MINING
Newcrest ups Ecuador stake
Australia’s largest gold producer, Newcrest Mining Ltd, is to invest US$250 million for a stake in Lundin Gold Inc to boost its presence in Ecuador, which is attracting a slate of mining giants hunting for major untapped metals deposits. Newcrest would take 27.1 percent of Vancouver-based Lundin Gold, which expects to bring the Fruta del Norte gold and silver mine in southeastern Ecuador into production by the end of next year. The companies will explore eight other concessions to the north and south of the project under the deal, and Newcrest can earn up to a 50 percent interest in that joint venture by spending US$20 million over five years, the Melbourne-based producer said in a statement yesterday. The world’s biggest miner BHP Billiton Ltd and billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting Pty are among firms that have raced into Ecuador seeking major copper and gold deposits. Latin America saw the largest rise in exploration spending last year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
OIL
Inpex wins Abu Dhabi stake
Japan’s Inpex Corp won development rights for a 10 percent stake in Abu Dhabi’s Lower Zakum offshore oil field for US$600 million. The contract is for 40 years and starts on March 9, Inpex said yesterday in a statement. The Japanese producer was also awarded a US$250 million, 25-year extension of the Satah and Umm Al Dalkh concession and through that agreement has been awarded an additional 28 percent interest in the Umm Al Dalkh Oil Field, according to statements from Inpex and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. The deal is the third in as many weeks for the government of the largest sheikhdom in the United Arab Emirates. Spanish refiner Cia Espanola de Petroleos SA paid US$1.5 billion for a 20 percent stake in the Sateh Al Razboot and Umm Lulu fields in a deal announced on Feb. 18, and a group of Indian companies paid US$600 million for rights to 10 percent of the Lower Zakum field on Feb. 10.
SAUDI ARABIA
Inflation up 3 percent
Inflation rates soared last month, after the government introduced a string of price hikes to boost non-oil revenues, authorities said on Sunday. Rates rose 3 percent compared to the same period the previous year, the General Statistics Authority said in a report on its Web site. The jump was even more stark in December last year, having jumped 3.9 percent since the previous year. Inflation rates remained in negative territory for almost all of last year, as the economy contracted due to persistent low oil prices, but Riyadh has been steadily imposing new fees and taxes in a quest for new sources of revenue. Over the past 12 months, transport costs have gone up 10.5 percent, while food and beverages surged 6.7 percent, the report said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Anarchists protest Novartis
Greek self-proclaimed anarchists on Sunday threw paint and smashed windows at the entrance of the Athens headquarters of Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG, police said. About 30 people were involved in the attack at 5:15am, a police official said. In a statement published online, the Rouvikonas group said the attack was linked to a probe into allegations of bribery by the drugmaker to doctors and public officials. Greek parliament on Thursday last week voted to probe the role of 10 politicians in the case. Prosecutors are already investigating the role of non-politicians. The company was not immediately available for comment on Sunday’s incident.
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