AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai, Kia settle suits
Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors Corp, affiliated South Korean automakers, agreed to spend as much as US$395 million to settle lawsuits brought by customers claiming the companies overstated fuel-economy ratings. Hyundai’s US unit said in a statement on Monday that it will make payments totaling as much as US$210 million to people who bought 2011 to last year’s model vehicles affected by the ratings. Customers have the choice of a lump-sum payment from Seoul-based Hyundai or to remain in a fuel-reimbursement program for as long as they own their vehicle. Kia Motors said in a separate statement that its payments to owners of about 300,000 vehicles would total as much as US$185 million.
OIL
Chevron contests fine
Chevron filed a motion with a court in Ecuador on Monday seeking to reverse a ruling requiring it to pay US$9.5 billion for pollution in the country’s Amazon basin region. The US oil giant, which claims it was the victim of a trial riddled with fraud, was ordered in September to cover the fine for pollution caused by its predecessor Texaco for the 26 years it was in the Ecuadoran region. The company has also challenged the massive penalty in a US court. Last month, Chevron asked US Judge Lewis Kaplan to block Ecuador from enforcing a US$9.51 billion Ecuadoran court award against the company, alleging widespread corruption in the case.
BRAZIL
Minimum wage to rise
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Monday confirmed a rise in the minimum wage to 724 reals (US$306) per month, equivalent to a 6.8 percent rise. The leftist leader announced the measure on Twitter following Congressional approval last week. Dilma said she had signed the measure into law and it is to take effect from next month. Sao Paulo commerce federation Fecomercio calculated the move would inject 46 billion reals (US$19.5 billion) into the economy next year. Economists have raised their inflation forecast to 5.97 percent next year from 5.95 percent, according to a weekly central bank survey.
ITALY
Budget can tackle crisis
Senators in Italy on Monday gave their final approval to next year’s budget, which is intended to tackle an enduring social crisis even after the formal end of the country’s longest post-war recession. The government has said the budget “reverses” the austerity trend of recent years, but critics including trade unions and the business lobby Confindustria warn that it is not enough to stimulate growth. The budget includes the creation of a fund with proceeds from bureaucratic cuts to be used to lower income tax, as well as measures to encourage the hiring of workers, higher taxes on large pensions and the introduction of a new benefits scheme for the unemployed.
SAUDI ARABIA
Biggest budget approved
Saudi Arabia’s Finance Ministry has announced the largest annual budget ever to be adopted by the kingdom, projecting spending and revenue at 855 billion riyals (US$228 billion) each for next year. The ministry also recorded a budget surplus this year. Revenues were projected at 829 billion riyals and expenditures at 820 billion riyals. The Finance Ministry said on Monday that both exceeded initial projections, with revenues at 1.131 trillion riyals and spending at 925 billion riyals.
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
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
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
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