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World Business Quick Take

■ ENERGY

Seoul to hike power rates

South Korea will increase electricity prices for industrial users next month, while leaving average prices unchanged. The price for industrial use will rise 1 percent next Tuesday, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The price for night-time use between 11pm and 9am will rise by 17.5 percent, the ministry said. The government will cut the price for commercial use by 3.2 percent and for some service industries, including research and development centers and information and technology, by 13.8 percent, it said.



■ OIL

Gazprom in Tomskneft offer

Gazprom's oil unit Gazprom Neft is one of two firms to have made an offer to buy a 50 percent stake in Tomskneft from state-controlled oil giant Rosneft, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday. "We have received two offers to buy Tomskneft," one of which is from Gazprom Neft, said Anatoly Golomolzin, deputy head of the Russian financial regulator. He did not name the second bidder. Rosneft acquired Tomskneft in May for US$6.8 billion during the break-up of privately-owned former oil major Yukos. Critics said Yukos was bankrupted by President Vladimir Putin in order to bring Russia's vast natural resources back under state control.



■ STEEL

POSCO invests in Malaysia

South Korean steel giant POSCO said yesterday it had bought a Malaysian steelmaker as part of efforts to establish a production network elsewhere in Asia. POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, said it had signed a deal to acquire 60 percent of Malaysia's MEGS for US$15.6 million. The South Korean company said it would upgrade the Malaysian firm's facilities, now capable of producing 120,000 tonnes of electrogalvanized coils a year, to meet growing demand in Southeast Asia.



■ TOURISM

Room rates hit record high

Singapore received a record number of visitors last month but hotel rates were also at fresh highs, the city-state's tourism authorities said yesterday. The Singapore Tourism Board said 837,000 visitors arrived in November, the largest number ever for that month. Average room rates for hotels also set a new milestone of S$226 (US$156) a night, the highest ever in any month and up almost 30 percent over last year, the board said. The city-state's hotels earned record room revenues of S$175.4 million, an increase of almost 24 percent from last year, it said. Visitor arrivals were 4.6 percent higher than a year earlier, fuelled by strong arrivals from China, India and Australia, the board said.



■ RETAILING

US sales growth slows

US retailers' sales rose 3.6 percent in holiday shopping, at the lower end of expectations, helped by a late-season spending surge on some items, data released on Tuesday by SpendingPulse showed. The figures, from the retail data service of MasterCard Advisors, offer a glimpse at the strength of this year's holiday shopping season, which was expected to grow at the slowest rate in five years. "It's more at the lower end of the expected range but more or less in line with the reduced expectations coming into the holiday season," said Michael McNamara, vice president of Research and Analysis for MasterCard Advisors.
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