■METALSY
Rusal’s output down 11%
Russian giant Rusal cut its annual aluminum output by 11 percent last year, but could increase it this year, the company said in its full year production results yesterday. The world’s largest aluminum producer reduced its total output to 3.9 million tonnes, compared with 4.4 million tonnes in 2008, the report said, calling last year “one of the toughest years on record for the global economy.” In the same period, the company slashed its alumina production by 36 percent and bauxite production by 41 percent. The company predicted an upturn this year, saying in a statement that if demand grows as forecast, it plans to produce 3 percent more aluminum and 7 percent more alumina than last year.
■ENERGY
Reliance sweetens bid
Indian giant Reliance Industries has sweetened its bid to take control of LyondellBasell, boosting its valuation of the chemical maker to US$14.5 billion, a report said yesterday. The offer would give Reliance a minority stake in the chemicals maker, but would give the Indian company super-voting power to control Lyondell’s board, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting a person familiar with the matter. A deal between Reliance and Lyondell would create a mammoth energy and chemicals conglomerate with nearly US$80 billion in revenues. Netherlands-based Lyondell is the world’s third-largest chemical maker and both companies have oil-refining operations.
TNT profits nosedive
TNT NV, the Netherlands-based post and express mail company, yesterday reported a 58 percent fall in net profit because of flat sales and a major write down in the value of its regular mail arm. Net profit was 25 million euros (US$34 million), down from 61 million euros in the same period a year earlier. Sales fell 0.5 percent to 2.95 billion euros. The company wrote 146 million euros off the value of its mail operations after a major review. TNT’s Dutch postal workers have voted to accept 3,500 layoffs in order that the rest can get small raises this year and next year. The company employs 23,000.
■JAPAN
PM pressures central bank
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said the central bank should act “appropriately” to fight deflation, escalating pressure on Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and his colleagues to support the economic recovery. “I sincerely hope the Bank of Japan will try to implement monetary policy appropriately,” Hatoyama said in parliament in Tokyo yesterday. Finance Minister Naoto Kan told the same committee that the central bank should “make more efforts” to lift Japan out of deflation. Shirakawa last week shrugged off Kan’s calls for an inflation target and urged him to tackle the fiscal deficit. Shirakawa, speaking at the same hearing yesterday, said the central bank would continue to provide “ample liquidity” to beat deflation.
■FINANCE
HSBC to recruit in Asia
HSBC Global Asset Management plans to increase its workforce in Asia by between 5 percent and 10 percent this year to expand in the region. That will add to the more than 600 employees it currently has in Asia, Rudolf Apenbrink, HSBC Global Asset’s Asia-Pacific chief executive, told Bloomberg News yesterday. The increase in headcount will be mainly in India and China, with positions including fund managers, research analysts and sales, Apenbrink said.
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
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
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
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