News

Bloomberg Asia’s rapacious thirst for liquefied natural gas is sucking supplies from surprising places. China to Japan and South Korea are paying top dollar for the super-chilled fuel. The pull is so strong that Norway’s Statoil ASA, which usually exports most of its LNG to Europe, is shipping a rare cargo east. It plans to send more. Asia gets most ...

SEOUL / Reuters South Korea’s Korea Gas Corp has entered court-administered arbitration with Australian joint venture North West Shelf Gas seeking to settle a dispute over a liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract that expired in 2016. A spokesman for the state-run Korean firm, known as KOGAS, confirmed an arbitration process was under way but declined to give details. Woodside Petroleum, ...

Bloomberg Singapore may unveil an e-commerce tax in next week’s budget, setting the tone for a region that’s grappling with online retail’s assault on brick-and-mortar vendors. Eight of the 12 economists in a survey said the February 19 budget will contain a new tax on online vendors, with another betting that cross-border digital transactions will now be included in goods-and-services ...

Bloomberg Takata Corp.’s US operations, pushed into bankruptcy by the largest automotive recall in US history, settled with two groups representing victims of its faulty air bags, the company said in court documents. Two committees for people suing over the air bags have agreed to support a bankruptcy-exit plan that would resolve lawsuits by channeling them into a trust funded ...

Bloomberg India’s capital market regulator is examining Fortis Healthcare Ltd. and will look into Religare Enterprises Ltd., following reports alleging money was taken from the companies by Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, who are part of the founding family of both companies. “We are examining the Fortis issue,” Securities & Exchange Board of India Chairman Ajay Tyagi told reporters in New ...

Bloomberg China’s government is leaning toward allowing provinces continue with local subsidies for electric vehicles to sustain the rising demand for new-energy automobiles in the country, according to people familiar with the matter. Authorities are in favor of abandoning an earlier proposal to scrap local incentives, the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are private. In ...

Bloomberg Samsung SDI Co., a battery supplier to carmakers including BMW, plans to recycle cobalt from used mobile phones as companies around the world scramble to secure supplies of the metal amid surging prices. The plan fuels a trend among battery makers to reduce dependence on the Democratic Republic of Congo as a source of cobalt. The African country — ...

Bloomberg Ford Motor Co. is spending $25 million more at its Kentucky factory to pump out more of the profitable big sport utility vehicles that are critical to funding its ambitious — and expensive — electric and self-driving vehicle plans. The investment will allow the second-largest US automaker to boost production of the new Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition by ...

Bloomberg TalkTalk Telecom Group Plc plunged as it announced plans to sell shares for 200 million pounds ($278 million) to prop up its balance sheet and finance the buildout of fiber to more than 3 million homes and businesses in the UK. The new company with Infracapital, the infrastructure investment arm of M&G Prudential, will inject further competition into the ...

Bloomberg Mercedes-Benz may pull out of the annual North American International Auto Show in Detroit next year, according to people familiar with the matter, as carmakers increasingly choose to unveil new products at tech shows or their own special events. Daimler AG, Mercedes’s parent, is moving towards standalone presentations of new models and technology summits like CES in Las Vegas, ...