JAKARTA : Indonesia's cigarette producer Hanjaya Mandala
JAKARTA : Indonesia's cigarette producer Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna said Monday its sales of cigarettes in the third quarter rose 17.4 percent to Rp 3.871 trillion from Rp 3.297 trillion during the same period last year.
The company attributed the increase in sales revenue to higher cigarette prices. It didn't offer details.
Sampoerna said its sales volume during the period ended Sept. 30, however, fell 2.2 percent to 10.73 billion sticks of cigarettes from 10.97 billion last year.
The company is expected to report its earnings for the third quarter early next month.
Shares in Sampoerna ended unchanged at Rp 2,825 a share. --Dow Jones
Daimler, union ratify contract
TORONTO : Unionized auto workers at DaimlerChrysler Canada have overwhelmingly ratified a three-year contract, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union announced Sunday.
Overall votes were 91 percent for production, 80.5 percent for skilled trades and 92.8 percent for technical, office and professional workers, it added.
The agreement is based on the economic pattern established in recent accords with General Motors of Canada and Ford Canada.
That pattern increases wages by three percent in the first two years and two percent in the third year.
The vote ended six weeks of tough negotiations between the CAW and the three big automakers in Canada -- General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler -- on improving working conditions and pay at their plants in Ontario.
The tentative deal was worked out last Wednesday between the DaimlerChrysler Canada management and the CAW, averting a looming strike. But the deal had to be ratified by the CAW membership. --AFP Mazda to shut down plant
TOKYO : Japanese automaker Mazda Motor Corp. said Monday it will shut down a domestic plant for commercial vehicles due to a prolonged slump in truck sales.
The nation's fifth-largest car manufacturer, 33.3 percent owned by U.S. auto giant Ford, will close its oldest plant in Fuchu, Hiroshima, western Japan.
"The closure is mainly due to sluggish truck sales while we also want to put more resources into passenger car production," said Kenichi Wakabayashi, a Mazda spokesman.
The company will transfer all 630 workers at the Fuchu plant to Mazda's two Ujina plants also in Hiroshima. One of the plants, which was closed in September 2001, would be reopened in 2004, the spokesman said.
"We have decided to reopen the second Ujina plant due to steady demand for passenger cars in Europe and we want to increase our production capacity," Wakabayashi said.
The move would help raise Mazda's overall domestic production capacity by 110,000 units, or 14 percent, to 898,000 units annually. --AFP Vietnam Airlines to set up subsidiary
HANOI: Vietnam Airlines said Monday it has asked the government to set up a subsidiary company to run the carrier's short haul routes.
The proposed entity, Express Airlines, would handle most internal flights and take over Vietnam Airlines' shuttle runs to Laos and Cambodia, said Nguyen Huy Hieu of the state-owned carrier's external relations department.
The parent company would continue to run the lucrative Hanoi- Ho Chi Minh City route but would concentrate on its medium and long haul international destinations, he said.
Hieu declined to reveal the planned time frame for setting up Express Airlines should it receive government approval.
Vietnam Airlines has an 80-percent stake in Pacific Airlines, the country's number two airline. --AFP Fiat has no plan to auto unit
ROME : The chief executive of Fiat SpA said in an interview published Saturday that the struggling industrial conglomerate has no plans to sell its loss-making auto unit to General Motors Corp. (GM) before 2004.
In his first interview since taking over in June, Gabriele Galateri also defended the company's plan to lay off 8,100 workers primarily at its car unit Fiat Auto.
"The put (option) is part of a discussion that can be opened in 2004 until 2009," he told Corriere della Sera daily. "But it's not linked to the restructuring of Fiat Auto."
GM already owns 20 percent of Fiat Auto, the loss-making unit that Fiat is trying to rescue by cutting jobs and investing 10 billion euro for 20 new car models by 2005.
Fiat SpA has an option to sell the remaining 80 percent to GM starting from 2004. --Dow Jones