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World Business Quick Take

■ Automobiles
DaimlerChrysler opens plant
DaimlerChrysler AG yesterday formally opened its first factory in China, where it will make Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler sedans, joining a rush of foreign automakers scrambling to gain a foothold in China's booming car market. DaimlerChrysler said the factory in suburban Beijing is part of a US$1.9 billion investment in China. DaimlerChrysler Chairman Dieter Zetsche said the company plans to expand its financing business and is talking to potential Chinese partners about possibly producing a lower-cost model to be sold in the US under the Dodge brand.

■ Economics
Remittance figure rises
Remittances from the Philippines' large overseas work force rose 15.8 percent from a year earlier to US$7 billion in the first seven months of this year, the central bank said yesterday. The central bank figure does not include money sent through informal channels by the more than eight million Filipinos -- a tenth of the population -- working in various parts of the world. The upturn was attributed to "rising demand for Filipino workers" and the increased access of such workers to the services of commercial banks and private remittance agents, the bank said in a statement.

■ Electronics
Deal ends Toshiba battle
Toshiba Corp has settled an intellectual property dispute over memory chips and cards with US semiconductor maker Micron Technology, the two companies announced yesterday. The deal ends a prolonged legal battle over trade secrets for flash memory chips and cards with Lexar Media Inc, which was acquired by Micron earlier this year. Lexar had demanded that Toshiba halt the import of the chips and cards, which the US company claimed infringed on its intellectual property rights. Toshiba will purchase some of Micron's semiconductor technology patents and also license patents previously owned by Lexar for US$288 million, according to a joint statement released yesterday.

■ Oil
Petrobras eyes firm
Brazilian state-owned oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) is in talks to buy a Japanese refiner affiliated with US oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp, a Japanese business newspaper reported yesterday. Petrobras is aiming to expand in the booming Asian oil market by purchasing Nansei Sekiyu KK, owned 87.5 percent by TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK, a unit of Exxon Mobil, the Nihon Keizai reported. The rest of Nansei Sekiyu is owned by trading company Sumitomo Corp. If Petrobras completes the deal, it would become the first oil producing nation to own a refinery station in Japan.

■ Oil
BP seeks to test pipeline
Oil giant BP PLC has asked permission from the US Department of Transportation to resume production on the eastern half of Prudhoe Bay so it can perform pipeline tests. London-based BP submitted the application on Wednesday, saying it wants production restarted on the field so it can conduct more thorough tests -- using so-called cleaning and inspection ``pig'' devices -- on the eastern transit line to determine if it can be used to move oil to the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. The eastern half of Prudhoe Bay was closed last month over fears of leaks and corrosion, cutting production from the US' largest oil field by about half.

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