Airbus takes on Boeing with new freighters and A350s
Bath, UK: EADS and its subsidiary Airbus Industrie have confirmed that the company will launch a new range of mid-sized airliners A350s as well as a freighter model to compete again rival Boeing.

The new line-up of twin-aisle, long-range planes would cost about $10bn to develop said Tom Enders chief executive EADS.

Airbus has been planning the A350 model since 2004 after plans to offer an upgraded, long-range version of the existing A330 were met with demands for a wider, all-new plane instead.

Analysts expect Airbus to finalise plans for the A350 which are long-range planes with 250 to about 350 seats, and start deliveries in 2012, two years later than originally planned.

The planemaker will also announce a freighter version of the existing A330 passenger jet that will be marketed by 2009.

The A350 will compete against the twin-engined, long-range Boeing 777 and the smaller 787 due in 2008.

Airbus has been ahead of Boeing for five consecutive years in booking orders but now the latter has shot ahead by more than 360 planes.

Franco-German-Spanish firm EADS owns 80 per cent of Airbus, while UK's BAE Systems owns the other 20 per cent.
Back to News Review index page  

Crude oil seen touching $80
The Israel Lebanon stand-off led to oil shooting up $78.40 a barrel in intraday trading before settling up 33 cents at $77.03 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. London Brent rose 58 cents to $77.27 a barrel, after jumping to a record of $78.03 a barrel earlier in the session. Most of the panic is due to the fact that the quarrel between Israel and Lebanon may spread through the Middle East said analysts.

Israel struck Hizbollah targets and devastated a wide array of Lebanese civilian installations on Friday. Israel has drawn world criticism of its tactics since the Shi'ite fighters seized two soldiers and killed eight. Hizbollah, which wants to trade its captives for prisoners held in Israel, fired more rockets across the frontier. The group's chief, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, pledged open war on Israel after it bombed his Beirut home on Friday .

Both Israel and lie at the heart of the Middle East, which collectively produces nearly a third of global output. The situation has made oil traders nervous.

Despite OPEC seeking to calm the market, saying there were sufficient supplies to meet global demand, oil traders were on edge. Oil futures contracts were trading above $80, from December 2006 to August 2007.
Back to News Review index page  

Rosneft share offer lands up in court
Oil firm Yukos has gone to court to try and stop the flotation of Russian state energy firm Rosneft on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The sale will make history as Russia's biggest initial public offering (IPO) and the fifth-biggest in the world.

Rosneft has said the latest legal move will not affect its flotation plan, and said Britain's BP, China's CNPC and Malaysia's Petronas are share buyers.

Yukos claims Yuganskneftgaz, Rosneft's main oil producing subsidiary, was seized from Yukos by the Russian state. Rosneft bought Yugansk in 2004 after it was taken from Yukos and auctioned off to settle a disputed unpaid tax bill. Yukos has asked the court to impose a temporary injunction on the share sale, pending a full judicial review of the flotation decisions.

Yukos has already failed to convince the FSA to stop the float.
Shares in Rosneft have been earmarked to make their market debut at $7.55. The group expects to raise $10.4bn (£5.65bn) through the flotation, which values the firm at $79.8bn.
Back to News Review index page