■ Auto industry
Kia workers halt stoppage
Workers at South Korea's Kia Motors Corp yesterday ended an 11-day work stoppage after the union and management reached an agreement on higher pay and improved conditions, the company said. Overnight marathon talks ended in an accord early yesterday that included an average 6.9 percent rise in basic monthly salary and a bonus of three months' salary. The two sides also agreed to abolish overnight shiftwork from 2009. Union members they would return to work yesterday, ending the partial strike that has cost Kia Motors some US$400 million in lost production, according to management. The agreement came after workers at Kia's sister company, Hyundai Motor, the nation's largest carmaker, approved a deal last week to end their two-week strike action.
■ Game consoles
Sony recalls PS2 adaptors
Sony Corp recalled about 3.6 million adaptors used in its best-selling PlayStation 2 game console because the component may overheat and could cause a fire. The adaptors, which are used to power the game console, were manufactured in the four months ending December last year and were sold with the game consoles worldwide starting in November, the Tokyo-based company said yesterday in a statement. Sony will replace the adaptors free of charge. As many as 2.3 million units are affected in Europe, 960,000 units in North America, 210,000 units in Asia, and 60,000 units in Japan, Tokyo-based spokesman Daisuke Nakata said. The cost of the recall is not known, he said. Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc said it received 38 reports of the adaptors overheating, including 19 reports of melting, according to the statement.
■ Chemicals
DuPont to increase prices
DuPont Co said on Monday that it plans to raise prices for all of its products in response to rapidly increasing costs for energy and feedstocks. The Wilmington-based chemical giant cited a report by DuPont corporate economist Robert Shrouds indicating that record-high energy prices, further exacerbated by Hurricane Katrina, will be a factor for the foreseeable future. Diane Gulyas, DuPont's chief marketing officer, said the company expects all of its 80 business units to be affected by higher energy costs, especially its performance materials and coatings and color technologies divisions, but that it's too soon to tell how high product prices will go.
■ Energy
Pig manure a power source
They cannot escape the stench, but residents of tiny Reynolds, Indiana, hope the oceans of hog manure produced nearby will power their homes and businesses some day soon. "We're very excited," town president Charlie Van Voorst. "They're advertising us as a showcase for the world." Indiana's energy conservation-minded Governor Mitch Daniels was to take his ethanol-powered recreational vehicle to Reynolds yesterday to designate the single stoplight town the world's first "Biotown." Initially, the 500 townspeople will lease or buy vehicles that run on high concentrations of corn-based ethanol or soy diesel from soybeans. The second phase will install power-generating equipment that burns gas made from manure, according to Deborah Abbott of the state agriculture department. The electricity generated will be used to power homes and businesses.
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
‘A SERIOUS THREAT’: Japan has expressed grave concern over the Strait’s security over the years, which demonstrated Tokyo’s firm support for peace in the area, an official said China’s military drills around Taiwan are “incompatible” with peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) on Thursday. “Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is important for the international community, including Japan,” Iwaya told Wang during a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Kuala Lumpur. “China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan are incompatible with this,” a statement released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday cited Iwaya as saying. The Foreign Ministers’ Meetings are a series of diplomatic
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
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