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"BHP, Rio and Glencore have each denied they are engaged in aggressive tax avoidance strategies. Rio and BHP told the committee they had set up marketing hubs in Singapore not to pay less tax but to be closer to customers."

Sony Corp will invest $369 million (40 billion yen) to power up its lithium-ion battery production operations, adding new facilities and augmenting existing lines. The infusion, which Sony said is the first phase of investment in lithium-ion batteries the company is undertaking as part of efforts to reinforce core areas of its component and semiconductor business over the next three years, will be used to construct new production facilities and to enhance existing lines at Sony's lithium-ion battery production sites in Japan, the Motomiya Technology Center and Tochigi Technology Center of Sony Energy Device Corp. Sony said it is making the investment in response to the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries and that the new production facilities will focus on electrodes, battery cell production lines, and charge and discharge equipment, among other technologies. Sony further reminded its expanding lithium-ion battery production in Singapore and China, and said that in total its monthly production capacity will increase from the current level of 41 million cells per month to 74 million cells in 2010. Sony's $369 million investment will start in its current fiscal year and continue through the second half of its fiscal year 2010. Sony's fiscal Q1 2008 concluded in June. Meanwhile, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co recently committed $923 million (100 billion yen) to build a plant in Osaka, Japan, that is expected to bring its cell production to about 75 million a month from its current 25 million cells per month. Sanyo Electric Co has also reportedly announced plans to invest, promising $1.15 billion (125 billion yen) to develop its rechargeable-batteries business over the next three years. That investment is expected to increase cell output to 90 million per month from Sanyo's current 70 million cells per month. All three of the Japan-based companies last year suffered from loses brought on by their battery operations. Sony-made lithium-

Sony Corp will invest about 40 billion yen (US$372 million) to boost its output capacity of lithium-ion batteries amid growing global demand, the company said. On top of plans to increase production in Singapore and China, the Japanese consumer electronics firm said it will build new facilities and enhance existing lines in Japan, hoping to expand output capacity to 74 million cells per month in 2010 from the current 41 million cells. "This is the first phase of investment in lithium ion batteries Sony is undertaking as part of efforts to reinforce core areas of its component and semiconductor business over the next three years," the company said in a statement.

SINGAPORE, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Shanghai copper fell around 2 percent on Monday but it lagged behind a 4.5 percent slide in London prices after big jumps in inventories on Friday. But prices in London bounced on Monday, lifted by gains in other other commodity markets as the dollar lost ground against the euro after the U.S. government on Sunday seized control of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM - news - people ) and Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE - news - people ), which own or guarantee half of all U.S. mortgages. LME copper rose $75 or 1.1 percent, to $6,975 at 0232 GMT, while Shanghai November copper dropped 1,030 yuan to 55,630 yuan ($8,130) and earlier touched a nine-month low.

SINGAPORE -- Copper prices were steady in London and Shanghai on Friday, after modest overnight gains, but trade was thin as investors awaited the cobbling of a plan to preserve the economy from septic debt.

Still, the top 10, which is ranked according to Google's search volume index, offers a glimpse of relative interest in the technology. The numbers represent the likelihood of users in each country searching for "hybrid car," on a scale of 0-100. Google divides the total number of searches for each country by the number of searches for this particular term, and then normalizes the data based on the country's traffic volume. 1. United States: 100 2. Malaysia: 66 3. Canada: 60 4. Singapore: 56 5. Australia: 45 6. New Zealand: 42 7. South Korea: 35 8. India: 30 9. Hong Kong: 23 10. United Kingdom: 22

Power, it is universally acknowledged, is shifting to Asia. What that really means, however, is that the continent's biggest countries, China and India, are at last modernizing and achieving sustained economic development, just as Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan did before them. With their development comes increased influence, importance, and capabilities. All this will make the old-established powers of the West no less capable, influential, or important-but they will be a lot less dominant.

SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- Copper mine supply could struggle to match forecast demand growth in the period to 2013, Macquarie Bank said in a report dated Tuesday. The bank said copper demand was expected to be 4 million metric tons higher in 2013 than 2009, implying that a significant number of new mine projects will need to come onstream to balance the market.

The firm Tanaka Denshi Kogyo, of the Tanaka Kikinzoku Group, has announced it is to expand its output of copper bonding wire to 20 million metres per month, a five-fold increase. The increase will come from an additional production line at the firm's Singapore plant which produces copper bonding wire and from establishing a new production line at the Saga plant in Japan. The company forecasts that the global bonding wire market could double between 2008 and 2010. Copper bonding wire demand could also strengthen as it is a substitute for gold bonding wire, and therefore will benefit whilst the gold price remain high. Tanaka Denshi Kogyo has also recently begun the sale of a new copper bonding wire, TCA1. The firm said that TCA1 is copper wire with a 99.99% purity and a diameter of between 20-70 micrometres. It's price is around a third that of gold bonding wire.

The Singaporean government launched a new Solar Capability Scheme on Tuesday to encourage the private sector to install solar technologies in new building projects, local media reported.