■OIL
Price up on supply worries
Oil prices rose to US$73 a barrel in Asia yesterday on expectations that OPEC would cut production quotas at an extraordinary meeting later this week. Light, sweet crude for delivery next month rose US$1.16 to US$73.01 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Singapore. OPEC president Chakib Khelil said on Sunday that members planned to announce a “substantial” cut at a meeting that begins on Friday inVienna. Khelil, who is also Algeria’s energy minister, said OPEC may cut output again at a meeting in December and that the group considers the oil market oversupplied by about 2 million barrels a day.
■REFINING
Technip wins Gdansk work
Technip SA, Europe’s second-largest oilfield-services provider, won a 70 million-euro (US$95 million) contract from Poland’s Grupa Lotos SA for work at its Gdansk refinery. The agreement covers engineering and procurement services for a new solvent de-asphalting unit, Paris-based Technip said yesterday in a statement distributed by Business Wire. It’s Technip’s third contract from Lotos in the past year, the company said. The new unit will have a feed capacity of 180 tonnes an hour, the statement said.
■FINANCE
Italy welcomes fund limits
Italy wants sovereign wealth funds to limit their stakes in Italian companies to less than 5 percent, the daily Messaggero quoted Foreign Minister Franco Frattini as saying yesterday. “Italy trusts the funds that operate in a transparent manner and whose goal is investment rather than taking control of companies, and therefore stay under 5 percent,” Frattini said. “There are sectors in which intervention by the funds is particularly welcome, such as infrastructure, transport and tourism,” he said. “But, for example, on defense, we want industrial cooperation rather than capital investment.”
■AVIATION
Hong Kong traffic down
The number of passengers traveling through Hong Kong’s airport dropped 4.7 percent year-on-year last month to 3.8 million as the global financial crisis hit the aviation industry, Hong Kong Airport Authority said yesterday. Cargo also dropped, with 317,000 tonnes handled last month, down 7.5 percent on the previous year, the figures showed. The number of flights edged down 0.4 percent to 24,570. The reduction in passengers was mainly the result of fewer visitors to the territory, while travel by Hong Kong residents and transit passengers also decreased slightly, the figures showed.
■JAPAN
Economy still weak: official
The economy is expected to remain stagnant for some time with a global slowdown weighing on exports, Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa told a meeting of the bank’s branch managers yesterday. Corporate earnings in Asia’s largest economy are shrinking and companies are cutting their capital investment, Shirakawa said. “The economy of our nation is currently stagnant due in part to slower exports stemming from the lingering effects of high energy and material prices and a slowdown in overseas economies,” he said. Business confidence remains cautious, while consumption has turned softer due to inflation and sluggish wages, Shirakawa said. The economy suffered its worst contraction in seven years in the second quarter and many analysts believe it is already in recession.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from