News

  Bloomberg State-run NTPC Ltd., India’s biggest power producer, is seeking to terminate a long-term supply contract for imported natural gas as it says the fuel is too expensive to be used in power generation, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The New Delhi-based electricity generator has written to state-run GAIL India Ltd., which supplies the fuel sourced ...

  Bloomberg India extended its floor price regime on steel imports for a further two months, as the world’s third-biggest producer seeks to insulate domestic mills from a global glut. Steelmakers gained in Mumbai. The country extended minimum import prices, ranging from $341 to $752 a metric ton depending on the type of product, until Oct. 4, the commerce ministry ...

  Bloomberg Japan’s auto industry is going back to tried-and-tested plays to ease the pain of yen strength as Toyota Motor Corp.’s prediction for a 37 percent plunge in earnings threatens to end the era of record profits. A resurgent yen wiped almost half a trillion yen ($5 billion) off the operating income of Japan’s seven automakers in the first ...

  Almaty / AFP Major Russian mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) has abandoned its stake in a lucrative joint venture in Uzbekistan, the Central Asian country’s communications ministry said late on Friday. The ministry’s announcement, which the company also confirmed later, said the state-owned Center of Radio Communication, Broadcasting and Television had become “sole owner” of the pair’s joint venture ...

  Bloomberg Indonesia’s second-quarter growth beat expectations as President Joko Widodo’s government embarked on a spending spree to boost an economy grappling with a slowdown in China and low commodity prices. Gross domestic product increased 5.18 percent from a year earlier, compared with a revised 4.91 percent in the first three months, the statistics bureau said in Jakarta on Friday. ...

  Bloomberg Japan’s biggest steelmaker is top of the pile no more, as a resurgent yen hands a competitive advantage to overseas rivals amid an unprecedented global glut. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. has been overtaken as the world’s most valuable producer by Europe’s ArcelorMittal and is neck and neck with a revitalized Posco in South Korea for second ...

  Bloomberg Duke Energy Corp. has invited Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and French utility Engie SA to submit binding bids for its Latin American power assets, people with knowledge of the matter said. State-owned electricity generator China Three Gorges Corp. was also chosen to proceed to the next round, according to the people, who asked not to be identified ...

  New York / AFP Bitcoin, a Florida judge says, is not real money. Ironically, that could provide a boost to use of the crypto-currency which has remained in the shadows of the financial system. The July 22 ruling by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Teresa Pooler means that no specific license is needed to buy and sell bitcoins. The judge dismissed ...

Washington / AFP The US trade deficit grew more than expected in June as imports jumped and the gap with China continued to widen, government data released showed. The country’s trade deficit with the rest of the world climbed 8.7 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted $44.5 billion. Analysts had only expected a 3.9 percent increase. The figures mark ...

Washington / Bloomberg Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said second-quarter profit rose 25 percent as results improved at insurance units. Net income climbed to $5 billion from $4.01 billion a year earlier, the Omaha, Nebraska-based company said in a statement. Operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, were $2,803 a share, missing the average $2,911 estimate of three analysts surveyed ...