■ OIL
Crude price drops US$0.18
Oil prices dropped yesterday as traders took profit from crude futures' rise last week on worries about global supplies. Light, sweet crude for delivery next month lost US$0.18 to US$76.52 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midmorning in Singapore. The contract rose US$0.40 on Friday to settle at US$76.70 a barrel, ending the week up US$2.66, or 3.6 percent. Prices have been supported by concerns about tight supplies and expectations that OPEC will keep output steady at a meeting today. OPEC is almost certain to maintain its current production target this week, with demand for gasoline and diesel fuel slackening.
■ SEMICONDUCTORS
AMD launches new chip
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) launched its highly publicized new server chip yesterday, delivering the biggest jolt to its product lineup in four years. The company's redesigned Opteron processor is the first from AMD to feature four computing engines on a single chip instead of just one or two. AMD's belated entry into the "quad-core" market is a critical element in the financially strapped company's offensive against Intel Corp, the world's largest semiconductor company, whose market value of US$148 billion makes it 21 times bigger than AMD.
■ CHINA
Car sales, output revised
Car output and sales are forecast to reach a record 9 million units this year, media reports said, amid continuing problems with overcapacity. The forecast is higher than earlier estimates of 8.5 million in sales and output, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported on Sunday, citing China Machinery Industry Federation vice president Zhang Xiaoyu (張小虞). A top economic planner warned that production capacity in the auto sector has exceeded 10 million units -- far beyond sales of 7.2 million units last year, which made it the world's second-largest auto market last year, surpassing Japan.
■ ECONOMY
IMF welcomes `reckoning'
The recent credit crunch in the financial markets has provided a welcome "reckoning" that should help in terms of long-term stability, the outgoing head of the IMF said in an interview published yesterday. Speaking to the Financial Times from Cernobbio, Italy, at a conference of international financial policymakers, IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato said this "reckoning is probably a welcome one but it does not mean that it will be a painless one." Rato, who is set to step down from his post next month, described recent market turmoil caused by problems in the US housing sector as a "serious crisis."
■ ECONOMY
IMF cuts growth forecast
The IMF will cut its forecast for world economic growth because of fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis that will weigh on US and global expansion, particularly next year. "It's too early to quantify," IMF managing director Rodrigo de Rato told a press conference in Lisbon yesterday. While most of the reduction in the forecasts will come in the US, "we see consequences in Europe and Japan, but probably much more limited." The slump in the US housing market is starting to spread from the domestic housing market to the broader economy as companies face rising financing costs as banks clamp down on lending.
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
‘A SERIOUS THREAT’: Japan has expressed grave concern over the Strait’s security over the years, which demonstrated Tokyo’s firm support for peace in the area, an official said China’s military drills around Taiwan are “incompatible” with peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) on Thursday. “Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is important for the international community, including Japan,” Iwaya told Wang during a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Kuala Lumpur. “China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan are incompatible with this,” a statement released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday cited Iwaya as saying. The Foreign Ministers’ Meetings are a series of diplomatic
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
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