TRANSPORTATION
Group to build Bangkok rail
A Japanese consortium will build an urban transit system in Bangkok, as part of Japan’s drive to expand exports of railway infrastructure to the rest of Asia, a report said yesterday. East Japan Railway, trading house Marubeni and electronics giant Toshiba have landed the deal, at an estimated price of about ¥40 billion (US$405 million), the business daily Nikkei Shimbun reported. Under the deal, ordered by Bangkok Metro Public Co, the consortium will construct a new 23km rail line in the Thai capital, the daily said, adding the rail operation is set to start in 2016. The Japanese group will supply 63 train cars and build the power grid, signals and rail yards, as well as 16 stations for the project. It will also provide maintenance services under a 10-year contract and about 20 technicians with operational expertise will be stationed in Bangkok.
TELECOMS
KT chairman resigns
The head of South Korea’s KT Corp — the country’s top fixed-line telephone operator and No. 2 mobile carrier — has offered to resign following a corruption probe, a report said yesterday. Chairman Lee Suk-chae has told his board of directors that he would step down, Yonhap news agency reported. On Friday, state prosecutors raided the offices of KT and the homes of its executives. The probe focuses on breach of trust charges filed against Lee, alleging the existence of a slush fund and poor investments that cost the firm hundreds of millions of dollars. Lee, a confidant of former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak, has denied the allegations. KT’s third-quarter net profit plunged 63 percent from a year earlier to 136 billion won (US$128 million).
IRAN
China to finance projects
A report by a local media Web site says China has agreed to finance US$20 billion in development projects in the country using oil money not transferred to the Islamic Republic because of international sanctions. The tasnimnews Web site published a report on Saturday quoting prominent lawmaker Hasan Sobhaninia saying the deal was reached during talks between Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani and Chinese leaders. Larijani visited China this week and Sobhaninia accompanied the speaker. Government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nowbakht said last week that about US$22 billion dollars of the country’s oil money is stuck in China because of sanctions. The US and its allies have imposed oil and banking sanctions against the country over its disputed nuclear program. It frequently uses barter arrangements because of the sanctions. China is its top crude oil importer.
OFFICE SUPPLIES
OfficeMax purchase approved
Office Depot Inc’s purchase of OfficeMax Inc won approval from US antitrust regulators, clearing the way for the office-supply companies to create a single retailer to compete with Staples Inc. The US Federal Trade Commission voted to close its seven- month investigation into the merger, saying online retailing ensured competition in the retail market for office supplies, a statement yesterday said. The agency said the market has changed significantly since 1997, when it derailed Staples’s acquisition of Office Depot as anti-competitive. Consumers today rely on retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, in addition to Internet shopping for office products, the commission said. Office Depot and OfficeMax, the second and third-largest office-supply chains in the US, agreed in February to combine in a US$1.17 billion deal after losing sales to online rivals and to Staples.
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
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
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