TRADE
China halts US farm imports
The Chinese government has asked its state-owned enterprises to suspend imports of US agricultural products after US President Donald Trump ratcheted up trade tensions on Friday, people familiar with the situation said. State-run agricultural firms have stopped buying US farm goods, and are waiting to see how trade talks progress, the people said, declining to be identified. “The leverage that China has is its large agricultural purchases,” Darin Friedrichs, a senior analyst at INTL FCStone’s Asia commodities division, said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “This does affect US farmers and the rural US voting base that’s normally in support of Donald Trump. If they hit back before the election, that’s the obvious way to retaliate.”
PRECIOUS METALS
India’s gold imports drop
Gold imports by India last month tumbled to the lowest monthly inflow in more than three years as demand paused following record high prices in the domestic market. Overseas purchases fell 69 percent to 20.4 tonnes from 65.6 tonnes a year earlier, according to a person familiar with the data. That would be the smallest monthly quantity shipped since at least March 2016, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. Total shipments din the first seven months of the year rose about 20 percent from year earlier to 492.3 tonnes.
ENERGY
Petronas, Gabon ink deal
Malaysia’s state-owned Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has signed an agreement with Gabon for two exploration permits after the African country enacted a new hydrocarbons law last month, the government said in a statement citing Gabonese Minister of Petroleum and Hydrocarbons Noel Mboumba. Petronas already has a presence in Gabon and is the first firm to sign an exploration and production contract in the country in five years, the statement said.
ENERGY
Saudi Arabia mixes pricing
Saudi Arabia lowered pricing for next month’s sales of all crudes to Asia, while raising prices to buyers in northwest Europe and the Mediterranean region. State-owned Saudi Aramco cut pricing for its flagship Arab Light crude to buyers in Asia by US$0.75, to a US$1.70 a barrel premium over the Oman-Dubai Middle Eastern benchmark, it said on Sunday.
FOOD AND BEVERAGE
Just Eat Takeaway order in
Amsterdam-based Takeaway.com and British rival Just Eat have finalized the terms of their deal to create a global food delivery firm. The group, to be called Just Eat Takeaway.com, would be a market leader in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada. The companies yesterday said they had backed the deal as outlined on Monday last week, with Just Eat shareholders receiving 0.09744 new Takeaway.com shares for each of their shares. The terms value Just Eat at about ￡4.7 billion (US$5.7 billion).
LOGISTICS
PostNL sticks with forecast
PostNL stuck with its guidance for this year as it yesterday reported a 24 percent increase in its second-quarter underlying cash operating income (UCOI) and agreed to sell its Postcon business. The Netherlands’ largest mail carrier reported second-quarter UCOI of 41 million euros (US$45.6 million) above analysts’ expectations, helped by lower outflows for pensions and provisions. It said it still expects its full-year UCOI to come to 170 million to 200 million euros.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
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