Quick news

 

The board of Bangkok Broadcasting and Television, operator of Channel 7, has resolved that the company should bid for a licence for a high-definition (HD) variety channel from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said managing director Palakorn Somsuwan.

The company will buy the bid documents between Tuesday and Thursday next week. He added that the company was well prepared in terms of content, staff and equipment.

The NBTC will soon auction 24 licences for commercial terrestrial digital TV channels, of which seven are HD variety channels, three standard definition (SD) children’s channels, seven SD news channels, and seven SD variety channels.

L&h buys US apartments

Land and Houses’ US subsidiary on Thursday purchased an apartment building in Oakland, California, for US$104 million (Bt3.32 billion).

The company financed the investment with a bank loan.

The project has 264 units with an occupancy rate of 96 per cent, managing director Adisorn Thananun-narapool reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday.

bangchak eyes solar plan

Bangchak Petroleum is interested in investing in the rooftop solar power project, installing solar panels on the roofs of its 200 petrol stations, according to an analyst at KGI Securities (Thailand).

Each station will be able to generate about 5 kilowatts of electricity, for a total of 1 megawatt.

The government will open applications for this programme on Monday.

Meanwhile, Bangchak plans to construct the second phase of its biodiesel project to increase production capacity to 450,000 litres per day by 2015 from 300,000 litres currently.

dtac proposes 4g bandwith idea

Total Access Communication has put forward a proposal on providing fourth-generation cellular service on its currently unused 25 megahertz of bandwidth on the 1,800MHz spectrum.

DTAC chief executive officer Jon Eddy Abdullah communicated this to the Information and Communications Technology ministry and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission yesterday. If the NBTC permits it to do so, it can start the service next month, DTAC says.

This is not a formal proposal, according to a DTAC release.

Abdullah added that at the same time DTAC was ready to transfer this bandwidth to the NBTC for auctioning off together with the bandwidth of 1,800MHz spectrum used by TrueMove and Digital Phone Co, whose concessions will end on September 15.

However, NBTC telecom committee chairman Settapong Malisuwan said the commission could not grant a permit to DTAC to use that spectrum for 4G, because it is under a CAT Telecom concession.

budget plans on laos links

The Finance Ministry will propose to the Cabinet at its Tuesday meeting that it consider a budget of Bt310 million to help the Laotian government develop the water systems in five cities.

The ministry will also ask the Cabinet to increase the budget for construction of the Fourth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge connecting Chiang Khong district in Chiang Rai province with Ban Houayxay across the Mekong in Laos from Bt812 million to Bt840 million.

promotions at ptt

The PTT board yesterday approved a management shuffle, including the promotion of Bowon Vongsinudom, president of PTT Global Chemical, to chief executive officer of PTTGC, replacing the retiring Anon Sirisaengtaksin, said a source.

The appointments will take effect on October 1.

Nuttachat Charuchinda, PTT’s chief operations officer for the downstream petroleum business group, was appointed chief operating officer of the upstream petroleum and gas business group, to replace Wichai Pornkeratiwat, who is also retiring.

Thai rice to be promoted at Sydney trade fair

The Foreign Trade Department will lead rice exporters to next week’s “Fine Food Australia 2013” trade fair, in the hopes of increasing export opportunities in the Australian market.

Director-general Pranee Siriphand said Australia had high potential to import more rice from the Kingdom as consumers there have recognised Thai rice as a high-nutrition food, especially as rising awareness of the need to care for their health has enhanced demand for organic rice.

Australia imports about 20-25 tonnes of organic jasmine rice from Thailand annually. In the first half of this year, it imported 17.7 tonnes of that variety from the Kingdom, worth Bt1.28 million.

Fine Food Australia runs from Monday to Thursday next week in Sydney.

 

GE, CK Power unit ink service pact

General Electric and Bangkok-based power-plant developer Bangpa-In Cogeneration Ltd, a subsidiary of CK Power, have announced the signing of a US$33-million (Bt1 billion) service agreement. 

Under the agreement, GE will provide inspection and planned maintenance services for 12 years for two GE LM6000-PD aeroderivative gas turbines at a 110-megawatt gas-fired co-generation plant being built in Bang Pa-in, Ayutthaya province.

“To provide Thailand’s power grid with stable, reliable energy and to achieve the operational and economic goals we set for this plant, it was vital to put in place and properly maintain power-generation technology that has been proved to be flexible, efficient and reliable,” said Woravudh Anuruxwongsri, managing director of Bangpa-In Cogeneration. 

“We selected GE LM6000 technology because it is world-class, and we signed this service agreement with GE because of the company’s technical expertise and its regional capabilities in field service support, engineering, facilities, tooling and leasing.”

The plant entered commercial operation in June. Most of its output will be sold to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, and the remaining power will be supplied to direct users in the industrial estate. 

Thailand’s small power producer programme promotes investment in smaller-scale power plants of two types: co-generation plants such as this one in Bang Pa-in, which combine heat and power generation for high efficiency, and plants that run on renewable energy resources.

 

Aust’s Jetstar plans direct Melbourne-Phuket flights 

Australian low-cost airline Jetstar plans to give holidaymakers in Victoria province an early Christmas present by launching non-stop flights between Melbourne and Phuket and additional services to Honolulu just in time for the summer school holidays. 

Direct flights on the Melbourne-Phuket route will start from December 14, operating every Saturday and Sunday, with a third weekly service to be introduced next March.