NEW YORK, July 22--The increasing globalization of the auto industry has brought change, uncertainty, and in some cases, a ton of worries to the thousands of men and women who build cars and trucks across the globe.
As critical contract talks between the United Auto Workers and the Detroit Three get under way, the issues of worker benefits and job security are bound to be at the top of the agenda. But so will the solvency of US car companies.
Associated Press Writers in the US, Europe and Asia profiled auto workers in the three continents, comparing their pay and benefits and detailing their quality of life, hopes for the future, and their fears as they earn a living in an industry beset by stiff competition and globalization.
The German worker for DaimlerChrysler AG had the highest hourly wage at $33.50 (-24.27), followed by the US worker for Ford Motor Co. at about $30 (-21.73) per hour and the Japanese worker for Nissan at $27 (-19.56). But the Nissan worker got bonuses worth $17,200 (-12,460) annually.
Of the three, the American and the German said they were fearful about their futures due to competition from companies that build cars in lower-cost countries.
In another development, Nissan’s head of European operations, Trevor Mann, said of the export of Nissan’s British-made cars to Japan for the first time in more than a decade. Mann met AFP earlier this month at the Japanese group’s car plant in Sunderland, northeast England, where workers are churning out the Micra C+C convertible before the niche model’s impending launch in Japan.
Mann, who recently became Nissan’s senior vice president for manufacturing, purchasing and supply-chain management in Europe, described Japan as “the most severe and demanding market from a quality point of view.“
Both inside and outside of Nissan, the exports are seen as a major triumph, not only for the city of Sunderland and the wider northeast economy but also for Britain’s troubled automotive sector.
Analysts say the renewed shipping of Nissan cars to the world’s second biggest economic power is like sending coals to Newcastle--Sunderland’s neighboring city that enjoyed a thriving coal industry up until the late 20th century.

DUBAI, UAE, July 22--Middle East and North Africa (Mena) focused funds raised more than $9 billion during the first half of this year, says a report. The total capital raised by private equity funds in 2006 was $7.07 billion up 61.6 percent compared to $4.37 billion in 2005, said the Gulf News quoting a report by the Gulf Venture Capital Association and KPMG, TradeArabia wrote.
This growth was made possible due to a lot of factors, mainly the increase in liquidity in the PGCC region on the back of the recent surge in high oil prices. Other factors such as governments’ initiatives through privatizations and fund managers’ and investment firms’ efforts to encourage private equity as means of financing also helped the growth. These recent trends in the PGCC had a positive spill-over effect on the Mena regions, the report said.
Sizes of private equity funds in the Mena region have also exhibited an increase, where total fund sizes have reached the $14-billion mark. This is significant in the context that the total fund size was at just $78 million in 2001.
Majority of the private equity funds in the Mena region are in the investing phase, with 55 funds with a total size value of $12.7 billion (40.6 percent of total value) in this group.
Funds that are in the fund raising stage constitute 28.3 percent, while the fully invested group constituted just 2 percent of the group with $629 million invested across the region.

A staff member stocks shelves with toys at a Wal-Mart store in Aurora, Colorado, USA.

WASHINGTON, July 22--Even as protests grow about US imports from China, many Americans may find it hard to manage without the range of products that dominate or in some cases monopolize the marketplace.
Safety concerns over Chinese-made goods prompted further comments in Congress over the past week and led President George W. Bush to establish a new panel to review the safety of imported goods. Yet economists and consumers say that Chinese-made products have become so ubiquitous it may be next to impossible to wean Americans off low-cost imports.
Sara Bongiorni, a journalist and author of “A Year Without ’Made in China,’“ which tells of a yearlong effort by her family in 2005 to avoid buying any Chinese-made products, said the experiment showed how intertwined the two big economies are.
“We can live without Chinese imports, sort of,“ she wrote, while adding, “Swearing off Chinese products forever seems impractical, since it might mean we’d never again buy a cell phone, a squirt gun, or one day maybe even a television. We don’t want to give up those things for good.“
Bongiorni said she discovered that toys, toasters and small electronics come mainly from China, as well as many other consumer goods. During her yearlong experiment, she told AFP, “I ended up spending almost $70 for tennis shoes for my son, compared to 10 or 15 dollars for those from China.“
China exported some $290 billion worth of products to the United States in 2006, a significant chunk of the $9.2 trillion of US consumer spending.
“Chinese goods may not make up everything we buy, but they sure are a major portion,“ said Joel Naroff, an economist who operates a consulting firm Naroff Economic Advisors, in the foreword to Bongiorni’s book. Naroff said that based on the data, “we should be able to live very easily without having to buy Chinese products. But that just may not be the case, especially for lower- or middle-income families.“ Naroff added, “Many goods have components that are made in China but assembled elsewhere. Most manufacturers couldn’t care less where the component was initially produced. They only care that it is cheap and fits their needs.“

MOSCOW, July 22--Russia’s state debt fell 8.1 percent in the first six months of this year, from $52 billion to $47.8 billion, the Finance Ministry said. The country’s debt to the Paris Club of creditors fell $0.7 billion, to $2.4 billion, RIA Novosti reported.
As of July 1, foreign debt structure was as follows: countries outside the Paris Club, $3 billion; former members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, $1.9 billion; commercial debt, $0.8 billion; Eurobonds, $29 billion; internal state loan bonds, $4.9 billion.

Rafidah Aziz

Akira Amari

FUKUOKA, Japan, July 22--For Malaysia and Japan, 2007 marks a special year as they celebrate 50 years of strong diplomatic and people-to-people relations which have been reflected in several areas, including crossflow of trade and investment, capacity building and cooperation in human resource development. Malaysia established diplomatic ties with Japan in 1957, the year it achieved independence from the British, Bernama wrote.
Japan has been a major participant in the country’s development, with Japanese companies, including small and medium scale enterprises, making substantial investments in the manufacturing sector, International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz said during her trade and investment mission here.
Today, Malaysia is one of the most open trading economies in the world, with total trade amounting to more than 285 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Malaysia’s global trade reached US$291.5 billion (RM1.069 trillion) last year, a 10.5 percent increase over 2005 with total exports amounting to US$160.6 billion and imports at US$130.9 billion.
Japan invested in Malaysian electrical and electronic (E&E) sector which has eventually transformed into an industry that the country is strong in until now.
Hence, the Japanese companies came to Malaysia and started making simple electrical products in 1972. They were then followed by Some companies from the United States, the minister said.
“Thousands of Malaysians were employed. It was very labor-intensive at that time but over the years Malaysians became more skilled in the sector. Those companies also shifted to manufacturing high technology-based E&E products,“ she said.
According to Japan-ASEAN secretary-general Nobutoshi Akao, Japan’s investment in Malaysia in 1987 was only RM750 million. But now Japan is largest foreign investor in Malaysia with US$1.2 billion (RM4.14 billion) worth of investment for 81 projects approved last year, mainly in manufacturing.
During the first five months of 2007, investments in 25 projects worth RM1.8 billion were approved. To date, total implemented projects with Japanese participation amounted to US$10.5 billion in 2,155 projects.
Malaysia remained as a very attractive investment destination for Japanese companies, said Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari.
Now the Malaysia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, which came into effect on July 13, 2006, marks a new page in the economic relationship between both countries.

MANILA, Philippines, July 22--The Philippine government’s non-tax revenues stood at 78.3 billion pesos (one US dollar equals 44.8 pesos) in the first six months of this year, or 3.4 billion pesos higher than the target of 74.9 billion pesos, local newspaper reported on Saturday. For the whole of 2007, the government is hoping to raise 115.6 billion pesos from non-tax revenues and 1 trillion pesos from tax revenues, according to a report by The Philippine Star daily, Xinhua wrote.
Earlier, the Department of Finance reported that tax revenues in the first half of the year reached 510.3 billion pesos or 47.7 billion pesos lower than the target of 558 billion pesos but higher than the 471.0 billion pesos posted in the same period last year.
The Philippine government is stepping up efforts to boost revenues as it hopes to trim the budget deficit to 63 billion pesos this year. The deficit, however, has already swelled to 41 billion pesos in the first half of the year, or higher than the programmed shortfall of 31 billion pesos.
Non-tax revenues of the government comprise interest income on its deposits, income from investments such as dividends on shares of stocks of government-owned and controlled corporations and government financial institutions and from fees and charges of state-owned firms.

SEOUL,
South Korea,
July 22--SK Energy, South Korea’s largest oil refiner, said Sunday it had won a bid to develop a “very promising“ oilfield in Peru’s offshore Trujillo basin. The company, formerly known as SK Corporation, said in a statement that it had won a 100-percent stake in the Peru Offshore Block Z-46 in a bidding round sponsored by Peru’s oil licensing company Perupetro, AFP reported.
“We are very pleased to have won the new block in Peru,“ SK Energy President and CEO Shin Heon-Cheol, said. “Considering its proximity to major oil production sites in Peru, and a number of discoveries in the region, Block Z-46 looks very promising,“ he said.
Including the new oil field, SK Energy is now engaged in exploration and production of energy in 26 blocks in 14 countries including Brazil, Egypt, Vietnam, Russia, the Ivory Coast and Madagascar.
SK Energy also plans on investing 544 billion won ($596 million) in global exploration and production business in 2007.
Poor in natural resources, South Korea imports all its oil need.

BERLIN, July 22--French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to kick Germany out of a Franco-German nuclear engineering joint venture to create an all-French energy giant, a German magazine reported Saturday.
Sarkozy wants to buy Siemens AG’s 34 percent stake in Areva NP, a joint venture set up in 2001 with French nuclear group Areva, Wirtschaftswoche said in an article to appear on Monday, citing company sources, AFP reported.
The German group’s stake in Areva NP is valued at about one billion euros ($1.3 billion), the magazine said. Areva owns the remaining two-thirds.
Sarzkoy then wants to combine the state-owned Areva with French energy company Alstom as well as engineering giant Bouygues to create an all-French group constructing nuclear and fossil fuel power stations, the magazine said.
Siemens is not expected to give up the stake without a fight, however, and chief executive Peter Loescher hopes to have the support of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in countering Sarkozy’s plan, Wirtschaftswoche said.

ANCHORAGE, USA, July 22--A federal appeals court has ordered Shell Oil to stop its exploratory drilling program off the north coast of Alaska at least until a hearing in August. The order, issued by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, comes after the federal Minerals Management Service in February approved Shell’s offshore exploration plan for the Beaufort Sea, AP said.
“Vessels currently located in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas shall cease all operations performed in furtherance of that program, but need not depart the area,“ the order said.
Opponents contend that the Minerals Management Service approved Shell’s plan without fully considering that a large spill would harm marine mammals, including bowhead and beluga whales. They say polar bears could also be harmed, and they question whether cleaning up a sizable spill would even be possible in the icy waters.
Company officials are obviously disappointed, said Shell spokesman Curtis Smith. But the court has asked for more information, and we will provide it. We will comply with the court order and continue to welcome discussions with the North Slope communities,“ he said. “Alaska is a long-term investment for Shell.“
Shell was the high bidder in two recent lease sales for offshore tracts in the Arctic. In 2005, Shell Exploration & Production Co., part of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, spent more than $44 million for offshore leases in the Beaufort Sea.
In April, the company intensified its program by bidding $39 million for offshore leases, including more than $14 million for Flaxman Island northwest of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The plan submitted by Shell Offshore Inc. proposed to drill as many as 12 exploration wells on 12 tracts over three years, including four exploration wells this summer. That prompted a lawsuit by the North Slope Borough, several conservation groups and a group of American Indians and Alaska Natives.
A hearing is planned for Aug. 14 in San Francisco.