■SINGAPORE
Exports drop 24 percent
Singapore’s key exports fell 24 percent last month from a year ago as shipments to the US and other main markets plunged amid the worldwide economic slump, the government said yesterday. It was the 10th straight month of decline in non-oil domestic exports, following the record 35 percent drop in January. Shipments to the city-state’s top 10 markets, except China, were down, monthly data released by the International Enterprise Singapore trade promotion body showed. Demand from the recession-hit US shrank the most as shipments fell 44.4 percent to S$1.03 billion (US$673 million), following a 50 percent decline in January.
■PETROLEUM
ExxonMobil opens China hub
A subsidiary of global oil giant ExxonMobil Corp yesterday announced plans to build a technology center in China’s economic hub of Shanghai. Exxonmobil Chemical’s hub, which will have an initial investment of US$70 million and is expected to open next year, will provide technical advice and laboratory support to customers in Asia, the company said. ExxonMobil is expanding in China with a recent joint venture operating 750 service stations and another building and operating a petrochemical refinery in Fujian.
■ALUMINUM
Alcoa to slash dividend
Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc said on Monday it planned to slash its quarterly dividend by 82 percent and sell US$1.1 billion in shares to bulk up its cash cushion amid the recession. The Pittsburgh-based company also said it planned to cut costs by more than US$2.4 billion annually by next year. Alcoa said its actions would reduce capital spending by an additional US$1 billion next year. The announcement, made after the market closed on Monday, follows news in January that Alcoa plans to lay off about 13 percent of its global work force by the end of 2009, further cut production and spending, and sell four of its subsidiaries.
■MICROCHIPS
AMD may lose chip license
Intel warned rival chipmaker AMD on Monday that its license to make personal-computer chips could be revoked because it spun out its manufacturing unit into a separate company. Intel first introduced its PC-compatible chips, which are based on the ubiquitous x86 architecture, in 1978 and later licensed to other companies. AMD manufactures the chips under a 2001 patent cross-licensing agreement, and AMD transferred the right to make x86 chips to its manufacturing spinoff GlobalFoundries, which Intel alleges violates terms of the original agreement. In a filing with the Securities Exchange Commission, AMD rejected Intel’s claims.
■AUSTRALIA
Interest rates unchanged
Australia’s central bank said yesterday it unexpectedly left interest rates unchanged this month to “leave adequate flexibility” in the future, prompting economists to predict more rate cuts. The Reserve Bank of Australia board released minutes of its monthly meeting, where it left rates at a 45-year-low of 3.25 percent to end a sequence of seven straight cuts since last September. “Members believed this would leave adequate flexibility for policy at future meetings,” the minutes said. The bank has lowered rates from 7.25 percent since September and economists said they were unlikely to remain on hold for long after recent figures showing unemployment at a four-year high of 5.2 percent last month.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary