Company briefs - 2012-11-15

Estonian telecommunications company EMT announced the start of sales of Windows 8 phones at its official stores and online, reports LETA. The first Windows 8 phone available at EMT stores is the HTC Windows Phone 8X, featuring a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm S4 processor, HD display and 8-megapixel camera. Microsoft is counting on its partnership with Finnish Nokia, which has also started sales of its Windows phone - the Lumia 920 - to play a major role in the smartphone market. Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer claims that Windows Phone 8 will create strong competition to Android-based devices and iPhones, managing to reach third place in the smartphone market, reports seekingalpha.com.

Belarus intends to transfer a large portion of export cargo traffic from Baltic to Russian ports, the Belarus opposition news portal Charter 97 reports. The portal says that in this case, Belarus is thinking of diverting the flow of potassium fertilizers to Russian ports. “I will not hide this; we discussed this issue very seriously at our latest meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said. “We made a principled decision to divert large amounts of cargo, including potassium fertilizers and other goods, from the ports of the Baltic States to Russia,” Lukashenko said on Nov. 9 during a meeting with the governor of the Leningrad region, Alexander Drozdenko.

The Spanish company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF), whose bid to supply new trains for Latvia was eventually turned down by Pasazieru vilciens passenger train company, has won a bid to supply at least 15 trams for the Tallinn public transport company Tallinna Linnatranspordi; the contract amount is estimated at about 44.2 million euros, reports Biznes&Baltija. Tallinna Linnatranspordi will buy the new trains with money received from Spain for unused pollution quotas.