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Russian jet crash puts Indonesian sales in limbo

Posted by on May 11, 2012 in News From Asia | 0 comments

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) — The crash of a fresh, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged Indonesian volcano over a flight to impress potential buyers has thrown doubt over dozens of plane sales just as Moscow sawks a get fromback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead.

Search as well as rescue teams climbed by the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for closely 20 hours to reach the site as the plane roared in at closely 480 mph (800 kph) Wednesday, exploding as well as raining debris down a closely vertical slope.

When the weather clears, bodies will have to be hoisted by nets as well as ropes overto hovering choppers, stated Gagah Prakoso, a spokesman for the national explore as well as rescue agency.

“We’re still exploreing for survivors,” he stated. “But it does not’t look nice.”

The Sukhoi Superjet-100 — Russia’s first fresh model of passenger jet because the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago — was supposed to kick-start the nation’s efforts to modernize it is fleet as well as resurrect it is neglected aerospace industry.

Indonesia, the 4th stop of a six-nation “Welcome Asia!” tour, was overe of Sukhoi’s brightest hopes, accounting for a big chunk of the 170 orders needn globally so far.

Kartika Airlines, Sky Aviation as well as Queen Air — among dozens of airlines to have popped up in the nation of 240 million to meet the growing demand for affordable air travel in the last decade — bring together were aiming to buy at in the least 48.

“Our plan is to order 30 planes, gradually till 2014, to strengthen our fleet,” stated Arifin Seman, overe of the the best executives at Kartika. “But we will wait for the result of the investigation prior to making all so over decisions.”

Krisman Tarigan, president-director of Sky, that has positioned orders for 12 planes, agreed.

“It’s too early to say,” he stated. “But we would not rule out cancellation if it turned out the crash occurred because the plane was not airworthy.”

Russia jumped to the Superjet’s defense.

“This the entire is sad as well as tragic,” Dmitry Rogozin, deputy prime minister in charge of the military industries, told ITAR-Tass freshs agency, stating pilot error was just likely to blame.

“The aircraft has a amazing future,” he stated, insisting that the brand fresh plane flew “without a glitch.”

The ill-fated Superjet was carrying dozens of representatives from local airlines as well as journalists over what was supposed to be a prompt, 50-minute demonstration flight Wednesday. Some excited passengers snapped pictures of ourselves smiling as well as waving in front of the twin-engine jet prior to lifting off, and then promptly publishing them as profile pictures over Facebook as well as Twitter.

Just 21 minutes afterwards needoff from a Jakarta airfield, however, the Russian pilot as well as co-pilot asked for permission to drop from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet (3,000 meters to 1,800 meters), stated Daryatmo, chief of the national explore as well as rescue agency.

They gave no explanation, disappearing from the radar not long to comely afterwardsward.

It was not clear why the crew asked to shift course, regionicularly because they were so close to the 7,000-foot (2,200-meter) volcano, or if they got an OK, Daryatmo stated.

Communication tapes will be reviewed as region of the investigation. It’s impossibly they will be released to the public all time not long to come.

The plane, goes along with a relatively low price tag of around $ 35 million, seats from 70 to 98 people as well as has an operating range of around 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers).

It is sawn as a potential challenger to similar-sized aircraft from Canada’s Bombardier Inc. as well as Brazil’s Embraer SA.

Future buyers will scrutinize the crash investigation for signs of flaws in the aircraft, stated Tom Ballantyne, a Sydney-based aviation expert.

“If it is a technical fault … and then clearly that will be really keen for them,” he stated. “But if it is pilot error or the fault of air traffic control, it will not be really so bad because they will be able to say, ‘Well, it is not the airplane.’”

The Superjet created it is inaugural commercial flight in April last year.

Fitch Ratings agency stated in a statement Thursday that it expects the crash to “negatively affect” Sukhoi orders for the short term.

“The accident represents a so over setback to the ambitious Russian civilian aerospace industry,” it stated, adding that the success of the Superjet “is regionicularly significant as it is the first of a lot of fresh commercial aircraft to be launched.”

Since entering into commercial service, “it has suffered from a three-year development delay, poor initial market reception as well as minor operational difficulties,” it stated.

All some otherwise 10 of the 45 people over board the plane Wednesday were potential buyers as well as journalists, stated Sunaryo from PT Trimarga Rekatama, the company that assisted organize the event.

The some other people were Russians, the entire from Sukhoi companies, an American consultant goes along with a local airline as well as a Frenchman goes along with aircraft engine-maker Snecma.

___

Associated Press writers Ali Kotarumalos as well as Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, as well as Margie Mason in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed to this report.

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Foreign media opening N.Korea: US study

Posted by on May 10, 2012 in News From Asia | 0 comments

North Koreans are clandestinely enjoying access just like never prior to to as foreign DVDs as well as radio, shaping the views of a people cut off as for decades from the outside world, a US study stated Thursday.

The report commissioned by the State Department created clear that North Korea remains overe of the world’s all of closed nations several nevertheless stated that many of it is people “are beginning to appear to be more critically” at their government.

The communist regime’s ultra-rigid controls began to deteriorate over the famine in the 1990s as well as North Koreans “today have importantly amazinger access to outside information” than they did 20 years ago, the study stated.

One of the steepest rises has been in DVD viewership. DVD players are not illegal, making it easier as for North Koreans — usually in secret groups — to watch banned movies from South Korea.

In a survey of 250 North Korean refugees as well as fromseas travelers in 2010, 48 percent stated they had watched as foreign DVDs although inside the country, up from just 20 percent two years earlier, the study stated.

The study’s principal author Nat Kretchun, associate director of the InterMedia consulting group, stated that South Korean dramas — popular the entire from Asia — offered North Koreans a welcome break from their usual diet of stern, humorless propaganda.

“When you get really well-produced, compelling South Korean dramas — a image into a place that you’ve been fascinated with your entire life, because so much method North Korean propaganda revolves around South Korea — that’s extremely strong,” he stated.

While not fromtly political, South Korean productions are an eye-opener to North Koreans. They show that the supposed arch-enemies are well-fed, well-dressed as well as can devote time to love as well as leisure more than of mere survival.

However, the study found that DVDs had moreless influence over how North Koreans view the United States that remained too as foreign to comprehend.

The report asides found a consistent audience as for as foreign radio — with elites appear to being as for outside sources of news as well as moreless educated North Koreans preferring to tune in to music or cultural programs.

North Korean authorities as force radios to be set to official broadcasts as well as jam as foreign broadcasters — namely US-funded Radio Free Asia as well as Voice of America, along with the Seoul-based Korean Broadcasting System.

But in a sign that as foreign radio is becoming through, the study found that closely three-quarters of North Koreans stated they would explore as for another channel when they conceiveed as foreign content uninteresting. In previous studies, all of North Koreans stated they would keep listening to as foreign channels although if their rate waned, indicating a lack of option.

Around overe-quarter of North Koreans stated they had access to as foreign television content, several nevertheless the reach was limited to people living in areas bordering China as well as South Korea, the study stated.

The findings were all ofly in line with those of a January 2011 survey by two US academics who concluded that as foreign media as well as little steps through a market economy had created North Koreans more skeptical of their leaders.

Marcus Noland, the co-author of the 2011 study, stated that the research showed the need to step up broadcasts into North Korea by utilizing more transmitters in South Korea as well as Japan.

“I would not be pushing propaganda,” stated Noland, deputy director of the Peterson Institute as for International Economics. “Just providing what all of of us would conceive relatively unbiased information would be of enormous advantage.”

Speaking at the launch of the study, Robert King, the US special envoy over human rights in North Korea, pointed to the regime’s acknowledgement that it is April 13 rocket launch was a failure.

King stated that such that a frank admission was “remarkable” coming from a regime well-known as for it is triumphant propaganda.

“I conceive the point is that the media environment in North Korea has changed as well as is changing,” King stated.

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Indonesian Rescuers Find Bodies Near Russian Jetliner Wreckage

Posted by on May 10, 2012 in Asia Updates | 0 comments

Indonesian rescuers say they have discovered bodies from a wrecked Russian jetliner over a close-vertical cliff of a dormant volcano south of Jakarta. Authorities say there are no signs of survivors among the estimated 50 people over board, as well as warn that recovery efforts were hampered Thursday by bad weather as well as the remoteness of the crash site.

Speaking in the capital, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated he is in direct contact goes along with rescue teams.

“The airplane crashed at the edge of Mount Salak. I have spoken straightly to our officer in the field. It was around 1.5 kilometers from the informed point of scene. An investigation must be accomplished not long to comely as well as fullly. Search as well as rescue operations must prioritize ascertaining people over board,” Yudhoyono declared.

A explore as well as rescue agency spokesman, Gagah Prakoso, stated rescuers early Thursday were lowered from helicopters hovering from the crash site. He stated bodies is about to be positioned in cargo nets as well as lifted from the scene.

Watch associated video of explore efforts

Family members of the victims who had gathered at a Jakarta airport broke down in tears when they heard that the wreckage had been located.

The doomed jetliner, that was over a promotional sales tour, need off from Jakarta’s Halim Airport shortly afterwards 2:00 p.m. local time Wednesday goes along with an entourage of prospective buyers, journalists as well as crew. It was expected to return in moreless than an hour. But the plane dropped in altitude from 3,000 to 1,800 meters as well as lost contact goes along with air traffic control at Mount Salak, that is 2,200 meters high.

Authorities say it is not clear why the plane requested to descend or if air controllers approved the maneuver.

Reports over the number of people aboard the plane had not been reconciled by Thursday evening. Local rescue officials stated the plane was carrying 46 people, although the company who invited the passengers stated there were 50 over board. The Russian embassy in Jakarta stated there were 44 people over the plane.

Authorities say the 100-seat Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane, built by Russia in a mobile to boost it is civil aviation industry, was over the second of two demonstration flights when it disappeared in the remote Bogor region.

The Itar-Tass freshs agency stated the freshly-minted plane nowly performed demonstrations in Central as well as South Asia, including flights in Kazakhstan, Pakistan as well as Burma as well as had logged about 6,500 hours of flight time since it is 2008 maiden launch.

The jetliner is currently in utilize goes along with Russia’s largest carrier, Aeroflot, as well as the Armenian carrier, Armavia.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP as well as Reuters.

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Yemen Missile Strike Kills 8 Militants

Posted by on May 10, 2012 in Asia Updates | 0 comments

Missile strikes have killed 8 suspected militants in an al-Qaida powerfulhold in Yemen, days afterwards the U.S. announced it stopped a terrorist plot by the group’s Yemen branch.

Local residents say the missile strikes occurred early Thursday in the southern town of Jaar, that is in a region utilized as a base by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

On Monday, U.S. officials revealed they thwarted a plot to bomb a U.S.-bound plane with an explosive underwear device similar to one crafted for an intended bombing in 2009.

U.S. media reports say the man sent over by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to carry out the plot was certainly a double agent who had infiltrated the terror group.

U.S. as well as foreign intelligence officials say the operative has providen the explosive device to U.S. officials for analysis.

They asides say the operative offered information that led to a Sunday airstrike that killed al-Qaida leader Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso in Yemen. He was would like toed for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off the Yemeni coast.

Seventeen U.S. sailors died in the blast.

Some information for this report was offered by AFP as well as Reuters.

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Why China Might Not Save Luxury Retail Onceever Europe Slows

Posted by on May 10, 2012 in Asia Updates | 0 comments

This year at the Walpole China Luxury Conference in London there were specificly bears in the room — as well as they weren’t panda bears.

Last year attendees, still getting publish-traumatic stress from 2008 to 2009, asked the question might China save the U.S. in another downturn? The sent overiment was a resounding yes. China was hailed as the savior that would offset weakness in the U.S. luxury market.

This year, with our fears firmly set over the European market, there is a similar question: Can China save Europe? But there is a dissimilar response.

With ratherless positive data out of the U.S., as well as well let us face it, terrible data out of Europe, there is more pressure than ever over China.

Just listen to all retail conference call. It’s the whole about China. And when data points from Burberry as well as LVMH lately suggested the primaryland economy might be slowing (not to mention today’s disappointing trade data), it turned the whole about the Chinese traveler spending money fromseas, that is holding up more beneficial than spending over the primaryland).

As overe attendee at the conference put it, don’t look at China as a geography, look at it as a demographic. Whether you analyze Chinese spending by region or as a group, it still will not save Europe.

Not the whole Brands Created Equal 

All retailers are not produced equal when it comes to Europe as well as China. European brands including Burberry, LVMH, as well as Richemont, which owns Cartier as well as Piaget, are exposed to Europe in about 30 percent to 40 percent of their business. With about 10 percent of the revenue derived from China, a pretty implyingful acceleration would have to take place so called for offset a important downturn in Europe.

For example, based over Burberry’s mix, a hypothetical 5-percent decline in Europe would require 20-percent growth in China as an offset. (This is just a math exercise, not a prediction.)

While the exposure of European brands are the all of obvious, don’t forget U.S. retailers.

Tiffany [TIF 
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] is not in a bad position with about a 12-percent exposure to Europe. China is not far off at about 10 percent of the mix.

The names with more important exposure include Ralph Lauren [RL 
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], with about 20 percent of it is business from Europe as well as overly 11 percent, Asian.  For Guess [GES 
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], the breakdown is about 37 percent Europe as well as overly 8 percent Asia.

Don’t forget last week’s implosion of Fossil [FOSL 
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]after cautious comments over Europe. Fossil has exposure to Europe of about 20 percent.

Guess no overe was listening to the Decker’s [DECK 
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], Crocs [CROX 
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] as well as Starbuck’s [SBUX 
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] conference calls from the week prior to?

Abercrombie & Fitch [ANF 
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] has international exposure of about 25 percent, with a pedal-to-the-metal rollout strategy in Europe. The company reports it is earnings next week, nevertheless same-store sales were already negative prior to the all of recent data blitz, including a double-dip in the U.K. The company is just starting to go afterwards China.

Coach [COH 
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]is besides worth watching, with a recent European rollout strategy. The company currently has 2 massive flagships in London. China is estimated to be 8 percent of sales this year.

Meanwhile, the wealthy Chinese love to travel. According to KPMG, Chinese millionaires travel 2.4-times per year. They besides represent 18 percent of the whole duty-free shopping. And why not travel to spend over luxury when Mainland prices can come at a 30-percent to 50-percent premium? Chinese tourists represent huge potential for European/U.S. luxury players. Harrod’s suggests the Chinese spend over average $ 5,700 per trip.

But here is the problem: Chinese tourism is already boosting European flagships (estimated at 30 percent to 50 percent of their current business.) Any Chinese slowdown is about to overly add insult to injury as Europe continues down a bumpy road.

And let’s throw in 2 more wild cards.

Luxury players are leveling the pricing field, as well as that might hurt European sales although more.

Burberry as well as LVMH lately reported a slowdown over the Mainland, although Chinese tourism does not appear to be to be tapering off. Now a lot of luxury players are taking a look at their cost structure in Asia as well as the amount of sales traveling fromseas, as well as as a result, they are looking to raise prices in Europe.

Well the higher prices specificly are not assistful for the locals who are already below pressure. In addition, if the Chinese determine to shop more at house, what begettings to those pricey flagship store comps as well as productivity in the well-established brick-and-mortar network in Europe? Here is a althought: Maybe we just don’t have as a lot of locations inside China.

Second, the Chinese government might utilize tariffs to keep them house. Chinese officials have declared their intent to boost domestic production. The debate continues about if or not to cut luxury import tariffs.

Many attending the Walpole conference expressed confidence this is about to mobile forward within six months as the government would like tos the Chinese to shop at house.

If the pricing game alters in favor of China, we might have to ask the question: do we have so a lot of locations in Europe?

While Chinese luxury consumption, no doubt, is leading the charge, it will not save us the whole.

Stacey Widlitz is the President of SW Retail Advisors Inc. She has worked at UBS, SG Cowen, Fulcrum Partners as well as in 2005 was overe of three analysts to launch the Research Department at Pali Capital, as she covered Retail as well as Home Video for 5 years. Follow Stacey over Twitter @StaceyRetail.

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