■ Commodities
China to auction copper
China will auction another 20,000 tonnes of copper in Beijing next week to ease supply conditions, the country's top economic body, said yesterday. The State Reserve Bureau (SRB) has already taken a total of 60,000 tonnes of copper from the country's strategic reserves for sales on Nov. 16, Nov. 23 and Nov. 30. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said the fourth auction would be held on Wednesday. The SRB failed to sell all of the copper at the last two auctions but traders said this was because the floor prices set were too high and the quality of the copper was deemed unsatisfactory. The SRB auctions come amid continued speculation that a Chinese copper trader who worked for the SRB is sitting on the wrong side of bets on the price.
■ Pharmaceuticals
Merck unit to cut jobs
The Japanese unit of US drug maker Merck & Co will trim 8 percent of its work force and shut one plant and two laboratories under a three-year reorganization that was announced by the parent overnight, a company official said yesterday. Kazuko Kamiya, spokeswoman for Banyu Pharmaceutical Co, Merck's Japanese subsidiary, said a plant in Okazaki which makes the antibiotic Tienam, will be shut down by December next year, and two laboratories, in Okazaki and Menuma, will be shut down by March. The firm will cut 300 jobs in Japan over the next year, or 8 percent of the 3,800 workers now in Japan. Banyu declined to break down which facilities would be affected by the cuts. The company's remaining facilities in Japan include a plant in Menuma and a laboratory in Tsukuba, as well as 15 regional sales offices and its Tokyo headquarters, spokesman Tetsuro Kobayashi said.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
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