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World Business Quick Take

■ Industry
India to regulate steel price
India's steel ministry plans to set up a regulator to oversee prices and prevent any shortage, the Sunday Express said, citing Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. The regulator will have representatives from the government, steel producers and consumers, the New Delhi report said. Paswan will seek government approval for the plan in three months, the paper said. The regulator is being set up after prices of steel and raw materials such as iron ore and coal surged to a record, raising concern some steelmakers created an artificial shortage, the paper said.

■ Auto Trade
Sales targets slashed
Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors will slash its domestic sales target for the year to March 2005 by 27 percent as a series of scandals continues to turn away customers, a report said yesterday. Mitsubishi will cut its domestic unit sales target to 220,000 from 300,000 units projected in May, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. The projected sales drop will trim revenue by US$909 million and cut operating profits by millions of dollars, the paper said. The automaker had forecast in May that it would post sales in the year to March 2005 of US$2 billion, a recurring loss of US$1.37 billion and a net loss of US$2.11 billion.

■ Aviation
Airbus parts made in China
European aircraft maker Airbus has subcontracted a state-owned Chinese manufacturer to make parts for its super-jumbo A380 plane in a deal worth US$100 million, the company said yesterday. China Aviation Industry Corp I (AVIC I) will make panels for A380 nose landing gear in terms of a deal signed Saturday in Paris during a visit by Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan (曾培炎), Airbus said in a statement on its Web site. "This has been the first time for Airbus to involve China in producing A380 components," the statement said. The A380 aircraft is scheduled to enter service in 2006.

■ International
Conference discusses oil
Oil industry policy-makers and senior executives will meet in Malaysia this week for an international conference to discuss political and economic developments, including soaring crude oil prices. Purnomo Yusgiantoro, president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and Iraq's Oil Minister Thamir Ghadbhan are among more than 800 delegates scheduled to attend the Asian Oil and Gas Conference that runs in Kuala Lumpur for two days starting today. The delegates will discuss "strategies for new ventures and development, innovations in trading and risk management and financing and new technology options," organizer Petronas, Malaysia's state-owned oil company, said in a statement.

■ Technology
Hynix sells operations to US
South Korea's struggling Hynix Semiconductor said yesterday it had signed a provisional contract to sell its non-memory chip operations to a unit of US financial giant Citigroup. The world's third-largest memory chip maker said the contract was signed on Saturday with Citigroup Venture Capital, which has offered to buy the operations for US$830 million. The deal, the biggest sale of assets since Hynix launched a sweeping restructuring program two years ago, is expected to help the South Korean firm focus more on its core memory chip business.

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