■RESOURCES
Sierra Leone, PRC ink deal
Sierra Leone’s mineral resources minister Alpha Kanu on Friday said a US$1.5 billion iron-ore agreement with a Chinese firm would create jobs and boost the economy in the resource-rich, but poor country. Speaking to reporters on a conference call from London, Kanu said the 25 percent investment by China’s Shandong Iron and Steel Group (山東鋼鐵集團) in the Tonkolili iron ore mine “would provide an added boost to impact the country’s weak economy.” Kanu said Shandong’s stake in London-listed African Minerals’ Sierra Leonean mine project would create some 2,000 jobs, increasing to about 5,000 in the next two years.
■TECHNOLOGY
Google purchases Metaweb
Search giant Google Inc says it has bought Metaweb Inc, a company that helps connect Internet search words to real-world things. Terms were not disclosed. Google director of product management, Jack Menzel, said in a blog post on Friday that the acquisition would help “improve search and make the Web richer and more meaningful.” In a video on its Web site, San Francisco-based Metaweb says search words themselves can be interpreted in too many ways to be useful. Instead, it has created an open database of more 12 million things, such as people, companies, movies and books, and how they relate to each other.
■RESOURCES
Honam acquires Titan Corp
Honam Petrochemical Corp will acquire Malaysia’s Titan Chemicals Corp in an all-cash deal valued at US$1.25 billion in South Korea’s biggest overseas acquisition this year. South Korea’s second-largest ethylene maker will buy all of Titan’s stock for 2.35 ringgit (US$0.73) a share, the Malaysian company said in a statement on Friday. That’s a 27 percent premium to Titan’s closing price of RM1.85 on Thursday. Honam will pay 1.5 trillion won (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase, the Seoul-based company said in an e-mailed statement.
■TRANSPORT
Narita-Tokyo line opens
A new high-speed railway line linking Narita International Airport with central Tokyo opened yesterday. The 64km line, Narita Sky Access, cuts the travel time between Nippori Station in Tokyo and the airport in Chiba, southeast of the capital, by 15 minutes to 36 minutes. Fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto designed the new “Skyliner” train for the service, which can run at 160km per hour.
■AUTOMOBILES
Daimler posts strong figures
German automotive giant Daimler posted strong quarterly figures on Friday on the back of soaring demand for its Mercedes cars and trucks, a weaker euro boosting exports and cost cutting measures. Daimler reported a second quarter operatng profit of 2.1 billion euros (US$2.7 billion), reversing a year-earlier loss of 1 billion euros and exceeding market expectations. The group said its sales in the three months to last month jumped to 25.1 billion euros from 19.6 billion euros a year earlier.
■BANKING
More US banks shut down
US regulators on Friday shut down three banks in Florida, two in South Carolina and one in Michigan, bringing to 96 the number of US banks to succumb this year to the recession and mounting loan defaults. With 96 closures nationwide so far this year, the pace of bank failures far outstrips that of last year, which was already a brisk year for shutdowns. By this time last year, regulators had closed 57 banks.
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
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