■ OIL
Iran could raise production
Tehran said on Saturday it believed there was enough oil in the market, but it was ready to increase crude production, if necessary, as prices marched toward US$100 a barrel. But Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said that any increase in oil output had to be agreed by the 13-member OPEC. "The market is not facing any shortage in supply. But if statistics and data indicate there is a need to produce more oil, we have the capacity to increase the output and supply more oil for the market," Nozari told reporters.
■ UNITED STATES
Sales up 8.3 percent
US retailers had a robust start to the holiday shopping season, a national research group that tracks sales at retail outlets across the country said. ShopperTrak RCT Corp, which tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets, said that total sales rose 8.3 percent to about US$10.3 billion on Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, compared with US$9.5 billion on the same day a year ago. ShopperTrak had expected an increase of no more than 4 percent to 5 percent. In a separate statement released on Saturday, J.C. Penney Co reported "strong performance across all merchandise categories."
■ SHIPPING
CSCL to list stocks
China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL), the country's top container shipper, is planning to list on the Shanghai bourse in a bid to raise more than 12 million yuan (US$1.6 million), the China Daily said. The company had won permission from regulators for the listing and intends to float 2.34 billion shares, about 20 percent of its total, the newspaper said on Saturday. Parent company China Shipping (Group) will see its holding fall from 59.87 percent to 47.89 percent as a result of the listing. CSCL, which is already listed in Hong Kong, will use most of the funds to add 16 new vessels to its fleet of 151 ships.
■ JAPAN
Debate on tax raise is on
The proposed sales-tax increase should be used solely to finance welfare costs, said Yuji Tsushima of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Discussion between the LDP and opposition parties is necessary to decide whether the proceeds from a tax increase will be used to pay the nation's growing welfare bill, said Tsushima, chair of the LDP's Research Commission on the Tax System. Welfare costs are expected to rise ?2 trillion (US$18.5 billion) every year, Tsushima said on the Sunday Debate program shown by public broadcaster NHK. "The consumption tax should be dedicated to pay for social welfare," he said.
■ JAPAN
Capital investment rising
Capital investment planned by Japanese firms for the year to March will rise an average of 11 percent from a year earlier, the fourth-straight year of double-digit growth, reports said yesterday. The Nikkei Shimbun carried out the survey covering revised investment plans at 1,695 companies. The 11 percent increase in capital spending would mark the fifth-straight year of expansion, the longest uninterrupted stretch of growth since the five years to March 1992, when Japan was in an asset bubble, the daily said. Japanese firms are still bullish on capital spending despite emerging concerns about the outlook due to the US subprime crisis.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from