Print

Mail

wiki links

World Business Quick Take

■ Telecoms
Alcatel-Lucent to cut jobs
Newly merged telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent, which employs some 79,000 people, plans to cut 12,500 jobs around the world over three years, the company said yesterday in its 2006 results. The job cuts are intended to save some 1.7 billion euros (US$2.2 billion) over that time, Alcatel-Lucent said.

■ Imaging
Kodak cuts more jobs
Eastman Kodak Co is cutting 3,000 more jobs this year as the picture-taking pioneer wraps up its wrenching transformation into a digital-imaging company focused on consumer photography and commercial printing. By year-end, its work force will slip below 30,000, less than half what it was just three years ago. On top of 27,000 layoffs already targeted, Kodak said on Thursday it is reducing its payroll even further to accommodate the US$2.35 billion sale in January of its health-imaging unit and its costly foray this week into a high-margin inkjet-printer market dominated by Hewlett-Packard Co.

■ Automobiles
Hybrid recall ordered
Honda Motor Co plans to recall 45,335 Civic Hybrid sedans worldwide to repair an electrical defect that could stop the cars' engines, a company spokeswoman said yesterday. The automaker plans to recall 7,219 of the vehicles sold domestically and another 38,116 sold overseas, mostly in the US, after it learned about the defective voltage converters -- which could cause a short circuit that would stop the engine and prevent it from restarting -- from overseas reports. Honda has received no reports of accidents related to the defect, the documents said. The affected vehicles were manufactured between September 2005 and September last year, they said.

■ Cellphones
Nokia sells more in China
Nokia saw sales soar in China last year as the world's largest maker of mobile phones started tapping the nation's huge rural market, state media said yesterday. The Finnish telecoms giant saw China sales jump 39 percent to 5.3 billion euros (US$6.9 billion) last year as it moved 51 million mobile phones, up 57 percent, the China Daily said, citing Nokia figures. As big cities are approaching saturation point, gains have been mainly due to a push by Nokia into the rural market, where many people are buying handsets for the first time, the newspaper said. Cellular operators China Mobile and China Unicom have stepped up expansion in rural areas, helping to boost in Nokia's sales, it said.

■ Aviation
United wins Beijing route
United Airlines won final approval on Thursday for a new nonstop flight from Washington to Beijing, prevailing over three other carriers vying for a single opening to the fast-growing Chinese market. The US Department of Transportation (DOT) confirmed its decision after tentatively awarding the rights to United on Jan. 9. "Today's action finalizes DOT's tentative decision to award the seven weekly frequencies to United, whose bid the department determined would serve the most customers and provide the best service to the traveling public,"the agency said in a statement. Service would begin as early as March 25 between Washington Dulles International Airport and Beijing's China Peking Capital Airport, the first nonstop service between the two capitals.


This story has been viewed 1628 times.