Toshiba wins bid for Westinghouse
Tokyo: Japanese electronics conglomerate Toshiba Corp. may have won its bid for Westinghouse, the U.S. power plant arm of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), for almost US$5bn, as per a report in the Financial Times on Monday. The report attributes the information to a source close to BNFL.

As per the report, Toshiba group's bid of close to US$5bn was the highest offer. Toshiba meanwhile has declined comment on the story saying that it neither wished to confirm or deny the report.

General Electric Co. of U.S. and Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd had also shown interest in buying Westinghouse. According to a earlier Wall Street Journal report, GE had teamed up for a bid with Hitachi Ltd of Japan.
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Ford's 'Way Forward' due today
Detroit, USA: Ford is all set to cut 30,000 jobs and close ten factories as part of a five-year restructuring programme aimed at rescuing the troubled car maker, part of the fabled American Big 3.

The main aim of the 'Way Forward' exercise, details of which are expected to be unveiled on Monday 23 January, is to restore profitability at its US operations.

Looking back, during the first nine months of 2005, Ford's automotive business has suffered US$1.7bn in losses, and also, has seen its market share fall 5 per cent during the year as a whole. Analysts expect that the full-year figure, also due to be announced on Monday, may turn out to be even worse.

Ford sold 824,000 fewer cars in 2005 than it did in 2000, and if the group's overall collection of brands is counted, the gap in sales between 2000 and 2005 widens to more than a million. During the same period, Japanese rivals Toyota, Nissan and Honda sold almost 1.3 million more vehicles than they did in 2000.
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Saudi Arabia may direct increased output to China, India
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: With the impending visit of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to the world's two most populous nations this week, analysts surmise that the world's biggest oil exporter may direct its increased output increasingly towards these two fastest-growing markets in the world.

King Abdullah arrived in Beijing on Sunday making it the first visit by a Saudi monarch to China. He is also scheduled to fly to New Delhi two days later, where he'll be the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations on Jan. 26.

Overall Asia absorbs about 60 per cent of Saudi oil exports. Saudi Arabia is also the top supplier to China and India. Indian State owned companies Hindustan Petroleum and Indian Oil Corp. have been invited to bid for a stake in a new Saudi Aramco oil refinery at Yanbu on the Red Sea.

As far as China is concerned, in March 2004, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to search for gas deposits in an area south of the kingdom's Ghawar oil field, the world's largest.

Sinopec was the only Asian company to win the right to explore for gas as Saudi Arabia opened up its reserves to foreign participation for the first time since nationalization in the 1970s.

Aramco, the world's largest oil company by production, agreed in 2001 to expand a refinery in China jointly owned with Sinopec and Exxon Mobil Corp. at a cost of US$3.5bn. Aramco may also build a second joint venture plant with Sinopec in the northern city of Qingdao.

Analysts say that Saudi investment in downstream operations in China and India ensures that the country will continue to supply these facilities.

China's oil consumption, which has doubled since the start of the decade, may rise 6.1 percent to 7 million barrels a day this year, according to the International Energy Agency. Imports will average about 3 million barrels a day. India imported 1.9 million barrels a day in October 2005, 15 percent more than a year earlier, according to the country's information bureau.

India and China are Saudi Arabia's third- and fourth-largest customers in Asia after Japan and South Korea.
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