■MINING
Rio Tinto to sell unit
Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto said yesterday that it would sell its Alcan Composites division to Swiss group Schweiter Technologies for US$349 million. “Rio Tinto has entered into an agreement to sell Alcan Composites, part of the Alcan Engineered Products division, to Schweiter Technologies,” the company said in a statement. “The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year, following completion by the parties of various conditions precedent to closing, including regulatory processes and employee consultations.” Alcan Composites is Swiss-based and makes composite materials for the display, architecture and wind energy sectors.
■AUTOMOBILES
Magna plans Opel cuts
Canadian auto parts maker Magna will cut more than 4,000 jobs in Germany when it takes over the Opel business of struggling US auto giant General Motors, a German newspaper reported yesterday. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), citing Magna’s strategic plan for GM’s European operations, said nearly 11,000 jobs will be lost out of a total 45,730. It said 4,116 jobs would be lost in Germany out of a total workforce there of 24,700. Despite the job cuts, Magna will keep open all four German Opel plants but the Bochum site will see nearly 2,200 jobs go as production is moved to Austria. With the closure of the Antwerp plant in Belgium, 2,517 workers will lose their jobs, FAZ said, with 2,090 more to go in Spain, 1,373 in Britain at the Vauxhall brand and 437 in Poland.
■RUSSIA
Tycoon slams government
Doing business in Russia is impossible due to the state’s interference in the economy, a former top tycoon who has fled to Britain to escape legal proceedings said yesterday. Yevgeny Chichvarkin, founder of the country’s largest mobile phone retailer Evroset, faces charges of kidnapping and extortion and Moscow has asked London to extradite him to face justice. He told the Russian business daily Vedomosti in an interview: “I cannot understand under what circumstances it is possible [to do business in Russia]. Because of the restrictions on business, the destruction of free competition, the lack of motivation and the interference of the state.”
■SHIPPING
STX inks ore deal with Vale
South Korea’s leading shipper of bulk cargo said yesterday it has clinched a US$5.84 billion deal with Brazil’s Vale to transport iron ore, calling it the world’s single largest contract of its kind. STX Pan Ocean said it will transport 300 million tonnes of iron ore for mining giant Vale from Brazil to China over the next 25 years. The deal would cement its position as the country’s largest bulk-shipping line, the company said in a statement. “This contract will enable our company to expand our share in the global market,” president Kim Dae-yoo said in the statement.
■AVIATION
Lenders urge JAL break-up
The Development Bank of Japan and the other lenders are calling for a massive streamlining of the Japan Airlines’ (JAL) operations by breaking them up into healthy and unhealthy segments, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday without citing sources. They are also considering a proposal that the government temporarily nationalize JAL’s profitable entity and liquidate unhealthy assets over time, the paper said. The banks were not immediately available for comment.
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
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique