Content about Asia

Gatwick Airport has signed a deal with Air China, which is seeking to expand its London network.

China’s national flag carrier will operate a non-stop service from Gatwick to Beijing International Airport four times a week. The Airbus A330-200 aircraft will depart Gatwick at 1300 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, arriving at Beijing airport at 0620 local time the following day. Return journeys will leave at 0135 and touch down at Gatwick at approximately 0550 the same day. Monday’s flight will start operating from the beginning of June.

University College Dublin (UCD) has signed a memorandum of understanding with a leading Chinese dairy producer, Dairy United.

The agreement, which is expected to bring about multi-million Euro contracts for products and services, sets out the development of a China-Ireland Agricultural demonstration farm in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, as well as collaborative research projects, the provision of education and training, and collaboration on creating a trade corridor to facilitate the export of Irish products to Inner Mongolia.

Indian steel giant Tata has announced it plans to invest £800 million into Wales’ steel making industry over the next five years.

First minister Carwyn Jones recently met the vice chairman of Tata Steel, Mr B Muthuraman, in Mumbai as part of a government trade mission to the country.

Chemical solutions company PI Industries has an outstanding reputation, both as a supplier of agrichemicals and a researcher of fine chemicals, that it has built up over the past half century. By developing close relationships with both customers and suppliers, it has become a significant force in the Indian and world markets, as Jane McCallion finds out.

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest information technology company, has given notice of its sales and operating profit for Q1 2012.

The South Korean manufacturer of the Galaxy smartphone and Note mini-tablet released a consolidated earnings estimate today of 5.8 trillion won (approximately $5.1 billion) on sales of around 45 trillion won (almost $40 billion).

Global Sources' Future of Consumer Electronics CEO forum is scheduled to be held on 12 April at the China Sourcing Fair: Electronics & Components in Hong Kong.

Co-organized with the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation and Consumer Electronic Alliances, the Forum aims to inspire further innovation among Greater China's electronics company executives.

Indonesia has 17,000 islands and though PT Leighton Contractors Indonesia (LCI) works on just a few of those, logistics are a challenge. Mining Indonesian coal destined for China and India may be part of its core business; but diversity is LCI’s second name.

Turkish mine Çayeli Bakir is the only mine in the north-eastern province of Rize. Jane McCallion talks to managing director Iain Anderson about the mine’s recent multi-million dollar capital investment programme and its close relationship with the local community.

Çayeli Bakir is an underground copper and zinc mine located in the north-east of Turkey, close to the Black Sea coast. The facility, a wholly owned subsidiary of Canada’s Inmet Mining, became operational in 1994 and is expected to run until at least 2017.

Morano Resources has entered into an option agreement to purchase Zarmadan Resources Corporation and its Rumri gold project in Tajikistan, it has been announced.

The Rumri project is located in the Tavildara region of Tajikistan, about 250 kilometres east of Dushanbe, near the village of Sangvor in the southern Tien Shan gold belt. The belt hosts a number of world-class gold deposits and globally significant gold producers.

DuPont and Yingli Energy (China) Company Limited have signed a $100 million strategic agreement for photovoltaic materials to accelerate the adoption of solar energy.

The agreement was signed today in Washington, DC, in a ceremony organized by the US Department of Commerce and the Ministry of Commerce, People's Republic of China. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Yingli will purchase a range of trademarked photovoltaic materials from DuPont.

American “retail treat” brand Dairy Queen opened its 500th franchise in China this week, and plans another hundred before the end of this year.

The 500th DQ restaurant is located in the Hu Dong finance district in Shanghai, and is operated by Shanghai Shida Catering Management Company, which already has more than 350 Dairy Queen sites throughout southern and eastern China.

China Investment Corporation (CIC) has acquired an 8.68 per cent stake in Thames Water, the UK water and sewerage company.

The purchase is the Chinese sovereign wealth fund’s first in the UK, and comes after George Osborne's visit to China this week, where he urged China to invest in UK infrastructure projects.

The price CIC paid for the stake has not been disclosed.

CIC was set up in 2007 to make strategic investments using China’s £2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves.