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World Business Quick Take

■ SOUTH KOREA

US beef imports jump

Just three months after going back on sale despite massive protests, US beef imports last month accounted for nearly half of the total value of the meat brought in, a report said yesterday. The Agro-Fisheries Trade Corporation statistics, issued by Yonhap news agency, said South Korea imported US$43.98 million of US beef, 43 percent of the total value of beef imports last month. In terms of tonnage, US beef accounted for 35 percent of the total last month, with 7,030 tonnes shipped to South Korea, the figures said. The country was once the world’s third-largest market for US beef, with imported US$850 million of it per year until imports were suspended in 2003 after a US case of mad cow disease.



■ AUTOMOBILES

Daimler suspends production

German carmaker Daimler, hit by falling demand amid the global financial crisis, plans to suspend production for a month beginning in December, a newspaper said in report to be published yesterday. The break in production would begin on Dec. 11 and last until Jan. 12, Frankfurter Sonntagszeitung reported, citing a company spokesman. Daimler, the first luxury car maker to present its quarterly results, unveiled big drops in profits on Thursday and issued a new profit warning owing to the global banking crisis. “The financial crisis is turning into an economic crisis,” Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche told a telephone news conference. It provoked “in recent weeks a dramatic slump on our major markets,” he said. “The situation is very challenging,” Zetsche said. “We are living in extraordinary times.”



■ TELECOMS

Saudi Telecom profit drops

Saudi Telecom Co, the kingdom’s largest telecommunications company, said third quarter profit fell 4.1 percent on expansion costs. Net income declined to 3.01 billion riyals (US$804 million) from 3.14 billion riyals a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Saudi bourse yesterday. Nine-month earnings per share rose to 4.94 riyals from 4.48 riyals. Saudi Telecom will pay a dividend of 2 billion riyals, or 1 riyal a share, for the third-quarter, the company said.



■ FINANCE

Kuwait to guarantee deposits

The Kuwaiti government will move urgently to guarantee deposits in local banks in a bid to strengthen confidence in the financial system, the central bank said yesterday. “The government will urgently submit a draft law [to parliament] to guarantee deposits in local banks,” said a statement by the central bank posted on the Kuwait Stock Exchange Web site.



■ TEXTILES

China exports ‘stable’

China will keep textile exports “stable and sustainable” next year as it ends controls on shipments to the US and Europe, and WTO restrictions end. The Ministry of Commerce will maintain “dialogue and communication” with relevant countries as limits imposed on China’s textile exports by the WTO expire on Dec. 31, the ministry said in a statement published on its Web site. China aims to boost next year’s textile exports while avoiding any unwanted expansion of output after the restrictions end. The nation wants to minimize trade friction next year as textile agreements signed with the US and Europe also run out next year. “Local ministry of commerce offices should continue to do their job in helping enterprises to change growth models and adjust product structures,” the ministry said.


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