■ Semiconductors
Chip sales up 39 percent
Global sales of chipmaking equipment rose 39 percent in December to US$2.59 billion, marking a fifth consecutive month of year-on-year increases, two industry groups said. Chipmaking equipment sales in Korea more than doubled to US$402.6 million in the month, marking the largest gain worldwide, according to a release from the Semiconductor Equipment and Material International organization and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan. Sales in Taiwan had the largest share with US$542.5 million in December, or a 71 percent rise from a year ago, while sales in Japan totaled US$531.4 million, a 47 percent gain. North American sales fell 29 percent in December to US$450.8 million.
■ Labor
Strikes cost S Korea billions
South Korean manufact-urers had to forgo production worth 2.5 trillion won (US$2.2 billion) last year because of labor strikes, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said in Seoul. The strikes also reduced exports by US$1.1 billion, 85 percent of which stemmed from production stoppages at Hyundai Motor Co, the country's largest automaker, and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp, the ministry said. Production slumped in the second and third quarters of last year as unionized workers downed tools to help win better pay. That helped cause South Korea's economic growth to halve to about 3 percent last year. Labor strikes at six large companies including Hyundai Motor accounted for 86 percent of production losses and 95 percent of export losses, the government said.
■ Automobiles
Hyundai signs China deal
South Korea's largest automaker Hyundai has inked a US$200 million contract for its China joint venture to export 19,000 Sonata sedans to Russia -- China's biggest ever car export deal, state press reported yesterday. Shipments of the cars manufactured by Beijing Hyundai will begin in April, the Oriental Morning Post quoted Hyundai Beijing chairman Xu Heyi as saying. "The Ministry of Commerce said the export deal equals all the sedan cars exported overseas since the founding of China [in 1949]," Xu said. Other financial details were not provided. Beijing Hyundai Motor, a 50-50 joint venture set up in late 2001 with Beijing Automotive Industry Holding, sold 55,000 Sonata's last year. The company was the first automobile joint venture approved by China after its entry to the WTO in December 2001.
■ Security
More ATMs monitored
More than 80 percent of bank cash machines in Hong Kong have had closed circuit TV monitoring installed after audacious theft attempts, a survey found yesterday. Security was stepped up at banks around the territory after sophisticated spy cameras installed by thieves to film people tapping in their secret ID numbers were found next to machines. Some of the spy cameras were installed inside the frame of the cash machines, and positioned to transmit video of the keyboard being used to a remote location. The thieves intended to record the numbers then pickpocket customers to empty their accounts, police believed, although the spy cameras were found before many people were targeted. A Consumer Council survey found that since the discovery, 82 percent of banks had installed closed-circuit TV.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
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