Finance

The crane manufacturer wants to catch up on the production backlog by the end of the second quarter.

The cyber attack on the Salzburg crane manufacturer Palfinger paralyzed the listed company with almost 11,000 employees worldwide from the end of January to February.

Recover part of the cost

“The plants stood idle for an average of ten days. That differs depending on the plant and region, the main plants were idle for two weeks,” said board member Martin Zehnder on Friday at the online press conference. The costs and the loss of sales cannot yet be quantified.

Palfinger hopes to cover part of the costs of combating the cyber attack with appropriate insurance. The crane manufacturer is currently trying to catch up on the production backlog by stopping the factories and to keep the loss of sales as low as possible.

One is relying on Saturday work, overtime and an adjustment of the shift model to make up for the loss, says Zehnder. “It won't work out in the first quarter, it will extend into June.”

Controlled shutdown

The impact on profitability would depend on how quickly the production backlog can be made up and when you can get compensation from insurance, the manager said.

On January 25, there was a cyber attack on Palfinger's IT infrastructure, affecting almost all locations worldwide. In response, the crane manufacturer switched off all IT systems in a controlled manner.

All assembly and production plants were restarted within two weeks. Due to the one-off cyberattack effects, the operating profit margin in the first quarter of 2021 is expected to be below the prior-year quarter, but according to Palfinger, sales will be higher than in the previous year.

The corona crisis also hit Palfinger hard last year, but the good sales development for cranes for the booming construction industry dampened the corona effect.

All projects checked

In 2020, sales decreased by 12.5 percent to EUR 1.53 billion compared to the previous year, while consolidated profit fell by 37.8 percent to EUR 49.8 million. CEO Andreas Klauser said on Friday that the company reacted to the Covid pandemic and its economic effects with a package of measures.

Among other things, all projects have been put to the test and a liquidity and structural cost reduction program has been implemented. Furthermore, personnel costs have been reduced in Austria through short-time working and in other countries through similar models and funding programs. The number of employees at Palfinger fell by around 300 to 10,800 in 2020.

The Palfinger boss is optimistic for 2021. For the first half of the year Klauser expects a positive market environment and full order books. The high market risk due to Covid-19 remains, however.

This year, the crane manufacturer wants to return sales to pre-crisis levels – the CEO announced sales of “over 1.7 billion euros” and an EBIT margin of 8 percent. Furthermore, a historically high investment volume of 100 million euros is planned.

GDP shrank by 2.9 percent in 2020, and a return to growth is not expected until the second quarter.

According to initial estimates, the coronavirus crisis brought about the worst economic downturn in Switzerland in 45 years. Due to the measures taken to contain the second wave of pandemics, gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to contract again in the current first quarter.

No crash like 2020

“We will not experience a crash like in 2020, but we will certainly see a sharp decline in GDP in the first quarter,” said Ronald Indergand, economist at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), on Friday to the Reuters news agency. The GDP is likely to decline by 1.5 to 2 percent in the period from January to March.

In the following quarters, economic performance can then be expected to pick up – provided that a third wave of pandemics does not materialize and the easing of the restrictions goes according to plan. Towards the end of the year, the Swiss economy could then return to the pre-crisis level of 2019.

In 2020, the GDP of the Alpine republic shrank by 2.9 percent according to preliminary calculations by the Seco. The slump was thus less severe than feared by government economists in December, but it was still the worst since the 1975 oil crisis.

Second wave braked harder

In the final quarter, the recovery that started in summer practically came to a standstill: quarter-to-quarter growth was still 0.3 percent, after GDP had increased by 7.6 percent from July to September.

In the service sector in particular, the tightened corona measures led to major losses. Overall, the second virus wave slowed the economy significantly less than the first in spring 2020, explained the Seco economists.

A new GDP forecast from Seco is planned for March 11th. In December, economists had assumed three percent growth this year and 3.1 percent in 2022. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is expecting 2.5 to three percent GDP growth for this year.

CEO Bernd Spalt assumes higher net income and announces possible acquisitions.

In front of a journalist this morning, CEO Bernd Spalt said he was satisfied with the business development of his listed Erste Group in 2020. As was announced earlier this morning, operating profit fell slightly by 1.3 percent to 2.9 billion euros, while net profit slumped 46.7 percent to 783 million euros – which is primarily due to the high risk provisions. While this was 39 million euros in 2019, it was 1.3 billion euros for 2020. The hard equity ratio rose from 13.7 to 14.2 percent.

According to the recommendation of the ECB, a dividend of 50 cents will be proposed to the general meeting. In addition, precautions have been taken to be able to distribute an additional euro per share later if the ECB revokes its recommendations. The fact that “despite the crisis-ridden environment” will be able to “present a stable operating result” was anything but certain in the “course of 2020”, said CFO Stefan Dörfler.

“Rebound of an entire region”

Erste Group CEO Spalt is optimistic for 2021. The year will be that of the economic “rebound of an entire region”. Once the vaccines are well administered, people's need to consume, travel, and meet people will “be great”.

He does not anticipate a wave of bankruptcies in 2021. Of course, there will be “follow-up effects”, also because business models would change as a result of the pandemic. A few weeks ago, Spalt had assumed an increase in the insolvency rate of 15 to 20 percent compared to the ORF. For his bank there will be a “significantly better profit result” than in 2021. When asked by journalists, Spalt did not want to commit to an amount.

Consolidation expected

Like many of his colleagues, Spalt also expects a consolidation in the banking sector – and explained that they are looking at opportunities for acquisitions in all markets. “Also in Austria”. Details will be communicated as soon as a takeover is fixed. It will be “nothing big, transformative”, but “interesting possibilities that we are examining”.

Care and childcare are to be expanded and jobs created for the long-term unemployed.

The Chamber of Labor (AK) calls for a job offensive by the public sector. The state has a responsibility to fight the record unemployment of over half a million unemployed. Jobs in nursing and childcare are to be created, for the long-term unemployed, social and ecological jobs should be created in the communities.

Help for the long-term unemployed

The AK has developed a model for this, the “Chance45”. More than 40,000 jobs are to be created for people who have a particularly difficult time in the labor market – for example older long-term unemployed.

In an online discussion on Friday, AK expert Sybille Pirklbauer said that the state had to intervene more strongly and create jobs in the worst labor market crisis of the Second Republic. It is a catastrophe that at the age of 45 you are already partially driven out of the labor market.

There are many employment opportunities in the communities that would add value, such as looking after the elderly and sick, setting up a shared taxi or a repair center. With the AK job initiative, a lot of the money invested would come back, there would be net costs of around 300 million euros.

More efficiency in administration

AMS board member Johannes Kopf, on the other hand, said that at 45 years of age there is still a chance in the labor market in Austria, it only becomes difficult from the age of 50 or 55. The situation for the long-term unemployed is problematic because companies no longer invite them to an interview, so a public employment program makes perfect sense for them.

On the one hand, the state must pay attention to the efficiency of state administration, so it should not employ more people than necessary. On the other hand, a job program would be a socio-political measure if the state took on new tasks, such as better care for old people.

ÖGB women's chairwoman Korinna Schumann called for an expansion of all-day childcare, which would create more opportunities for women. Childcare should be available for every child from the age of one so that parents can work full-time.

That would be an economic stimulus program and would strengthen the regions, but also give the children the best possible early childhood education. “Now would be the time for a legal right to a childcare place,” said Schumann. The welfare state is the real “hero of the crisis” and now it has to be strengthened.

Improve working conditions

The AK also wants a care offensive: By 2030, 76,000 additional care workers are needed to maintain the current care. The AK has proposed a care package that should create 39,000 jobs. According to AMS board member Kopf, Austria has so far compensated for the shortage of nurses with foreign nurses.

However, the public sector could improve working conditions, raise wages and create more training opportunities; then care would also be an attractive labor market in Germany.

The business journalist Angela Sellner from the daily newspaper “Österreich” referred to the problem of high unemployment for the economy as a whole. “When we have more employees, consumption starts again,” she said. Because the unemployed do not spend any money, no matter how long the shops are open.

Companies are being helped a lot, and unemployment must now also be actively combated. “The economy will not be able to recover if half a million people are out of work.” After the short-time work expires, there is a risk of further job cuts.

Apparently due to supply bottlenecks for computer chips, the production of the Model 3 has to take a forced break.

Tesla has informed workers at its main plant in Fremont that production of the Model 3 will be shut down for 2 weeks. An email to the workforce stated that the production line would be on hold between February 22nd and March 7th. This is reported by Bloomberg.

The electric car manufacturer has not given an official reason for the 2-week break. However, it can be assumed that the current chip shortage is responsible for the interim production stop, according to several media reports.

Global chip shortage

Like the auto industry, the entire electronics industry is currently struggling with delivery problems for computer chips. For example, Nissan, Ford, GM, Toyota, Volkswagen and Fiat Chrysler production lines had to pause because they could not get the necessary components, writes Electrek.

Tesla sources its chips from Samsung, among others. And Samsung had to shut down chip production in the US state due to the snow chaos in Texas and the resulting power outages. It is possible that the forced break for Model 3 production is related to this.

In a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission a few weeks ago, Tesla pointed out that the global chip shortage will probably also affect the electric car manufacturer. However, one cannot estimate to what extent the bottlenecks will affect the production of electric cars, according to the Tesla report.

The billionaire warns of cryptocurrencies: “Those who have less money than Elon Musk should be careful.”

Bill Gates is not a fan of cryptocurrencies. In an interview with Bloomberg, he was critical of Bitcoin and Co.

On the one hand, Bill Gates, who invests in climate protection among other things, is bothered by the high energy demand caused by mining cryptocurrencies. You are thus environmentally harmful. On the other hand, cryptocurrencies are only for the very rich.

Hype

Bill Gates, who is currently the third richest person in the world, does not mean himself. He is referring to Elon Musk, who is an avowed fan of crypto currencies.

As the interview progresses, Gates becomes specific: “Elon has a lot of money and experience. You don't have to worry about him if his bitcoins increase or decrease in value more or less randomly. But people who don't have that much money are drawn into the hype. I think those who have less money than Elon Musk should be careful. “

Elon, the crypto fan

Elon Musk is credited with being the cause of massive price fluctuations in cryptocurrencies. After his announcement that Tesla would invest $ 1.5 billion in Bitcoin, the price jumped 76 percent in the short term. At a later date, he said that prices seem pretty high right now, causing the Bitcoin price to drop more than 10 percent.

He also repeatedly helped the fun crypto currency Dogecoin to jump in price with his tweets. In contrast to Bitcoin, the meme nature of the currency means that there is less danger that private individuals will gamble away all of their savings in the hope of making quick money.

Since a firmware update, iRobot vacuum robots behave strangely.

Firmware update 3.12.8 should bring the vacuum cleaner robots up to date. In some cases the iRobot devices did not seem to tolerate the new software well. On forums, on Twitter and Reddit, owners report that their vacuum cleaners are “drunk”.

The Roomba i7 and S9 models seem to be most affected. After the update, they turn in circles for no reason, ram furniture, drive in strange patterns, suddenly get “stuck” in empty rooms or cannot find their way back to the docking station.

Fix comes in weeks

The manufacturer iRobot has now confirmed the problems. However, it will take a while before the robots “sober up”. The company told The Verge that a corresponding firmware update will come within the next few weeks.

For some users this means that the robot will be almost unusable by then. Because with the update, the maps of the house or apartment (Smart Maps) created by the robot were deleted. And because he's causing so many problems vacuuming after the update, the map can't be recreated. Targeted vacuuming in certain rooms or the establishment of restricted areas is not possible.

iRobot has recommended users whose robots can hardly be used after the update to downgrade to the old firmware. However, according to some people, their Roomba is still causing problems afterwards.

@iRobot what's up with the 3.12.8 release? My tickets were closed and I wasn't rolled back. These robots looks drunk since the update. Mounting complaints in the forums continue. Some folks who were rolled back got rolled forward and the issues came back. HELP!

– Anthony Virtuoso (@AnthonyVirtuoso) February 21, 2021

After years of struggle, the New York prosecutor's office has the tax documents of former US President Donald Trump. The documents were already received on Monday, said spokesman Danny Frost on request on Thursday and confirmed corresponding media reports.

Image: APA / AFP

On Monday, the Supreme Court in Washington rejected Trump's requests to prevent the disclosure of his tax documents to the prosecutor. Since the ex-president prevented this publication for years, contrary to the longstanding practice of ruling presidents, critics speculated that he had something to hide.

Prosecutor Cyrus Vance had requested tax records from the accounting firm Mazars for Trump and his companies over a period of eight years. The investigation is said to include alleged hush money payments that Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen is said to have paid the porn star Stormy Daniels and the former playmate Karen McDougal. Both women claim to have had affairs with Trump, which Trump denies.

A new platform gives an overview of green start-ups and also wants to help companies to reduce CO2.

The proportion of CO2 released into the atmosphere plays a central role in global warming. According to one statistic, most of the emissions come from energy and heat generation, followed by transport. There are many innovative solutions for climate protection. “But so few people know about it,” says Andreas Tschas, who once invented the Pioneers Festival and now wants to make a contribution to climate protection with his start-up Glacier.

Together with the Green Tech Cluster, Glacier created the “Climate Tech Landscape”, which lists 150 green start-ups from Austria. “We want to help companies reduce CO2 and build a marketplace where we can bring these solutions together with companies that need them,” says Tschas. Companies can have their carbon footprint calculated. As a result, solutions to reduce CO2 consumption are proposed to them based on the Climate Tech Landscape.

“Netflix for the Street”

One of these startups is Vibe. The young company offers the first cross-brand electric car subscription in Austria. With the motto “use instead of own”, Vibe wants to offer a kind of “Netflix for the street” and an easy entry into electric mobility, says managing director Lisa Ittner. Customers can try out various electric cars for a fixed monthly price of 399 euros. When it comes to choosing from city cars to family cars, the latest e-models from leading manufacturers such as Tesla, Audi or BMW are available.

With easy access to Vibe, the CO2 transition could be accelerated. Ittner: “Internal combustion engines consume 7 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers. The energy value is the equivalent of 70 kWh. An electric car consumes 10 to 15 kWh over the same distance, which translates to one to 1.5 liters of fuel. ”

Small wind power on the house roof

The “Blue One” small wind turbine from the start-up Blue Power can be installed on the roof of a house in the city, on a family home or on company buildings to generate electricity. In Austria, the wind situation can vary widely – so installing the turbine only makes sense where there are good wind conditions. In relation to a Central European household with optimal wind conditions, however, an average of up to 75 percent of the annual electricity requirement can be covered.

“There are also countries where less electricity is used,” says sales manager Robert Nesseler. Even more electricity can be generated here than is consumed. The single-phase 230 volt voltage is in any case compatible with the power grid and can also be stored or fed into the grid.

Mini hydropower through shallow water

The power of shallow waters is used in the mini turbine from Doro Turbinen. “The advantage is that steps in bodies of water with a height of about half a meter with only small additional barriers can already be used to produce electricity,” says the managing director Stefan Strein. Large congestion measures are not necessary, which is good for the environment.

The turbine creates a maximum output of 35 kilowatts. “That makes sense if you run a hotel with 100 beds or more, or a mechanical engineering company with 30 employees and a very high proportion of self-consumption,” he says. The system can also take over the main supply in areas or emerging countries where there is no power grid or the grid expansion is poor.

A show power plant in Wörth an der Lafnitz near Hartberg in Styria is expected to be open to visitors from April.

Recycling by centrifugal force

In this country, less than 25 percent of old plastics are recycled. With its cylinder-like “centrifugal force cutter”, Circulyzer wants to demonstrate that up to 50 percent of polyolefins, the most important group of plastics, can be made available for recycling. “Our system was designed to separate plastics from mixed waste streams that are normally incinerated,” says co-founder Markus Bauer.

Water is pumped into the cylinder at right angles to the axis and a water vortex is created. “In the prevailing centrifugal force field, the plastics are separated from one another according to their density,” he says. Since the polyolefins have a lower density than water, they float on the surface and the residues sink.

The apartment broker Airbnb did better in the Corona year 2020 than initially assumed. Overall, revenues fell by 30 percent to 3.4 billion dollars, as Airbnb announced on Thursday after the US market closed.

After the severe slump at the beginning of the pandemic, business recovered significantly; in the final quarter there was only a drop in sales of 22 percent to $ 859 million compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, the crisis tore deep holes in the balance sheet – Airbnb made a total of $ 4.6 billion in loss in 2020.

High costs from going public

The enormous minus was not only due to the burdens of the pandemic, which brought business to a standstill in the spring and led to massive cancellations. Airbnb also faced heavy costs associated with its December IPO.

Analysts had expected worse results, the share initially recorded price gains after the hours. The numbers showed that Airbnb was resilient and adaptable, said CEO Brian Chesky. At the height of the crisis, the company had warned of a drop in revenues of more than 50 percent for 2020.