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Tag: InternationalNews

  • China Importers Default on Soy Cargoes

    China Importers Default on Soy Cargoes

    {{Chinese importers have defaulted on at least 500,000 tons of U.S. and Brazilian soybean cargoes worth around $300 million, the biggest in a decade, as buyers struggle to get credit amid losses in processing beans.}}

    Three companies in the eastern province of Shandong had defaulted on payments for shipments as they were unable to open letters of credit with banks, trade sources said on Thursday.

    A string of defaults on loans, bonds and shadow banking products in recent weeks has highlighted rising credit risks in China, partly fuelled by signs the economy is slowing.

    Commodity firms, along with semiconductor and software companies, are among the most at risk of credit defaults, a Reuters analysis of more than 2,600 Chinese companies showed.

    Up against the cooling economy and signs that authorities will not step in every time a loan goes bad, Chinese banks are becoming more hard-nosed and selective about whom they lend to.

    “There are five to six (panamax) cargoes which are unable to be unloaded at ports because buyers cannot open LCs (letters of credit) and there are no LCs for an additional 5-6 cargoes floating on the sea,” one Beijing-based source said. Each panamax cargo is for 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes.

    Defaults by buyers in China, which imports 60 percent of the soybeans traded in the world, would likely cap a rally in global prices as they coincide with bumper supplies from Brazil and Argentina hitting the market.

    Chicago Board of Trade front-month soybeans edged lower on Thursday after climbing to their highest since July in the last session when the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut its forecast for stocks remaining at the end of the crop year.

    “The reality is that the world is reliant on Chinese imports of soybeans to maintain this price strength,” said Luke Mathews, commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

    “It is putting a question mark on the sustainability of these prices.”

    The default on 500,000 tonnes of soybeans is the biggest since 2004, when buyers walked away from an estimated 30 contracts, resulting in a loss of close to $700 million, traders said.

    Industry sources said some of the companies defaulting have been using soybean imports to secure cheap financing, with interest rates on letters of credit as low as 2 percent and allowing delayed payment of several months.

    Having imported large amounts, some of them even sell the oilseed at a loss, as a way to liquidate their stocks and plough cash into more profitable businesses.

    Fearing a wave of defaults as China’s economy cools after decades of rapid growth, regulators in the past two years told banks to cut off financing to sectors plagued by excess capacity such as steel and cement.

    Exporters, in a bid to gain a foothold in the lucrative Chinese market, sometimes ship cargoes when importers do not have confirmed letters of credit, trusting buyers will honor their commitment. The practice was briefly abandoned after the wave of defaults in 2004 but slowly resumed.

    INDUSTRY EARTHQUAKE?

    With negative processing margins and tightening credit, sources said there could be more defaults on cargoes of soybeans, crushed to make cooking oil and animal feed ingredient soymeal.

    “More ships are coming in, but given the big losses banks are not risking opening LCs for those trading firms,” said a senior company executive whose firm has faced rejections in getting letters of credit from banks. “It is really an earthquake for the industry.”

    Crushers are losing 500-600 yuan ($81-$97) for processing a tonne of soybeans, compared with a 600 yuan profit in the fourth quarter of last year during peak consumption and when some shipments were delayed.

    The fat margin in the fourth quarter prompted China to purchase 27.7 million tonnes of U.S. soy so far in the current marketing year to August, 2014. China bought a total of 21 million tonnes of U.S. soybeans the year before.

    China imported 15.35 million tonnes of the oilseed in the first quarter, up 33.5 percent on a year earlier, according to official Customs data issued on Thursday.

    “Crushers are making big losses while downstream product meal is not selling very well,” said an official at a body, which oversees soybean imports under the commerce ministry.

    Imports could fall below 15 million tonnes in the third quarter from 18.25 million in the same period last year, traders and industry officials said.

    “If you crush beans in China today you lose $80-$100 a tonne,” said a Singapore-based senior executive with a global trading company that has processing facilities in China.

    “This is really discouraging people from buying beans and we expect the real impact will be felt in the third quarter.”

    Demand for soymeal has been hit by outbreaks of bird flu, cutting appetite by as much as 20 to 30 percent in the February-March period, analysts said. Pig farmers have also reduced purchases as they trim herds due to oversupplied pork markets.

    reuters

  • BlackBerry May Consider Exiting Handsets

    BlackBerry May Consider Exiting Handsets

    BlackBerry Ltd would consider exiting its handset business if it remains unprofitable, its chief executive officer said on Wednesday, as the technology company looks to expand its corporate reach with investments, acquisitions and partnerships.

    “If I cannot make money on handsets, I will not be in the handset business,” John Chen said in an interview, adding that the time frame for such a decision was short. He would not be more specific, but said it should be possible to make money off shipments of as few as 10 million a year.

    At its peak, BlackBerry shipped 52.3 million devices in fiscal 2011, while it recorded revenue on less than 2 million last quarter.

    Chen, who took the helm of the struggling company in November, said BlackBerry was also looking to invest in or team up with other companies in regulated industries such as healthcare, and financial and legal services, all of which require highly secure communications.

    The chief executive said small acquisitions to strengthen BlackBerry’s network security offerings were also possible.

    “We are building an engineering team on the service side that is focused on security. We are building an engineering team on the device side that is focused on security. We will do some partnerships and we will probably, potentially do an M&A on security.”

    He said security had become more important to businesses and government since the revelations about U.S. surveillance made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

    In a wide-ranging interview in New York, Chen acknowledged past management mistakes and said he had a long-term strategy to complement the short-term goals of staying afloat and stemming customer defections.

    “You have to live short term. Maybe the prior management had the luxury to bet the world would come to it. I don’t have the luxury at all. I’m losing money and burning cash.”

    In March, the embattled smartphone maker reported a quarterly net loss of $423 million and a 64 percent drop in its revenues, underscoring the magnitude of the challenge Chen faces in turning around the company.

    Chen said BlackBerry remained on track to be cash-flow positive by the end of the current fiscal year, which runs to the end of February 2015, and to return to profit some time in the fiscal year after that.

    internet

  • Footballer Anelka signs with Brazil’s Atlético Mineiro

    Footballer Anelka signs with Brazil’s Atlético Mineiro

    This latest tweet follows several others about Anelka that Kalil has posted over the past few days but is the most concrete so far.

    Atlético Mineiro will be the 12th club for which Anelka, 35, has played. His career has been dogged by controversy.

    Most recently, he was dropped from England’s West Bromwich after his use of the “quenelle” gesture, which is often criticised anti-Semitic.

    Because Anelka does not have a club, it was possible for him to be signed even after the Brazilian exchange officially closed on April 1. He will be able to play immediately.

    At Atlético Mineiro, Anelka will be reunited with his former PSG team mate Ronaldinho.

  • Ukraine Offer to Pro-Russian Rebels

    Ukraine Offer to Pro-Russian Rebels

    {{Ukraine will not prosecute pro-Russian activists occupying official buildings in two eastern cities if they surrender their weapons, Ukraine’s acting President Olexander Turchynov says.}}

    The separatists are holding buildings in the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk. The Kiev authorities say their actions could give Russia a pretext to invade.

    Ukraine has accused Russia of stirring up the unrest. Moscow has denied that.

    Nato says up to 40,000 Russian troops are massed near Ukraine’s border.

    ‘Presidential order’
    The crisis began in November when Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych – an ally of Russia – refused to sign a far-reaching partnership treaty with the EU. That triggered huge anti-Yanukovych demonstrations and violence which led to him fleeing to Russia in February.

    Ukraine has launched what it calls an “anti-terrorist operation” to tackle the separatists in the east. On Wednesday Kiev said the stand-off must end within 48 hours.

    Mr Turchynov told parliament in the capital Kiev there would be “no criminal prosecution of people who give up their weapons and leave the buildings”.

    “I am willing to do this by presidential order,” he said.

    Ukraine fears that the Russian separatist actions are a provocation similar to the protests that gripped Crimea days before Russian troops annexed the peninsula last month.

    The separatists in the east – a mainly Russian-speaking region with close ties to Russia – are demanding referendums on self-rule. In Donetsk they have declared a “people’s republic”.

    wirestory

  • Millions Wasted on Flu Drug, Claims Major Report

    Millions Wasted on Flu Drug, Claims Major Report

    Hundreds of millions of pounds may have been wasted on a drug for flu that works no better than paracetamol, a landmark analysis has said.

    The UK has spent £473m on Tamiflu, which is stockpiled by governments globally to prepare for flu pandemics.

    The Cochrane Collaboration claimed the drug did not prevent the spread of flu or reduce dangerous complications, and only slightly helped symptoms.

    The manufacturers Roche and other experts say the analysis is flawed.

    The antiviral drug Tamiflu was stockpiled from 2006 in the UK when some agencies were predicting that a pandemic of bird flu could kill up to 750,000 people in Britain. Similar decisions were made in other countries.

    Hidden data
    The drug was widely prescribed during the swine flu outbreak in 2009.

    Drug companies do not publish all their research data. This report is the result of a colossal fight for the previously hidden data into the effectiveness and side-effects of Tamiflu.

    It concluded that the drug reduced the persistence of flu symptoms from seven days to 6.3 days in adults and to 5.8 days in children. But the report’s authors said drugs such as paracetamol could have a similar impact.

    On claims that the drug prevented complications such as pneumonia developing, Cochrane suggested the trials were so poor there was “no visible effect”.

    BBC

  • Chinese Pork Firm $5.3 bn IPO set to be Biggest in a Year

    Chinese Pork Firm $5.3 bn IPO set to be Biggest in a Year

    {{Chinese pork producer WH Group hopes to raise more than $5 billion in what would be the world’s biggest initial public offering for a year as it plans to list in Hong Kong, giving a boost to the city’s IPO market.}}

    The company which last year bought US giant Smithfield Foods in a landmark multi billion dollar deal will sell 3.66 billion shares at an indicative price range of HK$8.00 HK$11.25 each.

    If the Henan based firm, formerly known as Shuanghui International Holdings, sells its shares at the top end of the range, it would raise $5.3 billion. That would make it the largest IPO globally since Brazil’s BB Seguridade Participacoes SA raised $5.7 billion in April last year.

    It would also be Hong Kong’s biggest since US insurer AIA raised $20.5 billion in 2010. WH Group’s shares are expected to list on April 30, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

    WH Group is the world’s largest pork company and is involved in the production, slaughter and distribution of the meat, a key ingredient in Chinese cuisine. It is also a shareholder of Spanish meat firm Campofrio Food, according to its website.

    If demand is strong, the firm — whose shareholders include Goldman Sachs and Singapore’s state investment firm Temasek — also has an option to sell a further 20 percent more shares, which could boost the sale to $6.37 billion.

    “It’s one of the largest (deals) in the world, it deserves some attention,” Tanrich Securities vice president Jackson Wong told media, adding that there was high demand when two other smaller pork producers listed in Hong Kong.

    In May WH Group, under the Shuanghui name, agreed to buy Smithfield Foods in a deal valuing Smithfield at $7.1 billion, making it the largest ever Chinese acquisition of a US company.

    AFP

  • Most Bee Deaths Reported in Northern Europe

    Most Bee Deaths Reported in Northern Europe

    {{A new study covering 17 EU countries says that far more honeybees are dying in the UK and other parts of northern Europe than in Mediterranean countries.}}

    The European Commission says it is Europe’s most comprehensive study so far of bee colony deaths.

    Winter mortality was especially high for bees in Belgium (33.6%) and the UK (29%) in 2012-13. But in spring-summer 2013 France was highest with 13.6%.

    Bumblebees and other wild bees were not studied, nor were pesticide impacts.

    The study, called Epilobee, described 10% as an acceptable threshold for bee colony mortality – and Greece, Italy and Spain were among the countries with rates below that threshold.

    The mortality percentages are national estimates based on representative samples. All 17 countries applied the same data collection standards, the report says.

    The survey covered almost 32,000 bee colonies.

    But there is also much concern about death rates among wild bees, which are vital pollinators too.

    Last year the EU introduced a ban on four chemicals called neonicotinoids which are used in pesticides.

    They are believed to be linked to the collapse of bee colonies across Europe, though there is a heated scientific debate over the chemicals’ impact and many experts say further studies are needed.

    The Commission wanted pesticide impacts to be included in the Epilobee study, but it was overruled by member states’ governments.

    {agencies}

  • Public Urged to Reset all Passwords

    Public Urged to Reset all Passwords

    {{Several tech firms are urging people to change all their passwords after the discovery of a major security flaw.}}

    The Yahoo blogging platform Tumblr has advised the public to “change your passwords everywhere – especially your high-security services like email, file storage and banking”.

    Security advisers have given similar warnings about the Heartbleed Bug.

    It follows news that a product used to safeguard data could be compromised to allow eavesdropping.

    OpenSSL is a popular cryptographic library used to digitally scramble sensitive data as it passes to and from computer servers so that only the service provider and the intended recipients can make sense of it.

    If an organisation employs OpenSSL, users see a padlock icon in their web browser – although this can also be triggered by rival products.

    Those affected include Canada’s tax collecting agency, which halted online services “to safeguard the integrity of the information we hold”.

    {{Copied keys}}

    Google Security and Codenomicon – a Finnish security company – revealed on Monday that a flaw had existed in OpenSSL for more than two years that could be used to expose the secret keys that identify service providers employing the code.

    They said that if attackers made copies of these keys they could steal the names and passwords of people using the services, as well as take copies of their data and set up spoof sites that would appear legitimate because they used the stolen credentials.

    It is not known whether the exploit had been used before the revelation, since doing so would not leave a trail – unless the hackers published their haul online.

    “If people have logged into a service during the window of vulnerability then there is a chance that the password is already harvested,” said Ari Takanen, Codenomicon’s chief technology officer.

    “In that sense it’s a good idea to change the passwords on all the updated web portals.”

    Other security experts have been shocked by the revelation

    “Catastrophic is the right word. On the scale of one to 10, this is an 11,” blogged Bruce Schneier.

  • Hong Kong Police Seek Painting Worth $3.7m

    Hong Kong Police Seek Painting Worth $3.7m

    {{Hong Kong police are investigating the disappearance of a painting worth $3.7m (£2.2m) from a hotel, amid reports it may have been accidentally thrown away.}}

    The painting is believed to be a Chinese ink work by artist Cui Ruzhuo entitled Snowy Mountain.

    It was reported missing by auctioneers Poly Auction on Tuesday, having been successfully sold on Monday.

    Several local media reports suggest cleaners at the Grand Hyatt could have thrown the painting out as rubbish.

    According to the South China Morning Post, CCTV footage showed a security guard kick the packaged painting over to a pile of rubbish.

    Citing a police source, the paper said that cleaners were then seen throwing the rubbish away, with the rubbish taken to landfill.

    In a statement, the hotel said it was working with investigators.

    “As the organiser has rented our event venue for this auction, Grand Hyatt Hong Kong is doing its best to offer assistance to Poly Auction including letting the police view the CCTV footage along with our security team,” it said.

    The hotel said the auctioneers were responsible for items they sold.

    Police have found no trace of the painting, which could now be one of the most expensive pieces of rubbish ever.

    {wirestory}

  • Greece to Issue Five-Year Bond

    Greece to Issue Five-Year Bond

    {{Greece is to sell five-year bonds in the country’s first long-term debt sale since its international bailout started four years ago.}}

    The news came as thousands of striking Greeks marched on parliament to protest against job and spending cuts.

    “The Hellenic Republic announces today it has mandated international banks for an imminent five-year benchmark bond issue,” the finance ministry said.

    The bond would be priced in “the immediate future”, it said.

    {{Merkel visit}}

    More than 20,000 people marched peacefully through the streets of Athens chanting: “EU, IMF take the bailout and get out of here!”

    The 24-hour strike left schools and pharmacies shut, ships docked at ports and hospitals operating with only emergency staff.

    Greeks have lost about a third of their disposable income since the debt crisis started and unemployment has soared, leaving more than one in four without a job.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to meet Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in Athens on Friday. Germany has insisted on spending cuts and tax increases in return for loans.

    Turnout at the march, which lasted two hours, was similar to protests held during the last nationwide strike in November.