Online travel service TripAdvisor Inc. increased revenue 1.5 times in the fourth quarter of 2022 thanks to increased activity in the travel sector.
The company said in a press release that its October-December revenue rose to $354 million, up from $241 million in the same period a year earlier. Experts polled by FactSet forecasted an average of $344.2 million.
Revenue from TripAdvisor’s core business jumped 34% to $217 million, revenue from restaurant reservation platform The Fork jumped 10% to $33 billion and online marketplace Viator soared 2.2 times to $127 million.
“The improved performance is mainly due to increased consumer demand for tourism-related services, given the easing of quarantine restrictions and the ongoing recovery of the industry,” the company said.
At the same time, a stronger U.S. dollar negatively impacted TripAdvisor’s results, taking about 8 percentage points off its revenue growth rate in the fourth quarter and 10% for the full year 2022.
The company recorded a net loss of $3 million, or $0.02 per share, last quarter, compared with a loss of $29 million, or $0.21 per share, a year earlier.
Earnings excluding one-time factors were $0.16 per share, well above analysts’ consensus forecast of $0.04 per share.
For all of 2022, TripAdvisor’s revenue rose 1.7 times to $1.49 billion, with net income of $20 million versus a loss of $148 million in 2021.
The company expects its growth to continue in 2023, the press release noted.
TripAdvisor stock is adding 9.4% in premarket trading Wednesday. Over the past 12 months, their value has declined 14%.
Thailand’s government on Tuesday approved a decision that all foreign tourists entering the country will be charged a fee of 150,300 baht – landing tax, local media reported.
“Thailand’s Cabinet has approved a decision to charge a tourist fee upon entering the country. The fee will range from 150 baht for those arriving at land borders to 300 baht 650 baht for those arriving at airports,” the newspaper said.
The tentative date for the fee is June 1, 2023.
It will not be paid by those entering Thailand on diplomatic passports and work permits. The fee will also not be charged for children under the age of two years and transit passengers who spend less than a day in the country.
The government has also instructed the Bureau of Immigration to introduce a rule whereby tourists will be able to use receipts for tourist fees from a previous trip when applying for a re-entry permit.
Minister of Tourism and Sports Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, speaking to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, explained that the fee will be used to promote domestic tourism and insurance while tourists are in Thailand.
This is not the first time the Thai authorities have announced plans to introduce a levy on foreign tourists. In January 2022 they announced their intention to introduce a fee in April of that year. Its size was also supposed to be 300 baht. Then the fee was postponed to January 1, 2023, but was again postponed, as opposed by representatives of the tourism business, fearing that its introduction will slow the recovery of foreign tourist traffic after the pandemic coronavirus.
The simplified registration procedure for medicines registered in countries with a strict regulatory system stipulated by the Ministry of Health’s order No. 1245 of 2016 is not effective, according to the Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IPMA).
“The simplified procedure stipulated for registration of drugs registered in countries with strict regulatory systems has recently been ineffective, and applicants have had rejections on formal grounds,” the IPMA said.
According to the association, in particular, based on the conclusion of the State Expert Center (SEC), the Ministry of Health appointed a meeting of the Commission on Problematic Issues, where a collegial decision regarding registration was taken, but since February 2022, there was no commission. At the end of 2022, orders were still signed on state registration of medicines registered by the competent authorities of the USA, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, and the EU. At the same time, on February 10, 2023, the Ministry of Health signed an order to refuse state registration of 34 foreign-made drugs.
“We believe that a simplified procedure would work more effectively if the work of the Ministry of Health Commission on Problematic Issues was resumed. The refusal to register 34 medicines of leading foreign manufacturers due to problems in the interpretation of the legislation and on formal grounds is discriminatory and harms the welfare and health of the Ukrainian people in wartime”, the IPMA noted.
The association believes that the order of February 10, 2023, which denied registration of 34 medicinal products registered in countries with strict regulatory systems, should be canceled, and the applicants that were denied registration should have the opportunity to justify the grounds for registration and confirm compliance with legislation.
The IPMA noted that the reason for refusing to register medicinal products, whose applicants are IPMA member companies, could be inconsistencies caused in part by legal requirements and peculiarities of registration in Ukraine.
“We are talking about the first registration of Indian medicinal products whose applicants are members of our Association. These are new high quality medicinal products that have already been evaluated by the competent authorities of the USA, Switzerland, Japan, Australia and Canada and according to the centralized procedure registered by the EU competent authority”, – the IPMA informed.
The association notes that not all analogs of drugs whose registration was denied are currently on the market, but there are new drugs on the list.
“For example, the medicines of one applicant (Zandra Life Sciences Private Limited) submitted for registration under this procedure are new generic medicines that have no analogues in Ukraine, but have already been successfully registered and used in the USA. Their registration in Ukraine will allow Ukrainian patients to use them for treatment”, the IPMA noted.
Earlier Teva-Ukraine also said that the procedure for simplified registration of drugs registered in countries with a strict regulatory system was not perfect initially, but since the beginning of the armed aggression its shortcomings have deepened. According to her data, from 2016 to 2022, the company registered 10 drugs in Ukraine under the simplified procedure and received two refusals, and the last such registration in 2022 lasted 203 days while the standard procedure required 210 days.
As reported, on February 10, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine refused to register 19 foreign medicinal products under the simplified procedure. These drugs were registered in the countries by the competent authorities of the USA, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Canada and the EU competent authority. In particular, the Ministry of Healthcare refused to register five drugs produced by Teva-Ukraine, nine drugs produced in India, in particular by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, McLeods Pharmaceuticals and Zandra Life, five drugs from the Turkish company DEVA, as well as drugs from the British company Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare and Pfizer.
The simplified procedure was approved by Order No. 1245 of the Ministry of Health in November 2016. According to which drugs registered in countries with strict regulatory policies – Japan, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Australia, EU countries can be registered in Ukraine under a shortened procedure within 10, 17 or 45 days – depending on the category of registered drugs.
In May 2018, the Ministry of Health initiated the expansion of the list of documents that are provided for the examination of the authenticity of registration materials for drugs (registered in other countries), which are submitted in Ukraine for state registration for the purpose of their procurement by international organizations.
Centravis Production Ukraine PJSC (Centravis Production Ukraine), a part of Centravis Ltd. holding, has brought its main production in Nikopol to full capacity and intends to officially open its pipe production branch in Uzhgorod at the end of February.
“Centravis production is now running at full capacity. This is very valuable, so we use this opportunity to the maximum. All equipment is working, hot and cold shops are operating. We met the production plan for January and have an optimistic outlook for the current month,” Artem Atanasov, chief sales officer (CSO), wrote in a letter to customers last Friday.
According to him, the company will officially open a new production facility in Uzhgorod at the end of February. “We are recording interest in our products from customers, so expanding production in these conditions is an important and necessary step,” the sales director said.
As it was informed, the holding Centravis Ltd. re-registered its parent company in Switzerland, having changed its Cypriot location, which will help to improve credit rating and to attract longer and cheaper funds for the development of production in Ukraine.
“Centravis” plans in the beginning of 2023 to open in Zakarpattya region specialized production of tool tubes for automobiles.
“Centravis is among the ten largest manufacturers of seamless stainless steel tubes in the world. In 2022 the company has implemented a number of large-scale orders for such global companies as Benteler Automotive, LINSTER Edelstahlhandel, Rohr Mertel, Buhlmann Group, Webco, MRC. The company employs over 1400 people.
Centravis, founded in 2000, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of seamless stainless steel pipes. Its production facilities are located in Nikopol (Dnipropetrovsk region).
Holding Centravis Ltd. was created on the base of Nikopol Stainless Tube Works CJSC, service and trade companies Industrial and Commercial Enterprise Yuvis Ltd. Its shareholders are members of the Atanasov family.
Centravis Ltd. owns 100% of shares of Centravis Production Ukraine PJSC.
The number of victims of a powerful earthquake in Turkey has reached 38,044, the disaster management agency (AFAD) reported.
“The death toll from last week’s powerful earthquakes in southern Turkey has reached 38,044 people,” AFAD cited Anadolu Agency as saying.
Earlier, 35,418 deaths were reported.
“Al Jazeera” reports that the death toll in Syria is still 5.8 thousand, so the number of earthquake victims in both countries exceeded 43.8 thousand.
According to the channel, another earthquake occurred on Friday night in southern Turkey in Hatay province: this time with a magnitude of 5.1.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 occurred in Turkey on the night of February 6, followed by a series of aftershocks, one of which had a magnitude of 7.6. These tremors caused serious destruction and casualties in the country, as well as in neighboring Syria.
In January this year, scrap metal dealers reduced scrap procurement by 75.6% compared to the same period last year to 60.5 thousand tons from 248.1 thousand tons.
As reported in the operational information of the Ukrainian Association of Secondary Metals (UAVtormet) on Friday, the export of scrap metal during this period amounted to 8.3 thousand tons compared to 5.8 thousand tons in January 2022 (an increase of 43.1%). At the same time, there were no imports of scrap, while in the first month of last year it was 0.1 thousand tons.
Scrap shipments to the country’s metal companies in January-2023 decreased by 78.1% compared to January-2022 to 49.4 thousand tons from 226 thousand tons.
As of February 1, 2023, the level of scrap metal stock at metal companies in Ukraine was estimated at 20-25 thousand tons.
As reported earlier by UAVtormet, Ukraine in 2022, reduced the procurement of scrap metal by 75.9% compared to the previous year – up to 996.7 thousand tons from 4.136 million tons. The export of scrap metal last year was 53.6 thousand tons, which is 11.5 times less than in 2021 (615.7 thousand tons). At the same time, imports of scrap amounted to 1.8 thousand tons, compared to 23 thousand tons in 2021.
Scrap shipments to metal companies in the country in 2022 decreased by 73% compared to 2021 – to 895.7 thousand tons from 3 million 323.4 thousand tons.
“UAVtormet” predicts a decrease in the procurement of scrap ferrous metals to 820 – 850 thousand tons this year. In addition, it is predicted that in 2023, the supply of scrap metal to metal companies in the country will be reduced to 720-750 thousand tons. Scrap exports are expected to amount to 80-120 thousand tons. Steel production in 2023 will be 3.6-3.8 million tons.
