WEEKLY DIGEST – 9 FEBRUARY 2015

TOP SHOP

Statistics compiled by El Economista show that Mercadona is the Spanish grocer with the highest turnover for the 2013 fiscal year, raking in 18.033 million euro, an increase of 2.83% per cent on the previous year, thus maintaining its number one spot as the leader of the Spanish FMCG sector. Carrefour is in second place with a turnover of 7.355 million. Dia are in third place with 4.199 million, followed by Auchan with 3.139 million, and Eroski in fifth place with a turnover of 1,771 million.

GONE FISHING

Spain has replaced the UK as the number one market for Icelandic cod in terms of volumes, according to the latest Seafood Intelligence Report by Marko Partners. The volume of Icelandic exports to Spain increased by 25% to just under 89,000 metric tons, while UK imports fell by 15%, to 80,441t. However, the UK remains the most valuable market in monetary terms, spending over 126 million euro on Icelandic cod between January and December 2014, whereas despite the increase in volumes, imports climbed to just 104.3 million euro on the back of increase.

SANTANDER SHOOTS

Spanish bank Santander has announced a net profit of 1.46 billion euro in the fourth quarter of 2014, the first quarter under new boss Ana Botin, representing a 70% jump in profit. However, the bankers are no doubt slightly disappointed by the fact that the profit was slightly below forecasts of 1.47 billion quarterly profits. Santander revised 2013 earnings downwards to reflect payments to deposit guarantee funds. Without that restatement, fourth quarter net profit would have risen just 37%.

INDIAN INVESTMENTS

In a meeting on Monday, a Spanish delegation met with the board on India´s railways, in order to discuss greater trade and industry cooperation between the two countries. The meeting was part of a renewed commitment by Spain to increase investments in India, especially in the fields of railways, renewable energy, ports, agro-food and pharmaceuticals.

ALL SPEED AHEAD

In a collaboration between Alcatel-Lucent and Vodafone Spain, engineers have successfully carried out a trial of transporting data at speeds of up to 400 Gbits/s over a distance of 400km between Madrid and Zaragoza, using the existing optical infrastructure only specified for up to 100 Gbit/s. The trial was conducted using Alcatel-Lucent’s 400G technology and demonstrates the ability of an existing optical network to carry data at up to 17.6 Tbit/s, doubling the current spectral efficiency in fiber. If eventually rolled out across the country, the result will be extremely fast data and internet connections. The partners say the achievement is the equivalent of transmitting the contents of 88 Blu-ray discs in a single second while reducing power and space consumption by half.

MARINE EVAC

Details were revealed this week of a situation that occurred at the American homed Rota airbase in southern Spain in late January, in which a platoon of Marines with the Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis responded to a major incident resulting in casualty evacuations. However, despite the fact their response was in a “moments notice”, the incident was an unannounced drill from the staging area at Morón Air Base, Spain, where SPMAGTF-CR-AF is postured to respond to regional crises.

NO MANOEUVRES

A multinational training exercise in Spain was cancelled following the fatal crash that killed 11 foreign military personnel, according to U.S. Air Force officials on Tuesday. The Spanish Ministry of Defence made the decision to call off the Tactical Leadership Program exercise and flying never resumed following the crash in January. Two Greek pilots were killed when their F-16 crashed upon takeoff. Nine French airmen on the ground were also killed when the plane hit the parking apron.

Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/46332/

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