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World Business Quick Take

■ Gaming
Sony's PS3 struggling
Sony's long-awaited PlayStation 3 may have missed its global shipment target and been beaten in its home market by rival Nintendo's surprise hit Wii video game system, new figures show. The results herald more bad news for Sony Corp, which is struggling to maintain its dominance in video gaming amid a three-way battle with Nintendo and Microsoft's Xbox 360. Sony sold 466,716 PlayStation 3 units in Japan from its Nov. 11 domestic launch date to the end of last month, according to a market survey released on Tuesday by Japanese computer game publisher Enterbrain Inc. The figures fall short of the 1 million consoles Sony predicted it would ship domestically by year's end.

■ China
Trade surplus balloons
China's trade surplus last year was a record US$177.47 billion, the official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday, up 74 percent from 2005. Citing the customs bureau, Xinhua said the trade surplus for last month alone was US$21 billion, a slight fall from November's US$22.9 billion. The trade surplus in 2005 was a then record of US$101.9 billion.

■ Economy
Executives more confident
Executives around the world are more confident about the economic outlook this year, led by rising optimism in Europe and Asia, a survey shows. A gauge measuring confidence based on a survey of 7,200 executives of medium-sized to large privately controlled companies in 32 countries rose to 45 from 39 a year earlier, said Grant Thornton International, an accounting and consulting firm based in London. Twenty-nine of 32 countries are optimistic about their economy's development this year, with 24 more confident than last year. Indian businesses were the most optimistic, followed by the Philippines, China, Singapore and Ireland. Japanese executives were the most pessimistic about the outlook, followed by Taiwan and Turkey.

■ Displays
Firm plans plasma plant
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co yesterday announced plans to build the world's largest plasma TV display panel plant in western Japan to meet an expected surge in demand for flat-panel TVs. The Osaka-based maker of Panasonic-brand electronics will spend ?280 billion (US$2.35 billion) to build the plant with a monthly production capacity of 1 million units a month -- the most in the world, according to a Matsushita statement. Matsushita, which makes the Viera line of plasma TVs, will start building the new plant later this year in the western industrial city of Amagasaki, and expects the factory to go online in May 2009, the statement said.

■ Aviation
United wins US-China route
United Airlines won tentative approval to operate the first nonstop daily flight between Washington and Beijing, a 14-hour trip that links the countries' capitals as their economies become more intertwined. The US Department of Transportation's final OK would give United a route coveted by executives and government officials and potentially worth US$200 million a year. If it wins final approval from the government, the airline can begin nonstop service between Washington Dulles International Airport and Beijing Capital International Airport on March 25.

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