JCNNetwork

Sumitomo Corporation has acquired 50% equity stake in Australian based grain company Emerald Group Australia Pty Ltd and would enter into grain accumulation business in Australia

Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., has entered an agreement with Nucor Corporation to own and operate a flat rolled steel processing network and other steel related projects throughout North America.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, also known as MOL, announced two long-term charters by an ExxonMobil affiliate and their partners in their Papua New Guinea LNG Project.

Sony Corp. has pulled the plug in Japan on sales of a next-generation flat TV due to sluggish demand, a setback for a product the company had trumpeted as a sign of its revival as an innovator.

NTT Communications (NTT Com) announced that it has begun accepting subscriptions in Australia for Global e-VLAN, a broadband connectivity service for secure close networks via wide-area Ethernet technology. With the launch, the service will be available in 12 countries and regions worldwide.

INPEX Alpha, a wholly-owned subsidiary INPEX Corproration, has started crude oil production from the Van Gogh Field in the production license WA-35-L, the Exmouth Basin offshore Western Australia. Peak daily oil rate is projected to be 40,000 barrels of oil per day.

Hitachi and Saskatchewan Power, the principal supplier of electricity in Saskatchewan, will collaborate on technology in the fields of Low-Carbon Energy technologies including Carbon Capture and Storage(CCS), AQCS (Air Quality Control System), Boiler and Steam Turbine Generators.

Mitsui & Co. announced that Mitsui and Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., Ltd., ("MOECO") have entered into a definitive agreement with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation ("Anadarko") to participate in the development and production of the Marcellus Shale gas project in the state of Pennsylvania.

Mitsubishi Corporation has completed its funding obligations specified under an Option Agreement with CanAlaska Uranium Ltd., and has now earned a 50% interest in the West McArthur project through its wholly owned Canadian subsidiary MC Resources Canada Ltd.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela announced that it has awarded a contract to develop and produce Orinoco extra-heavy crude oil to the consortium of Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), Chevron Corporation (Chevron), INPEX Corporation (INPEX), and Suelopetrol.

Sumitomo Corporation and Nippon Coke & Engineering have reached an agreement to establish a new company on Apr. 01, 2010 to produce and sell the anode material for lithium-ion secondary battery.

Marubeni Corporation has been awarded a Contract for EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) for the Biomass and Clean Coal Cogeneration Plant by TP Utilities (TPU), a subsidiary of Tuas Power, one of the major power companies in Singapore. The contract is worth approximately USD 250 million.

Rakuten Inc. will launch a virtual shopping mall targeting Chinese consumers through a joint venture with Baidu Inc. The major Japanese electronic commerce firm will team with Baidu to set up a joint venture in Beijing as soon as they receive government approval. The joint venture will be 51 percent owned by Rakuten and the rest by Baidu.

Yahoo Japan Corp. had a 9 percent rise in group net profit for the fiscal third quarter ended December, helped by revenue growth in its business services segment. For the October-December period, its net profit climbed to 20.86 billion yen (US$231 million) due to sales growth boosted by a year-end sales campaign on Yahoo! Shopping.

Willcom Inc. will likely file for bankruptcy as part of a restructuring set to involve investment from a state-backed fund and Softbank Corp. Willcom, majority owned by U.S. buyout firm Carlyle, has been weighed down by heavy debts and has been struggling to expand its subscriber base in the country' saturated and fiercely competitive wirelss market.

NEC Electronics Corp. had a quarterly net loss that was 29 percent smaller than a year earlier, as the struggling chipmaker cut spending on research and production. With better demand for microcontrollers used in cars, orders are gradually improving after sliding amid the global economic slowdown, although they are still expected to fall short of their April-September 2008 levels.

Elpida Memory Inc. had its first net profit in nine quarters on a surge in DRAM prices. Elpida, which received an injection of public money last year, is scrambling to migrate to advanced chips to keep up to output hikes by bigger rivals Samsung Electronics Co. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

Toshiba Corp. had a smaller-than-expected operating profit as rising materials costs and tumbling PC and TV prices outweighed the benefits of a chip price recovery. Toshiba, the world's No.2 maker of NAND-type flash memory chips after Samsung Electronics Co., earned an operating profit of 10.22 billion yen (US$113.6 million) in October-December.

Verizon Business has completed the latest Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable landing, in Shin Maruyama, Japan. This will allow Verizon's enterprise customers to take advantage of increased network capacity and additional diversity for their IP, data and voice communications needs.

KDDI Corp's net profit for the fiscal third quarter was down 35 percent on year due to the introduction of discount packages for mobile phone handset users. Japan's second-largest mobile phone service operator by subscriber after NTT DoCoMo Inc. generated a net profit of 67.4 billion yen (US$747 million).