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IKCO
Takes Lead in Quality Tondar 90 Production
 TEHRAN (Press TV) - A total of 100,000 Tondar 90 (Renault
Logan) cars have been produced in Iran, half of which by
Iran's biggest automaker, Iran Khodro (IKCO).
Renault Pars Company is in charge of the engineering,
quality control, parts supply, logistics, managing sales
policies as well as marketing and customer services for
Renault products in Iran and IKCO is one of its main
shareholders that produces Tondar for the domestic market.
Running on a 1.6-liter 16-valve engine, Tondar 90 has been
hailed as a low-cost family vehicle in the Iranian market.
The production line of Tondar 90, one of Renault's newest
platforms, entered Iran in 2007 to be produced in plants
operated by IKCO, Saipa and Pars Khodro. Its initial total
production was six units per week in IKCO and Saipa.
Currently, however, 200 units of the vehicle is produced a
day.
According to the latest quality control and quality grading
of Iranian passenger cars and pick-ups, IKCO's Tondar 90 has
topped its rivals Pars Khodro and Saipa.
Renault Pars is a joint venture, 51 percent of which belongs
to Renault of France. Forty-nine percent of Renault Pars'
shares is jointly held by Iran's Industrial Development and
Renovation Organization (IDRO), IKCO and Saipa. The company
was established in 2003.
Tondar 90 (Renault Logan) cars
UAE, SKorea Ink $40b Nuclear Power
Deals
 ABU DHABI/SEOUL (Dispatches) – A South Korean group won a
landmark deal to build and operate four nuclear reactors for
the United Arab Emirates, beating more favored US and French
rivals to one of the Middle East's biggest ever energy
contracts.
Under the $40 billion deal announced on Sunday, which Seoul
said it hoped would kick-start an export drive for its
nuclear technology, the first nuclear plant in the Persian
Gulf Arab region is scheduled to start supplying power to
the UAE grid in 2017.
In stark contrast to the development program launched by
northern Persian Gulf neighbor Iran, the UAE's nuclear
ambitions carry the blessing of its ally the United States.
A consortium led by state-owned utility Korea Electric Power
Corp (KEPCO) aims to complete the UAE's four 1,400 megawatt
reactors by 2020.
The South Korean president's office described the deal as
"the largest mega-project in Korean history," while KEPCO
said it was also it was in talks with Turkey to export two
nuclear power reactors to Black Sea areas.
The US and the UAE have a nuclear cooperation pact and
US-based firm Westinghouse Electric, a unit of Japan's
Toshiba Corp, was part of the winning consortium.
It also includes Hyundai Engineering and Construction,
Samsung C&T Corp and Doosan Heavy Industries. The UAE has
pledged to import the fuel it needs for reactors -- rather
than attempting to enrich uranium, the fuel for nuclear
power plants -- to allay fears about enrichment facilities
being used to make weapons-grade material.
South Korea hopes to use nascent nuclear programs in the
Middle East, which include developments in Saudi Arabia and
Egypt, as a springboard for expanding its nuclear industry,
though the projects have fueled concerns within the
international community over a regional arms race.
"We are now expecting much bigger opportunities in entering
overseas markets as winning the UAE nuclear deal will play a
role of convincing those countries in the Middle East and
other regions which are thinking of importing nuclear power
reactors," KEPCO said in a statement.
The UAE, the world's third-largest oil exporter, needs the
nuclear power to help meet an expected rise in electricity
demand to 40,000 MW in 2020 from around 15,000 MW last year,
amid a petrodollar-fueled economic boom.
South Korea said it also hopes to build more plants in the
UAE beyond 2020 to meet future demand.
Energy Crisis Growing Rapidly in
Pakistan
ISLAMABAD (IRNA) -- It is widely believed in Pakistan that
Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project should be completed at
the earliest to over come energy crisis which Pakistan is
currently facing.
The unannounced gas load-shedding in the country has put the
CNG-run transport in troubled waters as well as taking toll
on industry and other business activities, not to mention
the hardships faced by domestic users.
People say that Iran has surplus gas and the completion of
gas pipeline project is the only way out for Pakistan to
overcome gas shortage.
Pakistan’s energy crisis is feared to worsen next year with
the gas shortfall likely to almost double to more than two
billion cubic feet a day (BCFD).
Official figures suggested that the shortage, which stood at
about one BCFD this winter, would go up to 2.1 BCFD by next
year.
The demand and supply estimates presented by the Interstate
Gas Company — a subsidiary of the petroleum ministry —
suggested that the gas shortfalls would increase by more
than 300 per cent to 6.5 BCFD by 2020.
According to official estimates, domestic gas demand would
increase to 6.8 BCFD in 2011, about 7.1 BCFD in 2012 and
to7.6 BCFD in 2015.
The gas shortage has forced a number of industrial units to
close down while delay in fulfillment of export consignments
has become a matter of routine due to less supply and low
pressure of natural gas.
Moreover, it has been reported that in small cities and
towns of the country, the commodity continues to disappear
for hours without prior intimation, thus badly affecting the
domestic users as well as the public and private transport
running on CNG.
Meanwhile, the government has already announced “Gas Load
Management Plan” under which CNG stations would remain
closed for eight days a month on rotational basis in the
zones served by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited
(SNGPL).
The gas load management plan would continue until March 15,
2010.
The company expects to save and divert 25 million cubic feet
of gas per day from the sector through the plan.
Gas shortage in the winters is not a new phenomenon. Natural
gas is the prime source of fuel used by domestic consumers.
In the present situation when there is six- to eight-hour
power load-shedding, gas shortage is hampering the growth of
industries, which would affect the growth of overall exports
of the country.
Similarly, domestic consumers throughout the country are
also facing problems due to the long hours gas load-shedding
and they are forced to use woods for cooking food and other
uses.
Tea Price on the Rise
 TEHRAN (Mojnews ) - Tea prices reached record levels this
year but should ease in 2010 as weather patterns returned to
normal in the main tea-producing regions of Asia and Africa,
FAO reported.
The FAO Tea Composite price, the indicative world price for
black tea, reached a high of $3.18 a kilogram in September
amid droughts in India, Sri Lanka and Kenya underpinned by
increased demand, compared to an average price of $2.38 per
kilo gram in 2008.
The concern is that tea producers could over-react to the
current high prices by planting more crops, threatening an
over supply in the market, FAO said.
“Some producing countries, such as India, have acted
responsibly and announced that they would not be expanding
current tea areas beyond what is required for replanting and
rehabilitating existing tea gardens” said Kaison Chang,
Secretary of FAO’s Inter-Governmental Group on Tea, the only
international tea authority.
“The return of normal weather patterns in the main producing
regions indicates that the tight global market situation
should begin to ease alleviating the pressure on world tea
prices in the New Year,” he said.
Although consumption growth outpaced production between 2005
and 2009 (an estimated 0.8 percent as opposed to -0.6
percent, respectively) the gap between consumption and
production growth was largest between 2007 and 2009, when it
reached 3.4 percentage points, coinciding with the surge in
prices.
Some of the price increases were passed along the value
chain to consumers as retail prices increased by five
percent across supermarkets in Europe.
SKorea Bids for Turkey's Nuclear
Plants
TEHRAN (Press TV) - South Korea is trying to ink a nuclear
plant contract in Turkey following a hefty nuclear
technology export deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE),
an official says.
"The government plans to push for the deal with Turkey in
the first half of next year," an unnamed high-ranking
foreign ministry official in Seoul was quoted Monday as
saying by Yonhap News Agency.
According to the report by the South Korean News Agency, the
Turkish government will propose bids for four nuclear power
plants worth $20bn and the bids are expected to be called
during the first six months of 2010.
Seoul has reportedly been in contact with the Turkish
government on the contract for about a year, the unnamed
source added.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for state utility Korea Electric
Power Corp (KEPCO) told AFP that "nothing has been decided,
but we plan to bid for a nuclear power plant project in
Turkey."
South Korea on Sunday was awarded with the
$40-billion-US-dollar deal in the UAE, which local media
said provided a stepping stone to make headway into the
Middle Eastern nuclear power plant market.
Putin Launches New Russia Oil Route
to Asia
 MOSCOW (AFP) – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin launched
Russia's long-awaited Siberian oil export route on Monday,
hailing a "truly serious event" giving energy-hungry Asia a
new supply source from the world's largest crude exporter.
Putin, clad in a heavy winter parka, pushed a button that
initiated the first filling of an oil tanker at a new oil
terminal near the Russian Pacific port of Nakhodka, the
projected terminus of the new Siberian oil pipeline.
"For Russia this is truly a serious event," Putin said
during the terminal inauguration ceremony at the port of
Kozmino near Nakhodka, in comments broadcast on state
television.
"This is a strategic project because it allows us to enter
completely new, growing, promising markets of the Asian
Pacific region," Putin said.
"This is the completion of one of the largest projects in
modern Russia. And not only modern Russia; it would be a
grandiose project for the former Soviet Union too."
Earlier this year, Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft
completed the construction of the first 2,694-kilometer
(1,600-mile) section of the oil pipeline known by the
acronym ESPO linking Taishet in eastern Siberia with
Skovorodino in the Amur region.
This portion of the project also included the construction
of the Kozmino oil port inaugurated by Putin. The second,
2,100-kilometer (1,300-mile) section of the pipeline will
run from Skovorodino to the Kozmino port.
For now, oil is being delivered by rail from Skovorodino to
the Kozmino port where it is then to be pumped into tankers
for shipment to markets in Asia.
Vladimir Putin speaks in Kozmino during a ceremony of
commissioning the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean Oil Pipeline in
Russia's Far East on December 28
China Likely to Become Top Global
Exporter in 2009
BEIJING (AFP) – China is likely to overtake
Germany as the world's largest exporter in 2009, despite a
sharp fall in shipments as the global downturn took its
toll, a high-ranking trade official has said.
The country's share of global trade is expected to exceed
nine percent this year, up from 8.86 percent in 2008, Vice
Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said at a forum here on Sunday.
"China will probably surpass Germany to become the largest
exporting country," he said, according to a statement posted
on the ministry's website.
However, 2009 was a tough year for the Asian giant with
full-year exports predicted to decline by 16 percent
on-year, Zhong added -- the biggest decline in at least
three decades, according to available ministry data.
He blamed the drop on "severely weak international demand"
and "rising trade protectionism", adding the value of trade
disputes brought against China in terms of potential losses
doubled this year to 12 billion dollars.
The country will face an "even more complicated foreign
trade situation and more arduous tasks" in 2010 given
ongoing uncertainties in international demand and the
stability of the yuan's exchange rate, Zhong said.
China's trade is "big but not strong", and the country must
adjust its trade structure and beef up product quality and
competitiveness to "realize... improvement in quality from
an expansion in quantity", he said.
In the first 11 months of the year, the country's exports
were down by 18.8 percent from the same period last year to
1.07 trillion dollars, official figures showed.
Overheating Biggest Risk for
Brazil’s Economy
RIO DE JENEIRO (Bloomberg) -- The biggest threat to Brazil’s
economy in 2010 is the acceleration of
gross-domestic-product growth beyond 6.5 percent, Banco
Safra de Investimento said.
“As long as growth estimates stay between 5.5 percent and
6.5 percent it is still possible for the central bank to
manage the growth-inflation issue,” Cristiano Oliveira,
chief economist at Banco Safra, said in a telephone
interview from Sao Paulo. “Above that, it will be difficult;
monetary policy will be way more aggressive than what is
priced in today.”
Banco Safra expects the benchmark interest rate to rise from
a record low 8.75 percent to 10.75 percent by December 2010.
Consumer spending and capital expenditures will boost GDP
growth in Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, to 5.6
percent next year, following an estimated 0.2 percent
contraction in 2009, Oliveira said. Brazilian economists
project 5.08 percent expansion in 2010, according to a
weekly central bank survey of about 100 economists published
today.
Increasing imports and profit remittances by multinationals
to headquarters abroad will widen next year’s
current-account deficit to “at least $54 billion,” Oliveira
said. Brazilian economists expect a record $40.8 billion
shortfall, according to the central bank survey.
The current-account deficit will be more than compensated
for by $62 billion in foreign direct and portfolio
investments, lifting the real to 1.65 per U.S. dollar by the
end of next year, Oliveira said. The currency was up 0.8
percent at 1.7483 per dollar at 6:16 a.m. in New York,
compared with 1.7630 on Dec. 24.
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