-- Mitsui Fudosan Accommodations Fund (TYO:3226) said it will make an early repayment of a 3 billion yen loan from MUFG Bank, according to a Wednesday filing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The loan, originally due in March 2027, will be repaid on April 30. Following the repayment, total interest-bearing debt will decrease to 170.7 billion yen from 173.7 billion yen.
Aluminum of China (SHA:601600, HKG:2600), or Chalco, saw its first-quarter attributable profit jump over 50% as aluminum production bolstered despite the ongoing war in Iran.The aluminum producer's Hong Kong shares rose 2% and Shanghai shares rose 1% during the Friday's afternoon trade.Chalco's net profit attributable to shareholders jumped 56% to 5.53 billion yuan from 3.54 billion yuan a year earlier, according to a Hong Kong bourse filing on Thursday.Earnings per share rose 57% to 0.322 yuan from 0.205 yuan.Revenue increased 4.9% to 58.5 billion yuan from 55.8 billion yuan in the prior year.The year-ago figures were adjusted due to the acquisition of a controlling stake in Ningbo Algra Energy. Chalco acquired 56.6% of Algra Energy through its subsidiary, Chalco Zhengzhou Nonferrous Metals Research Institute.Chalco continued to expand its global mineral assets as it agreed to buy 67% of Brazil's Companhia Brasileira de Aluminio. The deal was made with Australia-listed miner Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), which acquired the remaining 33% of the Brazilian company.Rio Tinto's chief executive officer, Jérôme Pécresse, said the acquisition "provides the opportunity to grow our bauxite and alumina supply chain in the Atlantic region."Moreover, Chalco is likely to benefit from the ongoing Middle East conflict as China's metals and minerals sector made gains from the external changes the disruption brought.China's aluminum output surged after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks against Tehran in March as alumina --- the main raw material for aluminum --- was rerouted to the mainland. Data from the customs showed that alumina imports increased 87% month on month to 338,000 tons in March, almost 30 times higher than a year earlier, according to an April 21 report on Bloomberg News.The closure of the Strait of Hormuz hindered the alumina imports to the Middle East, which accounted for 9% of the global aluminum supply, the report said.
Goertek (SHE:002241) attributable profit rose 7.3% to 503 million yuan in the first quarter from 468.9 million yuan in the year-ago period, according to a Friday filing with the Shenzhen bourse.Earnings per share at the acoustic components manufacturer increased 7.7% to 0.14 yuan from 0.13 yuan in the prior-year period.Operating income grew 14% year over year to 18.7 billion yuan from 16.3 billion yuan.
China is facing accusations from the White House of systematically stealing U.S. artificial intelligence intellectual property.Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in a Thursday memo that Beijing uses thousands of proxy accounts and "jailbreaking techniques" to extract American AI capabilities.He added that the moves are exploitative and allow foreign actors to "strip security protocols" and result in models that aren't "ideologically neutral and truth-seeking."The memo, released weeks before a Trump-Xi summit, threatens to reignite tech tensions that cooled in October 2025.Beijing said the allegations are "baseless," according to a Reuters report.