■ Tourism
Holiday travel predictions
Chinese authorities expect tourists to take 2.2 billion trips over the Lunar New Year holiday in February, a news report said yesterday. Tourists are expected to take nearly 2 billion trips by road during the 40-day travel season that begins Feb. 3, the Xinhua news agency said, citing the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's main planning agency. Travelers will take 155 million trips by train and more than 19 million by air, Xinhua said.
■ Automobiles
Carmaker chiefs meet
Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp confirmed that Chairman Fujio Cho met Ford Motor Co President and CEO Alan Mulally in the wake of media reports of talks last week in Tokyo, a company spokeswoman said yesterday. Toyota spokeswoman Yasue Kato said Cho and Mulally "met and exchanged greetings," but refused to offer any further details, including when and where the talks took place. The meeting was held at Ford's request, the Kyodo news agency said yesterday, citing an unidentified Toyota official. The talks appear to have focused on how the two companies can strengthen cooperation in environmental technology, Kyodo and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
■ Electronics
New DRAM chip released
Samsung Electronics Co said yesterday it has developed a new mobile memory chip that is thinner and uses less power than its predecessor. The 1-gigabit mobile DRAM is at least 20 percent thinner than the existing product, which stacks up two 512-megabit chips and uses about 30 percent less power than the predecessor, Samsung said in a release. The new product can be used for a wide range of advanced handset applications as well as for digital still cameras, portable media players and portable gaming products, the company said. "Samsung plans to mass produce the new device beginning in the second quarter of 2007," the company said.
■ Cellphones
Essar to buy partners
India's Essar group, which owns a 33 percent stake in mobile phone firm Hutchison Essar, has offered to buy out its partners in the company, a report said yesterday. The Essar group has the first rights to buy the 52 percent stake owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa. The remaining 15 percent is held by two individuals. Analysts said the company is worth approximately US$15 billion. The Essar group made the offer through its advisors, Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns, who met senior Hutchison officials in Hong Kong on Tuesday, the Economic Times said yesterday.
■ US economy
Retail rises moderately
US retail spending rose modestly over the Christmas holiday season, helped by a late surge from last-minute shoppers, surveys showed. The data suggested the world's biggest economy continued to grow, but at a less than spectacular pace. A report on Tuesday by MasterCard research arm SpendingPulse showed overall spending up 6.6 percent excluding automobiles. But adjusted for an extra shopping day this year, the growth was only 3 percent. That compared with 8.7 percent growth last year, or 5.2 percent after adjustments. The report noted that electronics and luxury retail sales were generally strong, while apparel spending lagged.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
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