Russia's state-owned gas company Gazprom and a Japanese joint venture signed a memorandum Saturday to build a liquefied natural gas production base in the suburbs of Vladivostok and jointly sell LNG in Japan.
Gazprom aims to expand in Asia amid falling sales in Europe, while Japan Far East Gas Co. hopes to lower LNG procurement costs by participating in building the production base.
The joint venture was established in December 2010 by Itochu Corp., Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Marubeni Corp., INPEX Corp. and Itochu Oil Exploration Co.
In the Russia-Japan LNG project, production is scheduled to start by 2018 and annual output is estimated at around 15 million tons.
Price-cutting Nissan being watched, Hyundai's U.S. chief says
DETROIT
BLOOMBERG
Automakers are scrutinizing Nissan Motor Co.'s move to cut prices on its cars and trucks in the United States as a test of whether the auto industry can avoid a price war, the head of Hyundai Motor Co.'s U.S. unit said.
Nissan's competitors are eager to see if the carmaker will hold to its pledge to reduce incentives after cutting the prices of seven of its top-selling models, John Krafcik, chief executive officer of Hyundai Motor America, told reporters Friday. The U.S. sales of Japan's No. 2 automaker surged 25 percent in May — triple the industrywide gain.