■ AUTOMOBILES
Workers, GM take a break
Negotiators for the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp (GM) ended a marathon bargaining session early yesterday, more than four hours after their contract was set to expire. Both sides, which agreed on Friday night to extend the contract while they continued negotiations, pledged to resume talks later yesterday, said GM spokesman Dan Flores, who did not know exactly when negotiators would return to the table. "The parties have agreed to take a break and resume later on this morning," Flores said. "Our bargaining continues, but both parties have agreed to take a short break."
■ FOOD
P&G moves against Kraft
Procter & Gamble Co (P&G) asked a judge on Friday to stop Kraft Foods Inc from continuing to manufacture and distribute its Maxwell House coffee in a plastic container that P&G has alleged infringes on a patent. The motion in US District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco follows a lawsuit that P&G filed on Aug. 27 in the same court. In the new motion, P&G charges that its Folgers brand faces irreparable harm from Kraft's continued use of the Maxwell House container and wants the judge to quickly intervene. P&G introduced a plastic container for its Folgers coffee in 2003.
■ CASINOS
Hong Kong opts out
Hong Kong will not build casinos to compete with its booming neighbor Macau, which recently surpassed the Las Vegas Strip in gaming revenue, an official said. Speaking to reporters after a banquet held by the hotel industry late on Friday, Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Frederick Ma (馬時亨) acknowledged the fast casino growth in Macau posed a challenge to Hong Kong. But he said the Hong Kong government would not consider building casinos. Ma said Hong Kong would build more convention space, invest in cruise ship terminals and expand Ocean Park, Hong Kong's leading local theme park.
■ PETROLEUM
Venezuela to face Exxon
Venezuela is prepared to face Exxon Mobil Corp in international arbitration to defend its nationalization of key oil projects, the country's energy minister said. "We're ready to face it," Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal in an interview published on Friday, saying the government was not surprised the Irving, Texas, oil company was turning to arbitration. Exxon Mobil said on Wednesday it filed a request for arbitration in the dispute over the nationalization of the Cerro Negro heavy oil project, one of four heavy oil projects in which President Hugo Chavez's government assumed majority control in May.
■ INVESTMENT
China's global reach grows
Chinese banks, manufacturers and other companies invested US$21 billion abroad last year as they rapidly expanded foreign operations, the government reported yesterday. Non-financial investment abroad rose 43.8 percent to US$17.6 billion, while financial investments rose 16.7 percent to US$3.5 billion, the Commerce Ministry said. China has long been one of the world's top destinations for foreign investment, but its own companies are now expanding abroad.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
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