Stronger yuan a must
Canadian officials said China must allow the yuan to appreciate faster after a "frank" round of talks at a meeting of policy makers from the Group of 20 nations.
"China and a number of other Asian countries need to do more," Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said.
Central bank Governor David Dodge said "there was a genuine concern on the part of a lot of countries on the turbulence in the currency markets."
Canadian and European policy makers say their currencies are shouldering too much of the dollar's decline, which has accelerated in the past three months. Dodge also said yesterday that market volatility after the jump in credit costs in August is likely to be more "prolonged" than forecast at last month's meeting of the G7 nations.
TRUenergy unit shut down
TRUenergy Pty, an Australian utility owned by Hong Kong's CLP Holdings Ltd, said it shut down another generating unit at its Yallourn power plant in Victoria State after production was cut because of a flood at a coal mine.
Only one out of four units at the site is still operating, using coal from an alternate part of the mine, Kate Shea, a spokeswoman at Melbourne-based TRUenergy, said yesterday.
The company plans to restore half the output at the power station, 150km east of Melbourne, by mid-week, she said.
TRUenergy last week cut generation at the 1,480-megawatt Yallourn plant after heavy rain and leaks from the river caused subsidence that damaged conveyor equipment and halted coal output.
The company on Nov. 14 said it was running two units at minimum capacity at the plant, which supplies 22 percent of the electricity for Australia's second-most-populous state.
Aruze shares may rise
Aruze Corp, a Japanese pachinko-machine maker, may rise as the value of its stake in casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd has ex- ceeded its ¥324.8 billion (US$2.9 billion) market capitalization, Barron's reported.
Aruze bought more than 20 percent of Wynn last year. At Wynn's current price, Aruze's stake in the casino company is worth ¥4,890 for each share of the Japanese company, Barron's said in today's edition. When the value of Aruze's main business is added, the shares are worth ¥5,740, or about 45 percent more than Aruze's stock price, the report said.
Investors are valuing Aruze's game-machine business "for less than nothing" and they may be wrong, Barron's said.
Malaysia Air may buy planes
State-owned Malaysia Airlines, which has been in the red since the Asian Financial Crisis a decade ago, will unveil a plan in January to buy new planes, a report said yesterday.
"We want to provide five-star services at low-cost carrier cost," managing director Idris Jala was quoted as saying by the New Sunday Times newspaper.
He said the carrier would purchase new aircraft to beef up its existing fleet of 89 planes but did not give specifics.
"We are in the midst of finalizing our requirement for both narrow and wide-body aircraft. We have received bids from Boeing and Airbus," he said.
Malaysia Airlines had placed an order for the delivery of six Airbus A380 superjumbos but delivery has ben delayed because of production problems. The carrier launched a 4 billion ringgit (US$1.1 billion) turnaround plan in March last year after it posted a 1.3 billion ringgit and 136 million ringgit annual losses respectively for 2005 and last year.
ASEAN-India FTA possible
ASEAN may complete negotiations for a free-trade agreement with India by July, after missing earlier deadlines, the group's secretary general Ong Keng Yong said.
"We still have one deadline, which is June or July, for conclusion of negotiations," Ong said in Singapore yesterday. "I don't think it's realistic to expect the free-trade accord to be completed this year.''
ASEAN leaders are holding their annual summit in Singapore this week.
A trade agreement between India, the world's second-most populous country, and ASEAN would boost annual trade between the two, already worth more than US$23 billion. Negotiations between the 10-member bloc and India are deadlocked on tariff cuts on agricultural products.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
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