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Potash Corp. searched for a white knight Friday as BHP Billiton formally launched it $39 billion hostile offer for the world’s largest fertilizer firm.
Potash is soliciting alternative bidders willing to pay more than the $130 a share offered by BHP, the world’s largest mining company, a source close to the matter said. Get the full story »
Lawmakers from U.S. steel-producing states on Thursday welcomed a decision by China steel company Anshan Iron and Steel Group to put its investment in a U.S. steel plant on hold.
“Not only would this venture have set a dangerous precedent further undermining our domestic steel market, but it posed serious national security concerns,” Rep. Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican, said in a statement. Get the full story »
Oak Brook-based McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant chain, sold $29 million in yuan-denominated notes, becoming the first foreign non-financial company to sell yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong.
Following a string of suicides at its Chinese factories, Foxconn Technology Group raised workers’ wages and installed safety nets on buildings to catch would-be jumpers. Now the often secretive manufacturer of the iPhone and other electronics is holding rallies for its workers to raise morale at the heavily regimented factories.
The outreach to workers shows how Foxconn has been shaken by the suicides and the bad press they have attracted to the normally publicity shy company. The latest suicide — the 12th this year — occurred August 4 when a 22-year-old woman jumped from her factory dormitory in eastern Jiangsu province. Get the full story »
Reporting from Beijing and Tokyo – China’s economy surpassed Japan’s as the world’s second-largest – a highly anticipated milestone rich in symbolism for a developing country that began market reforms only three decades ago.
The news came Monday when Japan’s government said its economic output in the second quarter slowed to $1.28 trillion, short of the $1.33 trillion China reported for the same period.
Kraft Foods Inc. is seeking to raise the profile of Cadbury products in China as the U.S. food giant ramps up investments in developing markets, particularly the Asia-Pacific region, which has become Kraft’s key growth driver following its multi-billion dollar acquisition of the British confectioner earlier this year. Get the full story »
The U.S. trade deficit widened a surprising 18.8 percent in June on a surge of consumer goods from China and other suppliers, suggesting U.S. second-quarter economic growth was much weaker than previously thought. The monthly trade gap totaled $49.9 billion, the highest since October 2008, the Commerce Department reported on Wednesday, as U.S. exports stumbled a bit. Get the full story »
Geely Holding Group completed its acquisition of Ford Motor Co.’s Volvo unit Monday in a $1.5 billion deal that gives the small-but-ambitious Chinese automaker a global brand and huge management challenges.
China’s regulator has approved Geely’s acquisition of Ford’s Volvo unit, clearing one of the last remaining hurdles to the high-profile deal, a source with knowledge of the matter said Thursday.
The deal could be completed as early as next week, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as the discussions remain private. Get the full story »
U.S. mobile phone maker Motorola Inc. has sued China’s Huawei Technologies Co. for alleged theft of trade secrets, highlighting the fast-growing Chinese firm’s difficulty in shaking the nation’s reputation for piracy.
In the amended complaint, filed on July 16 in a federal court in Chicago, Motorola claimed an engineer shared information about a Motorola transceiver and other technology with Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army. Get the full story »
One of 19 styles of children's jewelry recalled. (CPSC)
Tween Brands Inc., owned by Dress Barn Inc., recalled some Chinese-made children’s metal jewelry on Tuesday, due to high levels of cadmium in them.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said the company decided to pull out about 137,000 metal necklaces, bracelets and earrings priced between $7 and $16 and sold at Justice, Limited Too and an online store.
Cadmium is toxic if ingested by children.
Don Lee | The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly jumped in May, to the highest level since November 2008, prompting some analysts to sharply cut their economic growth forecasts for the just-completed second quarter and other economists to warn of rising risks of a double-dip recession.
The Commerce Department said Tuesday that the trade gap rose to $42.3 billion in May, up nearly 5 percent from April’s $40.3 billion. Economists had expected the May deficit to dip slightly to about $39 billion as oil prices were lower and retail sales fell that month. Get the full story »
General Motors’ first-half sales in China, the world’s biggest auto market, exceeded sales in its home U.S. market for the first time, according to data released on Friday. GM’s China auto sales jumped 48.5 percent to 1.21 million units in January through June, compared with the 1.08 million light vehicles it delivered in the U.S. over the same period, company data showed. Get the full story »
Internet giant Google Inc said it plans to stop automatically redirecting users of its Google.cn site to its Hong Kong page, in a bid to secure renewal of the company’s China service license. Get the full story »
Caterpillar Inc. said on Monday that it had broken ground in Xuzhou, China, for a plant that would build large excavators and that it had opened a plant there to make small and medium-size excavators.
Excavators are modern-day steam-shovels. They often have buckets and are used by builders to dig in confined areas.
Get the full story »
