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World Business News Quick Take

■ STEEL

Posco, Venezuela in talks

Posco, Asia’s third-largest steelmaker, met Venezuela’s deputy minister of basic industries to discuss the possible construction of a stainless-steel mill. The two sides will meet again next month to discuss the project, Venezuelan Deputy Minister Jesus Paredes said in a statement on Friday on the Ministry of Basic Industries and Mining Web site. Other companies may also present proposals for the factory, which would open in 2011, the ministry said. A Posco project would mark a return to the country for the Pohang, South Korea-based company, which closed a Venezuela iron-ore plant in 2002 and took a US$47 million loss because of cost overruns, a worsening business climate and declining steel prices.



■ COPPER

Chile’s annual output slips

Chile, the world’s biggest supplier of copper, produced 6.1 percent less of the metal in April than a year earlier, a government-owned researcher said. Output fell to 427,200 tonnes from 454,900 tonnes in April last year, a report published on Friday by the state-owned Chilean Copper Commission in Santiago showed. Chile’s National Statistics Institute, which is also run by the government, said last month that the country’s overall copper output fell 5.6 percent to 435,132 tonnes in April from 460,819 tonnes a year earlier, without breaking out production by company or by mine.



■AVIATION

Japan Airlines closes facility

After nearly 40 years, Japan Airlines says it will stop using the Grant County, Washington, International Airport for training early next year because of the high price of fuel. The airline intends to close the Moses Lake-based 747-400 training department facilities in March. Japan Airlines executive assistant for administration Brenda Martinez cites both the cost of fuel to train on a four-engine aircraft and the costs to bring trainees and flight instructors to Moses Lake.



■ LABOR

Reliance to open US plant

An India-based company plans to open its first North American plant in North Carolina and create more than 200 jobs in the area over the next five years. Reliance Industries USA Inc said on Friday it plans to invest US$215 million in a plant in Kinston, where 204 people will eventually be employed. The company makes resin used in the manufacture of plastic containers and specialty polyester yarns. US State Department of Commerce spokesman Charles Winkler said the company could get as much US$2.2 million in benefits if it meets all the requirements in its state contract.



■ PATENT RIGHTS

Court raises Microsoft fine

A US district court judge in San Diego ruled that Microsoft Corp must pay Alcatel-Lucent US$511.6 million for infringing on two patents in the latest move in a five-year-old patent scuffle between the two firms. In April, a jury ordered Microsoft to pay Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent US$357.7 million for infringing on a patent that covers how users select a calendar date from a menu in certain programs, including Microsoft Outlook and Windows Mobile. It also ordered Microsoft to pay US$10.4 million for infringing on an Alcatel-Lucent patent related to the use of a stylus on a tablet computer. Judge Marilyn Huff denied Microsoft’s request for reconsideration of that jury’s decisions on Thursday and raised the amount of damages the court awarded Alcatel-Lucent to include prejudgment interest meant to compensate for how long it took to resolve the matter.
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