Otis picks Usha Martin for wire rope products supply
Kolkata: Elevator major Otis has chosen Usha Martin Ltd as a "contract partner" for supply of wire rope and related products for the next three years. The company will supply wire rope and related products to Otis' operations in western Europe and Asia, barring China and Korea. It has also received orders for the supply of high-performance mining rope to the US. The elevator rope business would account for around 25 per cent of Usha Martin's total wire rope business, which is expected to be of the order of Rs.450 crore to Rs.500 crore in the current fiscal.

During the year ended March 31, 2004, Usha Martin generated a turnover of Rs.797.07 crore compared with Rs.736.71 crore the previous year. The profit before tax in 2003-04 stood at Rs.23.27 crore (Rs.13.35 crore). The profit after tax was Rs.15.52 crore (Rs.8.21 crore). Usha Martin is hopeful of achieving a turnover in excess of Rs.1, 100 crore in the current fiscal. Export earnings have been pegged at Rs.300 crore this year. The net profit during the first three months of the current fiscal stood at Rs.8.15 crore against Rs.3.12 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year.
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BPCL to invest Rs.1,200 crore for Euro-IV fuel
Mumbai: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) plans to invest Rs 1,200 crore towards producing auto fuel, which will be compliant with Euro-IV emission norms. The refinery is currently expanding its refinery capacity to 12 million tonnes. BPCL is investing Rs.1, 831 crore in expanding its Mumbai refinery to produce Euro III compliant diesel and another Rs.110 crore towards producing cleaner petrol.
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Idea and Hutch launch EDGE
New Delhi: Idea Cellular and Hutch, on Wednesday have announced the launch of EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution) services, for their cellular subscribers who can now get Live TV, watch videos and experience high speed Internet surfing on their mobile handsets. The service, which has been launched for the first time in the country is capable of data downloads with speeds of 160 kilo bits per second compared to existing speeds of 40 kbps. While subscribers of Idea Cellular can avail the service for a flat fee of Rs 500 per month, Hutch users can avail the service for a monthly fee of Rs.100 plus additional charges for downloads. Subscribers will need EDGE-enabled handsets also to avail the service. Finnish major Nokia has provided the technology for the service to Idea. The move is in line with global trends with GSM operators migrating to EDGE. Operators in 64 countries have already announced plans to launch EDGE services.
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New HP personal workstations
New Delhi: Hewlett Packard announced a new line of workstations to offer customers low-cost, personal workstations with increased reliability and support. "The new HP workstations - xw4200, xw6200 and xw8200 - are engineered to deliver scalable, dual-processing performance in industry-leading designs with noise-reducing features. They are developed to meet the technology needs of industries such as mechanical computer-aided design, computer-aided engineering, digital content creation, financial services and geographic information systems," an HP statement said here.
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5-year warranty from Seagate
New Delhi: Seagate Technology has announced that it has introduced a 5-year warranty, on every Seagate internal PC, notebook and enterprise hard drive shipped through its distribution and retail channels throughout the world.
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Wipro into multi year contract from Loyalty Gate
Bangalore: Wipro Technologies, the global IT services division of Wipro Ltd, has said that it has won a multi-year contract for application maintenance, support and development of Loyalty Gate's business critical loyalty application. The application that Wipro will maintain serves three European airlines. Loyalty Gate provides integrated loyalty solutions to airlines in the Europe, according to a company statement.
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Designer plans for Kingfisher Air
Bangalore: Kingfisher Airlines, a UB Group enterprise, which plans to start operations from January next year, is promising 'designer' aircraft complete with models as air hostesses who will be chosen through an all India contest. In a press statement, the airline has said that it has signed a deal with GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) to take on lease four Airbus A-320s worth Rs.100 crore, which will enable it kick start its operations. The airline has already signed a deal with Airbus to acquire 12 brand new Airbus A-320 Aircraft with a list price of $750 million. Firm deliveries of four aircraft will commence in October 2005. Kingfisher Airlines will have a `fly the good times' approach and this will reflect in the experience the airline will offer to passengers. With costs lower than economy class travel on full service airlines and marginally more than the "bus services" type low cost competition, Kingfisher Airlines offers a far better value proposition.
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