CHINA STARTS WORK ON BEIJING-SHANGHAI EXPRESS RAILWAY
Beijing (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour started construction on Friday.
The 1,318 km line, upon its completion in five years, will reduce the trip between the two cities to five hours and lift one-way transport capacity to 80 million passengers and more than 100 million tons of cargo annually, said the Railway Ministry.
With an investment of 220.9 billion yuan (US$31.6 billion), the railway is the most expensive construction project China has started since 1949. According to the ministry, all the technological equipment for the self-designed line was produced by domestic companies.
AUSTRALIA'S CAZALY LOSES BATTLE WITH RIO TINTO OVER SHOVELANNA
Melbourne (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Cazaly Resources Ltd (ASX:CAZ) has lost its three year battle with Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) over the ownership of the Shovelanna iron ore deposit after the Australian High Court refused an appeal.
Cazaly swooped on Shovelanna in the Pilbara region in 2005 when Rio Tinto's license over the tenement expired after a courier failed to deliver documents on time.
Cazaly arranged financial backing for a potential development and signed an agreement with BHP (ASX:BHP) to process the ore before the tenement was stripped from the company by the state government and handed back to Rio.
An appeal by Cazaly to the Supreme Court of Western Australia to wrest back control of Shovelanna was dismissed in August. Little work was conducted on the tenement after a 130 million tonne resource was defined.
RUPERT MURDOCH BRINGS MYSPACE TO INDIA
New Delhi (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Rupert Murdoch-run global media conglomerate News Corporation (ASX:NWS) on Thursday brought its social networking website MySpace to India. Like other players already present in the market, News Corp is also looking to attract the younger generation in India, which is home to world's youngest population with over half of its residents aged below 25, industry experts said.
Indicating its target audience, MySpace announced its India launch with a slogan "Rock with MySpace.com" and said it was marking its entry into the country with performances by three rock bands in Mumbai, where all the registered users of the website would get a free pass.
Websites like MySpace, Orkut, Facebook and Bigadda allow people to chat with each other and have already become a craze among the youngsters in India as well as in other parts of the world.
S KOREA'S KEPCO WINS PLANT ORDERS FROM DOMINICA, NEPAL
sEOUL (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Korea Electric Power Corp. (KSE:015760) said Friday it has won orders worth a combined US$580 million to build thermal and hydroelectric power plants in Dominica and Nepal.
KEPCO signed an MoU with Dominica's largest electric power company Haina to build and operate a 240 megawatt thermal power plant, which is forecast to cost US$500 million, the South Korean company said. KEPCO also inked a joint development agreement with Nepal Electricity Authority, a Nepalese state-run electricity firm to build a hydroelectric power plant
with a generation capacity of 42 megawatts, which will cost US$80 million, it said.
KEPCO plans to operate the Nepalese hydroelectric power plant for 30 years after its completion, the company said.
Last October, KEPCO and Nepal Electricity Authority agreed to cooperate in the field of electricity.
CHINA'S COSCO SETS UP JV WITH INDONESIAN FIRM TO TRANSPORT COAL
Jakarta (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Sea transport operator China Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco) (SSX:600428) is making efforts to win coal shipment contracts from Indonesia by establishing a joint venture with a local firm, a leading economic daily reported Friday.
Cosco has teamed up with Indonesia's PT Global Putra International (GPI) and the joint venture will buy up to 10 coal ships with the capacity of between 50,000 tons and 100,000 tons.
"Each ship has a price tag of US$50 million to US$100 million" GPI president Sumadi Kusuma was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying.
"We have handed over all documents to the government, who has the final say. We are confident the joint venture will become operational this year," said Kusuma.
The ministry has projected the need of 390 ships to meet the growing coal shipment, as the country's coal export is expected to hit 100 million tons by 2010.
JAPAN'S LABOR SHORTAGE PUSHED WORKERS 65 PLUS ABOVE 2 MLN IN '07
Tokyo (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - With more Japanese businesses tapping elderly workers to cope with labor shortages, employees aged 65 or older are increasing, topping 2 million for the first time last year.
The ranks of those wishing to work beyond 65 -- the eligibility threshold for receiving pensions -- are also growing.
Japan's employees crept up 2 per cent to 51.74 million in 2007, of which 2.09 million were 65 or older, according to Internal Affairs Ministry data.
These older workers jumped 15 per cent from 2006 and were up 32 per cent from four years earlier -- a rise attributed to an improved employment environment.
With the graying of society, more than 20 per cent of Japan's total population was 65 or older in 2005 -- the highest proportion among developed nations.
IRAN TO INVEST IN EXPANSION PROJECT OF SRI LANKAN OIL REFINERY
Tokyo (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Sri Lanka's Oil Minister said Wednesday in an interview with Japan's Kyodo news agency that Iran has decided to increase its investment, up to US$1 billion, in an oil refinery expansion project there.
According to Kyodo's report, the Managing Director of Sri Lanka's state run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Ashanta Domel, too, has said that the pilot study for increasing the production of Sri Lanka's only refinery from 50,000 to 100,000 barrels per day has been completed by Iranian oil engineers.
Mr Domel added, "Iran would make the major part of the required investment for expansion of this oil refinery (70 per cent) and the CPC would cover the rest (30 per cent)." According to Kyodo, Mr Domel expects the project's executive phase to begin within the next three to four months.
PETROVIETNAM PROPOSES FUELS COOPERATION WITH OMAN
Hanoi (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - The Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) has proposed cooperation with state-owned Oman Oil Company (OOC) in four main areas of the oil and gas industry.
The suggested fields of oil and gas cooperation include building storage and distribution systems in Vietnam, supplying technical services, trading in products and establishing joint ventures to invest in a third country.
The two parties will establish a joint working group and negotiate on the four proposed areas on April 18.
The current visit to Vietnam by Macki aims to discuss cooperation between PetroVietnam and OOC after both sides signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) during Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung's recent visit to Oman.
TAIWAN GROUPS WANT TIMETABLE FOR GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION
Taipei (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Environmental groups in Taiwan expressed opposition Wednesday to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Bill being deliberated in the legislature, on grounds that the legislation provides no target or timetable for its implementation.
At a joint press conference the Green Party Taiwan, the Green Citizens' Action Alliance and the Taiwan Environmental Action Network urged the legislature not to pass the bill.
Pan Han-chiang, secretary-general of the Taiwan Environmental Action Network, noted that the current version of the bill is similar to the one introduced in May last year, except that the current version has deleted the clauses committing to an overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as reductions by individual sectors.
Pan added his group and the others are unhappy with a proposal floated by some legislators that an article should be added to the draft bill to stipulate that Taiwan's carbon dioxide emission level should be maintained at the 2007 level.
AUSTRALIA'S COAL & ALLIED TO SPEND US$4.7 BLN ON NEW PROJECTS
Melbourne (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Coal & Allied Ltd (ASX:CNA), which is majority owned by Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO), has flagged spending A$5 billion (US$4.68 billion) on new projects over the next seven years to double the company's annual coal output.
Chairman Chris Renwick said today the company envisaged doubling the company's annual coal output to 58 million tonnes by 2015.
Coal & Allied's goal, however, faces hurdles in infrastructure constraints and changing attitudes towards coal amid the
climate change debate. Mr Renwick said the issue of climate change would pose a "real quandary" to the company's expansion plans but said coal would have an ongoing role in the global energy mix.
The other issue facing the company and other coal producers on the east coast of Australia is infrastructure constraints.
Source:
Business in Asia Today - APRIL 18, 2008
published by Asia Pulse
COPYRIGHT © 2008
Beijing (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour started construction on Friday.
The 1,318 km line, upon its completion in five years, will reduce the trip between the two cities to five hours and lift one-way transport capacity to 80 million passengers and more than 100 million tons of cargo annually, said the Railway Ministry.
With an investment of 220.9 billion yuan (US$31.6 billion), the railway is the most expensive construction project China has started since 1949. According to the ministry, all the technological equipment for the self-designed line was produced by domestic companies.
AUSTRALIA'S CAZALY LOSES BATTLE WITH RIO TINTO OVER SHOVELANNA
Melbourne (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Cazaly Resources Ltd (ASX:CAZ) has lost its three year battle with Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) over the ownership of the Shovelanna iron ore deposit after the Australian High Court refused an appeal.
Cazaly swooped on Shovelanna in the Pilbara region in 2005 when Rio Tinto's license over the tenement expired after a courier failed to deliver documents on time.
Cazaly arranged financial backing for a potential development and signed an agreement with BHP (ASX:BHP) to process the ore before the tenement was stripped from the company by the state government and handed back to Rio.
An appeal by Cazaly to the Supreme Court of Western Australia to wrest back control of Shovelanna was dismissed in August. Little work was conducted on the tenement after a 130 million tonne resource was defined.
RUPERT MURDOCH BRINGS MYSPACE TO INDIA
New Delhi (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Rupert Murdoch-run global media conglomerate News Corporation (ASX:NWS) on Thursday brought its social networking website MySpace to India. Like other players already present in the market, News Corp is also looking to attract the younger generation in India, which is home to world's youngest population with over half of its residents aged below 25, industry experts said.
Indicating its target audience, MySpace announced its India launch with a slogan "Rock with MySpace.com" and said it was marking its entry into the country with performances by three rock bands in Mumbai, where all the registered users of the website would get a free pass.
Websites like MySpace, Orkut, Facebook and Bigadda allow people to chat with each other and have already become a craze among the youngsters in India as well as in other parts of the world.
S KOREA'S KEPCO WINS PLANT ORDERS FROM DOMINICA, NEPAL
sEOUL (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Korea Electric Power Corp. (KSE:015760) said Friday it has won orders worth a combined US$580 million to build thermal and hydroelectric power plants in Dominica and Nepal.
KEPCO signed an MoU with Dominica's largest electric power company Haina to build and operate a 240 megawatt thermal power plant, which is forecast to cost US$500 million, the South Korean company said. KEPCO also inked a joint development agreement with Nepal Electricity Authority, a Nepalese state-run electricity firm to build a hydroelectric power plant
with a generation capacity of 42 megawatts, which will cost US$80 million, it said.
KEPCO plans to operate the Nepalese hydroelectric power plant for 30 years after its completion, the company said.
Last October, KEPCO and Nepal Electricity Authority agreed to cooperate in the field of electricity.
CHINA'S COSCO SETS UP JV WITH INDONESIAN FIRM TO TRANSPORT COAL
Jakarta (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Sea transport operator China Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco) (SSX:600428) is making efforts to win coal shipment contracts from Indonesia by establishing a joint venture with a local firm, a leading economic daily reported Friday.
Cosco has teamed up with Indonesia's PT Global Putra International (GPI) and the joint venture will buy up to 10 coal ships with the capacity of between 50,000 tons and 100,000 tons.
"Each ship has a price tag of US$50 million to US$100 million" GPI president Sumadi Kusuma was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying.
"We have handed over all documents to the government, who has the final say. We are confident the joint venture will become operational this year," said Kusuma.
The ministry has projected the need of 390 ships to meet the growing coal shipment, as the country's coal export is expected to hit 100 million tons by 2010.
JAPAN'S LABOR SHORTAGE PUSHED WORKERS 65 PLUS ABOVE 2 MLN IN '07
Tokyo (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - With more Japanese businesses tapping elderly workers to cope with labor shortages, employees aged 65 or older are increasing, topping 2 million for the first time last year.
The ranks of those wishing to work beyond 65 -- the eligibility threshold for receiving pensions -- are also growing.
Japan's employees crept up 2 per cent to 51.74 million in 2007, of which 2.09 million were 65 or older, according to Internal Affairs Ministry data.
These older workers jumped 15 per cent from 2006 and were up 32 per cent from four years earlier -- a rise attributed to an improved employment environment.
With the graying of society, more than 20 per cent of Japan's total population was 65 or older in 2005 -- the highest proportion among developed nations.
IRAN TO INVEST IN EXPANSION PROJECT OF SRI LANKAN OIL REFINERY
Tokyo (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Sri Lanka's Oil Minister said Wednesday in an interview with Japan's Kyodo news agency that Iran has decided to increase its investment, up to US$1 billion, in an oil refinery expansion project there.
According to Kyodo's report, the Managing Director of Sri Lanka's state run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Ashanta Domel, too, has said that the pilot study for increasing the production of Sri Lanka's only refinery from 50,000 to 100,000 barrels per day has been completed by Iranian oil engineers.
Mr Domel added, "Iran would make the major part of the required investment for expansion of this oil refinery (70 per cent) and the CPC would cover the rest (30 per cent)." According to Kyodo, Mr Domel expects the project's executive phase to begin within the next three to four months.
PETROVIETNAM PROPOSES FUELS COOPERATION WITH OMAN
Hanoi (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - The Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) has proposed cooperation with state-owned Oman Oil Company (OOC) in four main areas of the oil and gas industry.
The suggested fields of oil and gas cooperation include building storage and distribution systems in Vietnam, supplying technical services, trading in products and establishing joint ventures to invest in a third country.
The two parties will establish a joint working group and negotiate on the four proposed areas on April 18.
The current visit to Vietnam by Macki aims to discuss cooperation between PetroVietnam and OOC after both sides signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) during Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung's recent visit to Oman.
TAIWAN GROUPS WANT TIMETABLE FOR GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION
Taipei (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Environmental groups in Taiwan expressed opposition Wednesday to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Bill being deliberated in the legislature, on grounds that the legislation provides no target or timetable for its implementation.
At a joint press conference the Green Party Taiwan, the Green Citizens' Action Alliance and the Taiwan Environmental Action Network urged the legislature not to pass the bill.
Pan Han-chiang, secretary-general of the Taiwan Environmental Action Network, noted that the current version of the bill is similar to the one introduced in May last year, except that the current version has deleted the clauses committing to an overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as reductions by individual sectors.
Pan added his group and the others are unhappy with a proposal floated by some legislators that an article should be added to the draft bill to stipulate that Taiwan's carbon dioxide emission level should be maintained at the 2007 level.
AUSTRALIA'S COAL & ALLIED TO SPEND US$4.7 BLN ON NEW PROJECTS
Melbourne (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Coal & Allied Ltd (ASX:CNA), which is majority owned by Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO), has flagged spending A$5 billion (US$4.68 billion) on new projects over the next seven years to double the company's annual coal output.
Chairman Chris Renwick said today the company envisaged doubling the company's annual coal output to 58 million tonnes by 2015.
Coal & Allied's goal, however, faces hurdles in infrastructure constraints and changing attitudes towards coal amid the
climate change debate. Mr Renwick said the issue of climate change would pose a "real quandary" to the company's expansion plans but said coal would have an ongoing role in the global energy mix.
The other issue facing the company and other coal producers on the east coast of Australia is infrastructure constraints.
Source:
Business in Asia Today - APRIL 18, 2008
published by Asia Pulse
COPYRIGHT © 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment