In Breif
Cyprus power needs grow in heat wave The Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) may have to increase production capacity by 225 megawatts by 2019 after a surge in demand, the authority’s general director, Stelios Stylianou, said. A heat wave in Cyprus since July 31, with temperatures reaching 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit), saw demand peak at 1,148 megawatts, 50 megawatts above the same period last year, Stylianou told reporters at the Vassiliko power station yesterday. Nicosia-based EAC has a total production capacity of 1,378 megawatts which is set to rise to 1,928 megawatts after construction of two new combined-cycle gas-turbine power units. Construction of the first of these units has begun and should be completed by early 2012, he said. The EAC will be able to operate its gas turbines with natural gas as of 2014 when construction work for a new liquefied natural gas storage terminal will be completed, Stylianou said. The company is in negotiations with short-listed partners for the construction of the terminal. (Bloomberg) Bulgarian jobless rate drops for fifth month SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria’s jobless rate dropped for a fifth consecutive month to 9.2 percent in July, mainly due to seasonal factors, Labor Minister Totio Mladenov said yesterday. The number of unemployed in the recession-hit country has fallen by 1,000 from a month earlier to 341,000, Mladenov said in a statement, published on the Labor Ministry’s website. The unemployment rate in June was 9.3 percent. It stood at 7.6 percent in July of last year. Unemployment in Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest country, has dropped by about 1 percentage point since February, when it peaked at 10.3 percent after climbing steadily since the end of 2008. Bosnian telecom Bosnia’s Telekomunikacije Republike Srpske said first-half net profits fell nearly 19 percent to 45.8 million Bosnian marka ($31 million), with revenues down after government cash pumped in for its privatization tailed off. Telekomunikacije Republike Srpske, which trades as m:tel, said sales remained at about the same level as a year earlier, but revenues from other sources fell, pushing the total down 5 percent to 231 million marka. The second-largest telecoms company in Bosnia, based in the Serb Republic and bought in 2006 by Serbia’s Telekom Srbija, said 2009 revenues were higher because of the government cash it received as part of the sell-off agreement. (Reuters) Shipping profits Diana Shipping Inc, a Greek owner of ships that move commodities including iron ore and coal, said second-quarter profits rose 11 percent as shipping rates gained and its fleet expanded. Net income rose to $33.9 million, or 42 cents a share, from $30.4 million, or 39 cents, a year earlier, the Athens-based company said yesterday in a statement. Diana was expected to earn 41 cents a share, according to the average of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales jumped 15 percent to $68.7 million. Diana kept its entire fleet under long-term charter contracts, a strategy that helped it avoid volatility in the spot, or single-voyage, market while also keeping it from taking full advantage of a 22 percent gain in spot rates. «Diana positioned itself well for a difficult market by locking in long-term charters,» said Natasha Boyden, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald LP in New York who has a «buy» rating on the shares. (Bloomberg) Spanish debt Spain raised 3.5 billion euros ($4.6 billion) with a three-year bond issue yesterday, the highest amount it hoped to raise, the Spanish treasury said. The average yield of 2.276 percent was much lower than the average yield of 3.317 percent when the three-year bond was last issued on June 10. Demand for the issue was firm, totaling 6.625 billion euros. (AFP)
