■ CHINA
Wal-Mart still in the game
Wal-Mart Stores Inc expects procurement in China to hold steady this year at about US$9 billion despite a rising exchange rate and product safety concerns, vice chairman Michael Duke said yesterday. Chinese suppliers have stayed competitive amid higher inflation and a rise in the yuan by improving efficiency and product quality, he said. "I wouldn't see any major variation" in procurement from last year's total of US$9 billion, he said. "China will continue to be a major production portion of direct purchases by Wal-Mart for a long time."
■ METALS
Power cuts trim jobs
Gold Fields Ltd, Africa's second-biggest gold producer, said it may eliminate 6,900 jobs, or 13 percent of its South African workforce, as limited power supplies reduce production. The company plans to close part of its Driefontein and Kloof mines and remodel its South Deep mine, it said in a statement to Johannesburg's Stock Exchange News Service yesterday. Gold Fields is the first major company to announce job cuts as a result of Eskom Holdings Ltd limiting power supplies to mines in South Africa to 90 percent of normal consumption.
■ ENERGY
Rains cut coal output
BHP Billiton Ltd, the world's biggest mining company, said rainfall in Queensland is expected to cut its share of coal production by as much as 4.6 million tonnes this business year. Total production at the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance venture will be reduced by between 6.5 million and 7.5 million tonnes in the year ending June 30, BHP Billiton said yesterday in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange. Output at BHP Billiton Mitsui-owned mines will also be cut by between 500,000 and 1 million tonnes, it said. At least six coal suppliers in Queensland have warned customers they may miss contracted deliveries from some mines in the Australian state since monsoonal rains affected the Bowen Basin last month. The disruptions have helped drive spot prices for power-station coal and the type used in steelmaking to a record.
■ BANKING
Bank to sue informant
The Liechtenstein bank at the center of a tax evasion dispute with Germany said on Sunday it will sue the person it suspects of selling confidential information to German intelligence. LGT Group, which is wholly owned by the principality's ruling family, said it would file charges against a former employee convicted of stealing DVDs containing the names of 1,400 customers of its subsidiary LGT Treuhand. The bank identified the employee as a Liechtenstein citizen and said it believed until recently that the stolen information had been returned when the man was convicted in 2004 of serious fraud, harassment and sequestering documents and sentenced to a suspended one-year prison term.
■ THAILAND
Exports boost economy
The economy grew a faster-than-expected 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier on robust exports and a recovery in private investment and consumer spending, the government said yesterday. Exports rose strongly despite the baht's appreciation over the last two years and fears about a global economic slowdown. The economic planning agency raised its growth forecast for this year to 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent, up from an earlier projection of 4 percent to 5 percent.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
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