Bloomberg The latest robot seeking to find the 600 tons of nuclear fuel and debris that melted down six year ago in Japan’s wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant met its end in less than a day. The scorpion-shaped machine, built by Toshiba Corp., entered the No. 2 reactor core and stopped 3 meters (9.8 feet) short of a grate ...
Read More »Sugar boom turning Russia into exporter with record output
Bloomberg In just a decade, Russia has transformed its sugar industry. The country, which was once the world’s top importer of raw sweetener, is now on the verge of becoming a net exporter. Aided by an import tax Russia introduced in 2004 to shield domestic firms from foreign competition, producers have been able to invest in making beet refining ...
Read More »China’s surging prices hidden side to reflation trade
Bloomberg Forget about Donald Trump. The global reflation trade may have another driver that proves to be more durable: China’s rebounding factory prices. The producer price index has staged an 10 percentage-point turnaround in the past 10 months, posting for January a 6.9 percent jump from a year earlier. Though much of that reflects a rebound in commodity prices ...
Read More »India clears bill to ease introduction of new taxes
Bloomberg A panel of state finance ministers cleared a bill that will compensate states for any revenue lost as a new nationwide goods and services tax is introduced in July. The government will now present the compensation bill in the second phase of the parliament’s budget session, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters in the northwestern city of Udaipur ...
Read More »Japan logs 1% growth in 2016 as private demand stalls
TOKYO / AP Japan’s economy expanded at a steadily slowing pace in 2016, though a modest recovery in exports helped offset sluggish spending by households and businesses, according to data reported. The 1.0 percent annual pace of expansion for the year compared with 1.2 percent growth in 2015. For all but one quarter of the year, private demand was flat ...
Read More »Boeing’s fortunes shine as Trump warms to value of Ex-Im bank
Bloomberg After a rocky start, Boeing Co. Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg appears to have gained the ear of President Donald Trump. The US planemaker was one of Trump’s first post-election corporate targets, and a tweet about soaring Air Force One costs briefly tanked the company’s shares in December. But the Twitter tirade also gave Muilenburg an opening to ...
Read More »SpaceX halts rocket launch 10 seconds before planned liftoff
Bloomberg Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. halted the launch of its second rocket in as many months on Saturday, about 10 seconds before its scheduled liftoff. “All systems go, except the movement trace of an upper stage engine steering hydraulic piston was slightly odd. Standing down to investigate,†Musk said in a Twitter post. The rocket, which was ...
Read More »American Air’s pilots vote no-confidence in CEO, executives
Bloomberg The leaders of American Airlines’ pilot union voted no-confidence in Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker, citing pay and scheduling problems, delays in implementing their full contract and a “toxic†company culture. “The straw that broke the camel’s back was Parker skipping last week’s meeting with President Trump and other airline industry executives at the White House,†the Allied ...
Read More »Air Canada’s plan of attack flies over United States
Bloomberg When it comes to maintaining domestic air superiority, US carriers have been shaking their fists at Persian Gulf airlines that have rapidly increased their American presence. Yet there’s another threat that may be growing in their own backyard—or more precisely, just north of it. Air Canada has been around for 80 years, but only recently sought to parlay ...
Read More »China economy to attain high income status by 2027
Bloomberg China will likely avoid a financial crisis and is on track to reach high income status by 2027, according to a new Morgan Stanley report on the nation’s longer-term prospects titled “Why we are bullish on China.” The sweeping outlook comes amid growing concern over China’s surging debt levels, slow pace of reforms and the impact of a ...
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