■ Oil
Production cut unlikely
The OPEC cartel will likely decide against cutting oil production in Vienna on Wednesday owing to stubbornly high prices and simmering international tensions over Iran and Nigeria. "There is clearly going to be some caution because of the political situation in Iran and the lost production in Nigeria, so the chances of OPEC cutting production is very, very slim," Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish said. OPEC is expected to keep its production quota of 28 million barrels per day, where it has remained for the past eight months, despite some disagreement among members. The threat of UN sanctions against Iran is likely to dominate output talks amid an ongoing nuclear crisis.
■ Mining
Australia going for the gold
Australia may overtake South Africa as the world's largest gold producing country later this decade as new mines start up, industry adviser Surbiton Associates said. The decision by Newmont Mining Corp and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd to develop the Boddington gold mine in Western Australia will add 30 tonnes a year to Australia's output starting 2009, Melbourne-based Surbiton said yesterday in a statement. Higher gold prices may encourage other projects, it said. Gold production in South Africa fell last year to an 82-year low of 296.3 tonnes as gains in the local currency caused mine closures, the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg said on Friday. Australia, the world's second-largest producer, produced 263 tonnes last year, 3 tonnes more than in 2004, Surbiton estimates. More than a dozen mining operations are expected to start production in Australia this year, Surbiton said.
■ Telecom
SMS still tops for users
Text messaging remains the most popular service for mobile phone users in the Asia-Pacific region despite offers for applications such as e-mail and gaming, International Data Corp (IDC) said on Friday. IDC its survey showed that less than 10 percent of mobile phone users are utilizing services other than the reliable short messaging system (SMS), or text messaging. There had been hype that the humble SMS would be eclipsed by its more advanced cousins following the emergence of pricey third generation (3G) mobile phones and more content applications. But IDC said that the "latest findings reveal that, despite the proliferation of content-rich mobile data services, the adoption of advanced services such as mobile phone payment, online mobile gaming and mobile e-mail have yet to reach noteworthy levels of usage." IDC's survey covered 4,056 urban Internet users in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
■ Automobiles
GM to sell Suzuki stake
Embattled US car maker General Motors (GM) has finalized plans to sell its entire 20 percent stake in Japan's Suzuki Motor to end a capital tie-up which dates back to 1981, a report said yesterday. The world's biggest automaker, which has been wallowing in losses, is the largest shareholder of Suzuki and has told the Japanese carmaker about its decision to end the tie-up, Japanese business daily the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without citing sources. Suzuki is also in talks with GM about selling its interest of about 11 percent in South Korea's GM Daewoo Auto and Technology Co to the US firm, the report said.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
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