October, 2017

• 2 October

  Oil market stars risk being dimmed by China’s big refineries

  

  Bloomberg China’s independent refiners burst onto the international oil market scene only a couple of years ago and lifted the nation past the US as the world’s No. 1 crude buyer. Now, a new generation of firms building some of the globe’s biggest plants are threatening to eclipse them. The original set of private processors, known as teapots, is clustered ...

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• 2 October

  NLC India to offer lower tariffs to save power plants

  Bloomberg State-run generator NLC India Ltd is offering to reduce tariffs from two of its power plants after its main buyer asked the company to lower prices or shelve the projects, according to two officials with knowledge of the matter. NLC has offered to bring tariffs down by about Rs0.5 per kilowatt hour, taking a hit of 1.5 percentage point ...

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• 2 October

  Libya’s Sharara oil field closed since late Sunday

  

  BENGHAZI / Reuters Libya’s giant Sharara oil field has been closed since late on Sunday, shutting off the production of more than 230,000 barrels per day (bpd), an engineer at the field and a Libyan oil source said. Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said in a statement on Monday that it was “working towards a swift restart of production. At ...

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• 2 October

  Qatar growth sinks as oil sector stalls

  Reuters Qatar’s economic growth slowed in the second quarter to its lowest rate since the global financial crisis because of a sagging oil sector, and sanctions by Arab states, reports said. Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, expanded just 0.6 percent from a year earlier in the April-June period, the slowest growth since the 2009-2010 crisis. GDP grew 0.5 percent ...

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• 2 October

  Ambani’s Reliance Communications aborts Aircel deal in debt-cut blow

  

  Bloomberg Reliance Communications Ltd.’s plan to merge with Aircel Ltd. collapsed in a blow to the Indian mobile phone carriers’ plans to pare debt and gain scale to take on bigger rivals. “Legal uncertainties” and “interventions by vested interests” caused delays in regulatory approvals, Reliance Communications said in an exchange filing. Consequently, the merger has “lapsed with mutual consent,” it ...

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• 2 October

  Indonesia’s Go-Jek to expand abroad, on track to clash with Grab

  

  Bloomberg Go-Jek, Indonesia’s first billion-dollar startup, is looking to expand its ride-hailing services to three to four countries in Southeast Asia, escalating its rivalry with Grab and Uber Technologies Inc. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Nadiem Makarim didn’t specify the countries or services that Go-Jek will target, but said in an interview they will be places with a large population ...

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• 2 October

  N Korea gets second route to internet via Russia

  Bloomberg North Korea now has two ways to get on the internet, thanks to a new connection from Russia, according to cybersecurity outfit FireEye Inc. Russian telecommunications company TransTeleCom opened a new link for users in North Korea, Bryce Boland, chief technology officer for the Asia-Pacific region at FireEye, said in an interview on Monday. Until now, state-owned China United ...

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• 2 October

  Trump plan aims new foreign tax at Apple and other MNCs

  

  Bloomberg On the last page of a nine-page tax plan that calls for slashing business rates, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans proposed a little-noticed, brand-new tax that may hit companies like Apple Inc. and Pfizer Inc. It’s contained in one sentence: “To prevent companies from shifting profits to tax havens, the framework includes rules to protect the US tax ...

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• 2 October

  Hard Brexit seen stinging UK’s auto, tech, health sectors

  Bloomberg A hard Brexit could be a lot more painful for the UK than for the European Union. Britain’s automotive, technology, health-care and consumer goods sectors may lose $22.8 billion a year in export revenues when the UK leaves the single market and customs union, according to a report released on Monday by Chicago-based law firm Baker & McKenzie LLP ...

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• 2 October

  Euro area factories add jobs in struggle to keep up with orders

  

  Bloomberg Euro-area factories are scrambling to add staff as burgeoning orders stretch capacity. A Purchasing Managers Index for the region’s manufacturing industry rose to 58.1 in September from 57.4 the previous month, London-based IHS Markit said on Monday. That compares with a preliminary reading of 58.2 and is the highest level in more than six and a half years. A ...

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