FOOD
Belgium knew about eggs
German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt on Saturday expressed concern about news that Belgian authorities first learned about the possible contamination of eggs with an insecticide in June, a month before the issue became public. Schmidt plans to call his Belgian counterpart today to discuss the current situation and “particularly the new information,” a ministry spokesman said. Millions of eggs have been pulled from supermarkets in Germany and the Netherlands in a widening scandal over possible contamination by the insecticide fipronil. Discount supermarket chain Aldi said it was withdrawing all eggs from sale at its stores in Germany as a precaution.
EGYPT
Price hikes announced
Egypt’s official state news agency MENA on Friday reported that the governor of Cairo had announced a 50 percent increase in transportation fares, a day after the government increased fees for drinking water and sewage. The agency quoted Cairo Governor Atef Abdel-Hamid as saying the increase amounts to half an Egyptian pound (US$0.03) for buses and it would go into effect on Friday. The daily el-Shorouk reported fares for short rides increased from 1 pound to 1.5 pounds. Egypt is taking steps to reform its economy, including flotation of the currency and cutting subsidies.
AVIATION
Rockwell Collins coveted
Jet engine manufacturer United Technologies Corp is weighing an acquisition of aviation equipment supplier Rockwell Collins Inc, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that would potentially rank among the largest ever in the aerospace industry. Rockwell Collins, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has a market value of US$19.3 billion, raising the prospect that a transaction would top United Technologies’ own US$18 billion purchase of Goodrich Corp in 2012. While United Technologies makes a variety of aircraft parts, Rockwell Collins specializes in products that would complement its lineup: avionics and aircraft interiors. Its top competitors include Honeywell International Inc and France’s Safran SA.
MINING
Miner sits on giant diamond
Nearly two years after unearthing a tennis-ball-sized 1,109-carat rough diamond, Canada’s Lucara Diamond Corp is considering forming a partnership to sell the stone if it still does not have a deal in the next six to eight weeks. Lucara, which failed to sell the world’s largest uncut stone at Sotheby’s auction house in June last year, continues to receive offers, chief executive William Lamb said on Friday. The Vancouver-based miner is mulling “one or two” options for an outright sale, but such bids have failed to meet financial scrutiny in the past, Lamb said. Lucara’s board regularly discusses how best to capitalize on the diamond, he said.
START-UPS
Blue Apron moves facility
Blue Apron Holdings Inc is closing a New Jersey facility and moving 1,270 jobs to a bigger site opening in the state later this year. More than half of the employees at the Jersey City facility have decided to move to Linden, New Jersey, a company spokeswoman said on Friday. According to a public notice, the original fulfillment center is to close by October. Workers notified on Friday of the changes will still have the opportunity to relocate to the new warehouse, the spokeswoman said. The 1,270 affected employees represent about 24 percent of the company’s workforce.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of
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