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July 25 (Reuters) – Marathon Oil Corp (MRO.N) was returning nonessential workers to offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, a company spokesman said.
None of Marathon’s production was shut in the forecast path of Tropical Depression Bonnie on Friday and Saturday. (Reporting by Erwin Seba, editing by Maureen Bavdek)
BRUSSELS, July 20 (Reuters) – Belgium’s Barco (BAR.BR) forecast the ‘explosive’ demand for digital cinema projectors, used for showing 3D films, would ensure growth in the second half of the year.
The company, whose displays are used as sports scoreboards, medical imaging systems, flight simulators and at pop concerts, said second-quarter sales rose 16.7 percent year-on-year to 192.2 million euros ($249.4 million), beating 187 million expected in a Reuters poll.
Barco swung to positive operating and net incomes, although the numbers were slightly below expectations.
Its order book at the end of June 2010 stood at 513.3 million euros, more than 50 percent higher year-on-year after almost 300 million euros of new orders in the second quarter.
Order intake for digital cinema projectors was nearly eight times higher than a year earlier.
Chief Executive Eric Van Zele said the orders meant it was probably Barco’s best ever quarter.
“This bodes well for Barco’s performance in the quarters ahead. We are experiencing explosive growth in demand for our digital cinema projectors and are working very hard to deal with the supply chain issues this creates,” he said.
Barco did not repeat its forecast that 2010 sales and EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) would be significantly better than in 2008.
“It’s quite clear we are going to beat that,” a company spokesman said.
The company said that it expected growth momentum to continue in the second half of the year.
Barco made 5.8 million euros in EBIT, compared with a loss of 5.6 million euro in the same period last year, shy of 8.0 million expected in a Reuters poll. ($1=.7706 euro) (Reporting by Ben Deighton)
N.C., July 10 (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) is beefing up its internal accounting controls after it incorrectly classified as much as $10.7 billion in short-term lending and repurchase deals for mortgage securities as sales, according to a letter filed on Friday with U.S. securities regulators.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based lender said the transactions — spread over a three-year period — were immaterial to Bank of America’s earnings in a May 13 letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which was publicly filed on Friday.
The error was first disclosed in the bank’s first quarter 2010 report, which noted the bank incorrectly accounted for some mortgage-backed securities as sales, rather than repurchase or short-term lending deals.
The first such error occurred on March 31, 2007, totaling $4.5 billion in securities. The largest misclassification was $10.7 billion in securities on Sept. 30, 2008.
“The transactions did not have a material impact on the bank’s earnings or balance sheet,” said company spokesman Jerry Dubrowski.
If the deals were properly accounted for, Bank of America’s Tier 1 capital ratio — a key metric monitored by bank regulators — would have declined 0.01 percent on Sept 30, 2008, when the largest such error existed.
Bank of America has since beefed up its internal accounting procedures to prevent the error from recurring and the bank has not found similar errors after an internal review, according to the bank’s letter to the SEC.
(Reporting by Joe Rauch, editing by Vicki Allen)
DUBAI, July 6 (Reuters) – Nakheel, the property arm of troubled state conglomerate Dubai World, may reach a deal with lenders by next week, the company’s chairman said in a newspaper report on Tuesday.
Nakheel [NAKHD.UL] plans to meet with bank lenders on July 14, its chairman Ali Rashid Lootah told the Gulf-based English daily Khaleej Times.
“We are meeting with bankers on July 14 and hopefully they will sign the contract,” he said.
Under a restructuring proposal issued by its parent Dubai World [DBWLD.UL] in March, Nakheel creditors would receive repayment through a mix of 40 percent cash and 60 percent tradeable security, in the form of an Islamic bond.
The company said it began cash payments to trade creditors in a statement issued on June 30. The 40 percent is equivalent to 4 billion dirhams ($1.09 billion), a company spokesman told Reuters.
The rest of the payments, in the form of a bond, would be made in coming months, the company said in June. [ID:nLDE65T0FS]
The developer secured in principal 75 percent agreement from trade creditors for the 40 percent cash payment and expected to reach the remainder in a few weeks, a company spokesman told Reuters on June 30.
(Reporting by Shaheen Pasha; Editing by Thomas Atkins)
June 24 (Reuters) – Denso Corp (6902.T), a parts maker affiliated with Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), said it had partially restarted operations at a plant in Guangzhou, China, although wage negotiations were continuing.
Denso is aiming for an agreement as soon as possible, a company spokesman said.
Denso (Guangzhou Nansha) Co Ltd halted supply of its fuel injection equipment and other parts to Toyota, Honda Motor Co (7267.T) and other car makers on Monday after workers left production lines demanding higher wages and better benefits.
The strike has forced Toyota Motor’s plant in Guangdong province capable of producing 360,000 vehicles a year to stand idle since Tuesday.
Toyota said it was making preparations to resume production early next week. (Reporting by Yuko Inoue and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Sprint is changing its data service policies for laptop users with mobile broadband cards or USB modems, Mark Elliott, a company spokesman told the Journal.
However, the carrier does not plan to limit wireless connection for high volume smartphone customers on the its 3G network or the 4G network run by partner Clearwire Corp, Elliott said.
Sprint already has a cap of 5 gigabytes of data usage within the network, and 300 megabytes of roaming data, according to the paper.
The company will notify broadband customers through a text message or email when they hit 75 percent and 90 percent of their roaming data limit, the paper said.
Sprint’s move to charge laptop users follows its bigger rival AT&T’s decision to end unlimited data plan for smartphone customers.
On June 2, AT&T Inc said it would stop offering an unlimited pricing plan for new subscribers to its mobile data services.
Sprint could not be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Dan Lalor)
(Reuters) – U.S. telecoms company Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) will temporarily deactivate the accounts of laptop broadband users if they consume more than their allotted share of data while roaming, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Stocks | Global Markets | Telecommuncations Services
Sprint is changing its data service policies for laptop users with mobile broadband cards or USB modems, Mark Elliott, a company spokesman told the Journal.
However, the carrier does not plan to limit wireless connection for high volume smartphone customers on the its 3G network or the 4G network run by partner Clearwire Corp (CLWR.O), Elliott said.
Sprint already has a cap of 5 gigabytes of data usage within the network, and 300 megabytes of roaming data, according to the paper.
The company will notify broadband customers through a text message or email when they hit 75 percent and 90 percent of their roaming data limit, the paper said.
Sprint’s move to charge laptop users follows its bigger rival AT&T’s decision to end unlimited data plan for smartphone customers.
On June 2, AT&T Inc (T.N) said it would stop offering an unlimited pricing plan for new subscribers to its mobile data services. [ID:nN02173229]
Sprint could not be reached for comment. (Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Dan Lalor)
June 13 (Reuters) – Colonial Pipeline said it does not expect the early morning fire at its Greensboro, North Carolina, facility to disrupt supplies along the nation’s largest refined oil products pipeline, a spokesman for the company said on Sunday.
“We do not think this incident will disrupt our supplies,” said Steve Baker, a company spokesman. (Reporting by Janet McGurty, editing by Maureen Bavdek)
(Reuters) – An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 jolted northern Japan on Sunday, the Japan Meteorological agency said, though there were no reports of damage and nuclear facilities in the area were unaffected.
World | Japan | Natural Disasters
The quake, at 12:33 p.m. (0333 GMT), was also felt in Tokyo.
The focus of the tremor was 40 km (25 miles) below sea level off the east coast of Fukushima prefecture, on Japan’s main island of Honshu, about 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
No tsunami warning was issued.
Kyodo news agency said there was no injuries reported in either Fukushima prefecture or Miyagi prefecture to the north.
Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima No.1 and No.2 nuclear power plants were operating normally after the quake, a company spokesman said.
Tohoku Electric Power Co’s Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi prefecture and Higashidori nuclear plant in Aomori also continued their normal operations, company officials said.
Nippon Oil Corp’s Sendai refinery in Miyagi was continuing normal operations after the quake and there were no reports of damage, a refinery official said.
Japan Energy group refinery Kashima plant in Ibaraki prefecture, south of Fukushima, has been shut for scheduled maintenance and no damage was reported, a plant official said.
Sendai airport Miyagi prefecture halted flights briefly to check the runway before resuming operations, national broadcaster NHK said.
The bullet train that connects Tokyo and Aomori, northern Japan, temporarily suspended operations on part of the rail network after the quake, Kyodo said.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
In October 2004, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck the Niigata region in northern Japan, killing 65 people and injuring more than 3,000.
That was the deadliest quake since a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6,400.
(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori, Hugh Lawson, Yoko Kubota and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Alex Richardson)
TOKYO, June 13 (Reuters) – An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 jolted northern Japan on Sunday, the Japan Meteorological agency said, though there were no reports of damage and nuclear facilities in the area were unaffected.
The quake, at 12:33 p.m. (0333 GMT), was also felt in Tokyo.
The focus of the tremor was 40 km (25 miles) below sea level off the east coast of Fukushima prefecture, on Japan’s main island of Honshu, about 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
No tsunami warning was issued.
Kyodo news agency said there was no injuries reported in either Fukushima prefecture or Miyagi prefecture to the north.
Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (9501.T) Fukushima No.1 and No.2 nuclear power plants were operating normally after the quake, a company spokesman said.
Tohoku Electric Power Co’s (9506.T) Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi prefecture and Higashidori nuclear plant in Aomori also continued their normal operations, company officials said.
Nippon Oil Corp’s Sendai refinery in Miyagi was continuing normal operations after the quake and there were no reports of damage, a refinery official said.
Japan Energy group refinery Kashima plant in Ibaraki prefecture, south of Fukushima, has been shut for scheduled maintenance and no damage was reported, a plant official said.
Sendai airport Miyagi prefecture halted flights briefly to check the runway before resuming operations, national broadcaster NHK said.
The bullet train that connects Tokyo and Aomori, northern Japan, temporarily suspended operations on part of the rail network after the quake, Kyodo said.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
In October 2004, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck the Niigata region in northern Japan, killing 65 people and injuring more than 3,000.
That was the deadliest quake since a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6,400. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori, Hugh Lawson, Yoko Kubota and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Alex Richardson)
NEW YORK, June 9 (Reuters) – Mead Johnson Nutrition Co (MJN.N) said it would discontinue its Enfagrow Premium chocolate drink after what is called misunderstanding and mischaracterization about the intended consumer of the drink.
Mead Johnson, whose shares were up 2 percent in late market trading, recently introduced a chocolate-flavored Enfagrow Premium drink aimed at U.S. toddlers who have been weaned off breast milk or infant formula. But with nearly 19 grams of sugar per 7-ounce serving, the product drew criticism from parents and a flurry of media reports mentioning it in the context of childhood obesity.
“The resulting debate has distracted attention from the overall benefits of the brand, so we have decided to discontinue production of Enfagrow Premium chocolate toddler drink and phase it out over the coming weeks,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
The drinks were getting associated with infants, but company spokesman Christopher Perille said the drink was “a growing-up milk” for fickle toddlers who may not be getting all the vitamins and nutrients they should.
The recently introduced chocolate flavored drink has “a superior nutritional profile” to other drinks typically consumed by toddlers, the company said, citing apple juice, grape juice and similarly flavored milk drinks.
Enfagrow Premium will remain available in vanilla and three unflavored versions — Next Step, Gentlease Next Step and Soy Next Step — which have roughly half as much sugar as the chocolate version. The vanilla version has less added sugar than the chocolate version, but more than the unflavored versions, Perille said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has said that feeding sweets to toddlers increases their interest in consuming more sugary foods and decreases their interest in more nutritious food. As a result, many doctors recommend limiting toddlers’ intake of sugary foods and beverages of all kinds.
Mead Johnson shares were up 2.5 percent at $49.95 in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Martinne Geller, additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Tim Dobbyn)
June 8 (Reuters) – An Indian court has deferred hearing of Vodafone’s (VOD.L) appeal against India’s tax department to July 8, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.
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Vodafone (VOD.L) filed an appeal with the Bombay High Court on Monday challenging the tax department’s jurisdiction to tax the company’s stake buy in a telecoms firm in 2007.
Vodafone has not said how much the authorities were seeking, but a person with knowledge of the matter has said it was about 120 billion rupees ($2.6 billion), which is higher than the $2 billion figure estimated by Indian media.
The tax department had set a June 14 hearing to discuss the size of the tax bill, Vodafone said last week. [ID:nSGE6530I8] ($1=46.9 rupees) (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy)
Los Angeles, June 6 IANS) The US Air Force (USAF) will get its 199th C-17 Globemaster-III strategic lift aircraft June-end.
The aircraft has successfully been test flown and is due for delivery to its designated squadron, a company spokesman told India Strategic.
The aircraft was shown to an Indian media team recently at its Long Beach manufacturing facility as part of Boeing’s efforts to showcase the capability of this aircraft to various countries for possible sale.
The latest version of the aircraft is marked Block 18, and that is what is on offer to India.
The C-17 programme will end in about five years, just after Boeing delivers the last and 223rd of this highly successful strategic lift aircraft to the USAF, and some others to international customers.
The production is being slowed to keep the manufacturing facility going for some time longer, just in case there are more orders, particularly in view of the aircraft’s utility in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief role.
According to Tommy Dunehew, Vice President, Boeing’s Global Mobility Systems, Boeing is committed along with the US Government to support and service the aircraft for their lifetime, say another 30 to 40 years. The spares will be produced amply for a global supply chain.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has decided to buy 10 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to replace and augment its fleet of 17 Soviet vintage IL 76 aircraft which should retire in about 10-15 years.
IAF acquired the first lot of its six IL 76 aircraft in April 1985. The IL 76 is now out of production, although Russia has been able to sell some of its second-hand machines after refurbishing them to some countries.
India with its order for 10 C-17s is the largest non-US customer, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which ordered six of these aircraft last year.
India should get its fist C-17 in about two to three years after signing the Letter of Acceptance (LoA) with the US government, now that US Congressional approval has been accorded to the Indo-US deal in this regard.
Dunehew said that normally, it should take about three years to deliver an aircraft. But if India wanted, the delivery period could be cut short as Boeing could request other customers to delay their deliveries.
Notably, barring an odd case of pilot error or attacks in combat, the aircraft has never had any accident, said Dunehew.
* Honda parts plant seen resuming production on Monday
Stocks | Global Markets | Cyclical Consumer Goods
* Honda’s China car factories may remain closed Monday
* Hyundai China parts plant sees one-day work stoppage-report (Adds details and Hyundai plant stoppage)
SHANGHAI, May 31 (Reuters) – Honda Motor (7267.T) expects its parts plant in south China to resume production on Monday after it agreed to a pay rise for its employees, a company spokesman said on Monday.
Production at all of Honda’s four China car plants was halted for most of last week after a walkout at the parts factory in a labour dispute. [ID:nSGE64P0KG]
The Japanese automaker has since been negotiating with its workers, who had demanded a pay rise and more benefits.
“We have finished negotiations with workers. They are returning to their workshops now, but the production line is not up and running yet,” said Honda China spokesman Zhu Linjie.
The Beijing Times also reported that more than 1,000 workers at a parts factory that supplies Hyundai Motor’s (005380.KS) Beijing car venture, also suspended work for one day over the weekend. They returned to work late on Sunday afternoon only after the management promised a pay rise.
A spokesman at Hyundai said he was looking into the report but did not provide further comment.
Honda, which competes with Toyota Motor (7203.T), Nissan Motor (7201.T) and others in China, operates car ventures with Dongfeng Motor Group Co (0489.HK) and Guangzhou Automobile. It also has a small plant making Jazz compact cars for export.
Honda’s Zhu said production could remain halted at all four facilities on Monday, but there was a chance the two plants run with Guangzhou Auto might resume partial production if the parts factory started production as expected.
Overseas firms have recently been hit by a string of high-profile labour controversies in China, a key global manufacturing centre, as migrant workers, many from the vast countryside, have started to ask for better pay and conditions.
Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry (2317.TW) plans to raise workers’ salaries by about 20 percent at its Foxconn unit in China, as it struggles to stop a spate of worker suicides and quell rising public anger. Foxconn makes Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone. [ID:nTOE64R02R] (Reporting by Fang Yan and Jason Subler; Additional reporting by Kim Yeon-hee in Seoul; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
May 31 (Reuters) – Honda Motor (7267.T) expects its four car manufacturing plants in China to resume production on Monday morning after it agreed to a pay rise for its employees at a parts plant in the country, a company spokesman said on Monday.
Technology
Production at the car plants was halted for most of last week as it was unable to resolve a labour dispute at a China parts factory. [ID:nSGE64P0KG]
The Japanese automaker has since been negotiating with its workers, who had demanded a pay rise and more benefits.
“We expect production to resume at 10 a.m. (0200 GMT), after a short briefing to workers,” said Honda China spokesman Zhu Linjie. (Reporting by Fang Yan and Jason Subler; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
Todd Farrar with SCAT (Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Team) holds up hard tar balls found on… Enlarge Photo Todd Farrar with SCAT (Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Team) holds up hard tar balls found on…
BP Plc will deploy a small containment dome to try to trap oil from a blown-out undersea well in the Gulf of Mexico in the “next couple of days,” a company spokesman said on Thursday.
Earlier, the BP spokesman had told Reuters the metal dome would be deployed next week.
“The top hat deployment is the next couple of days,” BP spokesman Jon Pack said. “We don’t have a definitive date.”
The dome is BP’s latest attempt to control the roughly 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons/795,000 liters) per day that has been gushing from the broken well for more than three weeks.
The oil spill could become the worst in U.S. history and threatens an environmental catastrophe along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
A buildup of slushy gas hydrates stymied BP’s first attempt last week at covering the leak with a much-larger dome and there is no certainty that the next stab at it will succeed.
London-based BP, Transocean Ltd and Halliburton Co are all under scrutiny for their roles in the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that killed 11 workers and caused the leak.
Scientists say coastal wetlands threatened by the spill, which provide critical habitat for bird life and serve as rich nurseries for the region’s valuable shrimp and oyster stocks, are already dwindling from erosion and development.
Oil pollution would accelerate the process by killing the vegetation that holds the marshes together. It threatens regional economic mainstays including fishing and tourism as well as wildlife throughout the region.
“If we allow that oil to come in and touch our marshlands, that’ll shut us down for about five to six years,” said Rodney Dufrene, 23, a new shrimp boat owner from the hamlet of Cut Off, north of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the oil continued to spread with winds and currents and this week’s southeasterly winds could push the oil closer to Breton Sound and the Mississippi Delta.
BP, whose shares have tumbled and wiped out $30 billion of market value since the rig fire on April 20, said on Thursday the oil spill had cost it $450 million so far.
BP stock closed up 1.1 percent in London after weeks of steep declines.
Global scrutiny of the offshore oil industry could intensify after a second drilling rig sank off Venezuela, although no fatalities were reported and authorities said there was no leak from the natural gas well.
(Additional reporting by Kelli Dugan in Mobile, Alabama, Tom Brown and Pascal Fletcher in Miami, Victoria Bryan in London and Anna Driver in Houston; Writing by Ed Stoddard and Deborah Charles; Editing by Eric Beech)
London, May 5 (ANI): A sale of 1.5 million stolen Facebook accounts on the black market by a hacker has created panic amongst users.
Researchers at VeriSign iDefense Labs, an internet security firm, said that they had found stolen login details for the world”s most popular social networking site on sale for as little as $25 for 1,000 on a Russian website Carder.su.
According to the firm, the hacker called ”kirllos” was offering login information for bundles of 1,000 accounts with 10 or fewer friends on sale for just $25 (£16) and with more than 10, for $45 (£30).
Facebook however, has rubbished the claims, saying that ”kirllos” was known for making wild claims.
According to the Sun, company spokesman Barry Schnitt said Facebook had tried to buy details from kirllos during its own investigation but that “the hacker was unable to produce anything for our buyer”.
Hackers use software that logs computer keystrokes or ‘phishing’ techniques that trick users into giving out their passwords, personal information like birth dates, addresses and phone numbers.
The accounts can then be hijacked to send spam and malicious programs or to commit identity frauds.
Users concerned about their account privacy can report the matter through the Help Centre. (ANI)
TAIPEI, April 14 (Reuters) – Top contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) (2330.TW) (TSM.N) said it expects global sales of semiconductors to rise 22 percent this year and 7 percent next amid a recovery from last year’s slump.
The forecast was given by Chairman Morris Chang at a company technology symposium held in the U.S. on April 13. Details of the speech were given to reporters in Taipei in a teleconference with company spokesman J.H. Tzeng on Wednesday.
Chang said the growth outlook for the semiconductor market this year and next year was healthy, while annual growth would slow to 4.2 percent in 2011-2014, partly as other new key components such as touch-screen panels are used in electronics products.
His forecast for this year is largely in line with market expectations.
Global semiconductor revenue in 2010 is set to reach $279.7 billion, up 21.5 percent from 2009, according to research firm iSuppli Corp. Gartner forecast worldwide semiconductor revenue growth at 20 percent this year.
By 0249 GMT, TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares were up 0.5 percent, outpacing the main TAIEX’s 0.15 percent rise.
TSMC, which counts Texas Instruments (TXN.N) and Nvidia (NVDA.O) among its clients, reported unconsolidated sales of T$30.82 billion ($975 million) for last month, more than double a year earlier and up 5.6 percent from February. [ID:nTOE63801W]
TSMC and No.2 chip foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) (2303.TW) (UMC.N) have said they would boost capital spending significantly this year to tap demand for new computers, cellphones and flat-screen TVs that require more powerful microchips.
But analysts say a wider customer base and early adoption of more advanced technology would help TSMC yield higher profit margins than UMC and other smaller rivals in coming months.
In a separate statement released by TSMC on Wednesday, the company said it would start using more advanced 20-nanometre process chip production technology in the second half of 2012.
Sales of microchips made by 65-nanometre technology, or 65 billionths of a metre, accounted for 30 percent of TSMC’s total sales in the fourth quarter of 2009, while 9 percent of its sales came from advanced 40-nano technology in the same quarter.
The smaller circuitry allows for more powerful chip designs. Squeezing more circuits onto a single chip also increases chip yield per wafer, boosting efficiency.
Melbourne rail operator Metro has again failed to meet its monthly punctuality benchmark.
About 20 per cent of trains ran late in March, making it the fourth consecutive month Metro has failed to meet its service obligations.
The Public Transport Minister, Martin Pakula, says the result is not good enough, but admits there were extenuating circumstances.
The massive hailstorm last month took out a number of trains from Southern Cross Station for several days.
“Even so, the performance is not good enough,” he said.
“Metro are keenly aware of that themselves. They’ve committed to improve that performance and that’s the expectation that I and the Government have of them.”
Metro agrees the figures are bad, but the company spokesman Andrew Lezella says ongoing infrastructure upgrades will soon deliver benefits to commuters.
“We’re aiming to turn it round as quickly as we can. I’d like to see the performance coming up in April, May and June,” he said.
But Opposition MP Terry Mulder says Government neglect is to blame.
“If the trains are properly maintained, when you do have those weather events, the impact is lessened,” he said.
He says the results prove the State Government can not deliver basic services.
“It is an appalling situation, and it flies in the face of John Brumby’s claims when the new operator was appointed, that we would see an improvement from day one. That has not happened.”
The rate of cancellations also increased throughout March, but is still within Metro’s performance benchmarks.
ISLAMABAD, April 2 (Reuters) – Chinese telecom giant, China Mobile (0941.HK), will invest $300 million in Pakistan in 2010, mainly on expansion of its infrastructure in the south Asian country, a company spokesman said on Friday.
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Pakistan’s telecom sector has boomed over the past 10 years and now has over 95.40 million mobile phone users, from some 300,000 in 2000, with cellular mobile density of over 58 percent, according to its state telecommunication authority.
But growing concerns over a Taliban insurgency and chronic power shortages have put off investors, with net foreign investment down 45.9 percent to $1.02 billion in the first eight months of the 2009/10 fiscal year.
China Mobile, which operates in Pakistan through its overseas subsidiary, China Mobile Pakistan, has some 6.93 million subscribers in Pakistan, according to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) website (www.pta.gov.pk/).
The company’s chairman, Wang Jianzhou, was in Pakistan this week where he met government officials to discuss expansion and investment plans, said the spokesman of the company known in Pakistan by its brand name of Zong.
“During the visit Mr Wang made the announcement that for this year our investment in Pakistan will be $300 million,” the spokesman said.
Last year, China Mobile’s investment in Pakistan was $500 million, while total investment in the country has reached $1.66 billion, he said.
Pakistan’s mobile operators include CM PAK of China Mobile, Mobilink, a unit of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA), Norway’s Telenor (TEL.OL), Ufone, a subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunication Co Ltd (PTCA.KA), Warid Telecom Pakistan, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi Group and SingTel Group (STEL.SI), and Instaphone, which is not publicly traded.
Mobilink has the largest share with 31.06 million subscribers, according to the PTA website. (Reporting by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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