■OIL
OPEC retains quotas
OPEC is leaving its production quotas unchanged, opting to take a cautious approach in a market awash in crude and a global economy still in the early stages of recovery. The 12-nation organization said early yesterday that “market fundamentals have remained weak,” even though current oil prices at about US$71 are roughly double their level since December, when the group announced a record cut of 4.2 million barrels per day from last September’s levels. The meeting’s closing communique said “whilst there are signs that economic recovery is under way, there remains great concern about the magnitude and pace of this recovery,” especially in the West.
■BEVERAGES
Suntory pursues Orangina
Suntory Holdings is in talks to buy European drink maker Orangina from US private equity firms Blackstone and Lion Capital, the Japanese company said yesterday. Suntory said nothing had been decided, but Japanese media reports, without citing sources, said a deal could come soon. Orangina was acquired in 2006 by Blackstone Group and Lion Capital LLP as part of a 1.85 billion euro deal (US$2.19 billion at the time) for Cadbury Schweppes PLC’s European soft drink business. Suntory is negotiating to merge with larger Japanese rival Kirin Holdings Co, which would create one of the world’s largest food and drinks companies.
■MACHINERY
Japanese orders slide
Japanese machinery orders, a closely watched indicator of corporate capital spending, fell back in July after rising the previous month, the government said yesterday, suggesting the outlook for the world’s No. 2 economy remains murky. Core private sector machinery orders plunged 9.3 percent from a month earlier to ¥664.7 billion (US$7.3 billion), the Cabinet Office report said. It was the lowest level since the government started compiling data in 1987, Cabinet Office official Tetsuya Igarashi said. The “core” figure excludes often-volatile orders from shipbuilders and electric power companies. July’s drop was a big turnaround after a 9.7 percent jump in June — the first increase in four months. It was also a larger decline than the 3.6 percent fall forecast in a Kyodo news agency market survey.
■SOUTH KOREA
Interest rate stays at 2%
The central bank yesterday froze its key interest rate at a record low 2 percent for the seventh straight month in a bid to give a nascent economic recovery time to take root. But Bank of Korea Governor Lee Seong-tae, expressing concern at a recent increase in mortgage loans and property prices, said it may change its “current track” if the trend continues. Between last October and February the bank had cut the seven-day repo rate by a total of 3.25 percentage points as it tried to ease a sharp economic downturn.
■AUTOMOBILES
Koenigsegg, BAIC team up
Swedish sports car maker Koenigsegg said on Wednesday it had teamed up with Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC, 北京汽車工業) to buy SAAB from its US parent company GM, a move that gives SAAB access to China’s rapidly growing car market. Koenigsegg said BAIC, China’s fifth-largest automaker, founded in 1958, would become a minority owner in Koenigsegg Group as part of a memorandum of understanding signed between the two parties. BAIC already has joint ventures with Daimler and Hyundai.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft