AUTOMAKERS
Opel extends layoff promise
General Motors Co’s (GM) Opel unit has agreed to extend by two years until the end of 2018 a guarantee that workers at three German plants would not face layoffs. Saturday’s announcement came days after new GM chief executive Mary Barra visited Opel’s headquarters in Ruesselsheim and said the company’s plant there would get the job of building a new vehicle. She reiterated a commitment to turn around the unit after years of losses. The agreement concluded this week by Opel management and employee representatives applies to plants in Ruesselsheim, Kaiserslautern and Eisenach. Opel says the latter factory will build the next generation of the Adam and Corsa models. Production at a fourth German Opel plant in Bochum is to finish at the end of this year.
MINES
Wage talks postponed
Wage talks between a militant South African union and three major platinum mine owners have been adjourned until tomorrow, government mediators said. “Details of the content of discussions between parties may not be revealed,” they said, adding that they had made proposals that the two sides will consider. “The employers need time to reflect on the proposals, and they will do an offer on Tuesday” said Jimmy Gama of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, which launched the strike of about 80,000 miners on Jan. 23, crippling the platinum sector. For their part, the CEOs of the world’s top three platinum producers — Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Impala Platinum (Implats) and Lonmin — said they would continue efforts to resolve the dispute while raising the specter of restructuring and layoffs if the strike persisted.
SPORTS
Cellino family eyeing Leeds
An Italian company run by the owners of Serie A team Cagliari is on the verge of taking over fallen English power Leeds United, pledging on Saturday to return the club to the Premier League. Leeds’ current owners, GFH Capital, a Bahraini investment bank, released a statement saying they have agreed to sell a 75 percent stake in the club to Eleonora Sport Ltd, which is run by the Cellino family. “They come to English football with an ambition to support Leeds United financially to take it to the Premier League and a belief that the club can sustain top-flight status,” GFH said in the Leeds statement. It added that the Cellino family “plan to invest substantially in the club.” The latest development comes amid a tumultuous few days at Leeds, with manager Brian McDermott saying on Friday that he was no longer in charge of the team after less than a year in the role.
MINING
Nigerian Areva mines reopen
Production resumed on Saturday at French nuclear giant Areva’s two uranium mines in Niger, which had shut down for weeks for maintenance amid hard-fought negotiations over the firm’s tax rate. “The machines are running and production resumed this morning,” Salifou Chipkaou, secretary general of mining union SYNAMIN, said by phone from the mining town of Arlit in northern Niger. An Areva spokesman confirmed that operations had resumed at the two mines, Cominak and Somair. The shutdown came as Niger’s government and the company, which is 80 percent owned by the French state, are holding tough talks over the future of uranium mining in the west African country, which is the world’s fourth-largest uranium producer, but is mired in poverty and ranks last on the UN’s Human Development Index.
Agencies
PETROLEUM
CPC prices unchanged
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday it would leave the prices for its gasoline and diesel products unchanged this week from last week, as a declining New Taiwan dollar offset the decrease in global crude oil prices. CPC said in a statement that its average crude oil costs dropped US$0.29 per barrel to US$105.35 last week from the previous week, after global crude oil prices moved down earlier last week amid volatile market conditions. The company said the NT dollar depreciated NT$0.107 against the US currency last week, which offset the decline in crude prices. As a result, prices of CPC’s 98-unleaded gasoline remain NT$37.2 per liter, 95-unleaded gasoline NT$35.2 and 92-unleaded NT$33.7, while those of premium diesel are still NT$32.6 per liter at CPC stations.
BANKING
More visual aid ATMs
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has set a goal of installing another 103 ATMs for the visually impaired by the end of this year. As of the end of last year, there were 62 such ATMs in Taiwan, mostly at schools for the visually impaired, according to the FSC. It said the plan to set up an additional 103 ATMs for the visually impaired is part of a broader effort to provide more convenient services for people with special needs, including wheelchair users. Last year, the FSC asked the governments of Taiwan’s five special municipalities — Taipei, New Taipei City (新北市), Greater Taichung, Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung — to install wheelchair-accessible ATMs, not just in the city centers but also at regional medical facilities and railway stations. As of June, there were 13,517 wheelchair-accessible ATMs throughout Taiwan, according to the FSC.
WEARABLES
Asustek working on watch
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) said on Tuesday that its first wearable device is likely to take the form of a watch, jumping onto a bandwagon already occupied by Sony Corp’s SmartWatch and Samsung Electronics Co’s Galaxy Gear. “We will put our entire design thought into it,” Asustek chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) said at the Taiwanese PC maker’s year-end party when asked by reporters about the company’s development of wearable devices. “There are actually many challenges in this area, and I don’t think products that lack special features will be useful. We’ll try to replace your watch by all means,” Shih said, adding that Asustek’s new wearable device should be available for consumers this year.
ECONOMY
Brazil to levy debt fines
A debts crackdown by Brazil’s central bank is set to hit several leading soccer clubs hard, including double World Club Cup winners Corinthians, media reports said on Saturday. The bank is looking to net about 40 billion reais (US$16 billion) in the way of fines from a range of companies, including leading soccer clubs such as Corinthians, Internacional, Santos and Copa Libertadores champions Atletico Mineiro. Other firms targeted include import and export companies as the bank indicated it was drawing up “efficient strategies” to face down the issue. Corinthians face a fine of 2.2 million reais (some US$800,000) while Atletico Mineiro are set to have to cough up 6.6 million. A 2012 report by a Brazilian bank put club debts at US$1.9 billion and several sides have fallen behind on salary payments as they battle a cash flow squeeze.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last