第四辑 Test4 Part1(2/3)

Now to the less good news: there have been difficulties with our export trade over the last year. The main culprit here has been the strong pound, which has reduced profits by approximately 500 million pounds. Secondly, S.B. Steel, our 51%-owned German stainless-steel subsidiary, continued to be badly affected by depressed selling prices. Then Huntingdon's, our 25%-owned joint venture in the USA, encountered technical problems during the year, which mean that it is unlikely to resume operating at capacity again until late this year. Now, faced with these problems, your Board has taken a number of measures, which we believe will be effective within a short time-frame: firstly, we have established a target for all our businesses of achieving 15% return on assets. We are streamlining the organization structures to make them flatter and more responsive to changing needs.