Business
The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk
5 -10 January 2013
15
Jessica Hanley
Jessica Hanley
Despite the economic climate, some winter luxuries just can’t be sacrificed
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2013 predictions are intentionally outrageous, but bank’s list has been right before
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Chilly temperatures abroad have led to increased success for Kopenhagen Fur
“A good winter helps significantly,” Nielsen said. “It is a bit silly to put a fur coat under the Christmas tree when it’s 20 degrees.” The winter temperatures especially aided the sale of Danish furs abroad. Beijing, for example, saw the coldest week in 14 years at the beginning of December, while China’s northern neighbours in Moscow witnessed the heaviest November snow in almost 50 years. Some 85 percent of the buyers at Kopenhagen Fur’s auction last week came from China, Reuters reported. Mink now accounts for a third of Danish exports to China. Fur isn’t the only cold-
weather luxury to fare well during the economic downturn: Danish Christmas trees are also selling particularly well. As Poul Copmann, a Danish Christmas tree field manager, recently told the Economist, people would rather go into debt than do without a festive fir. Denmark is one of Europe’s top tree exporters, sending over ten million trees from 3,500 growers each season to locations around the world. Since 1996, Danish tree exports have risen from 500 million to 1.5 billion kroner. The tree industry has faced its share of struggles, however. Cheaper plastic imitations have gained popularity in recent
Scanpix / Stine Larsen
hile global warming and the recession mean a tough winter for many farmers, there are some who fare surprisingly well in changing temperatures. The Danish fur market is one of them. Reuters reported that the country’s leading brand Kopenhagen Fur – which is also the world’s largest fur auction house – is currently facing unprecedented demand from international buyers. “As it looks now, we expect the 2012/2013 season to see record high prices and volume,” the company’s managing director Torben Nielsen told Reuters. Kopenhagen Fur’s December auction, which took place last week, saw just that: a record turnout of 500 fur-seeking bidders. The average price per skin had risen to 582 kroner, up 12 percent from September’s auction – the highest price ever recorded by the company. Nielsen suggested that there’s a specific reason why furs have been selling particularly well: the weather. Chilly conditions, he explained, often boost fur sales considerably.
Scanpix / Fabian Bimmer
Furs and firs fare well over holidays
Move over Mayans! Saxo forsees more doom ahead
years, as manufacturers create more realistic imitations and buyers become increasingly concerned about fire hazards. Unusually high temperatures and low rainfall this past summer also caused much of Denmark’s evergreen foliage to wither, according to researchers from the University of Copenhagen. Still, growers like Copmann hope that authenticity will always retain a certain value. “If you invited me to dinner and I brought you a bunch of plastic flowers, you wouldn’t be too happy, would you?” Copmann told the Economist. It seems that for certain luxuries, the real thing is worth shelling out for.
he world may not have ended on December 21, but Saxo Bank seems more than ready to pick up where the Mayans’ predictions left off. The Danish investment bank has published its unofficial ‘Outrageous Predictions 2013’, and according to its findings, the economic forecast for next year is gloomy at best. The report indicates ten possible financial scenarios for the coming year based on current economic conditions. And while the events may seem unlikely, according to Steen Jakobsen, the bank’s chief economist, the scenarios are more feasible than they may appear. The predictions are “far more probable than appreciated and could have significant (mostly very negative) consequences on investment returns in the New Year”, Jakobsen wrote in the report. Among the predicted catastrophes are Spain’s debt being downgraded to junk status, oil falling to as low as $50 per barrel, and the German stock index DAX falling by 33 percent. The events, Jakobsen pointed
out, could drastically alter the financial landscape and potentially threaten the political status quo. The biggest concern heading into the new year – and the cause of the predicted unrest – he wrote, was an odd combination of what he called “extreme complacency about the risks presented” and “rapidly accelerating social tensions”. He said that society will move increasingly towards political radicalism in 2013, as politicians lose ideological ground. Jakobsen pointed to the Occupy movement, which recently won a symbolic victory over Danske Bank, as a warning of the unrest to come. Though many express doubts about the reports, a few of Saxo’s predictions have come true in the past, according to Ekaterina Kondrashova of Investcafe. “In 2011, nine out of ten predictions didn’t come true,” Kondrashova told Russian news organisation RT. “However, one of their predictions – that yields on 30-year US [treasury] bills would fall to three percent – was correct.” Jakobsen himself was quick to dismiss the sceptics, saying that the fiscal deficits in the West are currently at levels unseen since the Second World War. “We may not be fighting in the trenches, but we may soon be fighting on the streets,” he said.
BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN DENMARK
The Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link – Opportunities and Challenges Technical Director Femern A/S
Dankorts were smokin’ nationwide in the run-up to Christmas
Festive season Dankort use breaks record Debit card use broke single day record, despite a snowstorm that may have prevented some from buying their final gifts
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ebit card terminals across the country came close to meltdown on December 21. On the last Friday before Christmas, consumers slid their Dankort a total of 4.3 million times, spending nearly 1.7 billion kroner, according to pay-
ment service NETS. Total sales for the Christmas season were up 2.1 percent compared to the same period last year. Dankort transactions added up to more than 25 billion kroner over the first 23 days of December. Overall, 74,860,503 transactions were conducted using Dankort – an average 335 kroner per sale, which is two kroner less than in 2011. Total sales this Christmas
were affected by the blizzard that hit the country on Sunday December 23, which was the last shopping day before the holiday. The previous daily record occurred during the 2010 Easter holiday, when Dankort’s transactions totalled 1.56 billion kroner on March 31. The NETS totals do not include the use of credit cards, which has been increasing steadily over the past few years. (RW)
Exchange Rates Australian Dollars AUD
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Euro EUR
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Switzerland Francs CHF
UK Pounds GBP
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Sell
5.66
5.54
7.36
0.06
0.17
0.84
6.06
9.01
5.52
Buy
6.18
5.99
7.59
0.06
019
0.88
6.26
9.37
5.77
Steen Lykke graduated in 1978 with an MSc from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), majoring in civil and structural engineering. He is a highly qualified project manager and has considerable experience from major international projects, including as Contract Director of the immersed tunnel and the dredging & reclamation contracts for the Øresund Fixed Link. He was subsequently appointed Project Director and the client’s representative on the Marmaray Tunnel and Railway Project in Istanbul. Steen Lykke is currently Technical Director at Femern A/S where one of his main responsibilities is to manage the development of the concept design and the contracts, and the construction and commissioning of the 18 km long immersed tunnel under the Fehmarnbelt. Programme: • 11.45: Registration and welcome drinks • 12.00: Welcome and introduction by Mariano A. Davies, President, BCCD • 12.10: Guest speaker - Steen Lykke • 12.40: Questions and discussion • 12.55: Announcements by Penny Schmith, Executive Director, BCCD • 13.00: Buffet lunch and networking
Venue: 18 January 2013 11:45 Conference Suite on 1st floor Radisson Blu Royal Hotel Hammerichsgade 1 Copenhagen K
Non-members are very welcome. Please contact BCCD or go to www.bccd.dk for further information.
Price in kroner for one unit of foreign currency
If you would like to attend then please send us an email (event@bccd.dk) or call +45 31 18 75 58
Date: 3 January 2013
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