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Bloomberg China’s biggest refiner plans to reduce operations from next month after a surge in the cost of shipping crude eroded margins. Freight rates have skyrocketed since the US announced sanctions on Chinese shipowners in late-September, triggering a flight from vessels owned by affected companies and a bidding war for alternative tankers. That’s driven up the cost of importing crude ...

Bloomberg UK carmakers, already reeling from more than 500 million pounds ($628 million) in costs to prepare for Brexit, made an eleventh-hour call on the government to strike a deal with the European Union to safeguard the future of the industry. Crashing out of the EU would threaten jobs and the sector’s long-term survival, the Society for Motor Manufacturers and ...

Bloomberg Harley-Davidson Inc has halted production of LiveWire, the debut electric bike it’s counting on to attract new riders. The motorcycle maker recently discovered an issue during final quality checks, according to an emailed statement that doesn’t provide details. Harley said it stopped production and deliveries as it conducts additional testing and analysis. Chief Executive Officer Matt Levatich, who’s presided ...

Bloomberg Investor confidence in Germany’s economic outlook remained weak in the latest sign of concern that the nation has slipped into a recession amid trade tensions. ZEW’s index of expectations for the next six months declined to minus 22.8, compared with minus 22.5 last month. Measures of current conditions in Germany and of expectations for the euro zone both worsened. ...

Bloomberg WeWork has backed out of an ambitious project to outfit a 36-story tower in Seattle with co-working space and its co-living offshoot, as the company looks to shore up its finances. WeWork won’t lease the building at 3rd Ave and Lenora St from Martin Selig Real Estate, according to a joint statement from the companies. The decision leaves one ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc is planning to bring 5G to the iPhone next fall, more than a year behind some rivals. The company can ill afford to let the timing slip. Apple’s most recent iPhone launch focussed on camera improvements, and there was no mention of 5G, the latest, fastest wireless standard. Meanwhile, at least 20 5G smartphones are being rolled ...

No news can be good news sometimes. The logic of past Brexit negotiations suggests that the less we hear about what’s happening in intensive Brussels talks, the greater the chance that those talks are getting somewhere. Once the details start to leak and the anonymous briefings start, what’s left tends to be dead on arrival. Yet even with scant details ...

America’s second shale boom is running out of steam. But don’t panic just yet, a third one may be coming over the horizon. The US Energy Information Administration published its latest short-term energy outlook last week and has cut its forecast of oil production by the end of 2020 for the fourth straight month. It now expects American output to ...

During the past 12 months Renault SA has looked more like a soap opera than a carmaker. The French company served up an ill-tempered denouement when it sacked Chief Executive Officer Thierry Bollore, who said he was the victim of a “coup.” Bollore only took the job in January after his predecessor Carlos Ghosn was arrested for alleged impropriety around ...

Donald Trump isn’t the only leader with a sense of drama. The timing of China’s announcement that it will remove foreign ownership caps on financial services firms next year is no accident. It arrives as the climactic day of trade talks is about to get under way in Washington, and presents a challenge to the US president’s efforts to limit ...