Thursday, August 29, 2013

Asia Oriental se pone vieja...(Tomado de Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

By and
 
East Asia’s “tiger” economies, once home to a big supply of young labor, are seeing the fastest rise worldwide in the percentage of their elderly population. Is a grayer nation destined for decline? Harvard economist David Bloom says such fears may be overblown, if the developed world is a template. Labor force participation among older citizens has actually risen in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations, increasing the supply of productive workers.
 

Applegate is a graphics editor for Bloomberg Businessweek in New York. Follow him on Twitter @evanapplegate.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

A Quiet Debut for a Bigger Dreamliner: From Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Airplanes    By

A Quiet Debut for a Bigger Dreamliner

With little fanfare over the weekend, Boeing (BA) announced the birth of its newest 787 Dreamliner, the stretched-out version dubbed the 787-9. The new aircraft is 20 feet longer than the original 787-8 and can carry an additional 40 passengers up to 8,200 nautical miles, 300 more than its predecessor. The plane’s first test flight is scheduled for later this year, and Air New Zealand is set to get the first 787-9 in the middle of next year.

Unlike the debut of the first Dreamliner—which got a Super Bowl-style launch party in July 2007, only to become mired in nightmarish delays—Boeing is taking a much more subdued approach to other versions of the plane. The 787-9 made its debut on a Saturday night, all but assuring that only the most dedicated airline watchers would notice. Despite the Dreamliner production problems and the battery-related fires that have plagued some airlines, Boeing has collected about 930 orders for the 787 family to date. The new plane remains one of the company’s most popular models due to its advanced materials and operating costs that are roughly 20 percent lower than similarly sized airplanes.

Back in June, Boeing revealed details of a third, even larger Dreamliner variation, the 787-10, which will carry as many as 330 people up to 7,000 miles. That plane is expected to enter commercial service in 2018 and will be more than 38 feet longer than the 787-8.

United Airlines is the first North American customer for the 787-10 and the third-largest buyer of the model. It remains undecided which airline will be the formal “launch customer” for the plane, a modest distinction to the general public but one airlines market heavily for new service. Boeing has said that, so far, the 787-10 program has a “launch group” that have ordered the airplane, including lessors Air Lease Corp. and GE Capital Aviation Services (GE), Singapore Airlines, and British Airways’ parent, International Airlines Group.

Bachman is an associate editor for Businessweek.com.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Carrera Armamentista Asiática entre China, Japón e India (Tomado de Bloomberg BusinessWeek)


Japan's 19,500-ton Izumo helicopter carrier is launched in Yokohama on Aug. 6

Japan's 19,500-ton Izumo helicopter carrier is launched in Yokohama on Aug. 6

By   August 16, 2013
 
China and Japan managed to get past the Aug. 15 anniversary of the Japanese surrender in World War II without incident. For weeks leading up to the date, the question was, will he or won’t he? Will Shinzo Abe, the conservative prime minister who last year infuriated the Chinese by visiting the Yasukini Shrine in Tokyo, which commemorates Japan’s war dead—including war criminals from World War II—go to the shrine on the anniversary?
 
Abe has enough on his agenda without provoking another crisis with China, so he decided to stay clear. Three members of his cabinet did go to Yasukini, part of a group of 100 members of Japan’s parliament who prayed at the shrine. While Abe wasn’t one of them, the prime minister did make a gesture to his nationalist supporters, sending a cash offering to the shrine.
 
Another day, another crisis in the ongoing saga of the dispute between the two Asian powers over uninhabited rocks in the East China Sea. Today, China’s official China Central Television reported the People’s Liberation Army had started 10 days of live-fire military exercises in the waters near the islands, which Japan calls the Senkaku and the Chinese call the Diaoyu. In a highly symbolic move, one ship taking part in the exercises is the Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier.
 
The Liaoning is part of a three-way arms race involving the naval forces of China, Japan, and the other big Asian power, India. With China embroiled in territorial disputes with both Japan and India, all three countries are coming out with bigger and better warships to make sure they hold their own in the region.
 
For Japan, the big news is a 19,500-ton helicopter carrier called the Izumo, which the government unveiled on Aug. 6. It’s the third such warship in Japan’s self-defense force and the biggest Japanese-made military vessel since the end of World War II. That’s big for Japan but still small compared with U.S. aircraft carriers, which displace 97,000 tons when fully loaded.
 
Still, the Chinese are not happy about the Izumo’s launch. The helicopter carrier is a “symbol of Japan’s strong wish to return to its time as a military power,” the Global Times wrote the next day.
India, meanwhile, has launched its first aircraft carrier, unveiled on Monday. That’s a challenge to China, the Global Times editorialized. “China should speed up its construction of domestic aircraft carriers,” it said. “The earlier China establishes its own aircraft carrier capabilities, the earlier it will gain the strategic initiative.”
 
India has tripled military spending over the past 10 years and in February announced more spending, with a 14 percent increase in defense outlays. The border dispute between India and China isn’t as hot as the one between Japan and China, but it involves much more land: India says China is occupying 38,000 square kilometers of Indian territory in Jummu and Kashmir (the much-disputed region in the north of India that is also claimed by Pakistan). China says India is occupying 90,000 square kilometers of Chinese territory in Arunachal Pradesh (a state in northeastern India near Bhutan and Tibet).
 
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July approved the deployment of 50,000 more troops near the Chinese border, according to a report by the Press Trust of India. The new strike force would include C-130J Hercules aircraft made by Lockheed Martin (LMT). One problem: the price tag. Adding that many more troops could cost as much as 650 billion rupees ($10.5 billiion). A few days later, a Defense Ministry official told Bloomberg News of a plan for an additional strike force near the Chinese border in the state of West Bengal.
 
India’s military buildup suffered a major blow on Aug. 14 when one of its Russian-built, diesel-powered submarines, the INS Sinhurakshak, exploded in Mumbai’s harbor. The 18 sailors on board are all feared dead.
Einhorn is Asia regional editor in Bloomberg Businessweek’s Hong Kong bureau. Follow him on Twitter @BruceEinhorn.