MINING
Cape York plan approved
Australia yesterday gave Rio Tinto the go-ahead for a controversial A$1.3 billion (US$1.3 billion) bauxite mine project in western Cape York in a decision environmentalists blasted as “vandalism on a grand scale.” Australian Environment Minister Tony Burke slapped 76 conditions on the project, including on shipping movements through the Great Barrier Reef and steps to protect endangered species such as turtles and dugongs. The project includes building a power station, processing plant, warehouses and workshops, in addition to barge, ferry and ship-loading facilities to extend the life of an existing bauxite mine in the area for 40 more years.
STEEL
ThyssenKrupp axing jobs
German heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp yesterday said it plans to axe 3,000 administrative jobs worldwide as disastrous investments in steel operations overseas tore holes in its balance sheet in the second quarter. ThyssenKrupp, which already announced more than 2,000 job cuts in its European steel operations earlier this year, said that heavy writedowns on new steel mills in Brazil and the US pushed it to book a net loss of 89 million euros (US$116 million) in the period from January to March, compared with a small profit of 29 million euros in the preceding three months.
MINING
BHP to slash spending
Global mining giant BHP Billiton has outlined plans to slash capital spending by almost a fifth, with new chief executive Andrew Mackenzie warning the brakes could be applied even further. The world’s biggest miner will cut its capital and exploration expenditure for the 2013-2014 financial year to US$18 billion, from a peak of US$22 billion the previous year, Mackenzie told a mining conference in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday.
SOFTWARE
Windows Blue preview set
The tweaked version of Microsoft’s operating system nicknamed Windows Blue will be previewed on June 26 and will be a free update for users as Windows 8.1, the company said on Tuesday. The update comes amid a lukewarm reception for Windows 8, an operating system released last year. The move is part of a goal “of delivering continual updates to create a richer experience for Windows customers,” a Microsoft blog post said.
SMARTPHONES
RIM shows off new phone
Research In Motion (RIM) unveiled a lower-cost BlackBerry aimed at consumers in emerging markets on Tuesday, stepping up its efforts to regain market share lost to Apple’s iPhone and Android devices powered by Google’s software. The lower-cost gadget, called the Q5, is the company’s third smartphone to run the new BlackBerry 10 system. The device will be available in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America beginning in July. The company did not disclose prices for the new phone.
BANKING
Chinese probe Bloomberg
The People’s Bank of China, which manages the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves, is looking into a growing scandal over the access journalists at Bloomberg News had to potentially sensitive data, reports said yesterday. The Chinese central bank is the latest major financial organization to examine the controversy involving the financial news wire, whose terminals are used by officials at many of the world’s most important financial institutions and banks.
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