■AVIATION
Air France-KLM traffic drops
Air France-KLM, Europe’s biggest airline, said yesterday that passenger traffic fell sharply last month as the economic situation deteriorated. “March saw another, sharp deterioration in the [economic] environment,” it said in a statement, adding that a near 3 percent cut in capacity was not enough to offset the wider downturn, with revenues slipping accordingly. It said it carried 5.6 million passengers last month, down 9.8 percent from February, with the load factor falling 5.5 percentage points to 75.5 percent. Cargo traffic was up 1.3 percent, it said.
■ECONOMY
Eurozone GDP shrinks 1.6%
The eurozone economy shrank 1.6 percent in the last three months of last year from the previous quarter amid collapsing exports and dwindling investment, official EU data released yesterday show. The figure was slightly down on a March 5 estimate for a contraction of 1.5 percent in GDP, the Eurostat statistics agency said. Compared with the same period in 2007, GDP shrank 1.5 percent. The combined economy of the 27 EU nations also contracted, down 1.5 percent in late last year compared with the previous quarter, and 1.4 percent compared with the last three months of 2007.
■RAILWAYS
Thales, Binladin to ink deal
French defense group Thales and construction giant Saudi Binladin Group were to sign contracts yesterday on a 2 billion riyal (US$533 million) contract to build Saudi Arabia’s ambitious North-South Railway, government and company officials said. The two companies have been chosen to build signaling and security systems for the main 1,800km section of the US$2.8 billion railroad, they said. The railway will link rich bauxite and phosphorus mines in the far north with planned Gulf coast processing and export facilities at Ras al-Zour.
■MINING
Rio Tinto to cut 700 jobs
Rio Tinto Ltd said yesterday it would cut more than 700 jobs at Australian mines owing to a drop in aluminum demand and prices. The miner said it would also slow expansion of a refinery at one mine and cut this year’s production of bauxite — the chief mineral used to produce aluminum — by 22.7 percent to 15 million tonnes from 19.4 million tonnes last year.
■INVESTMENT
Bids received for AIG unit
About half a dozen investment managers have put forward bids, ranging from US$400 million to US$800 million, for troubled insurer American International Group’s (AIG) asset management business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Private equity firms Ashmore Investment Management, Hellman & Friedman LLC, Rhone Group and TA Associates as well as mutual fund manager Franklin Templeton and asset manager Southgate Alternative Investments are among those who have shown interest, the Journal said in a report on its Web site.
■LABOR
Vietnam to hike state wages
Vietnam will raise the minimum salary for state employees by 20 percent to ease cost of living increases, the government said yesterday. Starting from May 1, the minimum monthly salary for civil servants and those who work for state-owned enterprises will increase to 650,000 dong (US$37) from 540,000 dong (US$31), the government said on its Web site. The government warned businesses not to make use of the minimum salary increase to hike prices of goods and services.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
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