UTStarcom Inc has received a US$26.5 million deal from China Telecom to roll out more of its broadband technology in China.

The new deployment will be in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province and a major telecommunications network hub for China with a population of 7 million, UTStarcom said on Tuesday.

UTStarcom, which makes broadband access equipment, already has more than 7.5 million Chinese customers for its IP-based Personal Access System technology. Most of those are in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Since UTStarcom introduced PAS services in Chengdu early last year, it has undergone two expansions and now has over 640,000 PAS customers, many of whom also subscribe for additional services with UTStarcom, the company said.

SHANGHAI

New road gets the green light

An expressway project connecting Shanghai with Chongming Island has been approved by the State Council, officials with the Shanghai Municipal Planning Project Administration said on Tuesday.

According to the plan, the 25-kilometre expressway will include a 8.5 kilometre section of tunnel and a 9.5 kilometre cross-river bridge, together with 7 kilometre connecting roads on both ends.

With investment totalling 12.2 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion), the project is open for public bidding.

Auto firm to expand sales

The Shanghai Automotive Industry (Group) Corporation is expected to produce more vehicles and generate 130 billion yuan (US$15.66 billion) in sales revenue this year, says a corporate executive.

The corporation hoped to increase car sales by 20 per cent this year based on the sales figure of 410,000 last year, the executive said last week.

It also plans to produce and sell 180,000 minivans this year, as well as more heavy-duty trucks, buses, tractors and motorcycles.

YICHANG

4 hydropower plants to be built

China plans to build four huge hydropower stations along the Jinsha River (the section of the Yangtze River flowing through western Sichuan Province), the China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation announced on Tuesday.

The stations will have a combined installed capacity of 38.5 million kilowatts, twice as much as the generating capacity of the Three Gorges Project.

The China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, builder of these plants, will spend 1 billion yuan (US$120 million) this year in initial development.

WASHINGTON

US Airways wins loan approval

US Airways, fighting to emerge from bankruptcy next month, secured conditional approval on Tuesday for a US$900 million government loan guarantee.

The Air Transportation Stabilization Board (ATSB) said in a statement it had unanimously agreed to approve the guarantee, which covers 90 per cent of a proposed US$1 billion loan.

US Airways had presented a business plan that "reasonably positions the applicant to meet the challenges and risks of this industry," said the board's executive director, Daniel Montgomery.

The loan guarantee was subject to conditions, including a confirmation by the Bankruptcy Court of US Airways' plan to restructure, Montgomery said in a letter to US Airways Chief Executive David Siegel.

US Airways has said it plans to emerge from bankruptcy court protection by the end of March.

As part of the loan guarantee, the government receives warrants - a security that allows it to buy shares - representing 10 per cent of the airline's equity once it comes out of bankruptcy.

TOKYO

Pioneer, TDK developing DVD

Japanese electronics manufacturers Pioneer and TDK are working together to develop a faster DVD recorder to exploit the booming domestic market, a spokesman said yesterday.

The new recorders would reportedly cut the time to digitally record and then copy on to disk a two-hour television programme from three hours to two and a half hours.

"The most important thing we are aiming for is to increase the convenience to the consumer," said Pioneer Corp spokesman Kesanobu Yamanishi.

The partners hope to commercialize the faster recorders by 2004, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said.

The news, reported in the Nihon Keizai's morning edition, sent shares of both firms higher in the morning session.

Chip with large memory to be made

Semiconductor giants Toshiba of Japan and Germany's Infineon said yesterday they have invented a tiny chip with a vast memory capacity, marking the first fruit of a joint development plan launched in 2001.

The 32 megabit ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) chip has the highest memory capacity ever reported, equalling that of a similar device unveiled by Samsung a year ago, a spokesman from Toshiba said.

FeRAM, a non-volatile device with low power consumption, combines the fast operating characteristic of dynamic random access memory and static read-only memory, with flash memory ability to retain data while switched off.

The new FeRAM reduces the overall area of the chip to only 96 millimetres square, half the size of a conventional device, which would help reduce production costs, the two firms said.

AUBURN HILLS, Michigan

Site for new engine plant chosen

The Chrysler Group, Hyundai and Mitsubishi said on Tuesday they have selected Dundee, Michigan, as the site for a new engine-production plant.

The plant will produce a family of four-cylinder engines being jointly developed by the three automotive partners for use in compact and sub-compact vehicles.

Production at the Dundee plant is slated to begin in 2005, subject to all the necessary planning approvals, the partners said in a statement.

Global production of the engines is expected to total 1.5 million units a year by the end of 2005 - making it potentially the highest-volume engine family in the world.

The Hyundai Motor Company and Mitsubishi Motors Corp expect to start manufacturing the first in the engine series at facilities in South Korea and Japan in 2004.

BEIJING

Oil giant

Oil major PetroChina is seeking foreign and domestic partners for a proposed US$600 million natural gas pipeline after US energy trader Enron Corp withdrew, a company official said yesterday.

"We are discussing the partnership with several companies, both Chinese and foreign," the official said.

He would not elaborate on which foreign firms were involved following the withdrawal of Enron after it went bankrupt in 2001, but said the Chinese firms might include domestic major Sinopec.

The 740-kilometre pipeline is intended to move up to 3.9 billion cubic metres of gas a year.

SHANGHAI

Latest IPOs

Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd will issue 35 million A shares in its initial public offering (IPO) on February 17 to raise net proceeds of 522.54 million yuan (US$63 million).

The IPOs are priced at 15.55 yuan (US$1.9) a share.

All the IPO shares will be placed to secondary market investors with holdings worth at least 10,000 yuan (US$1,204).

Tin output

China's top tin firm, Yunnan Tin Co Ltd, said yesterday it aims to maintain refined tin output in 2003 steady at last year's 25,000 tons despite a severe shortage of raw material.

"We are aiming to keep this year's output at last year's level," Yunnan Tin General Manager Xiao Jianming said.

Xiao said the firm produced 25,000 tons last year - 23,000 tons from plants in Southwest China's Yunnan Province and the remainder from a unit in Central China's Hunan Province.

HONG KONG

Airport deal

Xiamen Airlines Co Ltd, 60 per cent owned by China Southern Airlines Co Ltd, has signed a deal to buy into a loss-making airport in Fuzhou, capital of East China's Fujian Province, a source familiar with the situation said yesterday.

Xiamen Airlines and several other local companies based in the coastal city of Xiamen will invest 400 million yuan (US$48.2 million) to set up a new company to take over the Fuzhou Changle International Airport in April, the source said.

A Xiamen Airline official confirmed the carrier recently signed an agreement to purchase a stake in the airport, but declined to give any further details.

Telecom equipment

UTStarcom said it will provide US$26.5 million in telecoms equipment to China Telecom, in the latest of a series of deals worth nearly US$1.5 billion over the past two years as China builds out its wireless phone networks.

China Telecom, China's top fixed-line phone carrier, will use the latest purchase to build out its wireless network in the Central China city of Wuhan, UTStarcom said late on Tuesday.

China Telecom and its main fixed-line rival, China Netcom, lack formal mobile phone licences, but have been building out mobile-like networks over the last few years based on a technology known as the personal access system or PAS