June 22: The day through a lens

June 22: The day through a lens

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lakshmi Mittal listens to a question as he presents the year 2009 results of Arcelor Mittal steel group during a news conference in Luxembourg

ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal said he expected orders at the world's largest steel company to rise toward the end of the third quarter this year as global demand grows.

He also told a steel industry gathering on Tuesday that demand from the construction sector in the developed economies remains weak, although total steel demand in China should grow 7 percent this year.

The economies in the developed world may not return to the pre-financial crisis levels until 2015, he said, while the rising prices for steel-making raw materials remains among the biggest threats to global economic growth.

Mittal noted that his company's profitability had shown year-on-year improvement since the 2008 recession.

Staff members speak to trade visitors at the Nokia booth at the CommunicAsia expo in Singapore

Finnish cellphone maker Nokia said on Wednesday it would merge its independent Navteq mapping unit with its services business to tap into surging demand for location-based services more effectively.

Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop named Michael Halbherr, an outspoken executive who joined Nokia in 2006, to lead the new Location & Commerce business line.

Elop has seen the company's stock price halving over last four months as investors doubt the likely success of his plan to switch to Microsoft Corp's smartphone software.

On May 31 Nokia warned on current-quarter sales and profits and abandoned hope of meeting key targets just weeks after setting them, raising questions over whether its new boss can deliver on the turnaround he promised.

A sign of Philips Electonics is seen at the Las Vegas Convention Center

Philips Electronics warned of sharply lower profits at its lighting and toasters-to-shavers consumer electronics divisions because of weak demand in Europe, wiping 10% off its share price.

The Dutch giant, which ranks as the world's biggest lighting maker, Europe's biggest consumer electronics producer, and a top three maker of hospital equipment, said it would cut costs as part of its wider restructuring.

The profit warning caps a string of disappointing announcements from Philips, which is struggling to compete with lower-cost Asian rivals in its traditional consumer electronics business at a time when demand has slowed in the important European and US markets for many of its products because of tepid economic growth.

Technicians work next to the damaged engine of a Qantas Airways A380 passenger plane flight QF32 after it was forced to make an emergency landing at Changi airport in Singapore

Australia's biggest airline Qantas has reached a commercial settlement with engine maker Rolls-Royce over the disruptions caused by an engine explosion on an Airbus A380 last November.

Qantas said the terms of the settlement were confidential, but the "profit and loss impact of the settlement, which will be recognised in Qantas' financial results for FY 2011, is A$95 million."

File photo of a security guard outside the closed Tata Motors Nano car factory in Singur

Tata Motors, the auto arm of the iconic Tata group, said it will challenge in court a government decision to reclaim land in Singur, another instance of conflict over land that is the biggest block for rapid growth in India.

Tata Motors, India's top vehicle maker, abandoned plans in 2008 to build a plant on the land to manufacture what it says is the world's cheapest car, the Nano, in West Bengal after violent protests by farmers.

Returning the land to farmers was a central point of the campaign by the populist Trinamool Congress party during elections in the state in April, which saw voters throw out a three-decade old communist government. Trinamool is the largest ally of the Congress party.

Debasis Ray, a Mumbai-based spokesman for Tata Motors said on Wednesday the firm would contest the decision by the local government in the High Court in Kolkata, but