ENERGY
JGC to build gas plant
Japanese engineering conglomerate JGC Corp said yesterday it has won a contract to help build a Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in a deal reportedly worth US$9.4 billion. JGC said its joint venture with US-based Fluor Corp was awarded the tender by Chevron Canada to design and build the Kitimat LNG plant in the western province of British Columbia. Chevron and Apache Canada each hold a 50 percent interest in the proposed plant, which will have an annual capacity of 11 million tonnes of LNG, according to a JGC statement.
MINING
Goldcorp in hostile bid
Canadian mining giant Goldcorp on Monday proposed one of the biggest mining sector deals in more than a year in announcing a C$2.6 billion (US$2.4 billion) hostile bid for Quebec’s Osisko Mining. The offer of 0.146 Goldcorp shares plus C$2.26 in cash for each Osisko common share (a total value of C$5.95) is a 15 percent premium over Osisko’s closing price on Friday, Goldcorp said in a statement. Vancouver-based Goldcorp is Canada’s second-largest gold company, after Barrick, with a dozen mines operating in the Americas and several more in development, including its Ilionore mine in Quebec Province, which is slated to start production later this year.
ECONOMY
Spain grows faster
Spain’s economy grew by about 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, faster than the 0.1 percent seen in the previous quarter, Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said on Monday. “The recovery is fragile, but it is a recovery,” he told a parliamentary hearing. The Spanish economy returned to growth in the three months to September last year, putting an end to a recession that lasted over two years, ravaged public finances and left one-in-four workers without a job. Spain’s conservative government is forecasting a 1.3 percent economic contraction for last year and 0.7 percent growth this year, a pace considered by many analysts to be insufficient to lead to net job creation.
ECONOMY
Japan’s imports increase
Japan’s current account deficit in November last year tripled year-on-year to a record US$5.7 billion as a weak yen pushed up the country’s post-Fukushima energy bills, official data showed yesterday. The shortfall in the current account hit ¥592.8 billion, easily eclipsing a deficit of ¥179.6 billion in the same month one year earlier. The latest data marked the largest monthly current account deficit based on comparable data stretching back to 1985, blowing past a ¥455.6 billion shortfall in January 2012, according to the Japanese finance ministry. The deficit in November last year largely stemmed from a growing trade imbalance stoked by Japan’s heavy dependence on importing pricey fossil fuels to generate electricity, while the yen’s sharp depreciation since late 2012 has also bloated costs.
SMARTPHONES
‘Moto X’ out next month
Motorola announced yesterday that its flagship “Moto X” smartphone will arrive in France, Britain and Germany next month. Prices in Britain will range from £25 (US$41) per month on contract to £380 total without a SIM card, according to the Google-owned firm. The price will be 429 euros (US$586) in France. A low-cost version of the smartphone, the Moto G, is already sold internationally.
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