2025-07-15 23:03
July 16 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) , opens new tab, (RIO.L) , opens new tab on Wednesday posted a lower-than-expected rise in iron ore shipments for the second quarter, but forecast fiscal 2025 copper production at the higher end of its guidance range. Iron ore shipments at Rio Tinto, the world's largest producer of the steel-making commodity, are recovering after a series of tropical cyclones snarled operations in the March quarter. Sign up here. In the three months ended June 30, the miner shipped 79.9 million metric tonnes (Mt) of iron ore from its Pilbara operations, a 13% rise from the previous quarter but below a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of 81.98 Mt. Rio Tinto shipped out more of its lower-quality SP10 iron ore. SP10 levels accounted for 29% of Pilbara shipments. It forecast full-year copper production at the higher end of its guidance range and expects unit costs around the lower end, as its Oyu Tolgoi underground mine in Mongolia ramps up. The miner reaffirmed its full-year iron ore shipment forecast at the lower end of its range of 323 million metric tonnes (Mt) to 338 Mt. Rio Tinto on Tuesday named Simon Trott, head of its most profitable iron ore division, as CEO, succeeding Jakob Stausholm, who unexpectedly announced in May he would step down after four-and-a-half years. https://www.reuters.com/business/rio-tintos-second-quarter-iron-ore-output-rises-13-sequentially-2025-07-15/
2025-07-15 22:50
July 15 (Reuters) - Raizen SA, the world's largest sugar producer, said on Tuesday that it was shutting down for an indefinite period one of its largest plants in Brazil, the Santa Elisa mill, as the company continues to adopt measures to deal with a large debt load. Raizen (RAIZ4.SA) , opens new tab, which is controlled by Shell (SHEL.L) , opens new tab and Brazilian conglomerate Cosan SA (CSAN3.SA) , opens new tab, said that as a result of the plant's closure it had entered into agreements with six sugar companies to sell 3.5 million metric tons of sugarcane that would be processed by the Santa Elisa mill. Sign up here. It said the sale of that sugarcane would bring in 1.045 billion reais ($188.18 million) that Raizen will use to cut its debt of over 30 billion reais. The Santa Elisa mill was a historical site for the Brazilian sugar and ethanol industry. The plant was founded 90 years ago in the main sugar belt of Ribeirao Preto, and helped consolidate Brazil's position as the world's largest sugar exporter. Its past owners were behind the political movement in the 1970s to create Brazil's ethanol program, called Proalcool, in a time when the world was struggling with record high oil prices. CEISE Br, an association of equipment makers for the sugar and ethanol industry, said the closure of Santa Elisa was worrying for the segment. "There are concerns about the impact of this action in the industry, particularly regarding ongoing contracts for maintenance, technical support and supply of equipments in the current crop," it said. Raizen sold one of its plants in May and has offered other assets to competitors in Brazil as it tries to cut debt. The company's woes happen in a moment of weak sugar prices, with benchmark raw sugar futures on the ICE exchange having hit a four-year low in June. ($1 = 5.5531 reais) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/worlds-top-sugar-maker-shuts-large-brazil-plant-cut-debt-2025-07-15/
2025-07-15 22:24
LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - The British government on Tuesday made changes to its main scheme for promoting clean energy projects, extending contract lengths and changing how auction budgets are set in a bid to accelerate the roll-out of renewable energy. Offshore wind is at the heart of Britain's plans to decarbonise its electricity sector by 2030. It aims to boost capacity to 43-50 gigawatts by the end of the decade, from around 15 GW now, although a government report in November said it would be a challenge to reach that goal. Sign up here. Britain's Contracts for Difference scheme is its main mechanism for securing clean energy projects and it holds annual auctions for subsidies, offering a guaranteed minimum price for the power produced to help spur investment in new projects. Under the new rules, contracts for offshore wind, onshore wind, and solar projects will increase to 20 years from 15 years, the government said in a statement, adding the longer terms would spread costs over a longer period for consumers and provide greater certainty for investors. The reforms will also change the way auction budgets are determined. The energy minister will now be able to view developer bids before setting the final budget, allowing for more accurate capacity procurement and ensuring better value for money for consumers. "These reforms will give developers the certainty they need to build in Britain, helping deliver more clean power projects and supporting thousands of jobs," Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/britain-reforms-energy-scheme-accelerate-clean-power-projects-2025-07-15/
2025-07-15 22:19
800 mile line would transmit Kansas wind power to cities Senator: U.S. energy secretary told him he will stop project Farmers say eminent domain will trample on landowner rights WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. farmers on Tuesday slammed a project that got an up-to $4.9 billion loan guarantee from former President Joe Biden's administration to transmit electricity from wind and solar farms in the Midwest to cities. The 800-mile (1,290 km) Grain Belt Express transmission project backed by private company Invenergy would transmit power from Kansas to cities in the Midwest and East. Sign up here. Invenergy says the line, the second-longest in U.S. history, would be a national "energy security backbone" connecting four grid regions including the PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. grid, which covers states from Illinois to New Jersey. The project could also support President Donald Trump's "energy dominance" policy of maximizing energy output. The White House on May 9 praised a $1.7 billion Invenergy investment in the project in a "list of wins" that bolster the U.S. economy and enhance national security. But Garrett Hawkins, the president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, told Reuters that the project would trample on the rights of farmers due to the project filing dozens of eminent domain, or compulsory acquisition, petitions against state landowners. Hawkins said the "sole purpose is to serve its own business interests, and in doing so, profit off the backs of farmers and landowners who have to house their infrastructure for decades to come." His comments came after Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said in a post on X on July 10 that he had a conversation with Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Wright had told him that "he will be putting a stop to the Grain Belt Express green scam." Invenergy said it sent a letter to Wright a day later saying Hawley and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who has opened an investigation into the project, are declaring "open season on America's ability to build needed energy infrastructure." Invenergy asked Wright to "put this unfounded noise aside and affirm a commitment" to the line. The White House and the Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The project has been in the works for a decade and got the conditional loan guarantee from the Department of Energy's Loan Program Office in November last year. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-renewable-power-transmission-project-under-fire-farmers-2025-07-15/
2025-07-15 21:18
ORLANDO, Florida, July 15 (Reuters) - TRADING DAY Making sense of the forces driving global markets Sign up here. By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist The S&P 500 and Nasdaq leaped to new highs on Tuesday thanks to a surge in Nvidia shares, but closed mixed as investors digested a pick-up in U.S. inflation, a raft of major U.S. financial firms' earnings and spiking bond yields around the world, especially in Japan. More on that below, but in my column today I ask whether there is a sense of tariff complacency creeping into markets, as investors increasingly bet on the 'TACO' trade. If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today. Today's Key Market Moves Bond blues mar stocks' joy It was a mixed bag on world markets on Tuesday. Two of Wall Street's three main indices, Britain's FTSE 100 and the MSCI World index hit fresh peaks, yet U.S. inflation rose, bond yields marched higher and investors gave a thumbs down to seemingly solid earnings from U.S. financial firms. Equity market strength was mostly in tech, after AI darling and chipmaker Nvidia said overnight it plans to resume sales of its H20 AI chips to China. Hong Kong's tech index got the ball rolling with a 2.8% rise, and tech was the only sector on the S&P 500 to close in the green. But if the market's glass was half full at the start of the day, it was half empty by the end of it. U.S. inflation was broadly in line with expectations, yet investors focused on the upside risks; U.S. bank earnings were solid, but financials were among the biggest decliners. The shadow of higher bond yields is beginning to lengthen as worries over governments' fiscal health, tariff-driven inflation and investor appetite for fixed income assets pick up again. The 30-year U.S. Treasury yield is back above 5.00%, but the eye of the bond market hurricane appears to be in Japan. Investor angst around an Upper House election on Sunday is bubbling up. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's sliding popularity suggests even his modest goal of retaining a majority is out of reach, and defeat could bring anything from a shift in the makeup of Ishiba's coalition to his resignation. Japanese government bond yields are surging, but that's proving to be a headwind for the yen rather than a tailwind as extra pressure on the country's already strained public finances, a straight-jacketed Bank of Japan and stagflation fears more than offset any potential carry for yen investors. The yen slumped to a three-month low on Tuesday, back within sight of the 150 per dollar mark. The raft of economic indicators from China overnight, meanwhile, generally showed activity in June held up better than economists expected, and second quarter GDP growth was slightly stronger than forecasts too. But Beijing is still under pressure to inject more stimulus into the economy. The property bubble continues to deflate, with new home prices falling at their fastest pace in eight months, and more broadly, China's economic surprises index is its lowest in three months. If incoming data is beating forecasts, it is because expectations have been lowered so much. Tariff 'doom loop' hangs over global equities The astonishing rebound in stocks since early April largely reflects investors' bet that U.S. President Donald Trump won't follow through on his tariff threats. But the market's very resilience may encourage the president to push forward, which could be bad news for equities in both the U.S. and Europe. Investors appear to believe that the April 2 "reciprocal" tariffs were mostly a tactic to bring countries to the negotiating table, and Washington's levies will end up being much lower than advertised. Tariffs may end up much higher than they were before Trump's second term began, but the situation will still be better than the worst-case scenarios initially priced in after Trump's so-called "Liberation Day". Monday's equity moves were a case in point. Trump's threat on Saturday to impose 30% levies on imports from the European Union and Mexico - two of America's largest trading partners - was met with a collective market shrug. European and Mexican stocks dipped a bit, but Wall Street closed in the green and the Nasdaq hit a new high. This follows threats in recent days to place a 50% tariff rate on goods imported from Brazil and a 35% levy on goods from Canada not covered under the USMCA agreement. Brazilian stocks have slipped 5%, but Canadian stocks have hit new peaks. The question now is whether the line between complacency and the "TACO" trade - the bet that "Trump always chickens out" - is getting blurred. GETTING STRETCHED The scale of the recovery since April 7 is truly eye-popping. It took the S&P 500 less than three months to move from the April bear market lows to a new all-time high, as Charlie Bilello, chief market strategist at Creative Planning, recently noted on X. This was the second-fastest recovery in the last 75 years, only bested by the bear market recovery in 1982 that took less than two months. On a 12-month forward earnings basis, the S&P 500 index is now near its highest level in years and well above its long-term average. The tech sector, which has propelled the rally, has rarely been more expensive in the last quarter century either. None of that means further gains cannot materialize, and one could argue that the valuations are justified if AI truly delivers the promised world-changing productivity gains. Regardless, it is hard to argue that the rally since April is not rooted in the belief that tariffs will be significantly lower than the levels announced on Liberation Day. If many countries' levies do end up around 10% like Britain's and the aggregate rate settles around 15%, then equity pricing might very well be reasonable. But if that's not the case, growth forecasts will likely have to be revised a lot lower. "We stay overweight U.S. stocks, but don't rule out more sharp near-term market moves. Uncertainty on who will bear tariff costs means yet more dispersion in returns – and more opportunity to earn alpha, or above-benchmark returns," BlackRock Investment Institute analysts wrote on Monday. DOOM LOOP? One concern is that a loop is potentially being created, whereby Wall Street's resilience and strength in the face of heightened trade uncertainty actually emboldens Trump to double down on tariffs. Most analysts still believe cooler heads will prevail, however. Trump's tolerance for equity and bond market stress, and therefore U.S. economic pain, appears "limited", according to Barclays. But if markets have gotten too complacent and Trump does increase tariffs on EU goods to 30%, potential retaliation would risk a repeat of something similar to the post-Liberation Day selloff, sending European equities down by double digits, Barclays warns. It may also be that when it comes to tariffs, investors are focusing so intently on China that not much else moves the dial. This may be short-sighted though. China accounted for 13.4% of U.S. goods imports last year, the lowest in 20 years. In contrast, the U.S. imported $605.7 billion of goods from the European Union, or 18.6% of all imports and the most from any single jurisdiction. As Trump sees it, Europe is "ripping off" America almost as much as China. Bilateral U.S.-China trade last year totaled $582 billion, compared with bilateral U.S.-EU trade flows of $975 billion, U.S. Census data shows. America's $235.9 billion goods deficit with the EU was smaller than its $295.5 billion gaps with China, but that's still comfortably America's second-biggest trade deficit. What could move markets tomorrow? Want to receive Trading Day in your inbox every weekday morning? Sign up for my newsletter here. Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles , opens new tab, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-trading-day-2025-07-15/
2025-07-15 21:17
SAO PAULO, July 15 (Reuters) - The 50% tariff that U.S. President Donald Trump plans to impose on Brazilian exports starting in August could hammer the revenue of planemaker Embraer (EMBR3.SA) , opens new tab like the COVID-19 pandemic did, its CEO warned on Tuesday, flagging risks to U.S. partners. Francisco Gomes Neto told reporters the tariffs would amount to a trade embargo on the regional jets it supplies to U.S. airlines and could trigger order cancellations, deferred deliveries and tough consequences for Embraer's U.S. suppliers. Sign up here. Sao Paulo-listed shares in Embraer, which had risen 3% earlier in the day, seesawed during his remarks, lost the gains before ticking back up 0.6%. They have fallen around 10% since Trump announced the tariffs, but are still up 33% so far this year. The U.S. is the main market for Embraer, the world's third-largest planemaker after Airbus (AIR.PA) , opens new tab and Boeing (BA.N) , opens new tab, with U.S. clients buying 45% of the firm's commercial airliners and 70% of its executive jets. Analysts had warned that the Brazilian planemaker would be one of the most affected by the tariffs. "Given the relevance of this market, we estimate that if this (tariff plan) moves on at this magnitude, we will have an impact similar to that of COVID-19 in terms of the decline in the company's revenue," Gomes Neto said. In 2020, when the pandemic ground air travel to a halt, Embraer's revenue plunged around 30% from the previous year. Gomes Neto emphasized that the tariffs would also hurt U.S. suppliers of components such as engines and avionics. "It's a lose-lose situation," he said. Aircraft are among the top U.S. imports from Brazil, along with oil, steel, coffee and orange juice. Embraer forecast the levies would generate an additional cost of around $9 million per airplane exported to the U.S., with potential impacts totaling around 2 billion reais ($360 million) this year. Shipments of E175 narrowbodies, a workhorse of U.S. regional aviation, would become "unfeasible" by the tariffs, Gomes Neto noted, adding that no order had been canceled so far. "It's a very new situation, so everyone is trying to understand this process and working toward reaching a solution within the deadline," the CEO said. In March, Embraer's E175 backlog included 90 firm orders from American Airlines (AAL.O) , opens new tab, 40 from Republic, and 16 from SkyWest, which placed a fresh order in June for another 60 jets. ($1 = 5.56 reais) https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-tariffs-brazil-could-hit-embraer-revenue-like-covid-19-says-ceo-2025-07-15/
