Indonesia to repay half of its IMF debt in advance

Indonesian authorities have informed the International Monetary Fund of plans to repay in advance about US$3.7 billion in debt, half of its debt to the institution. According to Indonesia's original repayment schedule, it would have made its final repayment in December 2010 on the [USD] $11.1 billion-dollar line of credit which was extended in August 1998, during the Asian financial crisis.

Rodrigo Rato, the IMF's managing director, welcomed the announcement and commended the Indonesian authorities for their economic management over the past few years. Bank Indonesia governor Burhanuddin Abdullah said on June 5 that Indonesia may settle all of its outstanding debt to the IMF by December.

The decision of Argentina and Brazil this year to turn their backs on IMF tutelage, by repaying their multi-billion-dollar loans early, has left the Fund facing an operating shortfall of US$110 million this fiscal year. Brazil repaid US$15.5 billion and Argentina repaid US$9.6 billion.

- Dollar dumping, anyone?

(2006-06-27 23:14:00 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

"Super Battery"

sciencentral.com :

Joel Schindall and his team at M.I.T. plan to make long battery charge times and expensive replacements a thing of the past. Rechargable and disposable batteries use a chemical reaction to produce energy. "That's an effective way to store a large amount of energy," he says, "but the problem is that after many charges and discharges ... the battery loses capacity to the point where the user has to discard it." Capacitors contain energy as an electric field of charged particles between two electrodes. Capacitors charge faster and last longer than normal batteries. However, storage capacity is proportional to the surface area of the electrodes, so even today's most powerful capacitors hold 25 times less energy than similarly sized standard chemical batteries.

The researchers solved this by covering the electrodes with millions of tiny filaments called nanotubes. Each nanotube is 30,000 times thinner than a human hair. The nanotube filaments increase the surface area of the electrodes and allow the capacitor to store more energy. Schindall says this combines the strength of today's batteries with the longevity and speed of capacitors. "It could be recharged many, many times perhaps hundreds of thousands of times, and ... it could be recharged very quickly, just in a matter of seconds rather than a matter of hours," he says.

This technology has broad practical possibilities for any device that requires a battery. Schindall thinks hybrid cars would be a particularly popular application, especially because current hybrid batteries are expensive to replace. Schindall also sees the ecological benefit to these reinvented capacitors. When ordinary batteries are disposed, toxic chemicals like cadmium can seep into the ground. "[The ultra-capacitor] is better for the environment, because it allows the user to not worry about replacing his battery," he says.

(2006-06-27 22:59:17 SGT) [Tech] Permalink

Worker flicks wrong switch, costs company $11 million

news.yahoo.com :

A worker accidentally tripping a shut-off switch at a major Ontario plastics plant will cost Nova Chemicals Corp. $11 million in lost profit, the company said, because it won't be able to fulfill some contracts because of the blunder.

A contractor's employee installing a structural steel platform at an ethylene plant in Corunna, Ontario, mistakenly activated a process shutdown switch, halting production and forcing two weeks of repairs at the facility. Nova has launched an investigation into just how the worker hit the button, but the company said its priority is repairing the facility.

The Corunna plant is one of Canada's largest plastics facilities, capable of supplying up to 40% of the country's primary petrochemical market. The plant processes crude oil, natural gas condensates and liquids into products like ethylene, propylene, benzene and toluene. Those are in turn used to make plastic resins for the manufacture of small appliances, plastic bottles, carpets, cosmetics and other items. The facility, located near Sarnia, Ontario, 180 miles (290 kilometers) southwest of Toronto, has about 1,000 employees.

- Oops?

(2006-06-27 22:31:37 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Backblogging musings

Not too surprisingly, I'm behind again - the usual lack of time issues. Not that bad this time though, I'm "only" 10 backblogged entries behind, now I'm at the start of 23 Jun entries, which is about 4 days behind. That compares to over 30 entries and 7 days behind (!!) the previous time. Well.

Moved to use Furl as well for my "blogging memory", leaving Yahoo! My Web 2.0 behind. Furl has everything I need, online bookmarking, categories, and searching, and its cache feature works - and it even has a Firefox extension to help you out. Yahoo's one doesn't cache most of the time nowadays even if I tell it to, and sometimes the entire list of bookmarks is "not available" (hiaks!) - which is kind of worrisome for folks who wish to rely on their online bookmarks often.

I see more crunch time coming up, though this time it's actually (comparatively, from a geek point of view) some interesting stuff going on at work. So, the backblog might stack up further. Well.

(2006-06-27 15:22:29 SGT) [Musings] Permalink

Hitachi, GE plan to build nuclear plant in US

sg.biz.yahoo.com :

Hitachi and General Electric plan to jointly build the first nuclear power plants in the United States since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, a Hitachi spokesman said. The Japanese and US electronics giants will construct two nuclear power reactors in the suburbs of Houston at a cost of 5.2 billion dollars if they get US approval.

President George W. Bush's administration wants to relaunch construction of nuclear reactors in the United States as the cost of crude oil is soaring near record highs due to both geopolitical and supply concerns.

Resource-strapped Japan depends on nuclear power generation for about 30% of its total electricity needs. Hitachi's rival Toshiba, a key manufacturer of nuclear power facilities in Japan, announced an agreement in February to buy the US nuclear power plant maker Westinghouse from British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) for 5.4 billion dollars. Toshiba's acquisition, the biggest by a Japanese firm in years overseas, came amid expectations that the US nuclear market will grow strongly.

Russia initiates SCO energy club

peakoil.com -> en.rian.ru :

Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal to set up an energy club within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, voiced at the SCO summit in Shanghai, has been met with alarm in the West. Concerns have been expressed that a gas analogue of OPEC may appear in the East. The SCO's oil resources are not overly significant: even with Iran, they do not exceed 20% of the world's total. The situation with gas is different: the gas reserves of Russia, the Central Asian states, and Iran make up more than 50% of the world's proved reserves.

Is Russia really trying to set up an OPEC analogue within the SCO? Hardly. First of all, it is now too busy supplying energy westwards. It has quite a few long-term contracts, and their number will grow. Secondly, setting up an OPEC analogue is difficult from political, economic and organizational points of view. Russia is hardly willing to assume such a burden, even despite its leading role in global gas supplies.

Oil and gas exporters within the SCO are competing for promising markets, such as China and other dynamically developing East and South Asian nations. To coordinate moves, the organization needs the energy club proposed by President Putin. Its principal difference from OPEC will be that it will unite both energy producers and key consumers, i.e. China, India and Pakistan.

(2006-06-27 12:42:58 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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