Business briefs

Shell declares force majeure in Nigeria

SHELL on Friday declared force majeure on its gas deliveries from Nigeria's liquefied natural gas plant after an attempt to steal crude oil from one of its pipeline caused a fire.

"An attempt was made to steal crude oil from the Bomu-Bonny trunk line and offload it onto a waiting ship. This led to a fire on the line and on the ship," a Shell spokesman said.

The force majeure, which covers the company if it is unable to make a delivery because of circumstances beyond its control, took effect on October4, he said.

Africa's top oil producer, which is ranked seventh in the world for liquefied natural gas exports, loads tankers from its Bonny Island liquefaction plant in the Niger Delta for export to Europe, Asia and the US. - Reuters

Honda to recall over 200000 SUVs in US

HONDA will recall about 268000 CR-V sport utility vehicles sold in the US because of the risk of power-window switches catching fire if they get wet, a report said yesterday.

The Japanese car-maker will collect and repair without charge CR-Vs produced between 2002 and 2006, though there have been no major incidents so far, Kyodo news agency reported.

No official at Honda's head office in Tokyo was immediately available to confirm the report.

Honda's US unit announced on Monday last week that it would recall 572000 Accords sold in the US, which were at risk of catching fire because of faulty power-steering pneumatic hoses. - Sapa-AFP

Pick n Pay expects drop in earnings

PICK n Pay on Friday said it expected headline earnings per share and diluted headline earnings per share from total operations to decrease by between 10% and 20% for the six months to the end of August.

Headline earnings per share and diluted headline earnings per share from continuing operations would decrease by between 30% and 40%, the company said.

Turnover growth for the period was 5.9%, with like-for-like growth at 3.2%.

It said that though new store growth was still behind the market, store openings were weighted to the second half of the financial year and significant work was under way to strengthen the medium- to longer-term pipeline.

"Lower-than-expected turnover growth is the result of increased market competitiveness, poor availability of merchandise from suppliers and continued economic pressure on our heartland customer," it said. There were initial operating difficulties at Longmeadow when taking over management of the distribution centre. Results will be out on October 24. - I-Net Bridge