Tokyo - Sanyo Electric Co lowered its projections for operating profit and sales for the fiscal year 2008 that ends in March owing to the yen's advance and declining sales of electronics parts and semiconductors, the company said Thursday.

The Japanese home electronics maker revised downward its operating profit to 30 billion yen (335.78 million dollars) from an earlier projection of 50 billion yen.

Sanyo revised sales down to 1.9 trillion yen from 2.02 trillion yen.

Oslo - Norwegian state-controlled energy group Statoil Hydro plans further cost cuts by 1.5 billion kroner (211 million dollars) due to "macroeconomic changes," the group said Wednesday.

Statoil Hydro said it expected to produce more oil and gas in 2009, estimating production at 1.95 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day compared to some 1.9 million boe per day in 2008.

The estimates and outlook were to be presented at a meeting with analysts in London later Wednesday.

London - The

London - Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announced the sale of its stake in the Bank of China for 1.6 billion pounds (2.3 billion dollars) on Wednesday.

The Edinburgh-based bank, which also owns NatWest, was effectively nationalized during the banking crisis when the government took a majority share of almost 58 per cent.

RBS acquired the 4.3-per-cent holding in the Bank of China for 900 million pounds in August 2005.

Taipei - The container volume at Kaohsiung Harbour, Taiwan's main port, dropped 5.6 per cent due in 2008 to the global economic slump, an official said Wednesday.

In 2008, the Kaohsiung Harbour handled 8.97 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) containers, down 5.6 per cent from 2007, harbour master Tsai Ting-kui said.

"The main impact on our performance was caused by the 25 per cent drop in container volume in November and 23 per cent drop in December," he said.

"We are not optimistic about the first half of 2009, but hope the slump will lift in the latter half. Our target for 2009 is 10 million TEUs, and we hope we can reach the target," he noted.

Tokyo - Sony Corp was expected to see its first operating loss in 14 years in the fiscal year 2008 that ends in March, a Japanese media report said Tuesday.

The Japanese electronics giant was to incur a loss of about 100 billion yen (1.11 billion dollars) for the year due to a stronger yen and slow sales of flat-screen televisions, the Japanese business daily The Nikkei said.

Sony lowered its projection of the year's operating profit in October from an initial estimate of 520 billion yen to 470 billion yen in July and then to 200 billion yen in October.