July, 2018

• 2 July

  Takeda’s new HQ flaunts global ambition along Japanese roots

  

  Bloomberg Embedded in the sleek metallic and cypress interior of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s new global headquarters in Tokyo are stylised Japanese characters for words like life, water and light. Melding futuristic design with traditional Japanese elements highlights the balancing act facing Chief Executive Officer Christophe Weber: showing he can honour the 237-year-old drugmaker’s Japanese heritage as he tries to complete ...

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• 2 July

  Big oil, utilities lining up for an electric-vehicle war

  

  Bloomberg A red-hot electric vehicle market has triggered a face-off between Big Oil and utilities. Oil majors, who’ve sold fossil fuels to cars for a century, are now moving into an electricity sector that’s preparing for exponential growth. The problem is that utilities, the primary power suppliers for a century, have the same idea. BP Plc predicts electric vehicle sales ...

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• 2 July

  Global solar market could contract for the first time ever

  

  Bloomberg The global solar market could do something this year that it’s never done before: shrink. Solar installations in 2018 may total 95 gigawatts, down 3 percent from a year earlier, based on the most conservative of three scenarios modelled by Bloomberg NEF in a report on Monday. For comparison’s sake, the typical nuclear reactor has about a gigawatt of ...

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• 2 July

  Libya’s NOC declares force majeure on two more oil ports

  Bloomberg Libya’s National Oil Corp (NOC) declared force majeure on another two oil ports, removing thousands more barrels from the market just as global supply concerns put pressure on OPEC to ramp up production. Oil loadings at the Zueitina and Hariga export terminals in eastern Libya have stopped, the Tripoli-based NOC said on Monday. The halt comes just a week ...

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• 2 July

  Oil prices to cost a US household $440 in ’18

  

  Bloomberg The average American household will have $440 less to spend this year due to rising pump prices, putting at risk one-third of the windfall they got from tax cuts. Strong oil prices drove the cost of US gasoline to the highest level in more than three years last month, according to AAA, and pump prices are now 27 percent ...

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• 2 July

  Fresh Kim weapon advances show challenge facing Trump

  

  Bloomberg Evidence of new efforts by Kim Jong-un to expand his nuclear arsenal underscore the challenge facing US President Donald Trump three weeks after declaring that North Korea was “ no longer a nuclear threat.” Several reports released in recent days suggest that Kim continued to ramp up his weapons production — rather than prepare to disarm — in the ...

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• 2 July

  Angela Merkel sees willingness to defuse her coalition clash

  

  Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel told lawmakers in her party bloc she senses a willingness to halt a feud over migration policy that’s tearing at the seams of Germany’s governing coalition. Merkel made the remark to a closed-door meeting in Berlin on Monday where her caucus leader, Volker Kauder, said he’s convinced a compromise will be found by the end of ...

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• 2 July

  Mexico’s AMLO sweeps to power in historic left-wing landslide

  

  Bloomberg Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was elected as Mexico’s first left-wing president in recent times, riding a public revolt against rampant crime, corruption and poverty and handing a crushing defeat to the business-friendly parties who’ve run the country for decades. The peso dropped. The earliest figures announced by the electoral board gave Lopez Obrador 53 percent of the vote. Ricardo ...

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• 2 July

  May faces her moment of truth on Brexit

  

  Bloomberg This could be a deadly month for Theresa May. Unpopular at home and in Brussels, the British leader will try to restore order with a Cabinet lock-in at her country estate that’s been dubbed the body bag summit. May’s aim is to force a decision on how dramatic a split to seek from the European Union. Businesses want the ...

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• 2 July

  Rift in Zimbabwe oppn may weaken election bid

  

  Bloomberg Bickering within Zimbabwe’s opposition alliance is weakening its chances of ousting the ruling party in this month’s elections, the southern African nation’s first since Robert Mugabe ended his 37-year rule in November. The High Court is hearing a case brought by Thokozani Khupe, former vice president of the main opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change, that she and ...

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