News

Bloomberg A global glut in natural gas is threatening to undermine a $4 billion investment by Reliance Industries Ltd. aimed at boosting profits at the world’s largest oil refining complex. The project made all the sense in world when energy magnate Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate announced it in 2012: convert petroleum coke, or petcoke, one of cheapest and dirtiest refinery by-products, ...

Bloomberg Rosneft PJSC’s second-quarter net income fell as the Russian giant suffered the effects of weaker oil prices and production cuts, but the decline was less severe than analysts expected. While the results show the impact on Rosneft of the Druzhba crisis, in which millions of barrels of exports to central Europe via the Soviet-era pipeline were contaminated with chemicals, ...

Bloomberg JSR Corp., one of the Japanese materials makers hit by government restrictions on exports to South Korea, has received a permit to resume shipments, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Tokyo-based maker of photo-resist, a light-sensitive liquid used by semiconductor manufacturers to imprint circuits on silicon wafers, was granted the license on Monday, the person said, ...

Bloomberg India’s jobs scene — with unemployment at a 45-year high — is looking gloomy with hiring activity slowing across most sectors. Banks, insurers, auto makers and logistics and infrastructure companies are among those hiring at a slower pace, according to the study by Care Ratings Ltd. that relied on annual reports for the year ended March from nearly 1,000 ...

Bloomberg The number of South Koreans visiting Japan dropped 7.6% in July, underscoring the toll a trade spat is taking on commerce in both countries. The decline in South Korean tourists dented an otherwise positive result, with total number of visitors to Japan climbing 5.6% from a year earlier, according to Japan National Tourism Organisation. The result was boosted by ...

Bloomberg Global markets have become so synchronised that money managers risk losing on every front, according to Hiromichi Mizuno, chief investment officer of the world’s largest pension fund. Japan’s $1.5 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund lost money in equities, fixed-income and currency positions in the last three months of 2018, Mizuno pointed out in Sacramento, California. “Conventional wisdom of portfolio ...

Bloomberg China is cracking down on banks and brokers that it suspects of inflating bond trading volumes in an effort to win more business, according to traders familiar with the matter. A subsidiary of the central bank is monitoring large transactions on the X-Bond system for signs of abnormal trading, the two traders said, asking not to be named as ...

Bloomberg Singapore has been moving forward on its aim to be the lead broker of infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, and is intent on getting the private sector more involved. Globally, government funding accounts for about 40% of infrastructure spending, but in Asia it’s 90% — an “unsustainable” proportion, Indranee Rajah, minister in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s office, said ...

Bloomberg While Thailand’s surging currency is squeezing exporters, the nation’s largest consumer-electronics retail chain is benefiting as the strong baht attracts customers by making iPhones and Samsung smartphones cheaper. Com7 Pcl’s 72% total return this year through Monday on its stock ranks as the world’s best performance among electronics sellers with a market value of at least $500 million, according ...

Bloomberg As European steel demand comes under growing pressure, two big suppliers to the bloc are betting on online stores to help attract new clients. It may not sound like a groundbreaking plan — Internet shoppers around the world can already order anything from a prefabricated house to a human skull — yet European steel buyers still make most purchases ...