HELSINKI (AFP) – Finnish telecoms giant Nokia performed better than expected last year and foresees further growth in 2022 as a supply chain crunch and inflation are set to ease, the network equipment maker said yesterday.

The announcement follows a string of quarterly earnings surprises for the network equipment maker, which last October managed to boost its third quarter profits despite a worldwide shortage of computer chips.

The group largely met expectations with EUR22.2 billion in net sales last year.

But it raised its 2021 operating margin guidance to between 12.4 per cent and 12.6 per cent, up from 10-12 per cent.

The boost was related to venture fund investments, a one-off software contract in the second quarter, “bad debt provision reversals and some other one-time benefits”, the company said in a statement.

Nokia now expects an operating margin ranging between 11 per cent and 13.5 per cent in 2022, citing “estimated continued improvements in the underlying business, supply constraints and cost inflation”.

Nokia Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark said last year that the company expects to see a gradual improvement in 2022, though it was not “100 per cent” guaranteed.

Lundmark has been credited with turning around the fortunes of the network giant, which has been flagging in the race with Sweden’s Ericsson and China’s Huawei in the 5G network equipment market.

After taking the helm in mid-2020, Lundmark implemented widespread job cuts, with savings funnelled into developing more competitive technology.

VIET NAM NEWS/ANN – The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association has targetted a coffee export turnover of USD5-6 billion in 2030, doubling the export value at present.

To reach this figure, experts believe that the domestic coffee industry needs to increase the proportion of processed coffee products from less than 10 per cent at present to about 25 per cent or even more.

However, increasing the proportion of processed coffee products is a big challenge for the industry due to the level of technology, complex factory operation and awareness of farmers.

At present, Vietnam has 160 coffee roasting facilities, 11 coffee blending facilities and eight instant-coffee processing facilities. The number of instant-coffee processing facilities is small and most of them are operating below their designed capacity. On the other hand, Vietnam’s processed coffee brands still have no place in the world market, and branding takes a lot of money and effort.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Đo Thang Hai said that to gain the target of USD6 billion, Vietnam’s coffee industry needed to strengthen connection between production and trade, expand export markets and develop products associated with brand building, towards building a sustainable coffee value chain.

According to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Lê Minh Hoan, if the coffee industry wants to have sustainable development, there must be linkages among provinces or economic regions to form a larger-scale production area and build a brand for Tây Nguyên coffee.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) will continue to implement projects on sustainable development for the domestic coffee industry.

For the Central Highlands provinces, the ministry will set up logistics infrastructure for the coffee industry to create higher coffee value and more processed products.

BLOOMBERG – Hong Kong’s Omicron outbreak is dealing a double whammy to businesses.

Not only will new social distancing curbs crimp revenue for retailers and restaurants, a slashing of flights they rely on to bring everything from Australian cherries to wagyu beef into the financial hub is also set to raise costs and boost inflation. Cathay Pacific Airways, the city’s most connected airline, has cancelled hundreds of flights.

Cargo capacity could drop below one-fifth of pre-pandemic levels. Logistics costs may surge by 40 per cent within three weeks. Importers expect the price of fruit to rise by 10 per cent.

In pursuit of a zero-Covid-19 strategy, Hong Kong has shut gyms and cinemas. At the same time, an already fractured supply chain for a city that imports most of its goods has reached a breaking point, with businesses seeing delays in deliveries of staples such as berries and yoghurt and of premium seafood and cheeses.

The threat of an Omicron-driven surge has spooked Hong Kong, where the vaccination rate is among the lowest for developed economies. Though officials have found only dozens of cases in the community so far, they are tracking at least three separate transmission chains.