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INDUSTRY & TRADE

ThyssenKrupp posts massive €4.7 billion loss

German heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp said on Monday it would not pay any annual dividends after it posted a loss of €4.7 billion for the year following a write-down of two loss-making steel plants.

Published: 11 December 2012 07:49 CET
ThyssenKrupp posts massive €4.7 billion loss
Photo: DPA

After announcing the $6.1 billion loss, the company said in a statement that it would pay no dividend for the last fiscal year because of an absence of distributable profits.

The world’s 14th largest steel producer, the group had paid €0.45 per share in the prior year after posting a €1.8 billion loss.

It also confirmed the dismissal of three executive board members over its recent economic difficulties and wave of scandals.

Steel-making forms the historic core of ThyssenKrupp’s business, which was formed in 1999 from the merger of two steel giants Thyssen and Krupp whose roots stretch back into the 19th century.

But the steel business is highly cyclical and has been severely hit by the economic downturn.

ThyssenKrupp — which also makes elevators, industrial plant technology, submarines and car parts — had been scheduled to publish its earnings results on Tuesday at its annual press conference.

It is currently looking for potential buyers for the two loss-making steel plants in the United States and in Brazil.

AFP/hc

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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.

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