World Business Quick Take

■ Energy
China to up refining capacity
China plans to increase its refining capacity by about one-third by 2010 as it races to keep up with surging demand for oil and refined products, the government says. Meanwhile, oil producer PetroChina said it is stepping up exploration of both onshore and offshore oil fields and expects "major breakthroughs" in the next few years, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported yesterday. The plan issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, which is in charge of industrial policy, calls for adding at least 82 million tonnes annually of new refining capacity by 2010, up 31.6 percent from the 259 million tonnes of crude oil refined last year. New oil processing centers are to be built in Guangxi Province, in southwestern China, and in Sichuan Province, to the north of Guangxi Province, to handle domestic crude oil output, the commission said.

■ Cosmetics
L'Oreal to buy Body Shop
French cosmetics giant L'Oreal said yesterday that it would buy Body Shop International, renowned for its ethical hair and skin products, for £652 million (US$1.143 billion). L'Oreal will pay £3 a share for Body Shop, which will be maintained as a separate entity and continue to be led by its current management team, the French firm said in a statement. The offer price is 31.5 percent higher than Body Shop's average share price over the six months before Feb. 21, the last day before speculation of a bid emerged, the companies said in a statement.

■ internet
Traders surf Web for iron
Chinese trading companies are surfing a local version of eBay, Alibaba, to scour the world for an increasingly state-controlled resource -- iron ore. Small steel mills, desperate to find iron ore from Brazil, India, Indonesia or New Zealand, can find it on Alibaba, China's top online business-to-business Web site, which is backed by Yahoo Inc. Some of the 237 offers available yesterday included photos of a lump of the ore used to make steel. "We use the Internet as an extension of our services, to let more people know what we have," said Sun Gongmin, who handles Internet marketing for Beijing Hero Trade Co. By contrast, a search for "iron ore" on eBay turned up a variety of postcards of old mines, iron coins and toy trains, but very little that can be measured in tonnes.

■ Electronics
Sharp mulling Poland plant
Japanese electronics giant Sharp is considering opening a new plant in Poland to boost European production of flat-panel television to meet brisk demand, a report said yesterday. Sharp may spend £60 billion (US$51 million) building a assembly plant that can produce 100,000 liquid crystal displays (LCD) TVs every month, the Nihon Keizai business daily said without naming its sources. The group, Japan's leading maker of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels and televisions, is in talks with Polish government officials and others to finalize terms, the report said. "We are considering the expansion of production capacity in North America and Europe to meet growing demand but we have not yet reached a stage to announce the details," a company spokesman said. The new plant in Poland, which would create around 10,000 jobs, would be Sharp's second LCD assembly plant in Europe after one in Spain, the business daily said.