■ Motoring
Fiat, GM delay agreement
Fiat SpA and General Motors Corp agreed on Sunday to delay by a year the start of agreement that would allow the Italian carmaker to sell its struggling auto unit to the US giant. GM currently owns 20 percent of Fiat Auto, and Fiat SpA had the right to sell the remaining 80 percent to GM starting next year. However, under the new agreement, the exercise of the "put" option will be delayed until Jan. 24, 2005, and will last until 2010. The move came as Fiat flails with major losses in its auto unit, and tries desperately to rebuild the company. Despite these problems, top Fiat officials have said repeatedly that they do not want to use the put option. Fiat reported a US$4.7 billion net loss last year.
■ Soft drinks
Cadbury plans job cuts
Cadbury Schweppes PLC, the world's third largest soft-drink producer and a leading confectionery maker, said yesterday it plans to cut 10 percent of its 55,000-strong global work force. The company also said it plans to close some 20 percent of the 133 factories it operates worldwide. Cadbury said it expected the moves to yield savings of US$640 million a year by 2007. The company did not specify in which countries the job cuts would be made, and a spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment. But chief executive Todd Stitzer said that "as and when we take action, people will be spoken to sensitively and thoughtfully." Confectionery sales suffered during the European heat wave in August, and the company has also complained of tough market conditions in the US beverages market and the Asia-Pacific region.
■ Television
Sharp focusing on LCDs
Japan's Sharp Corp announced yesterday that it will double capacity for liquid-crystal display (LCD) televisions to 40,000 units a month at its factory in Barcelona, Spain, next April. "The European LCD TV market has been expanding faster than we expected. We are increasing our production capacity [in Europe] to deal with the growing demand," said Masaaki Takeda, Sharp spokesman. The Barcelona plant will stop making cathode-ray tube TVs by the end of the year, he said. Sharp will eventually make similar changes at factories in Mexico and China, although the exact timing for the move is not set yet, he said. The company plans to only make LCD TVs in Japan by 2005, he said.
■ Telecoms
China buys networks
China Telecom Corp Ltd, China's largest fixed-line telephone operator, has agreed to buy six provincial networks from its parent for 46 billion yuan (US$5.5 billion) to boost revenue and expansion, the firm said yesterday. China Telecom said in a statement that it will take over networks in Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi and Sichuan provinces, as well as in Chongqing, from China Telecommuniations Corp, which owns 77.78 percent of China Telecom. The Hong Kong-listed firm said the total acquisition price includes a cash consideration of 11 billion yuan paid upon the closure of the deal and another 35 billion yuan, due in 10 years. China Telecom expects its telecom assets to generate net profit of 6.352 billion yuan this year. The deal will also boost China Telecom's user base by about 74 percent.
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
RSS