone’s permanent rescue fund to be doubled to 1 trillion euros (US$1.29 trillion), German magazine Der Spiegel wrote on Saturday, without citing sources. Der Spiegel said European Central Bank President Mario Draghi agreed the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) should beef up its effective lending capacity beyond the 500 billion euros planned. He believes the leftover funds from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the temporary 440 billion euro fund lending to Ireland and Portugal, should be put at the ESM’s disposal in addition to the 500 billion euros, Der Spiegel wrote.
INTERNET
Hackers attack Brazil sites
The computer hacker group Anonymous attacked Web sites of Brazil’s federal district on Saturday as well as one belonging to a Brazilian singer to protest the forced closure of Megaupload.com. Anonymous posted messages on Twitter describing attacks against hundreds of Brazilian sites that share the URL df.gov.br, which are owned by the government of the federal capital in Rio de Janeiro. The Federal District press office denied the hackers succeeded in shutting down the Web sites. The Internet news site G1, owned by television network Globo, confirmed the early-morning computer attacks, but said the Federal District’s 24-hour-a-day information technology team was able to stop them.
STOCKS
Kuwait to privatize bourse
HSBC Holdings PLC has been hired to help the privatization of Kuwait Stock Exchange, the third-biggest bourse in the Persian Gulf by market capitalization. HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd signed an agreement with the Capital Markets Authority that will lead “to the privatization of Kuwait Stock Exchange and establishment of a new company that will own and operate the stock market,” according to a statement distributed in Kuwait City yesterday.
COFFEE
Strauss inks German deal
Strauss Group Ltd said its coffee unit has signed a five-year agreement with a German manufacturer to produce coffee, according to a statement filed yesterday with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Strauss can extend the agreement for an additional three years and has an option to buy the company for 53 million euros, it added in the statement. The company also said it received a 28.6 million euros loan from banks in Germany and estimated that it will need to invest another US$3.5 million in the factory of the manufacturer.
OIL
Chevron to fight forest bill
Chevron Corp is seeking to appeal to Ecuador’s highest court a ruling that it must pay up to US$18 billion for oil pollution in the Amazon rain forest. The US-based company filed a petition with a regional court on Friday seeking permission to ask the National Court of Justice to throw out the ruling from February last year. The ruling was upheld earlier this month by a three-judge appeals panel.
OIL
‘Routine’ fire extinguished
Petroleos de Venezuela SA’s Amuay refinery is operating normally after a small fire at a distillation unit on Friday, Jesus Luongo, general manager of the complex, said in a statement on the company’s Web site. The fire was extinguished within 10 minutes and is a “routine incident” in refining activities, Luongo said.
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
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
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in