■ELECTRONICS
Sharp remains in the red
Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp said yesterday it was stuck in the red in the six months through September, hit by fierce price competition in the flat-panel TV market. Sharp booked a net loss of ¥17.72 billion (US$196 million) the first half of its business year, against a profit of ¥28.01 billion in the same period last year. Revenue tumbled 17.5 percent to ¥1.29 trillion, hit by weak prices of liquid-crystal displays, a core product for the group.
■OIL
Shell profit dives 62 percent
Oil company Royal Dutch Shell PLC reported a 62 percent fall in profit for the third quarter, as weakness in the global economy pushed oil prices and refining margins down. Europe’s largest oil company said net profit reached US$3.25 billion, down from US$8.45 billion in the same period a year ago. Sales fell 43 percent to US$75 billion. Shell CEO Peter Voser said yesterday the company was not expecting a fast recovery and would cut some 5,000 job this year.
■BANKING
Deutsche income climbs
Deutsche Bank AG said yesterday that tax credits helped push its third-quarter earnings nearly three times higher as revenue increased. Germany’s biggest bank by assets earned 1.4 billion euros (US$2.07 billion) in the July-September period compared with 414 million euros a year earlier. The gain was propelled by some 369 million euros in tax benefits. Revenue rose 64 percent to 7.2 billion euros compared with 4.4 billion euros in the same quarter last year.
■CHEMICALS
BASF net profit plunges
German chemical company BASF SE said yesterday its net income fell 69 percent in the third quarter as the global downturn continued to affect demand and prices for the company’s products. BASF, based in Ludwigshafen, said net income fell to 237 million euros (US$348 million) from 758 million euros in the July-September period last year. Revenue for the period fell 19 percent to 12.8 billion euros from 15.7 billion euros in the third quarter last year. “Following the global economic downturn at the end of 2008, our business has stabilized at a low level during the course of the year,” BASF said in its report.
■TELECOMS
Samsung opens new plant
A new mobile phone plant in Vietnam opened by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics aims to generate an annual export turnover of US$5 billion by next year, the Hanoi government said yesterday. Samsung plans to initially produce 1.5 million handsets a month in its new northern Bac Ninh province plant and hopes to increase the production to 6 million units a month next year. The plant should generate jobs for more than 10,000 workers, the Vietnamese government said on its Web site.
■MANUFACTURING
S Korea confidence rises
Manufacturing confidence in South Korea rose to a seven-year high this month, the central bank said yesterday, the latest in a series of figures that highlight an improving economy. The Bank of Korea’s index of conditions in the manufacturing sector rose to 92 this month from 90 the previous month, the bank said in a release. Despite the higher number, a reading below 100 means that pessimists still outnumber optimists. The consumer confidence figure for this month, announced on Tuesday, also came in at the highest in more than seven years.
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