Suzuki denies cheating in fuel testing
Suzuki Motor Corp. said Wednesday that it had used improper methods to determine the fuel economy of 16 vehicles it sells in Japan, adding to the list of automakers that have come under scrutiny for how they perform in government tests.
Suzuki representatives said it had not sought to mislead customers, and its testing had not exaggerated mileage ratings. Representatives said the company does not plan to restate any published ratings.
Still, the disclosure likely will add to industrywide doubts concerning carmakers and the fuel-test results they report to governments around the world.
Osamu Suzuki, Suzuki's chairman and chief executive, apologized to customers but said the company had retested its vehicles and found no significant differences between the results and their already-published ratings.
-- The New York Times
China's Midea bids for robot-maker Kuka
HONG KONG -- Chinese appliance maker Midea made a $5.2 billion takeover offer Wednesday for German industrial-robot maker Kuka, a move that company representatives say would help it capture a larger share of the "future service robots market."
Midea said it would offer $130 a share to buy all the Kuka stock it doesn't already own. The cash offer values Kuka at $5.2 billion.
Investors seemed bullish on the offer price, pushing shares in Kuka up 31 percent on the news.
The Chinese company, which is based in southern China's Guangdong province, raised its stake in Kuka to 10.2 percent in February. Indirect holdings of Kuka stock bring its current total ownership to 13.5 percent.
Midea, which makes air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines, said Kuka's technology would help it boost manufacturing efficiency.
Industrial companies in China are looking to boost their automation levels to replace humans as the pool of workers shrinks and wages soar.
-- The Associated Press
Norway allows drilling in Arctic waters
TROMSOE, Norway -- Norway awarded 10 new licenses on Wednesday for offshore oil and gas exploration in the Barents Sea, including three in previously untouched waters near the Russian border.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said it is the first time new acreage has been opened for drilling in Norwegian waters in 20 years.
"The potential is huge," Tord Lien, minister of petroleum and energy, said. "If the companies are successful in their exploration, Northern Norway will enter a new era."
Thirteen companies were awarded 10 licenses comprising 40 blocks in the Barents Sea, a portion of the Arctic Ocean just above Norway's northern coast.
Three of the licenses were in waters that became accessible to exploration after a border deal with Russia.
-- The Associated Press
New bladder-cancer therapy an advance
U.S. regulators have approved the first drug for bladder cancer that harnesses the body's immune system. It is the first advance in decades against the most common type of bladder cancer, one that almost always kills patients within months.
Tecentriq won approval for treating patients with advanced urothelial cancer after chemotherapy stops helping them.
The drug, developed by the Roche Group's Genentech unit, blocks a protein found in many tumor cells that deactivates key immune-system cells that kill cancer cells.
Whereas most patients with bladder cancer die after about six months on chemotherapy, Genentech says some of those given Tecentriq in trials are alive three years after starting treatment. It has a list price of $12,500 per month.
-- The Associated Press
Submarine builder to add 1,000 jobs
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Newport News Shipbuilding is planning to add more than 1,000 jobs to help build a new fleet of ballistic missile submarines for the Navy.
The Daily Press reports that company President Matt Mulherin announced the news Tuesday during a news conference at the Sea-Air-Space Exposition in National Harbor, Md.
The shipyard, which is Virginia's largest industrial employer, has shed about 1,200 jobs since last year and officials said it could cut another 300 later this year.
Hoping to replace the Navy's aging fleet of Ohio-class submarines, which acts as a nuclear deterrent, the Defense Department plans to order 12 subs for a new fleet, beginning in 2021. The fleet doesn't yet have a name, so Navy leaders are simply calling it the Ohio Replacement Program.
-- The Associated Press
Coal-ash removal recommended in N.C.
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Coal-ash pits in North Carolina maintained by Duke Energy power plants pose such an environmental risk that they should be excavated and moved by 2024, state environmental regulators said Wednesday.
But the state Department of Environmental Quality representatives said it's asking for a change in state law that would allow it to reconsider its risk assessment in 18 months.
The agency was required to submit its risk rankings for all 33 pits by Wednesday under a state law passed in 2014 after a spill at a Duke Energy coal-ash pit coated 70 miles of the Dan River in a toxic sludge. The law required that eight pits at four plants be excavated by 2019.
Fewer pits would have to be excavated if repairs to dams retaining the liquefied waste are finished and neighbors, including hundreds of people who were warned last year against drinking well water, are provided a "permanent alternative" supply, employees of the agency said.
Duke Energy floated a potential cost to excavate coal ash from 14 of its coal-burning power plants at $10 billion in 2014. Representatives of the company said they expected to ask state utilities regulators to allow them to pass along the coal-ash bill to electricity customers. The company estimated the likely costs at about $4 billion last year, which could raise power rates for the average North Carolina household by about $18 a year over 25 years.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 05/19/2016