■AVIATION
New 787 may fly next week
Boeing Co says the long-anticipated first flight of its new 787 jetliner could come as early as Tuesday. Boeing announced on Thursday that its window for a first flight would open on Dec. 15, with the actual flight timing dependent on final internal reviews, taxi testing and Federal Aviation Administration documentation. The company also said it has completed “final gauntlet” testing on the 787 and verified the success of fixes it made to a structural problem. Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program, says two days of testing checked out all the airplane systems, such as avionics, hydraulics and electrical.
■ENERGY
Majnoon sold to Shell
Royal Dutch Shell Plc won the bidding to develop the 12.6 billion barrels of oil reserves in Iraq’s Majnoon field, adding to two other agreements it is working on in the country. The bid by Shell and partner Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, targeting 1.8 million barrels of output a day at a cost of US$1.39 a barrel, was the winning offer in Iraq’s second licensing round in Baghdad yesterday, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said. Iraq, holder of the world’s third-largest oil reserves, says more than 35 companies are vying for service contracts to develop the country’s fields in the second bid round. The partners beat a rival bid by Total SA and China National Petroleum Corp (中國石油天然氣).
■JAPAN
Consumer confidence slides
Japan’s consumer confidence has worsened for the first time in 11 months due to worries about job security and sluggish wages, the government said yesterday. The Cabinet Office’s consumer confidence index declined to 39.5 last month, down 1 point from the previous month. A figure below 50 indicates that pessimistic consumers outnumber optimistic ones. The index had risen for nine straight months up to September, when it hit a near two-year high of 40.5 — a level that was matched in October.
■SOUTH KOREA
Growth forecast at 4.6%
South Korea’s central bank yesterday raised its growth outlook for next year to 4.6 percent as Asia’s fourth-largest economy recovers strongly from the global downturn. The Bank of Korea also upgraded its forecast to 0.2 percent growth this year compared with an earlier projection of a 1.6 percent contraction. The bank had previously forecast growth of 3.6 percent next year. “Private consumption is forecast to stage a sustained recovery,” it said in a statement, adding corporate investment in facilities would grow rapidly. The economy grew 3.2 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, the fastest quarterly expansion in more than seven years.
■AUTOMOBILES
Toyota adds Canada jobs
Toyota is adding 800 jobs at its Woodstock, Ontario plant to boost production of RAV4 sport utility vehicles to 150,000 per year, for sale in North America, the Japanese car maker announced on Thursday. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) will add a second shift at the plant to build the majority of its RAV4s for the North American market, it said in a statement. Hiring is to begin this month for the new shift set to launch in March, Ray Tanguay, president of TMMC, said in a video statement.
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