INDUSTRY
FPG to build Texas plant
Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團), Taiwan’s biggest diversified industrial company, plans to spend about US$800 million building ethylene and propylene plants in the US to tap demand for the chemicals. The proposed plants in Texas will be able to produce 450,000 tonnes of ethylene and 400,000 tonnes of propylene a year, Lee Chih-tsuen (李志村), a member of the company’s executive board, told reporters yesterday. Construction may start in 2012, he said. Formosa Plastics needs the plants for raw materials that will be made into products for the US, and Central and Southern American markets, he said. “We don’t have enough of them,” Lee said. The plants will use natural gas as a raw material, he said.
CHEMICALS
Russia signs fertilizer deal
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday oversaw the signing of a US$1 billion deal with Japanese and Chinese firms for a fertilizer plant. Russian government-affiliated Ammoni signed a contract with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Sojitz Corporation and China National Chemical Engineering Corporation, to build a plant producing ammonia and methanol. The plant, to be located in the central Russian region of Tatarstan about 1,000km east of Moscow, is expected to come online in 2015. It will produce just over 2,000 tonnes of ammonia a day, among other fertilizers.
MINING
Xstrata invests in Mauritania
Swiss mining group Xstrata is to invest about US$6 billion (4.4 billion euros) in the production of iron in Mauritania, the country’s mining minister Mohammad Abdallah Ould Oudaa said during a mining conference in Mauritania that ended on Thursday. Xstrata on Friday said it was “far too early in the process to commit to numbers but Xstrata is committed to creating a world-class iron ore business and clearly Mauritania will play a key part in that objective.” The company also disclosed that it now controlled 50.1 percent of the Australian group Sphere Minerals, which is part of a 50-50 joint venture with the Mauritanian national industry and mining company SNIM in three projects.
AVIATION
Vibrations a ‘minor issue’
An engine problem which caused vibrations on a domestic Qantas flight, prompting the pilot to turn back, was a “minor issue,” the airline’s chief executive said yesterday. A Boeing 767 with 234 passengers on board returned to Perth, in Western Australia, 10 minutes after taking off to fly to Melbourne on Friday after its crew detected something unusual in one engine. The incident comes after Qantas grounded its entire fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos after a mid-air blowout on one of the planes’ Rolls-Royce engines earlier this month prompted serious safety worries.
AUTOMOBILES
GM IPO oversubscribed
General Motors Co’s landmark initial public offering has already garnered US$60 billion in orders, six times the amount it had planned to raise. The shares are expected to start trading on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges on Thursday. It will likely price around the top end of the US$26 to US$29 per share range and the full over-allotment option — additional shares underwriters can sell to help stabilize the stock after it begins trading — will likely be exercised, three people familiar with the matter said.
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose up to 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan’s semiconductor exports to the US to encourage chip manufacturers to move their production facilities to the US, but experts are questioning his strategy, warning it could harm industries on both sides. “I’m very confused and surprised that the Trump administration would try and do this,” Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst and founder of TECHnalysis Research in California, said in an interview with the Central News Agency on Wednesday. “It seems to reflect the fact that they don’t understand how the semiconductor industry really works,” O’Donnell said. Economic sanctions would