AIRCRAFT
Berlin urged stump up aviation
Airbus on Saturday urged the German government to pay out a promised final loan instalment of 600 million euros (US$830 million) for the construction of the A350, after the aircraft manufacturer said it had created German jobs in return. Airbus chief operating officer Guenter Butschek told the German daily Tagesspiegel that the firm was offering 4,000 jobs — 250 percent more than originally planned — in a bid to unfreeze the last loan tranche, which has been blocked for months by Berlin pending agreement on German-based manufacturing and research jobs. Butschek said that Airbus, a subsidiary of France-based EADS, was capable of completing the A350 development program even without the outstanding loan amount.
BANKING
CCB posts Q3 profit
China Construction Bank Corp (CCB, 中國建設銀行), the nation’s second-largest lender, posted a 9.4 percent gain in third-quarter profit as it boosted lending and fee income. Net income climbed to 56.8 billion yuan (US$9.3 billion), or 0.23 yuan a share, from 51.9 billion yuan, or 0.21 yuan, a year earlier, the Beijing-based lender said in a Shanghai stock exchange filing yesterday. That compared with the 57.2 billion yuan average estimate of 10 analysts compiled by Bloomberg. Construction Bank pledged in August to direct more lending to small and micro-sized businesses, which offer fatter lending margins, as it battles a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. While expansion accelerated for the first time in three quarters July to last month, China may still post its slowest full-year growth since 1999, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.
ECONOMY
Portuguese angry about cuts
Thousands of demonstrators protested in Portugal on Saturday against salary cuts and public sector reforms imposed by the government under the country’s international bailout deal. Crowds rallied in the old center of the capital Lisbon and marched toward parliament, while rallies were also staged in the northern city of Porto and 12 other towns, in demonstrations called by a citizens’ collective known as “Get lost, troika.” The word troika refers to the three international bodies that agreed Portugal’s 78 billion euro (US$108 billion) rescue deal in 2011 — the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF. In return for the bailout money to prevent the country from financial collapse, the troika demanded economic reforms to get Portugal’s public deficit down to 4 percent of output by next year.
MINING
Mongolia and Rio make up
Mongolia and Rio Tinto Group have resolved some of the disputes that have stalled the expansion of their US$6.6 billion Oyu Tolgoi copper mine, a Mongolian board member of the venture said. “Within the last 10 days we could resolve certain issues; we have reduced the state of urgency,” Davaadorj Ganbold, one of three Mongolians on the Oyu Tolgoi LLC board, said in an interview in Ulan Bator on Saturday, adding that some points remain to be agreed on. “Issues related to cost overruns, the feasibility study and project financing are large and broad issues that cannot be resolved in four or five days,” said Ganbold, a board member since last month and also executive director at Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC, the company that holds the government’s 34 percent stake in the project. While open-pit work continues, the dispute has led to the suspension of underground construction and the layoff of about 1,700 workers.
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
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