South Korea posts

South Korea posts $2.8b trade surplus

SEOUL: South Korea posted a trade surplus of US$2.82 billion in September, helped by brisk exports which rose 23.5 percent year-on-year, officials said on Friday.

Exports, on a customs-cleared basis, rose to $21.02 billion in September, led by robust sales of automobiles, semiconductor chips and mobile handsets, according to the commerce, industry and energy ministry.

Imports increased 25.2 percent to $18.2 billion. Imports of oil increased 40.2 percent. Import growth outpaced that of exports for a second consecutive month, reflecting higher oil prices and stronger demand for capital goods, the ministry said.

Exports of automobiles increased 30 percent year-on-year to $2.69 billion in September. Shipments of telecommunications equipment rose 34.1 percent to $2.35 billion while exports of computer equipment fell 2.2 percent to $1.38 billion. -- AFP

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China's pipeline starts gas delivery

SHANGHAI: The eastern economic hub of Shanghai received its first deliveries of gas from China's newly opened East to West pipeline that runs some 4,000 kilometers (2,400 miles) from the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region, state press reported on Friday.

"What counts most is that the advent of gas symbolizes the successful operation of the whole project," the Shanghai Daily quoted Zhao Yongxin, a PetroChina employee as saying.

The country's biggest oil firm, PetroChina, has financed the US$4.0 to $5.2-billion pipeline expected to carry some 12 billion cubic metres (420 billion cubic feet) annually for some 30 years.

PetroChina's foreign partner's Royal Dutch/Shell Group, ExxonMobil and Russia's Gazprom withdrew from the project in September after an initial agreement fell apart.

The pipeline is central to China's energy policy shift away from reliance on coal to cleaner burning gas, which is intended to supply up to 10 percent of the country's fuel consumption by 2020. -- AFP

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Japan, U.S. plan beef import talks

TOKYO: Japan and the United States will hold working-level talks this month over resuming U.S. beef imports currently banned because of fears over mad cow disease, a news report said on Friday.

Before the talks at the end of the month, the Japanese government will consult a panel of experts on allowing meat from U.S. cattle 20 months old or younger even if they have not been tested for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper said.

Japanese farm ministry officials said nothing had been decided on whether or when to hold the next round of bilateral talks.

U.S. officials have expressed hope that Japan would quickly lift a ban on American beef imports imposed last December as a result of a single proven case of mad cow disease in the United States.

Japan, previously the number one market for U.S. beef, has insisted on testing all U.S. beef imports as a condition for lifting the ban, a demand the United States has so far rejected. Washington has already presented a compromise proposal for testing cows aged 24 months and older.-- AFP

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Thailand's oil import bill up 49%

BANGKOK: Thailand's import bill for oil jumped 48.5 percent to US$ 8.4 billion in the first eight months of 2004, increasing the likelihood of the country suffering a trade deficit this year, media reports said on Friday.

Thailand notched up a small trade deficit of $100 million during the first eight months of this year, when imports soared 30.6 percent to $61.7 billion, while exports were up 24.2 percent at $61.6 billion, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) disclosed on Wednesday.

The last time Thailand notched up a trade deficit was in 1997. BOT senior director Nitaya Pibulratanagit attributed the rising imports to increased domestic consumption of oil, which is currently at record high prices, and increased consumption of imported goods.

"Because people did not save enough energy, imports rose," Nitaya told The Nation. "There was also a rise in imports of consumer goods as well. If export growth cannot catch up with import growth, there will be a deficit (in 2004)," she said.

The Thai government, which faces a general election next February, is following a policy of subsidizing oil prices to keep them stable despite historic price hikes on the international market. Oil subsidies are expected to amount to 40 billion baht ($1 billion) this year. -- dpa