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World Business Quick Take

■ AUTOMOBILES
Isuzu to make buses in India
Truckmaker Isuzu will become the first Japanese automaker to produce mid-size buses in India later this month, a report said yesterday. Japan's largest truckmaker will team up with Sumitomo Corp and Swaraj Mazda Ltd to bring a new auto plant online next to their existing factory in northern Delhi, the Nikkei Shimbun said, citing unnamed sources. The buses will be priced around ?1.5 million (US$13,200), some 20 percent higher than buses made by local manufacturers but 10 percent to 20 percent lower than those offered by European rivals, the newspaper said.

■ AUTOMOBILES
US union talks unproductive
With less than a week to go before an agreement expires, contract talks between the United Auto Workers and Detroit's Big Three automakers have slowed to a crawl with few signs of progress, sources said. The contracts covering more than 160,000 workers at General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler expire at midnight on Friday. The union will not accept major changes without guarantees that jobs both at the automakers and their suppliers will not be shipped overseas. "There isn't any real focus" in the negotiations at the moment, one union source said.

■ ENERGY
OPEC ministers meet
OPEC ministers began arriving in Vienna yesterday for a meeting at the oil cartel's headquarters later in the week, with the 12-member club under pressure to raise output. Under usual OPEC practice, ministers will hold a series of bilateral talks before meeting as a group tomorrow to make a formal decision on output. Some influential members insisted last week that the market was adequately supplied with crude and that recent price gains were beyond OPEC's control. Nonetheless, the Saudi Arabia-led club is seen as facing a dilemma: it seeks high oil prices to maximize its income, but it wants to avoid a global economic slowdown caused by expensive crude.

■ STOCKS
NASDAQ postpones sale
NASDAQ Stock Market Inc missed a self-imposed deadline to sell its 31 percent stake in London Stock Exchange PLC (LSE), giving potential buyers more time to consider bidding for the shares in Europe's largest bourse. NASDAQ had initially given investors until the end of the day in New York yesterday to submit final offers, according to two people familiar with the matter who declined to be identified. NASDAQ CEO Robert Greifeld told shareholders when he announced the sale Aug. 20 that the transaction would be completed in about a month. The exchange is selling the stake after LSE rejected two takeover offers.

■ AVIATION
Andamans route planned
India on Saturday said it will try to link Singapore and Thailand to the Andamans by air by next March, but added the archipelago needed a makeover to sell itself to tourists. The announcement comes amid an unprecedented increase in the number of arrivals by low-budget domestic tourists to the Andamans, where most of the 36 inhabited islands are now partially open to visitors. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said the Indian Ocean archipelago, mauled by the tsunami in 2004, could outshine destinations in Thailand and Singapore if it were refurbished.

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