AVIATION
Delta pilots want 40% rise
The union representing Delta Air Lines Inc’s pilots wants raises of almost 40 percent compounded over three years, attempting to reverse some of the pay and benefit cuts adopted in the early 2000s. The union cites the carrier’s surging profits in saying it had requested a 22 percent raise for this year, followed by 7 percent raises in the following two years, a memo from the Air Line Pilots Association said. The union and Delta declined to comment on the memo. Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said the company looks forward to negotiating with the union to reach an agreement that is mutually beneficial.
AVIATION
China Express orders jets
China Express Airlines Co (華夏航空) has placed an order for 10 Bombardier CRJ900 jets worth US$462 million, the Canadian aircraft builder said on Thursday. The order would increase the China Express’ all-Bombardier fleet to 38, a statement said. Based in the southwest city of Chongqing, the nine-year-old carrier serves 62 cities in China. The CRJ900 is a regional jet that seats up to 90 passengers and with the China Express deal, Bombardier has racked up 409 firm orders for the aircraft.
ENERGY
GE to build Saudi plant
General Electric Co (GE) on Thursday said that it had won a contract worth nearly US$1 billion from Saudi Electricity Co to build and supply a power plant in northern Saudi Arabia. Under the contract, the US industrial giant is to build the Waad al-Shamal combined-cycle power plant and provide four advanced gas turbines, a steam turbine and turbine maintenance services. The 1,390-megawatt plant, which is to include solar technology, is expected to be able to provide the equivalent power needed to supply more than 500,000 Saudi homes.
RETAIL
V and D declares bankruptcy
The largest Dutch chain of department stores, US-owned Vroom and Dreesman (V and D), on Thursday declared itself bankrupt after years of losses, but said it expected a buyer to come to its rescue. Founded in 1887 in Amsterdam, the chain employs 10,000 people in 64 outlets. V and D failed to reverse a loss-making trend despite reducing the payroll and cutting wages in recent years. It reported losses of 49 million euros (US$53 million) in 2014, 42 million euros in 2013 and 19 million euros in 2012. A warm winter added to the chain’s problems at the end of this year, causing its winter collection to flop.
INVESTMENT
Canadian funds set record
Canadian pension funds, money managers and corporations acquired a record-setting US$205 billion in foreign assets last year, driving the nation’s deal total to an eight-year high. In all, there were US$281 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions involving Canadian firms through Wednesday last week, up 34 percent from a year earlier, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. It was the second-highest total on record behind 2007, when Canadians were involved in US$315 billion worth of transactions. The size of the deals involving Canadian firms were also uncharacteristically large last year with the four biggest deals worth in excess of US$10 billion for the first time since 2006, the data showed.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS