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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (73901)	5/4/2011 3:56:43 PM
From: elmatador	1 Recommendation Respond to of 218913

Used to weak currency. Cheap manpower. Gorged in profits. Until currency skyrocketed. Manpower got expensive. It is hurting their profits!!! “We need wider measures, harsher measures. If the currency strengthens beyond 1.50 [per dollar], that would be a real disaster for us,” Mr Primo said. Yeah, right Mantega will manage finance for the benefit of Siemens... While Brazil’s commodity exporters have been more than compensated for by surging global prices for their raw materials, Siemens and many other industrial groups have been harder hit. We are a farming a mining country. Like Canada and Australia. It is Germany that is an industrial country! Siemens warns on Brazil’s strong real By Samantha Pearson in São Paulo Published: May 4 2011 19:13 \| Last updated: May 4 2011 19:13 Brazil faces the risk of “deindustrialisation” unless it imposes more extreme capital controls to rein in the surging local currency, the head of Siemens in the country has warned. Adilson Antonio Primo, the Siemens chief executive for Brazil, told the Financial Times that the strong real was crushing the group’s export business in the country. Siemens, the German industrial group that ranks as Brazil’s biggest electronics conglomerate, now only exports some 12 per cent of its products made in the country compared with 20 per cent four years ago. “We need wider measures, harsher measures. If the currency strengthens beyond 1.50 [per dollar], that would be a real disaster for us,” Mr Primo said. “We’re not advocating protectionism, but you need to be able to compete on equal terms. This is fundamental; there is a risk of deindustrialisation.” The real has soared about 50 per cent against the dollar since the start of 2009, making exports less competitive and encouraging a flood of cheap imports, mainly from Asia. It was trading at about 1.584 to the dollar by midday in Brazil. While Brazil’s commodity exporters have been more than compensated for by surging global prices for their raw materials, Siemens and many other industrial groups have been harder hit. Mr Primo added to calls from industrialists for tougher action as the real nears the key level of 1.50 a dollar, saying the government should introduce a quarantine on foreign investment, a drastic capital control option. The measure, which was employed by Chile in the 1990s, would force foreigners to leave money at the central bank for a certain period or incur a fine for early withdrawal, theoretically favouring long-term investors over the speculators who have been blamed for driving up the Brazilian real. Siemens, which has more than 10,000 employees in Brazil and provides the equipment for about half the country’s electricity generation, has also had to compete with a flood of imports, such as cheap electronic transformers from China. Steel producers also suffered in 2010 from a flood of cheap imports, mainly from China, which grabbed 20 per cent of the market from the normal level of 5 per cent. “Last year was a disaster, almost a complete disaster,” said Benjamin M. Baptista Filho, chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal in Brazil, the country’s biggest steel producer. Yet, Brazil is likely to stick to softer so-called macro-prudential measures to slow inflows and curb the currency, such as the tax introduced at the end of March to limit foreign borrowing. Quarantine is not even on the radar, according to people close to Alexandre Tombini, Brazil’s central bank president. As Brazil prepares to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics two years later, the government is reluctant to scare away foreign investors. It has indicated that it may welcome some currency appreciation to help tame inflation, one of its most pressing problems. Additional reporting by Joe Leahy Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (73901)	5/4/2011 4:01:25 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 218913

demand from factories in emerging markets bolstered its second-quarter business. I know for a long time that without us minnows would suffer. We know who is Europe+s engine... Bullish Siemens lifts FY outlook as orders boom-UPDATE 5 Trade the NewsFriday May 06, 2011 10:56:15 AM GMT SIEMENS/ (UPDATE 5)* Sees FY net profit from continuing ops at 7.5 bln eur * Q2 new orders up 28 percent, sales up 6 percent * Seeks bolt-on acquisitions of 1-3 bln eur * Shares down 2.1 percent, lagging Europe industrial index By Jens Hack and Marilyn Gerlach FRANKFURT/MUNICH, May 4 (Reuters) - Siemens AG, a bellwether of euro zone's biggest economy, raised its full-year outlook after robust demand from factories in emerging markets bolstered its second-quarter business. Europe's biggest engineering conglomerate said it is also looking for acquisition targets of up to 3 billion euros ($4.4 billion) to beef up its core businesses. Siemens, whose products range from hearing aids and light bulbs to fast trains and power plants, said on Wednesday it saw broad growth in all markets, with strong appetite from developing regions for its industrial automation technology. "Siemens continues to have a very strong growth profile, and I think the quarter is just an expression of it," Chief Executive Peter Loescher told Reuters Insider in an interview after the results were published. He said growth was "broad-based", with over a third of Siemens' order intake coming out of emerging markets. "We are looking very much in the core areas of our portfolio. We have an active process ongoing," Loescher said when asked about acquisitions. EMERGING DEMAND Finance director Joe Kaeser later told analysts he could imagine bolt-on acquisitions of around "1 to 3 billion" euros. Siemens on Wednesday posted better-than-expected earnings for the quarter to March, mirroring recent gains by European engineering rivals on the back of emerging market demand. France's Schneider Electric posted a 27 percent rise in quarterly sales, while Swiss engineering peer ABB's net profit jumped over 40 percent. Siemens's quarterly growth was driven by its bread-and-butter industry division, with robust demand from factories using Siemens technology to run industrial plants with less manpower. Demand also accelerated in Siemens's energy business, which competes with Alstom SA and General Electric in providing know-how along the entire chain of energy conversion -- from oil and gas production to electricity distribution. Alstom, however, on Wednesday posted lower annual results, hit by its energy business. Siemens, which is looking to float its Osram lighting business, said quarterly earnings were also boosted by a 1.5 billion euro gain onm the sale of its stake in Areva NP to partner Areva SA. Siemens said emerging markets on a global basis grew faster than revenue overall and contributed a third to group revenues, with those from China and India each up 20 percent. "It is positive that it has upgraded its forecast. The new orders are very solid. That is the most important aspect," fund manager Christoph Ohme of DWS asset management said. Siemens upgraded its outlook, saying it now expects net income from continuing operations to reach at least 7.5 billion euros for its year through September after it rose a higher-than-expected 122 percent in the second quarter. "The new guidance looks extremely bullish at first sight, but is strongly affected by the Areva NP divestment and the underlying low tax rate," said DZ Bank analyst Karsten Obinger. Siemens, known for its conservative outlook, said growth could slow down in its second-half as it would be difficult to repeat last year's steep bounce from recession. Signs of weakening German business sentiment emerged last month after hitting a two-decade high in February, lending further evidence to a slowing rate of expansion in Europe's largest economy. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Gould and Arno Schuetze; Writing by Marilyn Gerlach; Editing by Louise Heavens and Will Waterman) ($1=.6751 euros)