Print

Mail

wiki links

World Business Quick Take

■ Electronics
Tiny disk-drive created
Toshiba Corp, the world's third-largest chipmaker, has developed a hard-disk drive small enough to fit into a mobile phone, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported. The disk drive, which at 2.16cm across is the smallest in the world, can carry up to two hours of video and almost 60 hours of music, the report said, without saying from whom it learned the information. Toshiba is tapping demand for smaller hard drives that let users carry their music collection. Sales of Apple Computer Inc's iPod portable music player, which can store up to 10,000 songs more than doubled to US$121 million in the three months ended Sept. 27, the company said in October. Toshiba will begin sending samples of the hard drive, which costs about ?30,000 (US$278), to cellular-phone makers by the middle of next year with full production slated for 2005, the report said.

■ Media
Kirch to sue Deutsche Bank
Former German media magnate Leo Kirch is to sue Deutsche Bank for six billion euros (US$7.36 billion) for making public comments on his KirchGruppe's creditworthiness that he alleges hastened its collapse, a source close to the group said. "It could be even more," said the source, confirming a report scheduled to appear Monday in the weekly Focus magazine. On Wednesday, an appeals court in Munich ordered Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, to pay compensation to Kirch because the former chairman of its supervisory board, Rolf Breuer, had publicly questioned Kirch's solvency. Less than three months after Breuer made his doubts known, Kirchmedia, the main plank of the Kirch media empire, declared insolvency.

■ Automobiles
Vietnam braces for bad year
Vietnam's auto manufacturers are bracing themselves for a miserable next year as they plan further vehicle price increases to counter impending tax hikes that have left the industry predicting heavy losses. The Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), which is made up of 11 foreign-invested companies, believes sales will plunge 30 to 40 percent next year as a result of the new tax regime due to come into effect on Jan. 1. Then, special consumption tax (SCT) will rise from its current five percent to 24 percent on cars with five seats or less, with similar gains for larger vehicles. The SCT rates are scheduled to increase annually until 2007, at which point cars will be taxed at an outlandish 80 percent and other sized vehicles at between 25 and 50 percent.

■ Petroleum
Saudi denies responsibility
A leading member of OPEC sought to distance the group Saturday from a surge in oil prices ahead of cold winter weather in the US. "What did we do last night to cause the surge in the price of oil?" Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said. Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter and effective OPEC leader. "We did nothing. Speculators, weather, the perception by people that there is going to be a shortage" caused the rise, he said on the sidelines of a meeting in Cairo of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) that includes several OPEC heavy hitters. OAPEC has no say in oil production levels. Crude prices surged 4 percent Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, making a 7 percent rise on for the week to US$33.04 a barrel on fears of a cold snap and possible cuts to OPEC's output ceiling next year.

This story has been viewed 1607 times.