■MINING
Lihir supports takeover
Australian gold miner Lihir yesterday gave its backing to a A$9.5 billion (US$8.8 billion) takeover by rival Newcrest, which the firms said would create the world’s fourth-largest gold producer. Lihir Gold’s directors unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favor of the offer at this stage, but said they would nonetheless continue discussions with multiple other interested parties. Newcrest chairman Don Mercer said the merger would combine operations in Australia, Fiji, Indonesia, the Ivory Coast and Papua New Guinea. “The combined organization will become Asia-Pacific’s leading gold producer and it will become the world’s fourth biggest gold company,” he said.
■AUTOMOBILES
Dongfeng Nissan recalls cars
Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle, a Sino-Japanese joint venture, has launched a recall of 84,200 autos due to an oil leaking defect, state media reported yesterday. The recall was launched on Saturday and covers 69,285 Sylphy cars produced from January 2006 to July 2008, and 14,915 Qashqai compact sports utility vehicles made between August 2007 and July 2008, the Global Times said. The defect could cause vehicles to leak oil when driven with heavy loads for a long period of time, the newspaper said, citing customs.
■CONSTRUCTION
Daewoo to build oil facility
South Korea’s Daewoo Engineering and Construction said yesterday it had signed a US$272 million deal to build an oil storage facility in the United Arab Emirates. It said the deal was signed with a unit of state-run Abu Dhabi Oil Refining. Construction will begin this month for completion in November 2012, it added. The company said the deal brought the total value of its overseas orders so far this year to US$870 million.
■MINING
Russia firm plans HK listing
A mining company run by UC Rusal chief Oleg Deripaska is considering a US$200 million share sale in Hong Kong, which would be the city’s second listing by a Russian firm, a report said yesterday. Strikeforce Mining and Resources (SMR), a unit of the Russian oligarch’s Basic Element investment group, hopes to list in Hong Kong by May 27 if regulators approve the sale, the Financial Times said, quoting an unnamed source close to the deal.
■AVIATION
A380 still to take off: EADS
European aircraft maker Airbus must wait until late next year or 2012 before getting significant orders for its giant A380 airliner, the head of its parent company EADS said yesterday in a German daily. “Airlines must get through the crisis first. For that reason, I do not expect many orders in 2010,” EADS chief executive Louis Gallois told the newspaper Bild. “They will probably only become significant towards the end of 2011 or early 2012,” he said.
■CONGLOMERATES
Banks agree on Dubai World
Most Dubai World creditors have agreed to the terms for restructuring the troubled conglomerate’s debts, a state-owned daily said yesterday. “Most of the banks have agreed on the offer after studying the size of the obligations remaining on the group and the amounts it will pay,” Al-Bayan said, citing an unidentified negotiator who represents the banks. It is likely “that all the banks will sign the contract presented by the company,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. He said the banks would respond within two weeks, it said.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
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