General Electric has profit

Profits have surged at US conglomerate General Electric (GE), adding to the wave of corporations whose earnings have exceeded expectations. GE said net earnings had risen by 79% to $3.4bn (£2.01bn) for the first three months of 2011 from a year earlier. It also increased its dividend. Revenue rose 6% to $38.45bn, when many analysts had expected a decline for the quarter. Apple, Intel, Nokia and McDonald's have all beat forecasts this week. GE is seen as a bellwether for the US economy, given the breadth of its operations, which include a financial arm as well as industrial units. The profit growth was fuelled by growth in its healthcare and transport divisions, and net profits of $1.8bn at GE Capital. "As today's results show, GE has emerged from the recession a stronger, more competitive company," said GE chief executive Jeff Immelt. The dividend increase - by one cent to 15 cents - is the third in the past 12 months, and is effective from the third quarter of this year.

Nokia has posted profit

Mobile phone maker Nokia has posted better-than-expected profits for the first three months of 2011, down 1% to 344m euros (£304m). But its market share fell 4% to 29% as cheaper rivals and the popularity of competitors' smartphones ate into Nokia's dominance. Nokia also said that it had struck a long-awaited deal to develop smartphone technology with Microsoft. Investors welcomed the news, sending Nokia shares up almost 3%. Stephen Elop, chief executive, said: "In the first quarter, we shifted from defining our strategy to executing our strategy. On this front, I am pleased to report that we signed our definitive agreement with Microsoft and already our product design and engineering work is well underway." The Finnish company's slow response to the smartphone threat from Apple's iPhone and the Blackberry handsets has been one of investors' key concerns. On Wednesday Apple unveiled a 95% rise in first-quarter profits, and said it had sold a record 18.65 million iPhones during the quarter. Consultants Strategy Analytics said that Apple had now overtaken Nokia as the world's largest handset seller in revenue terms.

BP has to pay $1bn for gulf sea

The US Justice Department, which helped form the agreement, said the funds would go to Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. It will be used to clean up affected areas, including beaches. Other recipients of the $1bn include the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration. Hundreds of miles of coastal wetlands and beaches were contaminated, a third of the Gulf's US waters were closed to fishing, and the economic costs have reached into the tens of billions. The Justice Department said the release of the money was the largest restoration agreement of its kind ever reached and was "a first step towards fulfilling BP's obligations to fund the complete restoration of injured public resources". The department said the agreement does not affect the ultimate liability of BP or any other company for environmental damages or other liabilities, but lets restoration projects get started sooner.

China restict out banking in Taiwan

China could allow its banks to widen access to Taiwanese lenders and remove current restrictions on branches opened on the mainland, Beijing’s banking regulation chief told local media on Sunday. Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, extended the olive branch upon his arrival Saturday, according to the Taipei-based Commercial Times. Liu and his Taiwanese counterpart Chen Yu-chang will hold talks in Taipei Monday in the first meeting since Taipei and Beijing set up a banking supervisory cooperation platform in January. According to Liu, under the pending new measures, Taiwanese lenders will be allowed to start doing rendering business once they have opened branches on the mainland, the Times said. Existing measures require Taiwan lenders to open branches for a minimum of a year and become profitable before they are permitted to do rendering business.

Toyota company's production reduce highly

The company has been facing shortages in supplies of parts as production has been disrupted because of last month's earthquake and tsunami. While it has restarted production in Japan, its factories have been working at a reduced output. The firm has said output would return to normal only by the end of 2011. The world's biggest car manufacturer also announced more cuts in production at its factories in Asia. The automaker said plants in eight Asian countries, including Thailand and India, will operate at 50% capacity from 25 April to 4 June. It also said that factories in these countries will operate for just three days a week during the period. The company had already announced that its factories in China will operate at 30-50% of capacity until 3 June. Meanwhile, another Japanese automaker, Nissan Motors also announced that output at its Japanese plants had slumped by 52% in March compared with last year.

Chittagong port will introduce CTMS

Chittagong port is Bangladesh's gateway to international trade, will expect to go for automation with the digital container terminal management system. On the occasion of the 124th founding anniversary of the port, Chittagong Port Authority chairman hoped for it. The automation will transform the port into a world class global shipping. It has become a crying need for catering to the global demand and for supporting transit facilities if those are allowed to neighboring countries. It will make the container handling very easy. It need to digitalized the port as early as possible.