■ Trade
US mulling regional FTA
The US has sounded out its Asian and Pacific partners on the possibility of creating a regional free trade agreement (FTA) as a "middle and long-term" objective, a press report said yesterday. The US administration would seek an agreement on its regional FTA proposal during the APEC summit in Hanoi on Nov. 18 and Nov. 19, the newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported. The US State Department had approached the Japanese foreign and trade ministries in October and said Washington wanted to discuss the possibility of an APEC-wide FTA, the daily quoted Japanese government sources as saying.
■ Steel
Nippon buys into Usiminas
Japan's Nippon Steel Corp plans to buy a 1.7 percent stake in major Brazilian steelmaker Usiminas to expand its supply capacity for the Americas and Europe, a report said yesterday. The top Japanese steelmaker is also considering taking part in a blast furnace project in Brazil planned by Usiminas, or Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais SA, the leading business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported. The two companies are due to announce the plan early this week with details of the investment to be worked out later, the paper said, adding that Nippon Steel would buy the equity by year's end.
■ Stock markets
NYSE to cut floor space
The NYSE has announced plans to cut back its floor trading space in a further move toward electronic trading as it tries to cut costs and keep up with global competition. The world's biggest equity market, one of the last that still uses a system of open-cry trading, said it would close one of its five trading floors within the next 18 months, citing improvements in technology that make trading more efficient. The NYSE traces its roots to a gathering of 24 brokers under a tree on Wall Street in 1792 but is now coping with rapid technological change and globalization. Wall Street's most well-known institution underwent a change last year to become a publicly traded company under the ticker "NYX."
■ Banking
DB hiring new staff
Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, said it would be hiring new staff in the years to come in both Asia and Germany, but rejected a news report on Saturday that it was transferring thousands of German jobs to India. Spokesman Ronald Weichert said, "We want to grow the workforce in Germany and worldwide," but gave no figures. Without providing further details, he rejected a report in the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel that three Deutsche Bank subsidiaries in India would increase their joint workforce to 2,200 by the end of this year and to 4,000 next year.
■ Oil
Shell mulls Iran bid
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's second-largest oil company, may bid on the "Master Development Plan" for Iran's offshore Kish gas field, the Iranian Oil Ministry said on its Web sites. Several domestic and foreign companies including Shell have shown interest in taking part in the tender on the field in the Persian Gulf, the report on the Web site said, citing Iran's Offshore Oil Company managing director Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh. The ministry didn't give further details. Shell, together with Madrid-based Repsol YPF SA and National Iranian Oil Co, holds a stake in a US$2.5 billion Iranian liquefied natural gas project.
CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船) yesterday released the first video documenting the submerged sea trials of Taiwan’s indigenous defense submarine prototype, the Hai Kun (海鯤), or Narwhal, showing underwater navigation and the launch of countermeasures. The footage shows the vessel’s first dive, steering and control system tests, and the raising and lowering of the periscope and antenna masts. It offered a rare look at the progress in the submarine’s sea acceptance tests. The Hai Kun carried out its first shallow-water diving trial late last month and has since completed four submerged tests, CSBC said. The newly released video compiles images recorded from Jan. 29 to
DETERRENCE EFFORTS: Washington and partners hope demonstrations of force would convince Beijing that military action against Taiwan would carry high costs The US is considering using HMAS Stirling in Western Australia as a forward base to strengthen its naval posture in a potential conflict with China, particularly over Taiwan, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. As part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, Washington plans to deploy up to four nuclear-powered submarines at Stirling starting in 2027, providing a base near potential hot spots such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. The move also aims to enhance military integration with Pacific allies under the Australia-UK-US trilateral security partnership, the report said. Currently, US submarines operate from Guam, but the island could
RESTRAINTS: Should China’s actions pose any threat to Taiwan’s security, economic or social systems, China would be excluded from major financial institutions, the bill says The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the PROTECT Taiwan Act, which states that Washington would exclude China from participating in major global financial organizations if its actions directly threaten Taiwan’s security. The bill, proposed by Republican Representative Frank Lucas, passed with 395 votes in favor and two against. It stipulates that if China’s actions pose any threat to Taiwan’s security, economic or social systems, the US would, “to the maximum extent practicable,” exclude Beijing from international financial institutions, including the G20, the Bank for International Settlements and the Financial Stability Board. The bill makes it clear that China must be prepared
Taiwanese trade negotiators told Washington that Taipei would not relocate 40 percent of its semiconductor production to the US, and that its most advanced technologies would remain in the nation, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said on Sunday. “I told the US side very clearly — that’s impossible,” Cheng, who led the negotiation team, said in an interview that aired on Sunday night on Chinese Television System. Cheng was referring to remarks last month by US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, in which he said his goal was to bring 40 percent of Taiwan’s chip supply chain to the US Taiwan’s almost
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