■ SOLAR ENERGY
Polysilicon glut expected
Solarworld AG CEO Frank Asbeck expects a polysilicon "glut" in 2010 that will cut costs for Germany's second-largest solar company. The price of polysilicon used in solar panels will probably drop to less than US$40 per kilogram, from as high as US$200 this year, Asbeck said yesterday in an interview. Prices may reach US$20 in the next several years as global production climbs to 100,000 tonnes in 2010, from 35,000 tonnes now, he said. "Silicon was never scarce, just the refining capacity, and that will be solved in 2010," Asbeck said. "We expect to see a silicon glut in 2010, and then the prices will fall."
■ MEDIA
Probe not an issue: Reuters
Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer said yesterday he did not expect a probe by EU antitrust regulators to scuttle a takeover of the British news and data provider by Canadian group Thomson Corp. "We expected it would take us into the first quarter next year" for Thomson to complete the takeover, he told reporters during a visit to Tokyo. After an initial review of the deal, the European Commission said on Monday it was launching an in-depth probe running until the end of February to determine if the planned merger represented a threat to competition in Europe.
■ JAPAN
Firms broke overtime rules
A record number of Japanese firms have been ordered to compensate workers for unpaid overtime despite a recovery in the world's second-largest economy, officials said yesterday. The number of companies that paid overtime after being faulted by labor inspectors on unannounced visits rose 10 percent in the last fiscal year to the highest since the statistics were first compiled in 2001. The labor ministry said it ordered 1,679 firms to pay a total of ¥22.7 billion (US$194 million) to 182,561 workers in the year ended in March. The average payout per person came to ?120,000, a ministry survey said.
■ MINERALS
EU punishes dumping
The EU has imposed five-year tariffs as high as 71.8 percent on industrial salts from the US, China and Taiwan, targeting exporters including DuPont Co to protect German firms. The duties punish US, Chinese and Taiwanese exporters of peroxosulfates, used to treat water and metals, for selling in Europe below domestic prices or production costs, a practice known as dumping. The levies, which are 10.6 percent against DuPont and 39 percent against FMC Corp and any other US exporters, follow provisional duties imposed six months ago. The duties are 22.6 percent against Taiwan and as much as 71.8 percent against China.
■ SOFTWARE
Google buys startup Jaiku
Internet search leader Google Inc said on Tuesday that it has bought Finnish startup Jaiku, which makes a mobile phone application people can use to send short messages about where they are and what they are doing. Google believes Jaiku's technology can help develop new ways to use mobile devices, according to a note posted on Tuesday on Google's blog by product manager Tony Hsieh. Founded last year in Helsinki, Jaiku specializes in software that makes it easier to share updates about one's whereabouts and thoughts via mobile phones. The concept is known as "microblogging."
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2