■ ENERGY
Hitachi, GE to team up
Japan’s Hitachi and US giant General Electric will team up to sell midsize nuclear reactors to meet growing demand for power facilities in Southeast Asia, a Hitachi spokesman said yesterday. The move comes as soaring crude oil prices and worries about global warming spur interest in nuclear power. The move is aimed at tapping into the markets in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand, where demand for reactors with output of one million kilowatts or less is expected to grow, spokesman Masayuki Takeuchi said.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Toyota 2Q sales up
Toyota Motor Corp, challenging General Motors Corp’s 77-year reign as the global auto leader, said preliminary second-quarter sales rose about 2 percent on higher demand in China and other emerging markets. The company sold about 2.406 million vehicles in the three months ended June 30, compared with 2.36 million a year earlier, Hideaki Homma, a spokesman, said by phone today. The company didn’t give a breakdown for regional sales. Toyota’s expansion to China, Brazil and other new markets made up for a drop in US sales in the period.
■ INTERNET
Joost opens in China
Internet TV service provider Joost said it launched a Chinese service yesterday with local portal TOM Online to tap the world’s largest online market. The company has also set up a joint venture with Hong Kong-listed TOM Group, parent of TOM Online, to bring a full Joost offering to China, Joost said in a statement posted on its Web site. “There’s a great market opportunity in China: content producers who are making high-quality content, advertisers eager to reach consumers online, and an active online community,” CEO Mike Volpi said. “Collaborating with TOM, which operates one of the most popular online portals in China, positions us strongly in the region,” he said in the statement.
■ TAKEOVERS
Tokio Marine buys US firm
Japanese non-life insurance giant Tokio Marine Holdings announced yesterday that it would buy US counterpart Philadelphia Consolidated Holdings Corp for about US$4.7 billion. The US firm’s board members agreed unanimously to a friendly takeover, Tokio Marine Holdings said in a statement. “Through the acquisition, our company aims to put a foot in a major non-life insurance market and realise a significant gain in income from overseas,” Tokio Marine, Japan’s largest non-life insurer, said in a statement. Under the deal, Tokio Marine Nichido, an affiliate of the Japanese non-insurance group, would form a new company in Pennsylvania that will merge with the US firm by December, subject to regulatory approval.
■ RETAIL
Costco earnings miss target
Costco Wholesale Corp, the largest US warehouse-club chain, said earnings will be “well below” analysts’ estimates after surging energy prices increased the retailer’s costs and made selling gasoline less profitable. Fourth-quarter earnings per share are expected to miss the US$1 consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call, Costco said in a statement. The retailer also said it plans to buy back an extra US$1 billion of shares. Chief financial officer Richard Galanti said the company kept prices lower than planned to retain customers amid record fuel prices and the worst housing market since the Great Depression.
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
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