■ENERGY
Peabody, Coal India in talks
Peabody Energy, a top US coal company, is in talks with India’s Coal India about long-term coal supplies and other potential tie-ups, the companies said in a statement on Monday. The talks “are at very early stages and there have been no final agreements or decisions made regarding timing or structure,” they said. “Peabody recognizes growing long-term coal demand in India, which may be the world’s fastest-growing coal importer.”
■RETAIL
LVMH Q1 sales rose 11%
LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury company, yesterday reported an 11 percent jump in sales as buyers snap up watches, jewelry and high-end drinks after months of economic gloom. Sales rose to 4.47 billion euros (US$6.07 billion) — higher than the 4.25 billion euros expected by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires, thanks in particular to the Asian market, Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton said. Affected by the financial crisis, Paris-based LVMH last year saw net profit fall 13 percent and sales slip 1 percent last year.
■ELECTRONICS
Samsung eyes new market
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, already the world’s top memory-chip and flat-screen TV maker, said yesterday it aimed to become the global leader in washing machine sales by 2013. Launching 11 new front-loading models, the firm said it had set a global sales target of 8 million units this year, up 33 percent from 6 million last year. “Based on our performance so far this year, this year’s target is achievable,” said Park Je-seung, sales and marketing chief of the company’s home appliance division.
■STEEL
POSCO net profit quadruples
South Korea’s leading steelmaker, POSCO, said yesterday its first-quarter net profit more than quadrupled from a year earlier thanks to rising demand and higher steel prices. Net profit was 1.44 trillion won (US$1.3 billion) in the January-March period, compared with 325 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Sales reached 6.95 trillion won in the first quarter, up from 6.47 trillion won a year earlier. Operating income surged to 1.45 trillion won from 373 billion won.
■TECHNOLOGY
Infosys posts lower profit
Infosys Technologies, India’s second-biggest outsourcing company, said yesterday net profit slipped in the January-March period because of a strengthening rupee. Consolidated net profit in the fiscal fourth quarter fell 0.9 percent year-on-year to 16 billion rupees (US$359 million), just below market forecasts of 16.05 billion rupees, the firm said. The profit fall came despite a 13 percent rise in revenue to 59.44 billion rupees in the fourth quarter of the financial year ending March 31, it said.
■AVIATION
CEA confirms alliance talks
China Eastern Airlines (CEA, 中國東方航空) said yesterday it was in with all three global airline alliances after a French newspaper reported that the carrier was set to join the SkyTeam Alliance. An agreement on the move was expected to be signed at the end of the week, the French financial newspaper La Tribune reported yesterday. “The matter is now in full swing ... We are in talks with all the three alliances. The three all offered us favorable policies if we join them,” said Luo Zhuping (羅祝平), a spokesman for the nation’s third-largest carrier.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
Four former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers jailed in the territory’s largest national security case were released yesterday after more than four years in prison, the first among dozens convicted last year to regain their freedom. Former legislators Claudia Mo (毛孟靜), Jeremy Tam (譚文豪), Kwok Ka-ki (郭家麒) and Gary Fan (范國威) were part of a group of 47 public figures — including some of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy advocates — who were charged with subversion in 2021 for holding an informal primary election. The case fell under a National Security Law imposed on the territory by Beijng, and drew international condemnation and warnings
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