Korean Air turns around to profit
Korean Air turns around to profit
SEOUL: South Korea's national flag carrier Korean Air Co. (KAL) Thursday posted a net profit of nearly US$290 million for the first half of this year after a big loss a year earlier.
KAL attributed the turnaround to sales growth, foreign exchange gains and cost-cutting efforts.
The net profit of 195.38 billion won ($287 million) in the six months to June was in sharp contrast to a loss of 345.91 billion won a year earlier, the company said.
Sales increased seven percent to 2.9 trillion won, it said.
KAL said the steady sales growth and more stable jet fuel prices as the won strengthened won against dollar had helped the company return to profit.
The turnaround, however, also rested heavily on foreign exchange gains of 202.7 billion won compared with a loss of 98.9 billion won previously. -- AFP
Yamaha to double output in Vietnam
TOKYO: Yamaha Motor Co. said Thursday it plans to double the capacity at its motorcycle factory in Vietnam by November to cash in on the booming bike market in the country.
Japan's second largest motorcycle manufacturer plans to spend several hundreds of millions of yen (several million dollars) creating a new facility on land currently owned by Yamaha Motor Vietnam Co. Ltd. to boost capacity to 10,000 units a month from 5,000.
By 2004, Yamaha plans to double capacity again to 20,000 units a month.
"In Vietnam, the motorcycle industry in particular is very big," said Yamaha spokesman Takashi Maeda.
"Compared to Indonesia or Thailand, it seems the road infrastructure is not as advanced so motorcycles are used far more than cars."
Yamaha, which set up its first plant in Vietnam in 1999. -- AFP
EMI sues AOL Time Warner over copyrights
LOS ANGELES: EMI Group has sued AOL Time Warner, claiming the world's largest media company has been playing songs on its Turner Broadcasting network and America Online Internet service without paying for them.
The dispute pits the owners of two of the major recording companies against each other at a time when they are working together with the rest of the recording industry to fight against copyright violations by various online operations.
EMI's publishing unit contends that AOL Time Warner is illegally using songs for promotional purposes from "The Wizard of Oz," "Singin' in the Rain," and other classic Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer movies.
The suit, filed Wednesday in the Southern District Court of New York, seeks unspecified monetary damages and injunctive relief. -- AP
BMW stays in the fast lane for profits this year
MUNICH: BMW, the German maker of top-of-the-range cars, said Thursday its net profit zoomed ahead by 11.9 percent to 629 million euros (US$616 million)in the second quarter of this year and it was sticking to its full-year earnings targets.
BMW said in a statement pre-tax profit in the period from April to June rose by 2.5 percent to 1.02 billion euros on an 8.9 percent increase in sales to 11.6 billion euros.
The group was therefore sticking to its forecast of an increase of both sales and earnings for the whole year, the statement said. -- AFP
Insurer's profits hit by Sept. 11 attack
LONDON: British insurer Royal and Sun Alliance said Thursday first-half operating profits fell nearly 18 percent as it raised provisions for the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
Operating profits in the six months to June 30 fell to 301 million pounds (476 million euros, US$462 million) from 367 million a year earlier, below the bottom end of the range of analysts' forecasts.
Royal and Sun said its performance was adversely affected by increased provisions for the WTC attack, which rose by 66 million pounds, taking the total to 275 million pounds.
It said that was "due to developments in the size of business interruption losses reported by insureds", with around 25 percent attributable to actual claims notifications and three quarters to anticipated claims. -- AFP
Cisco powers India's library-networking
INDIA: U.S. technology giant Cisco said Thursday it has completed the first phase of India's largest library networking initiative at the federal parliament library in New Delhi.
The new network would enable parliamentarians and the public to access manuals, books, parliament debates and parliamentary questions made into digital format from 900 computer terminals spread over eight blocks in the parliament.
The company said in a statement its high-speed network would support high bandwidth connections from other countries and also enable the implementation of e-learning or distance education.
In the second phase of the project, for which tenders are awaited from the government, global parliamentary libraries would be connected to the network.
Sudhir Narang, vice-president of Cisco Systems India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the parent firm, said the parliament's initiative would drive other government institutions to upgrade their network. -- AFP