Reuters Business activity in Egypt shrank for the 17th consecutive month in February although the pace of decline slowed from a month before, a survey showed on Sunday. The Emirates NBD Egypt Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the non-oil private sector came in at 46.7 points, well below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction but higher from ...

  Reuters Demand for gasoline in the United States, which accounts for a tenth of global oil consumption, is expected to peak next year as engines become more efficient, WoodMackenzie analysts said. Global demand for gasoline, which accounts for more than a quarter of the world’s oil consumption, is set to peak as early as 2021 even in the face ...

  Bloomberg When PBF Energy Inc. scooped up a refinery from Exxon Mobil Corp. on the Mississippi River in 2015, it wasted no time sprucing up the plant with an eye toward quickly resuming lucrative fuel exports. Within three months, PBF was ready to load its first tanker for shipment abroad. By late last year, the New Jersey-based company was ...

  Bloomberg In an industrial kitchen in a leafy, residential suburb of central Shanghai, a quiet culinary evolution is taking place. Beside shelves stacked with butter mounds the size of bread loaves and 11 pound (5 kilogram) cheese wheels, chefs are experimenting with exotic ingredients that their New Zealand supplier, Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd., wants to become ubiquitous in China: ...

  Bloomberg India’s richest man is looking at ways of insulating his family’s holdings in Reliance Industries Ltd. from the government’s efforts to tax some long-term capital gains, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Mukesh Ambani’s plan to revamp his stake in the nation’s second most-valuable company, by transferring shares between entities affiliated with his family, is aimed ...

  Bloomberg Singaporean managers and senior staff can prepare for 5 percent pay increases at most this year as the labor market stabilizes. About 93 percent of companies in Singapore say they will keep or raise headcount this year, according to a survey by recruitment consultancy Michael Page of almost 450 businesses in the city state. Only 36 percent said ...

  Bloomberg China is considering dialing back or delaying proposed measures aimed at pushing automakers to produce more electric vehicles, after industry feedback that the targets are overly ambitious. Under draft rules released in September for public consultation, automakers will be required to obtain a new-energy vehicle credit score of 8 percent next year, derived from different weightings assigned to ...

  Bloomberg Standard Life Plc, Scotland’s largest insurer, agreed to acquire Aberdeen Asset Management Plc for about 3.8 billion pounds ($4.7 billion), a deal that would create the UK’s largest active manager. The stocks soared in London trading. Under the terms, Standard Life shareholders will own 66.7 percent of the combined group, according to a joint statement on Monday. Aberdeen’s ...

  Bloomberg Palm oil bears are growing in confidence this year with production in the two largest growers expected to surge as plantations recover from the scorching effects of El Nino. The factors that may stand in the way, however, include Donald Trump and a possible early return of El Nino. The quarterly average price of the oil used in ...

  Bloomberg A strike at the world’s largest copper mine faces a critical phase this week as the union expects management to tempt workers with an offer that could end the stoppage in northern Chile. After 30 days of strike, on March 10, BHP Billiton Ltd.’s Escondida can legally make individual offers to workers. If it manages to convince more ...