BANGKOK (AFP) – Thailand has discovered nearly 15 million tonnes of lithium deposits, a government spokesman said yesterday, a boost for the kingdom’s goal of becoming a regional hub for electric vehicle (EV) production.

The find means Thailand has the third largest lithium resources, behind Bolivia and Argentina, but it is not yet clear how much can be exploited commercially.

The 14.8 million tonnes of lithium are distributed between two separate sites in the southern province of Phang Nga, government deputy spokeswoman Rudklao Intawong Suwankiri told The Nation television station.

“We are trying to find out how much can we use from the resources we found. It takes time,” Rudklao told The Nation.

Lithium is a key component in the manufacture of batteries used in EVs, as well as smartphones and other electronics.

The government of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, which took over in August, has made it a priority to try to boost Thailand as a regional production hub for EVs, building on the kingdom’s history of assembling conventional cars.

During the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Srettha met industry leaders including the deputy chairman of Bosch to urge him to invest in EV production in Thailand.

“It’s good news. It’s an opportunity for Thailand to become self-reliant in the production of EV batteries,” Rudklao said of the lithium discovery.

In December 2023, two Chinese EV giants said they would invest THB2.3 billion (USD64 million) to develop Thailand as a production hub.

TOKYO (AFP) – Sony was expected yesterday to make a final decision on a merger of its Indian unit with local rival Zee Entertainment, a source at the Japanese giant and press reports said.

The tie-up is aimed at helping both firms compete with streaming rivals like Disney, Amazon and Netflix in the vast and booming entertainment market of 1.4 billion people.

The merger was first agreed in 2021, with Zee chief executive officer (CEO) Punit Goenka saying that the new outfit would be worth close to USD10 billion with annual revenues approaching USD2 billion.

But closing the deal has been beset by problems, most recently because Sony reportedly does not want Goenka to run the combined entity.

Goenka has offered to step down after the merger takes place, The Economic Times daily reported, but is in favour of an “independent search process” to find a new CEO.

Sony, however, wants NP Singh, the CEO of its India unit, to replace him.

In addition, Sony has become concerned about slumping profits at Zee since 2021, a source at the Japanese firm who declined to be named told AFP.

The Economic Times reported earlier last week that Sony was also upset over not being kept in the loop over a USD1.5-billion cricket licensing agreement between Zee and Disney.

Sony’s board yesterday also had the option of extending a January 20 deadline to close the deal in order to allow for more negotiations.

A decision could be announced to the Tokyo stock exchange next week.

India’s entertainment market, worth tens of billions of dollars, is already one of the world’s biggest, while smartphone adoption is forecast to expand further in the coming years.

A collapsed deal will leave Sony and Zee more vulnerable at a time when billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance is negotiating a merger with Disney’s India unit, Bloomberg News reported.

KHAVDA (AFP) – Deep in the desert along the border with Pakistan, India’s most controversial billionaire is building the world’s largest renewable energy park as he races to future-proof his coal-linked fortune.

Gautam Adani’s ports-to-airports, media and energy empire – which critics said has benefited from his links with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – made him for a brief time in 2022 the world’s second-richest man, with a USD154 billion fortune.

A year ago his firms were hit by accusations of a “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme” by United States short-seller Hindenburg Research and their market value slumped by more than USD150 billion.

But they have since recovered much of their losses and the publicity-shy 61-year-old high school dropout is betting hefty sums on making billions more from the energy transition.

India is the world’s third-biggest carbon emitter and Modi’s government has been at the forefront of attempts to push back against the “phase out” of coal at global summits.

But the world’s most populous country and fastest-growing major economy needs ever more power, and Adani is building what he calls a “monumental” solar and wind project he boasts will be “visible even from space”.

As the wind whips up sand in the baking heat of the Rann of Kutch desert, thousands of labourers erect vast rows of solar panels, dig foundations for wind turbines and lay seemingly endless rolls of wires.

Executive director of Adani Green Energy Sagar Adani, who is also Gautam’s nephew, told AFP that the project’s teams are working “at an accelerated pace”.

When complete in 2027, the USD2.3-billion Khavda Renewable Energy Park will cover 726 square kilometres – nearly the size of New York City.

The park is aimed to have the capacity to generate 30 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind energy – enough to power the homes of 18 million people, more than the combined populations of London and New York.

Adani will produce 17GW, with the rest generated by other companies.

The project is slated to produce a third more power than China’s Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s biggest power-generating facility.

The scheme is the showpiece of Adani Green Energy – in which France’s TotalEnergies bought a 19.7 per cent stake for USD2.5 billion three years ago.

In Mundra, site of India’s largest commercial port – run by another arm of the Adani empire – it is manufacturing key components for its aggressive solar and wind energy foray, including colossal wind turbine blades nearly 80 metres long.

Solar panels are churned out on high-tech production lines nearby.

“We are creating one of the globe’s most extensive and integrated renewable energy manufacturing ecosystems for solar and wind,” Adani wrote last month on X, formerly Twitter, where he describes himself as a “Proud Indian. Excited to be part of the India growth story!”

New Delhi has called for ambitious clean energy projects to create 500GW of renewable capacity to meet half its energy needs by 2030.

Adani – who rejected Hindenburg’s charges as “maliciously mischievous” – has said he will invest an estimated USD100 billion into that energy transition.

When fully operational, Adani’s renewable energy park will make up the equivalent of a quarter of India’s current capacity from wind and solar.

But India also plans to sharply increase its coal-based power capacity and vows to become carbon neutral only by 2070, two decades later than many countries.

Political opponents have often accused Modi of abetting Adani’s rapid rise, allowing the billionaire to unfairly win contracts and avoid proper regulatory oversight.

Both men come from the western state of Gujarat, and Adani has often praised the premier’s policies.

Ashok Malik, from the Asia Group consultancy, said the Adani Group is “sitting on very solid assets” and “mirrors India’s ambitions and hopes and strategy”.

Malik said Adani, like all of India’s conglomerates and major multinationals in the country, were “broadly aligning” themselves with the government’s economic strategy.

“It makes perfect sense for a company which is solely invested in India’s energy sector to start looking at clean and renewable energy to shift from coal – though coal will not entirely go away,” Malik told AFP.

At the energy park, workers in hard hats and neon jackets wrap their faces in cloth for protection from the biting sand and blazing sun.

One manager, who was not authorised to speak to the media, said the conditions were “challenging” but the scale of the construction was “awe-inspiring”.

The site is around 75 kilometres from the nearest village, and about six kilometres from the heavily militarised border with Pakistan.

Such grand projects often come at a heavy environmental footprint, but local conservationist Mahendra Bhanani said that while he would like a study on its impacts to be conducted, the energy park is far from human settlements and biodiversity hotspots.

“Solar energy is better than many polluting chemical industries,” he said.

MANILA (XINHUA) – The Philippines’ overall balance of payments (BOP) posted a surplus of USD642 million in December 2023, higher than the USD612 million dollars recorded in the same month 2022, the country’s central bank said yesterday.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the BOP surplus in December 2023 reflected inflows arising mainly from the national government’s net foreign currency deposits with the BSP, net income from the BSP’s investments abroad, and the BSP’s net foreign exchange operations.

“The BOP surplus in December brought the full-year 2023 BOP level to USD3.7 billion surplus, a reversal from the USD7.3 billion deficit recorded in the same period a year ago,” the BSP said.

Based on preliminary data, the BSP said the development reflected mainly the improvement in the balance of trade alongside the higher net inflows from personal remittances, trade in services, and foreign borrowings by the national government.

“Net inflows from foreign direct investments contributed to the surplus, albeit lower during the period,” said the central bank.

The BSP said the gross international reserves (GIR) level increased to USD103.8 billion as of the end of December 2023 from USD102.7 billion in November 2023.

BERNAMA – Bentley’s global sales fell by 11 per cent last year due to “challenging market conditions”, reported German Press Agency, (dpa), quoting an announcement by the United Kingdom (UK)-based luxury car maker.

The Crewe-based company said it delivered 13,560 cars in 2023, compared with 15,174 during the previous 12 months.

The decline was driven by a 18-per-cent decreases in sales to both the UK and China.

Despite the year-on-year fall, 2023 was still the manufacturer’s third best year for sales.

Bentley, owned by the Volkswagen Group, also said customers were “increasingly attracted to higher revenue models” such as the Azure, S and Speed, which made up a combined 70 per cent of total sales, compared with 30 per cent in 2022.

The company has previously stated it is focusing on the profit it makes from each sale rather than chasing volume.