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World Business Quick Take

■ OIL
Prices rise on falling stocks
Oil prices rose in Asian trading yesterday following a US government report that showed an unexpected fall in gasoline stocks amid peak summer driving season demand. Light, sweet crude for August delivery gained US$0.39 to US$69.36 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday mid-afternoon in Singapore. The contract climbed more than a dollar to end at US$68.97 on Wednesday. Brent crude contract for August delivery rose US$0.18 to US$70.73 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London. In its weekly inventory report, the US Energy Department said gasoline inventories dropped by 700,000 barrels in the week ended June 22.

■ INTERNET
Users to record real IDs
South Korea started enforcing a new law aimed at curbing the nation's notorious cyber bullying yesterday by preventing Internet users from hiding behind false IDs, company officials said. Under the "Internet real-name system," the nation's major portals and news media Web sites will be compelled to record the real IDs of users when they post entries. Portal operators will be obliged to reveal personal information such as names and addresses of cyber attackers when their victims want to sue them for libel or invasion of privacy. Cyber bullying has become a social issue in South Korea as many celebrities often fall victim to malicious attacks.

■ AUTOMOBILES
BMW to boost capacity
BMW, the German maker of luxury cars, is planning to boost production capacity in China and the US, board member Frank-Peter Arndt told the business daily Handelsblatt in an interview published yesterday. Boosting production in the US would help cushion BMW's earnings against the strong euro, he said. "Production must follow the market," Arndt said. In China, BMW was "in talks with our partner Brilliance to boost capacity," he said. Its current output of 30,000 cars in China could be doubled in the long term, while that in the US can be boosted from 140,000 units at present to 200,000 units in 2010, he said.

■ TRANSPORTATION
Russia mulling bullet trains
Japanese bullet trains may one day whiz across Russia, with talks expected next month on a possible sale of the technology as Moscow seeks to modernize its railways, Toshikazu Masuyama, director for Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Africa at the Japanese trade and economy ministry, said yesterday. Japanese officials plan to travel to Russia to meet railway chief Vladimir Yakunin and other officials next month for exploratory talks on a possible sale of Japan's shinkansen bullet train technology, he said. Russia is expected to draw up a plan in September to modernize its Trans-Siberian Railway and other networks with high-speed trains.

■ AVIATION
PRC to assemble A320 jets
Airbus and its Chinese partners inked an agreement yesterday to open a final assembly line in China to produce the European aircraft manufacturer's A320 jets. The Tianjin plant is expected to deliver its first aircraft in early 2009, Airbus said. It will be able to produce four A320s a month by 2011 and a total of about 300 A320 planes by 2016, the firm said. Airbus also announced yesterday it had signed a contract to sell 86 A320s to Chinese airlines, including mid-size carriers Shenzhen Airlines and Hainan Airlines Co.


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