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World Business Quick Take

■CHEMICALS

Fire shuts battery plant

South Korea's largest chemical manufacturer by sales said yesterday that a fire at one of its rechargeable battery plants is expected to cause an 80 billion won (US$85 million) loss in sales. The fire, which broke out at 7:30pm on Monday at LG Chem Ltd's plant south of Seoul, will affect battery production for two to three months, the company said. Production has been halted, it said. The fire was put out that night, Dow Jones Newswire reported, citing a LG Chem spokeswoman.



■ BANKING

ICBC buys S African stake

China's largest lender, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), said it has acquired a 20 percent stake in South Africa's Standard Bank for US$5.5 billion. In a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday, ICBC said the deal, the largest ever Chinese acquisition in the financial field, had been approved by Chinese and South African regulators. The cash settlement and issue of new shares for the planned purchase, first announced last October, was finished on Monday, ICBC said. Standard Bank said in a statement that the partnership boosted its capital base by 16 billion rand (US$2.1 billion) and would bolster its expansion.



■ AUTOMOBILES

Sixth GM plant goes offline

Production of General Motors Corp's (GM) hulking Hummer H2 in Detroit, Michigan, was to be halted yesterday because of a strike at a key supplier, the automaker said. This will be the sixth plant shuttered as a result of the week-long strike at GM's former subsidiary American Axle and Manufacturing Holding Inc. Two more plants -- one in Arlington, Texas, and another in Janesville, Wisconsin might have to close by the end of the week, sources said. Four others were closed last week and a fifth was shuttered on Monday, after the United Auto Worker strike against American Axle began on Feb. 26.



■ TELECOMS

Japan to get PSP-Skype link

Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) will connect to Skype, the popular, free voice-over-Internet service, later this month in Japan after a two-month delay, Sony said yesterday. Skype has been available for the PSP in the US and Europe since January, allowing people to use the Net-linking portable game machine as a phone. But it wasn't available in Japan yet because the microphone Sony Computer Entertainment Japan had planned didn't meet Skype's specifications. Special microphones for PSP's Skype feature will go on sale in Japan on March 19 at ¥2,500 (US$24) each and ¥4,000 for two, and software will be upgraded on March 18.



■ UNITED STATES

Beauty procedures soaring

Cosmetic interventions increased 8 percent from 2006 to last year, and 457 percent in 10 years, the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) said on Monday. There were 11.7 million cosmetic interventions last year, generating some US$13 billion, ASAPS said in a report. The most frequent non-surgical procedure last year was Botox injections, with 2.77 million performed, while liposuction headed the list of surgical procedures, with 456,828. The five most performed surgeries were breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, abdominoplasty, liposuction and female breast reduction. Laser hair removal and laser skin resurfacing topped the list of non-surgical procedures.