2025-06-30 11:36
BEIJING, June 30 (Reuters) - China will extend its anti-dumping duties on some stainless steel products from certain countries and regions for another five years from Tuesday in a bid to protect domestic manufacturers. Imports of stainless steel billet and hot rolled stainless steel plate originating from European Union, United Kingdom, South Korea and Indonesia will remain subject to the anti-dumping duties ranging from 20.2% to 103.1%, China's commerce ministry said in a statement. Sign up here. "The harm to the domestic industry will likely to continue if the anti-dumping measures are terminated," the statement said. Stainless steel billet is used to make finished stainless steel products while the hot-rolled stainless steel plate is typically used in sectors including shipmaking, containers, railway and power. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-extend-anti-dumping-duties-imports-some-stainless-steel-2025-06-30/
2025-06-30 11:28
Comes weeks after UK's Grangemouth refinery stopped processing Closure of Lindsey would increase UK's reliance on imports Government calls for investigation into directors, insolvency LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) - Britain's Lindsey oil refinery has begun insolvency proceedings, putting hundreds of jobs at risk and potentially increasing the country's reliance on fuel imports just weeks after its Grangemouth refinery stopped processing oil. Lindsey is one of six remaining oil refineries in Britain, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and employs around 420 people, according to FTI, the refinery's special manager through the insolvency process. Sign up here. Lindsey, with the capacity to refine 113,000 barrels per day according to the website of its owner Prax, has been placed under a winding-up order alongside Prax Storage Lindsey Limited and Prax Terminals Killingholme Limited, the government said on its insolvency service website. FTI Consulting has been appointed special manager of the companies, tasked with helping to liquidate them. "There have been longstanding issues with this company and workers have been badly let down," Energy Minister Michael Shanks said in a statement. "The Secretary of State is today writing to the Insolvency Service to demand an immediate investigation into the conduct of the directors, and the circumstances surrounding this insolvency." Prax, led by Chairman and CEO Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai, could not immediately be reached for comment. It bought Lindsey from TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) , opens new tab in 2021 for around $168 million, according to a Prax presentation. In another presentation, Prax said that last year it recorded adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $120.4 million and that its adjusted net debt to equity ratio stood at 0.31 times in February 2024. Earlier on Monday, management consultancy firm Teneo said it had been appointed administrator of State Oil Limited, Prax's parent group. Teneo also said staff at Lindsey were currently remaining in place and being paid. State Oil joint Administrator Clare Boardman, of Teneo, said that all options would be considered, including a sale of Prax's upstream business and retail operations in Britain and Europe, all of which remain outside of insolvency. Prax's upstream business consists of the Lancaster oilfield in the British North Sea, a geologically complex project which has been in an early production phase for years. It produced around 6,300 bpd last year, according to a presentation on Prax's website. Prax runs around 250 retail fuel sites in Britain, including TotalEnergies-branded stations, in addition to petrol stations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. ($1 = 0.7299 pounds) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/parent-company-prax-owner-uks-lindsey-oil-refinery-administration-2025-06-30/
2025-06-30 11:28
BEIJING, June 30 (Reuters) - China's commerce ministry on Monday urged Canada to "immediately correct its wrongdoings" after Ottawa ordered the Chinese company Hikvision (002415.SZ) , opens new tab to cease operation in the country, citing national security concerns. In a statement published on its website, the Chinese ministry vowed to take the "necessary measures" to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese businesses. Sign up here. "The government has determined that Hikvision Canada Inc's continued operations in Canada would be injurious to Canada's national security," Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly said on X, adding the decision was taken after a multi-step review of information provided by Canada's security and intelligence community. China's foreign ministry on Monday also expressed strong opposition to Canada's move and said it has lodged stern representations with the Canadian side. The foreign ministry accused Canada of generalising the concept of national security and suppressing Chinese enterprises and urged it to provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/china-urges-canada-correct-wrongdoing-over-hikvision-shutdown-2025-06-30/
2025-06-30 11:06
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, June 30 (Reuters) - Hong Kong-listed shares of OSL Group (0863.HK) , opens new tab jumped 10% to their highest in almost four years on Monday after the digital asset trading platform said it had acquired Canadian-based crypto infrastructure provider Banxa. The Banxa deal announced late on Friday is the latest in a string of overseas asset purchases over the past year. OSL's finance chief said it would accelerate its global expansion plans to tap into growing interest in cryptocurrencies. Sign up here. "We will continue global expansion through both acquisitions and license applications," Ivan Wong told Reuters on Monday. Having a global footprint is crucial to OSL's ambition to be a bigger player in cross-border payments, and Wong said the company will seek to issue stablecoins - cryptocurrencies pegged to assets such as fiat currencies. Hong Kong is setting up a licensing framework for stablecoin issuers. Stablecoins will potentially expedite cross-border payments and benefit a regional economy facing challenges from geopolitical tensions, Hong Kong financial secretary Paul Chan said in a blog post over the weekend. "Stablecoins are getting more and more popular among institutions globally," said Wong, adding OSL was preparing for licence applications. Hong Kong's stablecoin bill comes into effect on August 1. China's Ant Group (AGGG.PK) , opens new tab and JD.com (9618.HK) , opens new tab have said they plan to issue stablecoins in Hong Kong via offshore units. In addition to Hong Kong, OSL also aims to issue stablecoins in other regions, Wong said. Since transforming last year into a company fully dedicated to digital assets, OSL has secured an exchange licence in Australia and completed acquisitions in Japan and Europe. The company will close an acquisition in Indonesia next month, and plans to apply for crypto-related licenses in three regions this year, he said. OSL will also step up investment in the so-called Real-World-Assets business, converting traditional assets into digital tokens. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/hong-kong-based-crypto-platform-osl-shares-jump-canadian-acquisition-2025-06-30/
2025-06-30 11:04
ICE raids on farms risk food supply chain disruption Farmworkers illegally in the US are in hiding Crops are unharvested and rotting OXNARD, California, June 30 (Reuters) - Lisa Tate is a sixth-generation farmer in Ventura County, California, an area that produces billions of dollars worth of fruit and vegetables each year, much of it hand-picked by immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Tate knows the farms around her well. And she says she can see with her own eyes how raids carried out by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the area's fields earlier this month, part of President Donald Trump's migration crackdown, have frightened off workers. Sign up here. "In the fields, I would say 70% of the workers are gone," she said in an interview. "If 70% of your workforce doesn't show up, 70% of your crop doesn't get picked and can go bad in one day. Most Americans don't want to do this work. Most farmers here are barely breaking even. I fear this has created a tipping point where many will go bust." In the vast agricultural lands north of Los Angeles, stretching from Ventura County into the state's central valley, two farmers, two field supervisors and four immigrant farmworkers told Reuters this month that the ICE raids have led a majority of workers to stop showing up. That means crops are not being picked and fruit and vegetables are rotting at peak harvest time, they said. One Mexican farm supervisor, who asked not to be named, was overseeing a field being prepared for planting strawberries last week. Usually he would have 300 workers, he said. On this day he had just 80. Another supervisor at a different farm said he usually has 80 workers in a field, but today just 17. BAD FOR BUSINESS Most economists and politicians acknowledge that many of America's agricultural workers are in the country illegally, but say a sharp reduction in their numbers could have devastating impacts on the food supply chain and farm-belt economies. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said an estimated 80% of farmworkers in the U.S. were foreign-born, with nearly half of them in the country illegally. Losing them will cause price hikes for consumers, he said. "This is bad for supply chains, bad for the agricultural industry," Holtz-Eakin said. Over a third of U.S. vegetables and over three-quarters of the country's fruits and nuts are grown in California, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The state's farms and ranches generated nearly $60 billion in agricultural sales in 2023. Of the four immigrant farmworkers Reuters spoke to, two are in the country illegally. These two spoke on the condition of anonymity, out of fear of being arrested by ICE. One, aged 54, has worked in U.S. agricultural fields for 30 years and has a wife and children in the country. He said most of his colleagues have stopped showing up for work. "If they show up to work, they don't know if they will ever see their family again," he said. The other worker in the country illegally told Reuters, "Basically, we wake up in the morning scared. We worry about the sun, the heat, and now a much bigger problem - many not returning home. I try not to get into trouble on the street. Now, whoever gets arrested for any reason gets deported." To be sure, some farmworker community groups said many workers were still returning to the fields, despite the raids, out of economic necessity. The days following a raid may see decreased attendance in the field, but the workers soon return because they have no other sources of income, five groups told Reuters. Workers are also taking other steps to reduce their exposure to immigration agents, like carpooling with people with legal status to work or sending U.S. citizen children to the grocery store, the groups said. ICE CHILL Trump conceded in a post on his Truth Social account this month that ICE raids on farm workers - and also hotel workers - were "taking very good, long-time workers away" from those sectors, "with those jobs being almost impossible to replace." Trump later told reporters, "Our farmers are being hurt badly. They have very good workers." He added, "They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be great." He pledged to issue an order to address the impact, but no policy change has yet been enacted. Trump has always stood up for farmers, said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly in response to a request for comment on the impact of the ICE raids to farms. "He will continue to strengthen our agricultural industry and boost exports while keeping his promise to enforce our immigration laws," she said. Bernard Yaros, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics, a nonpartisan global economics advisory firm, said in a report published on June 26 that native-born workers tend not to fill the void left by immigrant workers who have left. "Unauthorized immigrants tend to work in different occupations than those who are native-born," he said. ICE operations in California's farmland were scaring even those who are authorized, said Greg Tesch, who runs a farm in central California. "Nobody feels safe when they hear the word ICE, even the documented people. We know that the neighborhood is full of a combination of those with and without documents," Tesch said. "If things are ripe, such as our neighbors have bell peppers here, (if) they don't harvest within two or three days, the crop is sunburned or over mature," said Tesch. "We need the labor." https://www.reuters.com/world/us/immigration-raids-leave-crops-unharvested-california-farms-risk-2025-06-30/
2025-06-30 10:45
ECB's new strategy addresses inflation deviations from 2% target ECB acknowledges structural shifts affecting inflation volatility Hawkish policymakers want to raise bar for future quantitative easing SINTRA, Portugal, June 30 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank pledged on Monday to react with equal vigour when inflation was too high as when it was too low, tweaking its overarching strategy after being blind-sided by a surge in prices in recent years. The ECB's new five-year strategy follows a rollercoaster period in which it went from worrying about deflation during the pandemic to a cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and, most recently, disruptions from a simmering trade war. Sign up here. In its new strategy statement, the euro zone's central bank kept a pledge - fought over internally - to deploy "especially forceful or persistent monetary policy measures" but said it would do so when inflation strayed far from its 2% target in either direction. The ECB’s previous strategy statement, published in 2021 when inflation had just started rising, was mostly focused on the risk of price growth getting stuck at low levels, something now seen as a mistake by some central bankers. "To maintain the symmetry of the target, appropriately forceful or persistent monetary policy action in response to large, sustained deviations of inflation from the target in either direction is important," the ECB said. In the new document, the ECB also emphasised that the global economy was facing a number of "structural shifts" from geopolitical and economic fragmentation to demographics and climate change, that will make inflation more prone to large deviations from its target level. "The inflation environment will remain uncertain and potentially more volatile, with larger deviations from the symmetric 2% inflation target," it said. 'FORCEFUL' TUSSLE Some of the 25 policymakers on the ECB’s Governing Council had wanted to change the reference to "especially forceful" action - previously seen as a byword for massive bond purchases and ultra-low interest rates - and engage in greater soul-searching about the central bank’s ultra-easy policy of the last decade. But the new strategy statement was largely free of criticism of its previous policy stance, as sources had indicated it would be in comments to Reuters earlier this year. "All monetary policy tools currently available to the Governing Council will remain in its toolkit," the ECB said. "Their use at any time will continue to be subject to a comprehensive proportionality assessment." A growing number of policymakers from the ECB's hawkish camp – those who favour a tighter monetary policy stance - have signalled in recent weeks that the bar for more bond buying, or quantitative easing (QE) in economic parlance, would be higher in the future. In an interview with Reuters, the ECB’s vice-president Luis de Guindos said the euro zone’s central bank had now learned more about QE’s side effects. The programme has been blamed for a bubble in financial and property markets for causing massive losses at the ECB and its shareholding central banks once interest rates rose. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/ecb-react-forcefully-when-inflation-is-too-high-or-low-2025-06-30/
