RIO TINTO MOVES SOME STAFF OUT OF SHANGHAI

       Rio Tinto, the third-largest mining company, said it moved some employee out of its Shanghai office after the detention of four executives for allegedly stealing state secrts.
       "We are constantly moving people around and we have consolidated some activities outside of the Shanghai office," Sam Walsh, head of London-based Rio's iron-ore unit, said yesterday.
       Some n on-Chinese workers from Shanghai moved to Singapore, he said, without saying how many.
       The six-week detention of the Rio sales executives, Australian citizen Stern Hu and three Chinese nationals, for allegedly stealing state secrets has strained relations between Australia and China and raised concern the company's US$10 billion (Bt340.3 billion) of sales to the Asian nation may be jeopardised. Australia has said the detentions may be connected to iron ore price talks.
       "This is a giant game between Australia and one of its biggest trading partners," said Peter Kenyon, professor of economic policy at rutin University's Graduate School of Business in Perth. "They are using lots of tactics to make the negotiations complex as possible, and to a certain extent they are succeeding."
       "We are very concerned about it from the basis of he welfare of our employees," Walsh said. "We have very high expectations of ourselves. That's why we are finding it very difficult to understand what is going on there."
       China, the world's biggest buyer of iron ore, is Australia's second-biggest trading partner, with two-way trade valued at 68 billion Australian dollars (Bt2 trillion) in 2008.