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World Business Quick Take

■ Auto industry
Kia workers halt stoppage
Workers at South Korea's Kia Motors Corp yesterday ended an 11-day work stoppage after the union and management reached an agreement on higher pay and improved conditions, the company said. Overnight marathon talks ended in an accord early yesterday that included an average 6.9 percent rise in basic monthly salary and a bonus of three months' salary. The two sides also agreed to abolish overnight shiftwork from 2009. Union members they would return to work yesterday, ending the partial strike that has cost Kia Motors some US$400 million in lost production, according to management. The agreement came after workers at Kia's sister company, Hyundai Motor, the nation's largest carmaker, approved a deal last week to end their two-week strike action.

■ Game consoles
Sony recalls PS2 adaptors
Sony Corp recalled about 3.6 million adaptors used in its best-selling PlayStation 2 game console because the component may overheat and could cause a fire. The adaptors, which are used to power the game console, were manufactured in the four months ending December last year and were sold with the game consoles worldwide starting in November, the Tokyo-based company said yesterday in a statement. Sony will replace the adaptors free of charge. As many as 2.3 million units are affected in Europe, 960,000 units in North America, 210,000 units in Asia, and 60,000 units in Japan, Tokyo-based spokesman Daisuke Nakata said. The cost of the recall is not known, he said. Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc said it received 38 reports of the adaptors overheating, including 19 reports of melting, according to the statement.

■ Chemicals
DuPont to increase prices
DuPont Co said on Monday that it plans to raise prices for all of its products in response to rapidly increasing costs for energy and feedstocks. The Wilmington-based chemical giant cited a report by DuPont corporate economist Robert Shrouds indicating that record-high energy prices, further exacerbated by Hurricane Katrina, will be a factor for the foreseeable future. Diane Gulyas, DuPont's chief marketing officer, said the company expects all of its 80 business units to be affected by higher energy costs, especially its performance materials and coatings and color technologies divisions, but that it's too soon to tell how high product prices will go.

■ Energy
Pig manure a power source
They cannot escape the stench, but residents of tiny Reynolds, Indiana, hope the oceans of hog manure produced nearby will power their homes and businesses some day soon. "We're very excited," town president Charlie Van Voorst. "They're advertising us as a showcase for the world." Indiana's energy conservation-minded Governor Mitch Daniels was to take his ethanol-powered recreational vehicle to Reynolds yesterday to designate the single stoplight town the world's first "Biotown." Initially, the 500 townspeople will lease or buy vehicles that run on high concentrations of corn-based ethanol or soy diesel from soybeans. The second phase will install power-generating equipment that burns gas made from manure, according to Deborah Abbott of the state agriculture department. The electricity generated will be used to power homes and businesses.

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