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World Business Quick Take

■ Textiles
China's exports up 21%
Chinese textile exports rose 21 percent in the first six months from a year earlier to US$50.35 billion as manufacturers rushed shipments ahead of quotas imposed by the US and Europe, the government said. Exports to the US rose 76 percent to US$8.34 billion in the first six months, while shipments to Europe jumped 57 percent to US$8.65 billion, Lu Jianhua, director of the foreign trade department of the Beijing-based Ministry of Commerce, said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. Through the first four months of this year, US imports of apparel from China rose 79 percent from a year ago. In response, the US Commerce Department on May 23 placed caps on shipments of some categories of shirts, cotton trousers and underwear -- and limited growth in their import from China to 7.5 percent for a year.

■ Oil industry
Japanese firm in Egypt pact
Japan's largest oil producer, Arabian Oil, said yesterday that it will sign an accord with Egypt this week to start extracting crude oil in 2007 as part of a US$270 million investment in the Middle East. "As we have been notified that the Egyptian government has completed its internal procedures, we expect to sign a formal accord by the end of this month," a company spokesman said. Arabian Oil Co had obtained development rights in February for the Northwest October site, located in the middle of the Gulf of Suez. The spokesman said production was due to start in 2007. The company plans to invest a total of ?30 billion (US$270 million) over the three years to March 2008 for development in the Middle East and neighboring areas. Arabian Oil plans to start producing crude oil at the Egyptian site in 2007.

■ Airlines
Cathay to hike surcharge
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, Asia's second-most-profitable carrier, will increase its surcharge on long-haul flights by 33 percent starting next month to cover the rising cost of jet fuel. The airline won permission from Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department to raise the levy on long-haul routes to HK$332 (US$43) per flight from HK$250, Johnny Fung, a spokesman for the aviation regulator, said yesterday. The new charge will apply to tickets issued in August and September. Jet fuel prices have jumped more than 40 percent this year. Global airline losses will widen to a record US$6 billion this year because of higher fuel and wage bills, according to a May 30 forecast from the International Air Transport Association. Fuel costs now make up more than 30 percent of Cathay Pacific's operating costs, compared with 24 percent last year, chief executive Philip Chen said on May 11.

■ Japan
Top executive arrested
Prosecutors arrested a top executive of Japan's state-run highway body yesterday in a widening probe into the country's largest-ever public works bid-rigging scandal. The Tokyo High Prosecutors' Office arrested Michio Uchida, the vice president of Japan Highway Public Corp, on suspicion of having violated the anti-monopoly law, prosecutors said in a statement. Prosecutors raided the offices of the highway agency last month after charges were filed against 26 Japanese companies and eight executives for allegedly colluding to divvy up 180 contracts worth a total of ¥71 billion (US$635 million) in fiscal 2003 and last year.

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