■CHINA
‘Excessive’ inflows tackled
Beijing will “appropriately control” “excessive” capital inflows and continue with a crackdown on illegal fund inflows, a State Administration of Foreign Exchange official said. China has to strengthen capital controls in order to maintain currency and price stability, Guan Tao (管濤), head of the currency regulator’s international payments department, said during a forum in Beijing on Saturday, citing economic theories. A transcript of his remarks was posted on the Economic Observer newspaper’s Web site. More foreign capital will flow into China this year as global financial markets recover, Guan said in his speech. The nation’s international payments this year will resume growth and the pace may outstrip its economic expansion, as the world economy stabilizes, according to the transcript.
■AUTOMOBILES
Mazda moves Chinese plant
Mazda Motor Corp, 11 percent owned by Ford Motor Co, will move the Chinese production of its Mazda 3 model to Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, from Chongqing in May. The Japanese company’s venture with Ford and China’s Chongqing Changan Automobile Co (重慶長安汽車) makes vehicles in Nanjing and Chongqing, the Mazda Web site showed. “Mazda will move Mazda 3’s production base to Nanjing in response to its rising sales and to meet demand,” spokesman Ken Haruki said by telephone yesterday. The Nikkei Shimbun earlier reported the three companies agreed in principle they will spin off the Nanjing factory, which Mazda and Chongqing Changan will own.
■CARGO
HK volume up 16.2 percent
Hong Kong International Airport posted a 16.2 percent rise in cargo volume in the fourth quarter of last year compared with the same period in 2008. Cargo shipments last month also rose 35.5 percent to 330,000 tonnes as trade began to recover from the effects of the global economic slowdown, a statement released by the airport yesterday said. Cargo trade for last year fell 7.7 percent to 3.35 million tonnes, the statement said. Passenger numbers declined 5 percent to 46.1 million.
■VENEZUELA
Oil industry untouched
The nation’s oil industry is untouched by electricity rationing that is causing blackouts across the OPEC country, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said, adding that most oil operations have their own power supplies. Businesses and homes are being hit by rolling blackouts aimed at sharply reducing power consumption. The hydroelectricity-dependent country is suffering a severe drought caused by the EL Nino weather anomaly. “Production has not been affected at all, neither has refining or upgrading,” Ramirez said late on Friday. Some of the country’s oil is a tar-like crude that has to upgraded to a lighter liquid before it can be exported.
■STEEL
Algeria strike intensifies
More than 7,000 workers at steel giant ArcelorMittal’s plant in Algeria will intensify a strike aimed at forcing the management to revamp the ageing El Hadjar complex, a trade union leader said on Saturday. “We will continue with the strike and this week we will step up our protest,” said Smain Kouadria, the secretary general of the plant’s union. Workers went on strike on Tuesday to protest the planned closure of the coking plant, which employs 320 people. It would cost US$40 million to renovate, experts said when the plant was closed down in October.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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