■ OIL
Shell to sell two refineries
Royal Dutch Shell PLC has signed a letter of intent to sell two oil refineries in France to Petroplus Holdings AG for US$875 million, Shell said yesterday. The deal, to close next year, would also include an agreement for Shell to help Petroplus develop and sell specialty lubricants. Shell said the sale, if completed, "would be part of an ongoing strategic review of a number of Shell's refining and petrochemicals assets" and includes the Petit Couronne and Reichstett Vendenheim refineries. The two refineries have a combined capacity of 220,000 barrels per day.
■ ENERGY
KEPCO mulls US purchase
Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) is considering buying a power plant in the US as its president left yesterday to meet his counterparts at major power companies such as General Electric Co, Bechtel Corp and Westinghouse Electric Co, a media report said. KEPCO president Lee Won-gul was to depart yesterday for a six-day trip to the US, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing an unnamed company spokesman. While in the US, Lee will sign an agreement next Tuesday to cooperate with GE unit GE Energy in power generation and distribution, the company said in a statement.
■ MINING
Inco to build nickel plants
Canadian nickel miner Inco Ltd's Indonesia unit plans to build two new nickel plants on Sulawesi island at a cost of US$2.5 billion, an Indonesia executive said yesterday. "We expect to start building the plants next year in an effort to increase our nickel output to 300 million pounds [136 million kilograms]by 2016," said Arif Siregar, chief executive of PT International Nickel Indonesia (PT Inco). The Indonesian company's nickel output this year is expected to be 75 million kilograms.
■ CONSUMER GOODS
Unilever posts rise in profits
Unilever, the maker of consumer products such as Axe deodorants, Dove soaps and Lipton teas, reported a 16 percent rise in net profit for the second quarter on Wednesday, mostly due to strong consumer demand. "The strongest performances have been in personal care, tea, and household cleaning products," Unilever NV/PLC said. The Dutch-British maker of Ben and Jerry's ice cream said ice cream, savory and laundry products "also contributed strongly" to growth. Net profit was 1.14 billion euros (US1.56 billion), up from 986 million euros, on sales of 10.5 billion euros, up 1.9 percent from 10.3 billion euros.
■ COMPUTERS
Lenovo regains No. 3 spot
Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's No. 3 personal computer maker, said yesterday its latest quarterly profits rose 12-fold as the Beijing-based company tried to establish itself as a global brand. Profits were US$66.8 million for the quarter ended June 30, up from US$5.2 million in the year-earlier period, the company announced. "The group recorded strong growth in PC unit shipments in all the geographies," the company said in a statement. Shipments in the US and the rest of the Americas rose 15 percent following a turnaround by the previously struggling division in those markets, Lenovo said. Lenovo dropped to fourth place in worldwide PC shipments in the first quarter of the year behind Taiwanese rival Acer Inc. It recovered its No. 3 ranking in the latest quarter, with 8 percent of the market, according to research firm Gartner Inc.
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
There is no need for one country to control the semiconductor industry, which is complex and needs a division of labor, Taiwan’s top technology official said yesterday after US President Donald Trump criticized the nation’s chip dominance. Trump repeated claims on Thursday that Taiwan had taken the industry and he wanted it back in the US, saying he aimed to restore US chip manufacturing. National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) did not name Trump in a Facebook post, but referred to President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments on Friday that Taiwan would be a reliable partner in the