Search Results for: Canadian

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

STIFF competition both domestically and abroad, paired with mature markets in western economies, explain lacklustre first half financial figures from mobile telecommunications manufacturers and from telecoms equipment vendors, analysts say.

Selected results for H1 2011 illustrate what happens when manufacturers fall behind in introducing competitive mobile phones.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

GROUP buying’ is the new Internet-based system for food manufacturers that allows them to sell direct to consumers, potentially bypassing retailers altogether. Offering bargains appealing to post-recession frugality and tapping into the popularity of social media, ‘group buying’ deal-of-the-day websites such as Chicago-based Groupon and Washington DC-based LivingSocial are becoming increasingly popular for all consumer goods and services in Europe and north America, and spawning niche imitators specialising in food and drink.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s (WTO) disputes settlement panel will assess whether a feed-in-tariff favouring renewable energy production in Ontario, Canada, breaks global commerce rules banning governments giving certain special treatment to domestic businesses. Japan brought the case complaining long-term pricing guarantees offered by the Ontario’s system depend on a proportion of green energy being produced in Canada.…

BY MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS

A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of a possible Greek Euro exit and default. GrExit, as it has been termed, could have catastrophic repercussions for European and possibly the global economy or it could provide some kind of solution for the troubled Eurozone and the heavily indebted country.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

CANADIAN publishers have attacked the decision by the country’s biggest bookshop chain Indigo Books & Music Inc, to stock fewer books and evaluate returns on a shorter timeframe. They claim it is putting extra pressure on the publishing industry when digital technology is already imposing major challenges.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE CANADIAN federal government is planning to scrap the legal monopoly operated by Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) for grains grown in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of British Columbia. The legal requirement that farmers in this area sell wheat and barley to the CWB would disappear on August 1, 2012.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CANADIAN oil company has been subject to the first major conviction under the country’s 1999 Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. Calgary-based Niko Resources pleaded guilty to bribing a Bangladeshi energy minister, being fined Canadian dollars CAD9.49 million (USD9.99 million).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CANADIAN oil and gas company has fallen victim to the first major conviction under the country’s international anti-corruption laws. Calgary-based Niko Resources pleaded guilty to bribing a Bangladeshi energy minister. Niko CEO Ed Sampson said the company had appointed a chief compliance officer "to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again."…

BY MARK ROWE

CO-GENERATION (or combined-heat and power – CHP) plants operate using a variety of technologies: gas turbines, fuel cells, Stirling engines, gas or diesel engines and combined cycle gas turbines. According to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) – the European Union’s (EU) scientific and technical research body – natural gas is currently the preferred fuel across Europe for co-gen, with combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) and gas turbine plants expected to become the predominant future technology for large-scale units.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

IN a drive to combat the illegal exploitation of conflict minerals and create greater transparency of money flows between mining companies and governments, the European Commission is to table a new European Union (EU) law this autumn. It will ask large mining companies to reveal detail about their mining activities and associated financial transactions to shareholders.…