■ STEEL
Hyundai may build furnace
Hyundai Steel Co, South Korea's second-largest steelmaker, may spend 2.3 trillion won (US$2.4 billion) to build a third blast furnace by 2015 as demand for steel used in cars and ships soars. The plant, which burns iron ore and coal, may produce 4 million tonnes of steel a year, Kim Soo-min, executive vice president of the Incheon-based company, said on Friday. Output from its first two blast furnaces under construction will start from 2010.
■ OIL
Exxon reports flaring
Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's largest oil company, reported a jet vent gas compressor tripped and caused flaring yesterday at its refinery in Baytown, Texas. The incident at unit C901 didn't affect production and all customer needs are being met, Exxon Mobil said in a filing to the Texas Commission on the Environmental Quality Web site. The event began yesterday at 3:03am and was expected to continue until 9:03pm, the report said. The Baytown refinery, the largest in the US, has an oil-processing capacity of 586,000 barrels a day and accounts for about 3.3 percent of the US' total refining capacity.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Honda to build new plant
Honda Motor Co will spend US$485 million to build a new factory complex in Japan to produce small vehicles as consumers are shifting to less fuel-hungry models, a report said yesterday. The carmaker will build the complex in the western city of Yokkaichi at a cost of some ?50 billion (US$485 million), the Nikkei Shimbun said without naming sources. Honda plans to start operating an engine factory next year and assembly lines around 2010 with an annual output capacity of 240,000 vehicles, it said. The group aims to cut its production and distribution costs by at least 30 percent at the new complex, it said.
■ GOLD
Mine tax reviewed
Chile's government said Argentina has yet to agree to all the terms of a tax treaty that will allow Barrick Gold Corp to develop a gold project that straddles the border of both countries. The Argentine government is "still studying" a clause agreed to in a 2004 cross-border mining accord that it won't tax mineral Barrick smelts on its side of the border, the Chilean Internal Tax Service known as SII said in an e-mailed statement on Saturday. Argentine Mining Minister Jorge Mayoral said on Wednesday that Barrick would start construction of the mine-site in September. Barrick will spend 7.44 billion pesos (US$2.36 billion) developing the Pascua Lama project, which contains both gold and silver.
■ BANKING
Trader to undergo tests
The French trader charged in a 4.9 billion euro (US$7.1 billion) scandal at Societe Generale has been ordered to undergo psychiatric tests by investigating judges, a legal source said on Saturday. Jerome Kerviel, 31, has been in custody for the last month suspected of what Societe Generale says were unauthorized trades worth at least 50 billion euros -- more than the bank's own capital. He is charged with breach of trust, fabricating documents and illegally accessing computers, but escaped the more serious charge of fraud. His examination by a psychiatrist is aimed at determining if Kerviel's judgement was affected during his actions.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
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