Australia’s competition regulator said yesterday it had launched an informal review of BHP Billiton’s proposed joint iron ore venture with Rio Tinto to seek comment on the controversial deal.
The Anglo-Australia mining giants on Saturday signed a binding agreement to combine their vast Western Australia iron ore operations, a tie-up expected to result in US$10 billion in savings.
The deal is opposed by Asian and European steel makers, which have called for an investigation into whether it would be anti-competitive.
“Comments are invited from interested parties regarding the proposed joint venture,” the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said.
The two miners said on Saturday they believed EU authorities were already investigating the deal, which is expected to be complete by the second half of next year. Rio and BHP will evenly split their Western Australian iron ore assets and liabilities and have said the venture will deliver “substantial synergies” aimed at producing more iron ore at lower cost.
Announced after the collapse of a US$19.5 billion bid for Rio by Chinese state-owned firm Chinalco (中國鋁業), the deal also follows BHP’s dropping of a hostile takeover bid for Rio amid the global economic turmoil in November last year.
The ACCC gave BHP’s earlier takeover bid the green light, finding it would be unlikely to substantially lessen competition, despite the fact it would combine two of the world’s three largest suppliers of seaborne iron ore.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS