May, 2017

• 7 May

  Central bank to keep its stake as Kazakh oil major plans IPO

  

    Bloomberg The era of quantitative easing and emergency measures has left central banks with trillions in assets. In the case of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, it ended up with 10 percent in the country’s state oil company. Even as KazMunayGas National Co. prepares an initial public offering by 2020, the central bank will “stay a shareholder” and the ...

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• 7 May

  Pemex production at Mexico refineries up

    Bloomberg Pemex is producing more gasoline and diesel at its six refineries across Mexico, reducing fuel imports and leaving less oil available for export. In the first three months of the year, Mexico’s refineries processed 21 percent more crude than a year earlier, according to a company presentation. The increase has largely come from crude that was previously being ...

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• 7 May

  Petronas new LNG facility to be operational in 2020

  

    KUALA LUMPUR / Reuters Malaysian state-owned oil firm Petroliam Nasional Bhd said on Sunday its second floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility will be operational in 2020. Petronas loaded its first cargo from the Petronas Floating LNG (PFLNG) 1 in east Malaysia last month, becoming the first company to produce LNG from a floating production unit. The second one ...

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• 7 May

  Chinese tech investments spur huge returns for ETF

  

    Bloomberg Take China and technology, put them together, and what do you have? One of the best performing exchange-traded funds in the world. The tiny $48 million Emerging Markets Internet and E-commerce ETF, or EMQQ, is up 32 percent this year, putting it among the 30 top returning equity ETFs worldwide. The fund is just a fraction of BlackRock ...

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• 7 May

  China reserves rise third month on capital control

  

    Bloomberg China’s foreign-exchange reserves rose for a third month in April, beating estimates, as tighter capital controls kept money from flowing out of the country and the yuan was stable. Reserves climbed $20.45 billion to $3.03 trillion, the People’s Bank of China said on Sunday, compared with a median estimate of $3.02 trillion in a Bloomberg survey of economists. ...

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• 7 May

  West Australia to get $1.7bn budget road, rail package

  

    Bloomberg Western Australia will get a A$2.3 billion ($1.7 billion) road-and-rail infrastructure package in this week’s federal budget, the national government said on Sunday. A little over half of the funds will be spent on the state’s Metronet rail project, with the rest to pay for smaller road and bridge projects. About A$1.86 billion of the money will come ...

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• 7 May

  China’s Hainan mulls $3bn medical tourism hub

  

    Bloomberg On the hilly and tropical island of Hainan, local officials and companies are investing billions of dollars to transform a string of riverside villages into a medical tourism destination. Their aim? To lure wealthy Chinese patients, who might otherwise venture overseas, to this province in the South China Sea known for its beach-front resorts. To do so they ...

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• 7 May

  Japan’s labour shortage prompts reversing shift to ‘temporary workers’

  

    Bloomberg Japan’s tightest labor market in decades shows signs of reversing a long shift toward the hiring of temporary workers. The number of full-time, permanent workers is rising for the first time since the global financial crisis, outpacing growth in temporary jobs over the past two years. “The labor shortage has become so bad that companies can’t fill openings ...

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• 7 May

  Hong Kong trims power returns to 8 percent

    Bloomberg Hong Kong will cut the size of returns its power utilities are allowed to make to 8 percent under a 15-year plan it hopes will help wean the city off coal while keeping electricity bills down. CLP Holdings Ltd. and HK Electric Investment Ltd. signed a new so-called Scheme of Control with the government after more than a ...

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• 7 May

  Turning plastic to oil, UK startup sees money in saving oceans

  

    Bloomberg At a garbage dump about 80 miles west of London, Adrian Griffiths is testing an invention he’s confident will save the world’s oceans from choking in plastic waste. And earn him millions. His machine, about the size of a tennis court, churns all sorts of petroleum-based products — cling wrap, polyester clothing, carpets, electronics — back into oil. ...

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