Business News - Focus on Germany

US AIRLINES STRUGGLE IN WAKE OF SANDY

US Airways said late Monday in a filing that Sandy reduced fourth quarter earnings by $35 million, including $15 million in October and $20 million in November. The carrier said bookings fell 13% in the days leading up to and following Hurricane Sandy, from October 24 through November 3. Close-in bookings, made zero to 13 days prior to departure, which generally involve higher ticket prices, fell by 21%. November passenger revenue per available seat mile fell by 2% and, as a result, will be flat compared with a year earlier, US Airways said.

BOLTON FIRM BOUGHT OUT BY GERMANS

Edbro, a Bolton business which develops hydraulic cylinders and systems for commercial vehicles, has been acquired by a German firm.

JOST has bought Edbro for an undisclosed sum from French business Caravelle.

David Nesbitt, managing director of Edbro, which was founded in 1916 and employs 200 staff, said the business would benefit by becoming part of a global company.

“We will be able to grow our sales faster and access new markets through JOST's global sales and distribution network,” he said.

JOST supplies a range of components for vehicles and has sales and production facilities in 18 countries.

SIEMENS TRAINS LATE AGAIN

German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG (SI) said Wednesday it is unable to deliver on time an order of high-speed trains to Germany's train operator Deutsche Bahn in early December.

Originally, the 16 intercity-express trains (ICE), which have already been paid for, should have been delivered at the end of 2011, but due to technical problems Siemens couldn't keep the delivery date.

The most recent delay is due to problems with the train control systems that have occurred during testing in the last weeks, the company said.

The delays have already had a financial impact on Siemens, which booked nearly 70 million euros ($89.8 million) in charges in the first quarter of the 2011/2012 financial year due to delays caused by a slow supplier.

VOLKSWAGEN TARGET CHINA IN ORDER TO BECOME WORLD’S No. 1

As Volkswagen AG plots a course toward its goal of becoming the world’s biggest automaker by 2018, it’s increasingly clear that the path to global dominance runs through places like Lanzhou, in western China.

The capital of landlocked Gansu province, which borders the Gobi Desert, is home to a total of 11 dealerships for VW and its sister brands, Audi and Skoda. With a population of 3.6 million, and GDP per capita of about $4,100, Lanzhou is the type of smaller city away from China’s prosperous east coast that VW is targeting in its next phase of expansion.

“Volkswagen’s early entry into China meant that our outlets focused on bigger, developed cities,” said Soh Weiming, the carmaker’s China Executive Vice President. “Now, we have to expand beyond them.”

Less-developed Chinese cities are VW’s “bread and butter,” Soh said in an interview at the Guangzhou Autoshow on Nov. 21.

Sources: Fox Business News, Forbes, BusinessWeek