■MINING
Rio Tinto invests in US mine
Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto yesterday said it was investing US$469 million to develop a nickel and copper mine in the US. Construction of the Kennecott Eagle mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula will begin this year. “Moving to the construction phase of Eagle is part of our strategy to increase investment in attractive growth projects in 2010,” Andrew Harding, head of Rio’s copper division, said in a statement.
■REAL ESTATE
Australia warned of bubble
US investment guru Jeremy Grantham said yesterday that Australia is facing a “time bomb” housing bubble that will be set off by rising interest rates. Grantham said Australian house prices needed to fall 42 percent to reach the long-term trend. “You cannot possibly miss it,” he told the Australian newspaper. “The price of housing typically trades about 3.5 times of family income and in a bubble it goes to six or 7.5 times. Australia is having one now.”
■ENERGY
Hyundai to build Saudi plant
South Korean construction firm Hyundai Heavy Industries said yesterday it had signed a US$1.6 billion contract to build a power plant in Saudi Arabia. The company said it would complete the 1,729 megawatt gas-fired plant by 2013, as part of Saudi Arabia’s long-term plans to expand its power production capacity. Hyundai Heavy said it expects more power contracts in the Middle East due to high oil revenues and the rapid growth of the region’s economies and population.
■AUTOMOBILES
Suzuki to boost India output
Suzuki Motor plans to boost its production capacity for passenger cars in India to 1.45 million vehicles a year in 2012, topping its output in Japan for the first time, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday. Suzuki’s local unit, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., will invest ¥2 billion US$21 million) to ¥4 billion this year to upgrade its two existing factories, increasing its capacity to 1.2 million units from about 1 million at present, the paper cited Suzuki president Shinzo Nakanishi as saying.
■UNITED KINGDOM
FSA to lose key role
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was scheduled yesterday to give the Bank of England the main responsibility for ensuring the country’s financial stability, as part of a regulatory shake-up. Reports said Osborne would use his first annual Mansion House speech to business leaders to strip the Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulator of the role. The FSA was strongly criticized for failing to carry out its duties during the 2007 to 2008 banking crisis.
■AUTOMOBILES
Tesla Motors planning IPO
US electric carmaker Tesla Motors said on Tuesday it plans to offer 11.1 million shares priced between US$14 and US$16 in an initial public offering that could raise about US$178 million. The Palo Alto, California-based automaker, which is seeking to be listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol “TSLA,” outlined the terms for its share offering in an amended filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. No date was set for the IPO. Tesla said additional shares could be offered if demand is high to raise as much as US$204 million. Japan’s Toyota has already agreed to take a US$50 million stake in Tesla, purchasing 3.33 million shares in the company.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
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