Carl Zeiss AG ended the first six months of its fiscal year with earnings before interest and taxes of € 166 million ($227 million), up 52 percent from € 109 million in the first half of last year. The optics and optoelectrics firm’s revenues, meanwhile, were € 2.074 billion ($2.842 billion), up nearly 5 percent from € 1.978 billion in last year’s first half. President and CEO Dr. Michael Kaschke said there were gains in the semiconductor, medical technology and industrial metrology markets. A slowdown in sales in emerging economies and unfavorable exchange rates, however, meant the bottom line wasn’t quite what the company expected. "We set our sights slightly higher and need to intensify our efforts in the second half of the year in order to step up the pace again and grow in some markets under the difficult conditions facing us," Kaschke said. For more information, visit www.zeiss.com.