■ Automobiles
Ford raising China sourcing
Struggling US auto giant Ford Motor Co which just posted a US$5.8 billion third-quarter loss, said yesterday it plans to ramp up auto parts sourcing in China by at least US$1 billion this year. "We will purchase over US$2.6 billion worth of auto parts and systems to supply the production outside China for all our brands across the world," Ford chairman William Ford Jr said in Beijing. Ford Motor set up an auto parts procurement center in Shanghai in 2002, and has forecast an increase in purchases in China to US$10 billion by 2010.
■ China
Pressure on yuan: expert
The yuan could rise further given the nation's relatively high interest rates, the chief researcher at the People's Bank of China said yesterday. There is still upward pressure on the yuan because relatively high Chinese interest rates is causing a continued inflow of funds from abroad, said Tang Xu (唐旭), director-general of the bank's research bureau. However, encouraging Chinese households and firms to buy US dollar assets could help to relax pressure on the currency to some extent, he said. Two days before Tang's comments, bank Vice Governor Wu Xiaoling (吳曉靈) said Beijing would carry out exchange rate reform "in a controlled and gradual manner on our own initiative."
■ Locomotives
Alstom to supply China
Alstom SA of France signed a contract worth 1.2 billion euros (US$1.5 billion) yesterday for the delivery of 500 freight locomotives to China, according to an Agence France Presse report. Alstom will link up with China's Datong Electric Locomotive to deliver the trains, with Alstom's share of the contract coming to 300 million euros, it said. Alstom will be in charge of designing the locomotives, described by Alstom Chief Executive Patrick Kron as "the most powerful in the world." The first 110 of the locomotives will be produced at Alstom's plant in Belfort, France, before production moves to facilities in north China operated by Datong Electronic Locomotives.
■ Gaming
Nintendo's profit up 50%
Japan's Nintendo Co said yesterday it posted a nearly 50 percent increase in net profit in the first half of this fiscal year thanks to its brisk sales of portable computer games. The strong earnings came as the portable machine leader prepares to challenge Sony Corp's dominance in home consoles, with Nintendo's next-generation Wii machine set to hit the market in December. Nintendo reported ?54.35 billion (US$455.29 million) in net profit, up 48.4 percent from a year earlier, in the April-September term. The Kyoto-based company expects net profit of ?100 billion on ?740 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending next March.
■ Semiconductors
Hynix to upgrade lines
South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor said yesterday it would invest 716 billion won (US$750 million) to upgrade production lines after reporting solid third-quarter results. The world's second-largest computer memory chipmaker said that with the Icheon project, southeast of Seoul, it will have invested 2.3 trillion won in the country this year. It said that third-quarter net profit came to 390 billion won, down 26 percent from a year earlier but up 17 percent from the second quarter. Sales rose 23 percent to 1.97 trillion won from a year earlier on strong demand.
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 —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
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
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