Company news in brief
SAA offers severance packages to all staff
South African Airways (SAA) is offering severance packages to its entire workforce of around 5 000 workers, a proposal by the airline's administrators showed, after the government said it wouldn't provide more funds for rescue efforts.
The proposal, which was put to trade unions this week and hasn't been agreed with them, is the latest sign that state-owned SAA is on the brink of collapse. Talks with unions will resume today.
SAA entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December, since when it has had to suspend all commercial passenger flights due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
Last week the government told administrators that it wouldn't provide more funds, lending guarantees or allow foreign financing of a business rescue plan.
According to the proposal, seen by Reuters, employees would see their employment terminated by mutual agreement on April 30. They would be entitled to one week's pay for every year of service, one month's pay in lieu of notice pay and pay for outstanding annual leave. – Nampa/Reuters
SA mobile operators to speed up data
South Africa's mobile operators said on Friday they could need around two to four weeks to deliver better data speeds to customers, after the telecom regulator granted extra spectrum to meet a spike in data demand during the coronavirus lockdown.
The telecom regulator on Friday allocated additional emergency spectrum to several mobile operators as higher data traffic due to millions of people working, studying or consuming media from home has led to congestion on the networks of these companies.
"We have now turned our attention to a four-to-six week radio rollout plan and adding additional capacity to the mobile core network," Jacqui O'Sullivan, executive for corporate affairs at MTN Group Ltd South African unit, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Vodacom, the country's second biggest telecom company by subscribers, told Reuters it "can be ready to use portions of the temporary spectrum within the next two weeks".
However, the company said there could be some technical challenges and that would only become clear only after it has seen the licence document issued by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). – Nampa/Reuters
Barrick expects to meet annual targets
Barrick Gold said on Thursday it was on track to meet its full-year production targets even as it reported an 8.5% drop in first-quarter gold output due to the impact of coronavirus-driven lockdowns.
The mining industry has been bracing for a prolonged drop in commodity prices and has been worried that the coronavirus outbreak could fuel a rare simultaneous drop in both supply and demand for metals used to power the global economy.
Barrick posted gold production of 1.25 million ounces for the first quarter, compared with 1.37 million ounces a year earlier.
Barrick, the world's second-largest gold miner with operations across the globe, had forecast full-year attributable gold production in the range of 4.8 million ounces to 5.2 million ounces and copper production between 440 million pounds and 500 million pounds.
The miner, however, warned that realised prices for copper in the first quarter were expected to be between 12% and 14% below the market price as the pandemic brought economic activity to a virtual standstill. – Nampa/Reuters
DHL struggles as online parcel volumes surge
Delivery business DHL is struggling to cope with a flood of parcels from online purchases due to the coronavirus crisis, forcing it to cut back extra collections from retailers in Germany, parent company Deutsche Post said on Thursday.
A Deutsche Post spokesman said that the extra pick-up trips to retailers had been reduced nationwide, adding that DHL was handling more than 8 million parcels a day, similar to pre-Christmas trade and compared to an annual average of around 5.2 million.
"We are continuously working to synchronise our capacity with demand," the spokesman said.
The German association of online retailers (BVOH) had earlier highlighted the problem, saying if retailers had known about the bottleneck, they would have sought to rein in sales.
"Now the packed parcels are at the retailer and will not be delivered," said BVOH president Oliver Prothmann. – Nampa/Reuters
Volkswagen sales down 23%
Volkswagen Group on Friday said sales of its cars dropped by 23% on the year to 2 million cars in the January to March period.
In March alone, deliveries were down 37.6% overall at 623 000 vehicles, the figures showed, reflecting the coronavirus crisis which triggered plant closures and falls in sales as consumers were tied up at home in lockdown measures across the world.
More specifically, March sales were down 44.6% year-on-year in western Europe, down 23.1% in central and eastern Europe, down 42% in North America, and down 35% in China, the company said.
Experts believe that declines in April sales could be steeper as the full impact of the lockdowns works its way through the system.
Volkswagen on Thursday withdrew its outlook for 2020 due to the uncertainty related to the virus outbreak which caused operating profit to drop 81% in the first quarter. – Nampa/Reuters
South African Airways (SAA) is offering severance packages to its entire workforce of around 5 000 workers, a proposal by the airline's administrators showed, after the government said it wouldn't provide more funds for rescue efforts.
The proposal, which was put to trade unions this week and hasn't been agreed with them, is the latest sign that state-owned SAA is on the brink of collapse. Talks with unions will resume today.
SAA entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December, since when it has had to suspend all commercial passenger flights due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
Last week the government told administrators that it wouldn't provide more funds, lending guarantees or allow foreign financing of a business rescue plan.
According to the proposal, seen by Reuters, employees would see their employment terminated by mutual agreement on April 30. They would be entitled to one week's pay for every year of service, one month's pay in lieu of notice pay and pay for outstanding annual leave. – Nampa/Reuters
SA mobile operators to speed up data
South Africa's mobile operators said on Friday they could need around two to four weeks to deliver better data speeds to customers, after the telecom regulator granted extra spectrum to meet a spike in data demand during the coronavirus lockdown.
The telecom regulator on Friday allocated additional emergency spectrum to several mobile operators as higher data traffic due to millions of people working, studying or consuming media from home has led to congestion on the networks of these companies.
"We have now turned our attention to a four-to-six week radio rollout plan and adding additional capacity to the mobile core network," Jacqui O'Sullivan, executive for corporate affairs at MTN Group Ltd South African unit, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Vodacom, the country's second biggest telecom company by subscribers, told Reuters it "can be ready to use portions of the temporary spectrum within the next two weeks".
However, the company said there could be some technical challenges and that would only become clear only after it has seen the licence document issued by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). – Nampa/Reuters
Barrick expects to meet annual targets
Barrick Gold said on Thursday it was on track to meet its full-year production targets even as it reported an 8.5% drop in first-quarter gold output due to the impact of coronavirus-driven lockdowns.
The mining industry has been bracing for a prolonged drop in commodity prices and has been worried that the coronavirus outbreak could fuel a rare simultaneous drop in both supply and demand for metals used to power the global economy.
Barrick posted gold production of 1.25 million ounces for the first quarter, compared with 1.37 million ounces a year earlier.
Barrick, the world's second-largest gold miner with operations across the globe, had forecast full-year attributable gold production in the range of 4.8 million ounces to 5.2 million ounces and copper production between 440 million pounds and 500 million pounds.
The miner, however, warned that realised prices for copper in the first quarter were expected to be between 12% and 14% below the market price as the pandemic brought economic activity to a virtual standstill. – Nampa/Reuters
DHL struggles as online parcel volumes surge
Delivery business DHL is struggling to cope with a flood of parcels from online purchases due to the coronavirus crisis, forcing it to cut back extra collections from retailers in Germany, parent company Deutsche Post said on Thursday.
A Deutsche Post spokesman said that the extra pick-up trips to retailers had been reduced nationwide, adding that DHL was handling more than 8 million parcels a day, similar to pre-Christmas trade and compared to an annual average of around 5.2 million.
"We are continuously working to synchronise our capacity with demand," the spokesman said.
The German association of online retailers (BVOH) had earlier highlighted the problem, saying if retailers had known about the bottleneck, they would have sought to rein in sales.
"Now the packed parcels are at the retailer and will not be delivered," said BVOH president Oliver Prothmann. – Nampa/Reuters
Volkswagen sales down 23%
Volkswagen Group on Friday said sales of its cars dropped by 23% on the year to 2 million cars in the January to March period.
In March alone, deliveries were down 37.6% overall at 623 000 vehicles, the figures showed, reflecting the coronavirus crisis which triggered plant closures and falls in sales as consumers were tied up at home in lockdown measures across the world.
More specifically, March sales were down 44.6% year-on-year in western Europe, down 23.1% in central and eastern Europe, down 42% in North America, and down 35% in China, the company said.
Experts believe that declines in April sales could be steeper as the full impact of the lockdowns works its way through the system.
Volkswagen on Thursday withdrew its outlook for 2020 due to the uncertainty related to the virus outbreak which caused operating profit to drop 81% in the first quarter. – Nampa/Reuters
Kommentaar
Republikein
Geen kommentaar is op hierdie artikel gelaat nie