Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CHINA

VW records strong profits

Volkswagen, the biggest European carmaker, reported Friday a strong operating profit of €4.8 billion for the first nine months of 2010 and said its full-year figure would show gains as well.

Published: 23 October 2010 09:36 CEST
VW records strong profits
Photo: DPA

The nine-month figure was more than three times higher than the €1.5 billion posted in the same period of 2009.

Sales rose to €92.5 billion, a gain of 19.9 percent, a statement said, before adding that the group did not expect growth to be as strong in the fourth quarter of the year.

VW said full-year sales and operating profit were nonetheless expected to mark significant gains owing to strong demand, especially in China.

But the fourth quarter would see more muted growth, a situation that VW executives have already mentioned.

Pre-tax profit for the nine-month period leapt to €5.44 billion, a huge gain from the 2009 figure of €1.07 billion.

Pre-tax profit was boosted by €863 million in contributions from investments that included joint ventures in the robust Chinese auto market and options linked to the takeover of the luxury sports car maker Porsche, VW said.

Volkswagen and its nine other brands delivered 5.4 million vehicles in the period from January through September, an annualised gain of 12.9 percent.

That gave the German group a market share of 11.6 percent, a slight gain on the year, it said.

After suffering from a slump in global sales amid the economic downturn last year, VW was well positioned to rebound owing to its strong presence worldwide.

“China, Western Europe, North America and Latin America remain sources of growth in demand,” the statement said.

Shares in VW jumped by 2.40 percent to €96.03 in late trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange, while the DAX index of blue-chip stocks was essentially unchanged overall.

VW is to release detailed results on Wednesday.

AFP/bk

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FARMING

WTO rules US tariffs on Spanish olives breach rules

A US decision to slap steep import duties on Spanish olives over claims they benefited from subsidies constituted a violation of international trade rules, the World Trade Organisation ruled Friday.

Published: 22 November 2021 11:34 CET
WTO rules US tariffs on Spanish olives breach rules
Farmers had just begun harvesting olives in southern Spain when former US President Donald Trump soured the mood with the tariffs' announcement. Photo: Jorge Guerrero/AFP

Former US president Donald Trump’s administration slapped extra tariffs on Spain’s iconic agricultural export in 2018, considering their olives were subsidised and being dumped on the US market at prices below their real value.

The combined rates of the anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties go as high as 44 percent.

The European Commission, which handles trade policy for the 27 EU states, said the move was unacceptable and turned to the WTO, where a panel of experts was appointed to examine the case.

In Friday’s ruling, the WTO panel agreed with the EU’s argument that the anti-subsidy duties were illegal.

But it did not support its stance that the US anti-dumping duties violated international trade rules.

The panel said it “recommended that the United States bring its measures into conformity with its obligations”.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis hailed the ruling, pointing out that the US duties “severely hit Spanish olive producers.”

Demonstrators take part in a 2019 protest in Madrid, called by the olive sector
Demonstrators take part in a 2019 protest in Madrid called by the olive sector to denounce low prices of olive oil and the 25 percent tariff that Spanish olives and olive oil faced in the United States. (Photo by PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)
 

“We now expect the US to take the appropriate steps to implement the WTO ruling, so that exports of ripe olives from Spain to the US can resume under normal conditions,” he said.

The European Commission charges that Spain’s exports of ripe olives to the United States, which previously raked in €67 million ($75.6 million) annually, have shrunk by nearly 60 percent since the duties were imposed.

The office of the US Trade Representative in Washington did not immediately comment on the ruling.

According to WTO rules, the parties have 60 days to file for an appeal.

If the United States does file an appeal though, it would basically amount to a veto of the ruling.

That is because the WTO Appellate Body — also known as the supreme court of world trade — stopped functioning in late 2019 after Washington blocked the appointment of new judges.

SHOW COMMENTS