2025-03-31 12:24
Skyscraper collapse killed 11, scores still missing Government had threatened to cancel construction contract, official says Investigating whether sub-standard steel was used, government minister says BANGKOK, March 31 (Reuters) - An anti-corruption watchdog had flagged irregularities in the construction of a Bangkok skyscraper that collapsed in an earthquake last week and killed at least 11 people, the head of the monitoring group told Reuters. The government had threatened to cancel the project earlier this year because of delays, Mana Nimitmongkol, president of the Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand, said on Sunday. Sign up here. The government has announced an investigation into the cause of the collapse of the tower, which was being built by a Chinese company and a long-established Thai construction firm. Rescuers were still desperately searching on Monday for 76 more people feared trapped under the rubble of the unfinished 30-storey tower for Thailand's State Audit Office. The unfinished tower was the only Bangkok building that completely crumbled when a 7.7 magnitude quake struck central Myanmar on Friday and rattled neighbouring countries. Construction of the building, which began in 2020, is being carried out by a joint venture between Italian Thai Development PCL (ITD.BK) , opens new tab and a local subsidiary of China's state-owned China Railway Group (601390.SS) , opens new tab, the China Railway Number 10 (Thailand) Ltd. Italian Thai Development and China Railway Group did not immediately comment when contacted by Reuters. The audit office has said that it will investigate the cause of the building collapse. It did not answer e-mailed questions from Reuters whether it had threatened to cancel the construction contract. The tower was originally slated for completion by 2026 but was behind schedule. The deputy auditor general, Sutthipong Boonnithi, told reporters on Saturday that construction was only "30% completed" before it collapsed. Site visits to the project during construction by the anti-corruption group had raised concerns about delays, worker shortages and possible corner-cutting, Mana said. "Sometimes the number of workers on site were much fewer than there should be, causing delays," he said. "Potentially there was a rush to complete the project towards the end, which could cause a drop in the standard of work." Mana, whose organisation scrutinises some 170 government projects around the country, said the construction delay was so severe that the audit office had threatened to cancel the contract with the two construction companies in January. Share prices of ITD tumbled 30% when markets opened on Monday against a benchmark (.SETI) , opens new tab drop of 1%. NO OTHER BUILDING COLLAPSED Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra ordered government agencies on Saturday to investigate the root cause of the building collapse within one week. The official Thai investigation is looking into the construction plan, the standard of the material used as well as possible unsafe action during the construction of the building. Han Zhinqiang, China's ambassador to Thailand, said on Sunday that China would cooperate in the investigation. Thai Industry Minister Akanat Promphan told Reuters that he was concerned sub-standard steel may have been used in the construction of the building as he led the team collecting samples from the rubble on Sunday. The material gathered was being tested at the site, and results were expected to be announced on Monday afternoon. The ministry has been cracking down on companies that have produced sub-standard steel over the past six months, shutting down seven factories and seizing 360 million baht (about $10 million) worth of assets from these steel companies, he said. "Many of these factories used an old production process and equipment relocated from China," Akanat said, adding: "This has led to sub-standard steel." Experts from the council of engineers that is assisting the government in surveying buildings around the Thai capital for earthquake damages speculated that the skyscraper could have collapsed due to unsafe material or poor planning in the building process. "It is strange that no other buildings suffered like this," Anek Siripanichgorn, a board member of the Council of Engineers Thailand told Reuters. "Even other tall buildings under construction, they did not collapse," he said. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/thai-watchdog-had-flagged-concerns-building-that-collapsed-earthquake-2025-03-31/
2025-03-31 11:57
LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - Britain expects to be hit by U.S. President Donald Trump's plans to impose global tariffs this week and the government has been preparing for all eventualities, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesman said on Monday. Talks between Britain and the United States to negotiate a new economic deal that would avert the tariffs are expected to continue beyond Wednesday, when Trump is expected to unveil the worldwide tariffs, the spokesman said. Sign up here. "We have been actively preparing for all eventualities ahead of the expected announcement from President Trump this week, which (we) would expect the UK to be impacted alongside other countries," the spokesman told reporters. Trump is set to announce new reciprocal tariff rates on what he has called "Liberation Day" on April 2, after implementing levies on aluminium, steel and automobiles, along with increased tariffs on all goods from China. The action aims to shrink a $1.2 trillion global goods trade deficit by raising U.S. tariffs to levels charged by other countries and counteracting their non-tariff trade barriers. Starmer held what Downing Street called a "productive" phone call with Trump on Sunday as the British leader seeks to avoid the tariffs. Although British ministers have said no options are off the table in response to any such tariffs, they have played down the likelihood of immediate retaliation against the United States, arguing that a trade war is bad for global economic growth. Britain's Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) watchdog said last week that higher U.S. import tariffs would harm the UK's economic activity and would wipe out almost all of the government's fiscal buffer. The OBR said U.S. tariffs on its trade partners in general could cut the size of Britain's economy - which is highly exposed to swings in international trade - by as much as 1%. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-expects-be-hit-by-us-tariffs-this-week-pms-spokesman-says-2025-03-31/
2025-03-31 11:45
MOSCOW, March 31 (Reuters) - Russian energy giant Gazprom's GAZP.MM average daily natural gas supplies to Europe via the TurkStream undersea pipeline fell by 19.4% in March from a month earlier, Reuters calculations showed on Monday. Turkey is the only transit route left for Russian gas to Europe after Ukraine chose not to extend a five-year transit deal with Moscow when it expired on January 1. Sign up here. Calculations based on data from European gas transmission group Entsog showed that Russian gas exports via the TurkStream pipeline fell to 45.0 million cubic metres (mcm) per day this month from 55.8 million cubic metres per day in February. That was also down from 46.4 mcm in March 2024. Total Russian gas supplies to Europe via TurkStream stood around 4.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the first three months of this year, compared to 7.7 bcm during the same period a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations. The company, which has not published its own monthly statistics since the start of 2023, did not respond to a request for comment. Russia supplied about 63.8 bcm of gas to Europe by various routes in 2022, Gazprom data and Reuters calculations show. That plummeted by 55.6% to 28.3 bcm in 2024, but increased to around 32 bcm in 2024. At their peak in 2018-2019, annual gas flows to Europe reached between 175 bcm and 180 bcm. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exports-russian-pipeline-gas-europe-down-19-march-month-on-month-data-shows-2025-03-31/
2025-03-31 11:44
March 31 (Reuters) - Utility firm Sempra (SRE.N) , opens new tab will sell some energy infrastructure assets in Mexico and a minority stake in Sempra Infrastructure to fund its five-year capex plan of $56 billion, it said on Monday. In February, the company had forecast a five-year capital plan of about $56 billion, a 16% increase from its prior plan, with over 90% of projected capital expenditures focused on regulated utility investments in Texas and California. Sign up here. "These actions are designed to advance our company's broader effort to simplify the business and minimize reliance on future issuances of common equity to fund the company's five-year capital plan," said CEO Jeffrey Martin. The utility firm plans to sell Ecogas Mexico, which holds three utility franchises and distributes natural gas to more than 600,000 residential, commercial and industrial consumers in Mexico's Mexicali, Chihuahua and La Laguna-Durango regions. The San Diego, California-based company also plans to sell a minority stake in Sempra Infrastructure, which has liquefied natural gas (LNG) assets and related pipeline and storage infrastructure. Sempra previously sold a 20% stake in the unit to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for about $16.9 billion in 2021 and a 10% stake to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for about $17.9 billion in 2022. The transactions announced on Monday are expected to be completed over the next 12 to 18 months. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/sempra-sell-mexico-energy-assets-stake-infrastructure-unit-2025-03-31/
2025-03-31 11:43
TSX ends up 0.6% at 24,917.50 For March, the index loses 1.9% Energy gains 1.2%; oil settles 3.1% higher Nine of the major sectors post gains March 31 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rallied on Monday, with the heavily weighted energy and financials sectors contributing as the market overcame an earlier bout of risk aversion to claw back some of its monthly decline. Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index (.GSPTSE) , opens new tab ended up 158.35 points, or 0.6%, at 24,917.50. For the month, the index was down 1.9%, its second straight month of declines. Sign up here. Both the U.S. and Canadian markets were showing signs of being "oversold," said Sid Mokhtari, chief market technician at CIBC Capital Markets, adding that "maybe some people are taking an element of risk ahead of the tariff calls from the (U.S.) administration." U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that expected tariffs he is set to announce on Wednesday will include all nations, not just a smaller group of 10 to 15 countries with the biggest trade imbalances. "In Canada, we are seeing better performance coming from financials and energy," with the former helped by seasonal factors and the latter supported by a downtrend for Canadian bond yields, Mokhtari said. Combined, financials and energy account for 50% of the TSX's weighting. Financials added 0.8% as the Canadian 10-year yield eased 5.3 basis points to 2.964%. Energy was up 1.2%. The price of oil settled 3.1% higher at $71.48 a barrel on worries that supplies could decline if Trump follows through on threats to impose more tariffs on Russia and to possibly attack Iran. The materials sector, which includes fertilizer companies and metal mining shares, added 0.5% as the price of gold climbed to a fresh record high. Industrials rose 1.1% and consumer staples ended 1.9% higher. Technology was the only one of 10 major sectors to end lower, falling 0.2%. https://www.reuters.com/markets/tsx-futures-fall-trumps-tariff-announcement-nears-2025-03-31/
2025-03-31 11:32
March 31 (Reuters) - Hut 8 (HUT.O) , opens new tab said on Monday it had joined hands with President Donald Trump's son, Eric Trump, to launch a bitcoin mining company called American Bitcoin. Miami, Florida-based Hut 8 merged the majority of its mining operations for an 80% stake in American Data Centers, a company formed by a group of investors including Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. that has been relaunched as American Bitcoin. Sign up here. The move illustrates the growing involvement of the Trump family in the crypto landscape as the industry moves towards mainstream acceptance. President Trump has promised to be the "crypto president," who will popularize its mainstream use in America. U.S.-listed shares of Hut 8 jumped 6.4% in premarket trading. They have fallen 42.8% so far this year as of last close. "From the start, we've backed our conviction in Bitcoin -personally and through our businesses," Donald Trump Jr. said. "But simply buying Bitcoin is only half the story. Mining it on favorable economics opens an even bigger opportunity." American Bitcoin will mainly focus on bitcoin mining while building a strategic bitcoin reserve. The company will be led by CEO Matt Prusak, with Eric Trump serving as the chief strategy officer. In the longer run, American Bitcoin plans to be publicly listed to expand its access to capital. The carving out of the mining business will narrow Hut 8's focus on lower-volatility energy and digital infrastructure company. Hut 8 will serve as American Bitcoin's exclusive infrastructure and operating partner. https://www.reuters.com/technology/hut-8-eric-trump-launch-bitcoin-mining-company-2025-03-31/
