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Strung
up: Pearls in a jam over SARS
New York: It may take oyster years to form a lustrous
pearl, but just a few weeks for SARS to disrupt the global
pearl supply. The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome has scared away foreign buyers from Hong Kong
and China's Guangdong province, which supply about 38
per cent of the world's pearls. Chinese vendors have also
been barred from several major exhibitions, resulting
in a 40 per cent drop in the world's pearl distribution
and sales, said experts."This is a big mess, the
whole industry is being affected, definitely," said
Sonny Sethi, president of New York-based pearl importer
Tara & Sons. "I think the pearl industry will
go down by 30 per cent this year because of SARS."
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Iraq
may get most of the region's FDI, fear Arabs
Dubai: The war in Iraq may be over. But the question
haunting the Arab world is: Will the ravaged Iraq pull
all the FDI meant for the region? The question over Iraq's
future and the investment it required set the tone for
the three-day International Investor Summit in Dubai.
Dubai crown prince, UAE defenceminister and president
of Dubai Development & Investment Authority General
Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, raised a question:
Why are the global giants ignoring the Arab world?
According
to Donald Johnston, secretary general, Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the new
environment in Iraq will certainly play a major role in
attracting FDI. "The atmosphere there is favorable
for attracting foreign investments," he said. However,
the OECD chief was not exactly happy about the way things
are being handled in Iraq. "There needs to be institutional
framework to channelise a flow of funding," he said.
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US
steel protection tariffs illegal: WTO
Washington: The World Trade Organisation has ruled
that US tariffs to protect the American steel industry
are illegal. The ruling, which has been made available
to governments but has not been publicly released, was
confirmed by a US trade official, The Washington Times
reports. The official, who asked not to be named, said
the US plans to appeal the decision, leaving the tariffs
in place in the meantime. A final ruling by an appeals
panel would not be expected until late November, the official
said. By that time, the temporary protections would be
past their halfway mark.
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Berkshire
rings in record operating profit of $1.7bn
Omaha: Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor,
said on Saturday his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate made
record operating profits of $1.7bn in the first quarter,
more than twice that of the year ago quarter, helped by
a jump in earnings from its insurance businesses. "It's
the best earnings we've ever had," Buffett, 72, told
more than 15,000 shareholders packed into Omaha's Civic
Auditorium for Berkshire's annual meeting. Berkshire,
which made a record annual operating profit of $3.9bn
in '02, is scheduled to report Q1 results on May 9.
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Disney
net dips 11 per cent
Los Angeles: Walt Disney reported an 11 per cent
drop in quarterly net income on Thursday as unexpectedly
strong box office successes like 'Chicago' failed to offset
the Iraq war's impact on theme parks and television operations.
The company posted a fiscal second-quarter net profit
of $229m the quarter ended March 31, compared with $259m
in the same quarter a year ago, meeting Wall Street expectations.
Revenue rose to $6.3bn from $5.9bn. Disney said the Iraq
war dampened attendance and hotel occupancy at its Walt
Disney World resort in Florida thus leading to a 3% drop
in the theme park division's quarterly revenue and a 45
per cent plunge in operating income.
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