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World Business Quick Take

■ ENVIRONMENT

City orders closures

Authorities in Tangshan, an industrial city in Hebei Province north of Beijing, have ordered 267 firms to shut down operations by Tuesday to improve air quality ahead of the Olympics, government and industry sources said yesterday. The firms include 66 steelmakers, as well as coke plants, cement firms and small power generators, a government official in Tangshan said. The companies would have to undergo strict environmental protection checks before they could resume production at an unspecified date, the sources said. The firms ordered to halt production were small, and their impact on Hebei’s steel industry would not be significant, analysts said.



■ELECTRONICS

Canon to build new factory

Japanese electronics giant Canon plans to build a new factory for digital cameras amid growing competition from domestic and foreign rivals, a report said yesterday. The firm will invest ¥15 billion (US$140 million) in the plant in Nagasaki, western Japan, to produce compact and single-lens reflex cameras, the Nikkei business daily reported without naming its sources. A Canon spokeswoman said the company would make an announcement next week in Nagasaki on the plant but declined to give further details. The plant, which will operate under a subsidiary, is scheduled to begin operating late next year with a production capacity of 4 million units a year and a workforce of more than 1,000, the daily said.



■SHIPBUILDING

Daewoo wins record order

South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering said yesterday it had won the world’s largest-ever shipbuilding order from Maersk Line of Denmark. Daewoo has signed a contract to build 16 container vessels for Maersk, the world’s biggest maritime transporter, for a record 2.44 trillion won (US$2.3 billion), the Korean firm said in a statement. All the ships will be delivered by June 29, 2012. “We won the world’s largest-ever shipbuilding order at a time when global market conditions are not so favorable. This highlights our competitive edge over rivals,” CEO Nam Sang-tae told journalists. With the latest deal, Daewoo has now won orders worth US$9.83 billion for 56 vessels so far this year.



■AVIATION

All Nippon may buy A380s

All Nippon Airways Co (ANA) is studying buying about five Airbus superjumbo A380s or other aircraft for long-haul routes, the Japanese carrier said yesterday. The nation’s No. 2 airline set up a panel on Thursday to decide which jets to buy, ANA spokeswoman Nana Kon said. “We have several options including the A380, from which we plan to choose the optimal equipment,” Kon said. The airline is also considering Boeing aircraft such as the 787 and 747, she said. the Nikkei reported yesterday that ANA’s panel is expected to decide to buy five A380 jets at about ¥100 billion (US$940 million).



■INFLATION

Rates jump to 14-year high

The Philippines’ inflation rate jumped to a 14-year high of 11.4 percent last month from a year ago as food and fuel prices soared, the government said yesterday. Last month’s index was higher than 9.5 percent in May and 2.3 percent in the same month last year, the National Statistics Office said. It is the highest inflation rate since May 1994. The increase to double-digit rates was brought about by “soaring prices of rice nationwide along with the upward adjustments of other food items,” the office said.


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