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World Business Quick Take

■AVIATION

Airlines admit fixed prices

Japan Airlines International Co Ltd has become the fourth foreign airline to admit to price-fixing and agree to pay a multimillion-dollar fine to the US government. The Tokyo-based carrier agreed on Wednesday to pay a US$110 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix rates for international cargo shipments, the US Department of Justice said. Japan Airlines also has agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation, which already has yielded guilty pleas from and fines against British Airways PLC, Korean Air Lines Co Ltd and Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd. British Airways and Korean Air each agreed to pay US$300 million fines; Qantas agreed to pay US$61 million.



■ AGRICULTURE

Syngenta to open new center

Swiss-based international seed and pesticide firm Syngenta said yesterday it would open a multimillion-dollar research and technology center for the development of genetically modified (GM) crops in Beijing. The company said it would invest about US$65 million in the first five years of the project. The new facility would complement its US centers, it said. It would concentrate on early-stage evaluation of GM for key crops such as corn and soy to improve yield, drought resistance, disease control and biomass conversion for biofuels, the company said in a statement.



■ AUTOMOBILES

Hino shuts truck production

Japan’s Hino Motors, an affiliate of Toyota Motor Corp, said yesterday it would halt truck production at its California plant as the US economic slowdown hits demand for commercial vehicles. Truck production at the plant will end in July and be transferred to Hino’s second US factory in West Virginia that opened last year, company spokesman Hidenobu Tezuka said. The move will roughly halve Hino’s North American truck output capacity from 9,500 units a year to 4,500, Tezuka said. But the plant will not be shut as it will continue to make car parts for Toyota, Japan’s largest automaker.



■ MERGERS

NOL eyes Hapag-Lloyd

Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) is considering a possible merger with German line Hapag-Lloyd, NOL president was quoted as saying yesterday. A deal could not be ruled out, although nothing has been finalized, the Straits Times quoted NOL’s president and chief executive Thomas Held as saying. Last month, the German leisure and shipping group TUI said it was reviewing strategy and would likely separate its shipping unit Hapag-Lloyd. TUI said it would examine all options for Hapag-Lloyd, including a spin-off, a merger with a peer or a sale to an investor.



■ ECONOMY

US Fed sees further decline

The US economy has further weakened on several fronts and businesses struggled to pass on their own rising costs to customers, the US Federal Reserve said on Wednesday in its Beige Book survey. “Economic conditions have weakened since the last report” early last month, the central bank said in its survey of 12 Fed regional bank districts. The report, to be used at the upcoming central bank policy meeting April 29 to April 30, said that nine regional banks reported a slowdown in economic activity, while three described activity as “mixed or steady.” The Fed’s Beige Book has reported a slowing economic pace since November. Consumer spending, which drives two-thirds of US economic output, was “softening across most of the country,” the report said.