According to The Australian Financial Review, global miner Rio Tinto and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation will build a $111 million world-first hydrogen plant at the Yarwun alumina refinery in Gladstone to help reduce carbon emissions at the energy-intensive facility.
As companies across the world grapple with the problems of reducing the carbon footprint at metal processing facilities, Rio will look into the viability of using hydrogen, instead of natural gas, in the calcination process. Sumitomo Corporation will own and operate the electrolyser at the Yarwun site and directly supply hydrogen to Rio Tinto. The electrolyser will have a production capacity of more than 250 tonnes of hydrogen annually. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/rio-tinto-to-make-low-carbon-alumina-20230711-p5dngp
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, the industry ministry plans to offer a tax incentive for corporate innovations, such as patents and copyrights, to encourage domestic and foreign companies to establish research and development centers in Japan.
The “innovation box,” as the tax break is called, applies a preferential rate lower than the ordinary corporate tax to income from intellectual properties derived through research and development in Japan. Target sectors are expected to include pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and electric vehicles. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14947430
According to The Australian Financial Review, home lending and building approval figures jumped in May, posting gains of 4.8 per cent and 20.6 per cent respectively and matching the impetus displayed in recent house price growth.
Sydney house prices have now rebounded by 6.7 per cent since they bottomed out in January, although the rate of growth has eased slightly, with prices up by 1.7 per cent in June, compared to 1.8 per cent recorded in May. https://www.afr.com/property/residential/home-lending-building-approvals-bounce-in-may-20230703-p5dlbz
According to The Asahi Shimbun, marking the second consecutive year of increase, land prices in Japan as of the start of 2023 rose 1.5 percent on average from a year earlier, according to government data released recently.
With the economy recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, rising land prices are starting to move from cities to other regional areas. The nationwide average had climbed for five years in a row through 2020 but fell 0.5 percent in 2021 due to the pandemic. In 2022, the average rebounded with a 0.5 percent rise, with this year’s rate of increase exceeding it. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14947463
According to The Jiji News, Osaka Gas Co. said that it has started a service to predict electricity demand and output by combining its weather forecast technology with artificial intelligence.
Osaka Gas has already signed contracts with major companies. It aims to realize sales of 300 million yen. https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/27115
According to The Australian Financial Review, as countries rush to establish “clean” hydrogen industries, Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said he hoped the rejigged national hydrogen strategy would kickstart the sector and help meet net zero by 2050.
However, only one renewable hydrogen project with a capacity of at least 10MW had got the final go-ahead for construction by the end of 2022. That project, the Yuri venture in Western Australia owned by France’s Engie and Japan’s Mitsui, is 10 times bigger than the largest now in operation, meaning Australia’s total capacity is a fraction of the almost 1400MW of committed capacity in the European Union, and 300MW in the US. The 10MW Yuri project will produce up to 640 tonnes a year of renewable hydrogen. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/2b-hydrogen-fund-to-target-flagship-projects-20230706-p5dm9c
According to The Australian Financial Review, Japan’s huge trading houses are belatedly gearing up for the transition to green energy, a juggernaut that will create huge opportunities for Australia, a former top climate adviser to Canberra says.
Patrick Suckling, who now heads the Asian operations of climate advisory and investment firm Pollination, has just spent a week in Japan assessing the corporate appetite in the world’s third-largest economy to take part in the move to zero carbon emissions. While corporate Japan has been slower than companies in other G7 nations to adapt to the transition, boards are now spurred by their government’s green energy push. They are waking up to the business opportunities from new rules around sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), hydrogen and carbon capture and storage, he said. https://www.afr.com/world/asia/japan-s-cashed-up-trading-houses-eye-green-spend-20230629-p5dkdh
According to The Australian Financial Review, houses in Sydney’s affluent suburbs delivered the biggest windfall for sellers during the March quarter as scarce supply and strong demand handed them more than $1 million in gross profits on average, CoreLogic’s Pain and Gain report shows.
Every house sold in Randwick, Ku-ring-gai and Canada Bay was profitable, rewarding vendors gains exceeding $1.1 million on average, while all inner west house sales made an average $850,000 profit. https://www.afr.com/property/residential/sydney-house-sellers-pocket-more-than-1-million-average-profit-20230628-p5dk0z
According to The Asahi Shimbun, Japan Investment Corp., a government-backed fund, plans to acquire chip materials maker JSR Corp. for about 1 trillion yen (US$7 billion) in a move that carries major significance for domestic semiconductor strategy.
JSR, which holds a 30 percent share of the global market of photoresists, a chemical agent essential for manufacturing semiconductors, will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange as early as fiscal 2024 if everything goes as planned, a government source said. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14941199
According to The Jiji News, restaurant sales in Japan in May jumped 11.8 % from a year before, and were even 7.6 pct higher than in the same month in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, industry data showed Monday.
The sales growth reflected robust spending by people returning to their hometowns during the Golden Week holiday period, as well as visitors from abroad. https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/27024 |
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