Gas boom to reshape US role in Asia: study

Updated: Friday November 8, 2013 MYT 1:24:40 PM

Gas boom to reshape US role in Asia: study

WASHINGTON: A boom in gas production will reshape the US role in Asia and could fuel new tensions with a growing, energy-hungry China, a new report says.
US foreign policy has historically been based largely on demand for outside energy, with Washington closely allying itself with oil-rich Arab monarchies.
But a major increase in gas production – in part through the controversial practice of “fracking” deep underground – has given the United States the prospect not just of energy independence but of playing a Middle Eastern-style strategic role as an exporter, according to industry forecasts. Read more of this post

What LME bazooka means for aluminium trade

November 8, 2013 8:54 am

What LME bazooka means for aluminium trade

By Jack Farchy in Abu Dhabi

Some traders believe the premiums may even rise

Boom! Charles Li just fired his bazooka. After a two-week dramatic pause that kept the market on tenterhooks, the London Metal Exchange on Thursday announced its solution to the thorny issue of warehousing: the LME will cap queues at 50 days and to arm itself with a range of punishments for badly-behaving warehouses. One question hangs over the market. What does Mr Li’s bazooka (which the chief executive of LME’s owners,Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, has recently rebranded “Chinese medicine”) mean for aluminium premiums? Read more of this post

“Is this not deception?” Food Labeling Stirs Controversy in Japan; Hotel, Department Store and Restaurant Chains in Japan Are Making Disclosures About Food Labeling, From Shrimp to Spinach to Cream. “There was the mentality to make things look better, more delicious, more luxurious.”

Food Labeling Stirs Controversy in Japan

Hotel, Department Store and Restaurant Chains in Japan Are Making Disclosures About Food Labeling, From Shrimp to Spinach to Cream

KANA INAGAKI

Nov. 7, 2013 11:24 p.m. ET

TOKYO—An executive from one of Japan’s high-end department store chains faced an hour-long grilling Thursday afternoon, sipping tea and wiping his mouth with a handkerchief as reporters repeatedly said he was speaking too quietly. “Is this not deception?” one asked. “From the customers’ point of view, it might look that way,” said Yoji Honda, corporate executive officer at Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores Co. “There was the mentality to make things look better, more delicious, more luxurious.” Read more of this post

Japanese Households Without Savings Climb to Highest Since ’63

Japanese Households Without Savings Climb to Highest Since ’63

The share of Japanese households with no financial assets rose to a record as falling incomes forced people to dig into their savings, highlighting the potential for widening disparities under Abenomics. The proportion reached 31 percent, according to a Bank of Japan survey released in Tokyo yesterday, up from 26 percent a year earlier and the highest since the poll began in 1963. The BOJ surveyed 8,000 households of two or more people aged 20 years or older from June 14 though July 23. Read more of this post

Train-Hopping Nomura Broker Chases New Appetite for Japan Stocks; “I don’t want to be obsessed by rewards in the future or failures of the past. I want to focus on the moment.”

Train-Hopping Nomura Broker Chases New Appetite for Japan Stocks

The best-performing stock market of the developed world this year is keeping Japanese brokers like Kensuke Ueda running. Literally.Dodging pedestrians and hopping subway trains as he dashes from one client meeting to the next, the 31-year-old employee of Nomura Holdings Inc. bounds up stairs two at a time — all while taking stock orders on the phone. Wondering if he has time for lunch, he glances at his Zenith El Primero watch, whose name in Spanish translates as “the first” and keeps time to the nearest 10th of a second. He decides he doesn’t. Read more of this post

Seoul ‘Bridge of Life’ Still Attracts Suicide Attempts

November 8, 2013, 1:07 PM

Seoul ‘Bridge of Life’ Still Attracts Suicide Attempts

JAEYEON WOO

The message on the Mapo Bridge reads, “Aren’t you tired?”

The city of Seoul is standing by its efforts at calling attention to bridges over the Han River that are suicide hotspots, despite evidence that the attention is leading to more, not fewer, suicide attempts. Last September, one of the most notorious suicide spots, Mapo Bridge, was given a makeover, with its gray guardrails festooned with LED lighting, complemented by comforting and inspirational messages and pictures. Pedestrians’ movements are detected, prompting slogans to appear: “The most shining moment of your life has yet to come” or “Your worries will feel like nothing when you get older” or “A difficult moment will eventually flow like the river below.” Read more of this post

South Korea Put to the Test for High-Pressure Exam; “Rigorous thinking, reading and writing too often is simply not expected. What needs to be debated is the quality of education once the students are admitted”

South Korea Put to the Test for High-Pressure Exam

By Park Chan-Kyong on 1:19 pm November 7, 2013.

A mother prays for her son’s (bottom L) success in the college entrance examinations at a Buddhist temple in Seoul November 6, 2013. (Reuters Photo/Kim Hong-Ji)

Seoul. South Korea fell silent for annual college entrance exams Thursday, rescheduling flights and restricting traffic as 650,000 students sat a test that will define their adult lives in an ultra-competitive society. Preparation for the crucial exam starts from primary school, and so does the relentless pressure which has been blamed for everything from early burnout and teenage depression to suicide. Read more of this post

With H7N9 Vaccine, China Flexes Scientific Muscle

With H7N9 Vaccine, China Flexes Scientific Muscle

By  Tyler Roney

November 7, 2013

On Tuesday, a three-year-old boy was diagnosed with the dreaded H7N9 bird flu in Guangdong Province in southern China, and some are warning that more cases are on the way as the temperature drops. Previous bouts of flu hysteria and panic resulted in nothing more than small outbreaks; as such, there is little reason to believe that these most recent warnings will be any different. However, in many ways, the H7N9 problem is China-specific, which has allowed it to flex its scientific muscles. Read more of this post

Why Chinese People Buy So Many Homes in Palo Alto

Why Chinese People Buy So Many Homes in Palo Alto

By Matt Sheehan

Palo Alto’s proximity to Stanford University, pictured above, is among the reasons it has become a very attractive destination for Chinese home buyers. (nappa/Flickr)

The rise of the Chinese consumer on the global stage has had a tremendous effect on world markets, shaking up everything from the price of milk powder to impressionist paintings. Now, the impact is being felt all the way in Palo Alto, the Silicon Valley town next to Stanford University. Over the past two years, Chinese buyers have been snapping up property in the city, driving up prices and possibly contributing to an emerging bubble. Chinese nationals have tripled their share of home purchases in Palo Alto since 2011, now accounting for around 15 percent of transactions in the cityaccording to Ken Deleon, founder of Deleon Realty, a local firm that has invested heavily in catering to Chinese buyers. Read more of this post

Petitioners ‘living in fear’ as police crackdown ahead of third plenum; Police and local governments across the mainland have been rounding up petitioners, keeping activists under close watch and warning rights lawyers to keep a low profile

Petitioners ‘living in fear’ as police crackdown ahead of third plenum

Thursday, 07 November, 2013, 12:47pm

Verna Yu verna.yu@scmp.com

Police and local governments across the mainland have been rounding up petitioners, keeping activists under close watch and warning rights lawyers to keep a low profile as security is stepped up ahead of the Communist Party Central Committee’s third plenary meeting that begins on Saturday. Large numbers of petitioners from across the country, wishing to bring their grievances to the attention of party leaders, have congregated in the capital in recent days ahead of the key four-day meeting where key decisions on the country’s future are expected to be made. Read more of this post

Milk Bests Maotai as Xi Curbs Cadres’ Boozing: Chart of the Day

Milk Bests Maotai as Xi Curbs Cadres’ Boozing: Chart of the Day

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on booze-filled bureaucrats and support for the tainted dairy industry have led milk producers to supplant liquor makers as the nation’s top-performing beverage stocks. The CHART OF THE DAY shows five of the largest dairy companies by market value rallied an average 114 percent since November 2012, the month Xi was promoted to party secretary pledging to curb extravagant banquets. The four biggest distillers and vintners dropped an average 52 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index added 2.9 percent. Read more of this post

How Big Formula bought China; “They support only this brand, and they don’t let your baby drink other brands. The nurses told us not to use our own formula. They told us if we did, and something happened to the child, they wouldn’t take any responsibility.”

How Big Formula bought China

8:43pm EST

By Alexandra Harney

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – In the two days after Lucy Yang gave birth at Peking University Third Hospital in August 2012, doctors and nurses told the 33-year-old technology executive that while breast milk was the best food for her son, she hadn’t produced enough. They advised her instead to start him on infant formula made by Nestle. “They support only this brand, and they don’t let your baby drink other brands,” Yang recalled. “The nurses told us not to use our own formula. They told us if we did, and something happened to the child, they wouldn’t take any responsibility.” Read more of this post

Chinese Party Meeting to Test Xi’s Clout on Reforms

Chinese Party Meeting to Test Xi’s Clout on Reforms

After a Year in Office, Leader to Outline Economic Plan

JEREMY PAGE

Nov. 7, 2013 1:36 p.m. ET

BEIJING—Since taking power a year ago, Xi Jinping has cast himself as China’s strongest leader since Deng Xiaoping, the man who unleashed market reforms at a historic meeting of the Communist Party’s Central Committee in 1978. A similar meeting of the Central Committee that starts Saturday could determine whether Mr. Xi can go beyond stagecraft and show he has the authority and vision to emulate Deng by setting China on a new development path, party insiders and analysts say. Read more of this post

China’s ailing solar panel makers see the light, on a farm

China’s ailing solar panel makers see the light, on a farm

4:11pm EST

By Charlie Zhu

HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s loss-making solar panel makers believe they may have found a way out of their nightmare – by becoming one-stop renewable energy shops with their own solar farms. Manufacturers of solar panels, hit hard by the scaling back of solar-power subsidies in Europe, are taking advantage of a new package of government subsidies at home and diversifying into solar-power generation. Read more of this post

China Singles Day Record Seen as BMWs Sell Cheap Online

China Singles Day Record Seen as BMWs Sell Cheap Online

By Bloomberg News – Nov 7, 2013

Shanghai office worker Xue Feng says he’s been resisting the crave to shop for the past month. Come midnight on Nov. 11, the 34-year-old plans to scratch that itch with an online shopping blitz for clothes, sneakers and snacks as websites in China slash prices. “I’ve already chosen more than 50 items for my list,” Xue said. “And I may buy more.” What started out as “Singles’ Day,” a modern Chinese take on Valentine’s Day, Nov. 11 has morphed into the country’s biggest excuse to shop — and that has e-commerce firms flooding the Internet with promotions. Websites run by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to Suning Commerce Group to Tencent Holdings Ltd. are slashing prices by 50 percent or more, setting the stage for this year’s sales to reach a record. Read more of this post

China Muni-Bond Stalling Shows Debt Threat as Party Meets

China Muni-Bond Stalling Shows Debt Threat as Party Meets

By Bloomberg News – Nov 7, 2013

Two years after China started a trial municipal-bond program, plans to take it nationwide have stalled, leaving local authorities reliant on off-budget funding through land seizures that have sparked public protests. While authorities added two provinces to the trial this year, a draft budget proposal authorizing national sales with approved quotas was dropped in June 2012 and has yet to be revived. This year’s municipal-bond issuance is equivalent to less than 1 percent of local-government borrowing as of 2010, the last official tally. Read more of this post

Apollo to KKR Seek Australian IPOs as Memory of Myer Flop Fades

Apollo to KKR Seek Australian IPOs as Memory of Myer Flop Fades

For the last four years private-equity firms have taken few of their Australian companies public. The main culprit: a lackluster initial public offering by the country’s largest department-store chain that soured investors. Now there are signs the freeze is over. In October, OzForex Group Ltd. (OFX), an online currency broker whose owners include U.S. buyout firms Carlyle Group LP (CG) and Accel Partners, jumped 28 percent on its debut. It was the biggest first-day gain for any Australian IPO of at least $100 million in more than six years, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Read more of this post

Coca-Cola to Invest More than $4 Billion in China From 2015-2017

Coca-Cola to Invest More than $4 Billion in China From 2015-2017

Coca-Cola Co. (KO), the world’s largest beverage company, plans to invest more than $4 billion in China from 2015 to 2017 as it builds factories and adds new products to meet demand and counter rising competition. The Atlanta-based company is also open to acquisitions in China and may consider deals with complementary businesses, such as makers of juices or plant-protein drinks like almond milk, David Brooks, president of Coca-Cola’s Greater China and Korea business unit, said in an Nov. 6 interview in Shanghai. Read more of this post

Crude Traders Stick With Brent Amid Manipulation Claims

Crude Traders Stick With Brent Amid Manipulation Claims

The alleged fixing of oil prices is unlikely to sway traders from using Brent as a benchmark for buying and selling oil in the $5.7 trillion commodity market, according to analysts and brokers from London to Tokyo. Four energy traders claim in a lawsuit that some of the world’s biggest oil companies including BP Plc (BP/), Statoil ASA (STL) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) conspired with Morgan Stanley (MS) and energy traders such as Vitol Group to fix spot prices for Brent for more than a decade. The North Sea oil price as assessed by Platts, a unit of New York-based McGraw Hill Financial Inc. (MHFI), is used to price more than half the world’s crude including Australia’s Cossack, Malaysia’s Tapis and Castilla in Colombia. Read more of this post

China Hesitates as Washington OKs Natural-Gas Exports

November 7, 2013, 7:37 AM

China Hesitates as Washington OKs Natural-Gas Exports

KEITH JOHNSON

On paper, it’s a perfect match: The U.S. is awash in new supplies of natural gas, while China is trying to get off coal and use cleaner-burning fuels. Plus, the U.S. Department of Energy this year has begun approving new terminals to export liquefied natural gas around the world. But a Washington trade-policy expert says the political case for U.S. exports of natural gas to China isn’t as strong as the business case. Damian Ma of the Paulson Institute says China’s fear of increasing reliance on the U.S. could trump its need for natural gas. Read more of this post

Mattel Gives Barbie a Makeover for China; U.S. Toy Maker Launches Fresh Effort to Endear All-American Doll to Chinese Consumers

Mattel Gives Barbie a Makeover for China

U.S. Toy Maker Launches Fresh Effort to Endear All-American Doll to Chinese Consumers

U.S. toy manufacturer Mattel is aiming to fill Chinese toy chests by outfitting its Barbie dolls and other products to better suit Chinese tastes. Laurie Burkitt speaks with Mattel’s Asia-Pacific Senior Vice President Peter Broegger about the company’s new strategy in China.

LAURIE BURKITT

Updated Nov. 7, 2013 8:16 p.m. ET

BEIJING—Barbie closed her swank Shanghai mansion two years ago, after China’s parents turned up their noses at her pink ball gowns and Ken’s polo shirt-and-sweater ensembles. Now Mattel Inc. MAT -1.56% is making a new effort to sell Chinese on the impossibly proportioned all-American doll, with an appeal to Tiger moms who would rather have their children reading books than plugging body parts into Mr. Potato Head. New, low-price offerings include “Violin Soloist” Barbie, complete with bow and sheet music. Read more of this post

BMW Offers Money-Can’t-Buy Perks to Keep Biggest Spenders

BMW Offers Money-Can’t-Buy Perks to Keep Biggest Spenders

German ski legend Rosi Mittermaier passed on racing tips at Austria’s Zillertal resort last winter to a group of 10 students who all had one thing in common: they owned a BMW 7-Series sedan. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), the world’s biggest maker of premium cars, last year began offering perks that money can’t buy to owners of its flagship model in a bid to keep its most profitable clients loyal. Daimler AG (DAI)’s Mercedes-Benz quickly followed suit with a similar program of its own. Both were responding to down-market shifts by the more exclusive Maserati and Jaguar brands as competition for elite buyers intensifies. Read more of this post

Rotting Grapes From Bordeaux to Burgundy Cut French Wine Outlook

Rotting Grapes From Bordeaux to Burgundy Cut French Wine Outlook

France cut its outlook for wine production for a fourth time after botrytis rot due to wet weather caused grape losses in Bordeaux and Burgundy, adding to damage from poor flowering and summer hailstorms. The volume of the 2013 vintage may rise 2.2 percent to 42.3 million hectoliters (1.12 billion gallons) from 41.4 million hectoliters in 2012, the Agriculture Ministry wrote in a report late yesterday. The forecast was cut by 1.74 million hectoliters from a month ago, equivalent to 231 million bottles. Read more of this post

Rebuilding Lego for Today’s Kids; Lego, which controls about 60 percent of the construction-toy business, is wooing older children with a $350 robot set

Rebuilding Lego for Today’s Kids

By Katarina Gustafsson November 07, 2013

Lego fans no longer need to fret about the cat or dog knocking over their constructions. They can ward off bothersome pets or nosy siblings with a plastic-brick creation such as the R3ptar. The robotic snake, which can be programmed from a smartphone app, is equipped with a snapping mechanical jaw and fangs that will send even the boldest kid brother packing. Read more of this post

General Mills to McDonald’s Got Jump on FDA Trans Fats Cuts

General Mills to McDonald’s Got Jump on FDA Trans Fats Cuts

The U.S. government’s decision to deem artificial trans fats unsafe for human consumption may have little impact on foodmakers and restaurant chains because they’ve been phasing them out for years. Under pressure from activists such as the American Heart Association and city and state governments, companies from General Mills Inc. (GIS) to McDonald’s Corp. have been ridding their products of partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans fats linked to a type of artery-clogging cholesterol. Read more of this post

Thailand’s Big Brother Drama

Thailand’s Big Brother Drama

“Welcome to the Republic of Thaksin.” You won’t see these words displayed in the customs hall when arriving in Thailand, but the Land of Smiles has indeed morphed into the land of Thaksin Shinawatra. That should be giving Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy plenty to frown about. Seven years after the former prime minister was ousted in a coup, Thaksin’s long shadow continues to dominate Thai politics. Since then, the country has seen six prime ministers, the most recent one being Thaksin’s baby sister, Yingluck Shinawatra. Read more of this post

Unhappy bondholders of Fraser and Neave (F&N) are fretting that the conglomerate could play hardball and accept default rather than pay more to obtain waivers for the listing of its property business.

PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 08, 2013

Bondholders rattled as F&N plays tough

They feel it’ll be willing to push ahead with FCL listing and enter technical default

KENNETH LIM KENLIM@SPH.COM.SG

F&N, a beverage and property conglomerate, is asking holders of about $808.25 million of bonds to waive certain default terms on their notes and to allow the company to buy back the bonds at par plus half the coupon plus accrued interest – PHOTO: REUTERS

[SINGAPORE] Unhappy bondholders of Fraser and Neave (F&N) are fretting that the conglomerate could play hardball and accept default rather than pay more to obtain waivers for the listing of its property business. But observers said that for F&N to do so would be highly unusual, mostly because such an extreme solution usually comes with very high costs. F&N, a beverage and property conglomerate, is asking holders of about $808.25 million of bonds to waive certain default terms on their notes and to allow the company to buy back the bonds at par plus half the coupon plus accrued interest. Getting those waivers will allow F&N to split off and list its Frasers Centrepoint (FCL) property business without triggering a technical default. Early-bird acceptances tendered by yesterday’s close would have received an additional $625 per $250,000 of notes, while acceptances tendered from today to Nov 12 will receive $375 per $250,000 of notes held.

Philippines Billionaire Razon Jumps to Casinos from Containers

Billionaire Razon Jumps to Casinos from Containers

Enrique Razon doesn’t gamble and says he feels more comfortable operating a port crane than he does glad-handing in a crowd of high-rollers. “I am just not the person that likes being around plenty of people,” Razon says. “So you wonder why I’m in the casino business, right?” Razon joined the gaming fraternity in March, when he opened the Solaire Resort & Casino on a plot of reclaimed land along Manila Bay, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its December Billionaires Issue. The glittering Solaire is the first of four resorts slated to occupy a Las Vegas-style complex called Entertainment City along a 120-hectare (300-acre) strip in Bay City. Read more of this post