Mon, Mar 17, 2003 page12

• World Business Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ Semiconductors
  STMicro eyes China

  STMicroelectronics NV, Europe's biggest chipmaker, may build a chip plant in China that would start production by 2005 to tap growing demand in Asia, the DigiTimes Web site reported, citing Chairman Pasquale Pistorio. The Geneva-based company would build or buy a plant that makes chips from 8-inch instead of 12-inch silicon wafers because China isn't ready for an investment in the latest technology, the report said, citing Pistorio. An investment in chipmaking in China would add to STMicroelectronics' existing chip-design and semiconductor assembly operations in the world's most populous nation, the report said.

  ■ Internet

  NEC, seven others to link

  NEC Corp's Biglobe, Fujitsu Ltd's Nifty Corp and six other Japanese Internet-service providers agreed to form an alliance to offer Internet-based phone services, the Mainichi newspaper reported. The companies, including Sony Corp's So-net and two Internet services operated by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp, will let their customers call each other for free over the network to compete against a similar service offered by Softbank Corp's Yahoo BB high-speed Internet service, the report said, without citing anyone. The eight companies have separately begun their own services, the report said. They agreed yesterday to form a consortium and meet on a regular basis to build a communication system to respond to trouble including disruption of its voice service, the report said.

  ■ US economy

  Consumer confidence fell

  US consumer confidence fell this month to the lowest in more than a decade as heightened concern about an Iraq war and soaring energy bills threaten to slow spending and the economy. "The overhang of the war is clearly a damper on the economy," Treasury Secretary John Snow said after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. "When people are nervous they don't spend as much." The University of Michigan's index of sentiment fell to 75, the lowest since October 1992, when the economy had trouble creating jobs, from 79.9 in February. Confidence has declined every month this year and consumer demand is beginning to wane. The university's current conditions index, which reflects Americans' perception of their finances and whether it's a good time to make major purchases, fell to 87.1 from 95.4 in February. The latest reading also was the lowest since October 1992.

  ■ Breweries

  Asahi goes to Beijing

  Asahi Breweries Ltd, Japan's biggest brewer, will invest ?5 billion (US$42 million) to build a plant in Beijing to produce its best-selling Super Dry beer and other products sold under local brands, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. Asahi's new plant, the sixth the company will operate in China through joint ventures, will begin operations next year, the paper said, without citing anyone. The plant will have annual production capacity of 100,000kl and make beer in bottles, cans and barrels, the report said. Asahi's output from Chinese plants totaled 510,000kl last year, the report said. Asahi expects operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold, to rise 5.3 percent to ?73 billion this year helped by increasing sales of low-malt products, the brewer said last month.
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