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World Business Quick Take

■ Aviation
Australia bars route access
The Australian government yesterday denied Singapore Airlines access to the lucrative route between Sydney and Los Angeles. Federal Transport Minister Warren Truss said the benefits of Singapore Airlines flying the trans-Pacific route would only bring minor benefits to the Australian tourism industry and could have a negative impact on the economy. Currently, the route is flown only by Qantas and United Airlines.

■ Telecoms
AT&T adds photo service
AT&T Inc will let wireless phone users get e-mailed photos over their handsets as the largest US telephone company adds services to retain customers. Yahoo Inc created the Yahoo Go Mobile software that comes on one Nokia Oyj phone being sold by San Antonio-based AT&T's mobile-phone joint venture, Cingular Wireless LLC. The phone costs US$250 before a US$50 rebate from Cingular for a two-year service agreement. The new service expands AT&T's Internet access offerings with Yahoo and helps keep customers from switching carriers.

■ Energy
Ex-CAO official sentenced
Peter Lim (林中山), the former finance chief at China Aviation Oil (CAO, 中國航油), was sentenced yesterday to two years in jail for his part in a trading scandal that led to the near collapse of the jet fuel trader. He pleaded guilty last week to cheating and making false declarations to conceal losses of nearly half a billion US dollars. Judge Liew Thiam Leng fined Lim, a Singaporean, S$150,000 (US$92,999) at the Subordinate Court. The three other executives facing charges are Jia Changbin (莢長斌), Gu Yanfei (顧炎飛) and Li Yongji (李永吉).

■ Energy
Hitachi unit wins order
A consortium led by Hitachi's European engineering unit, Babcock-Hitachi Europa (BHE), has won an order to supply a key part of what will be the world's biggest lignite-burning power plant. The order, for the steam-generating section of the plant, is worth 660 million euros (US$786 million), with about half to be fulfilled by BHE and associated companies. BHE has been a 100 percent subsidiary of Hitachi since 2003. The customer, RWE Power, says it aims to complete the 2.2 billion euro plant within four years. Other major contractors include Alstom, supplying turbines, and Strabag of Germany for the building work.

■ Electronics
Toshiba to ax CRT TVs
Toshiba Corp is ending production of cathode-ray tube televisions in April to focus on making flat-screen sets using liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) and a new technology being developed with Canon Inc. The Tokyo-based company is targeting more than 15 percent share of Japan's LCD TV market next fiscal year, according to a release yesterday. Toshiba is developing the surface-conduction electron-emitter display, or SED, technology with Canon Inc that offers clearer pictures and lower energy consumption than LCD and plasma display TVs. The company has said that flat-panel sets would help triple sales of DVD recorders, music players and other audio-visual products to ¥1.5 trillion (US$13 billion) in five years.

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