Company News in Brief
Trafigura-led consortium aims to finalise US loan deal by end of 2025Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) aims to finalise by the end of this year a $533 million loan deal with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) that is vital for the upgrade of its Angolan concession, LAR’s CEO told Reuters.
The US development lender pledged the loan in 2024 to support the revamp of 1 300 kilometres (800 miles) of railways and provide a quick route to haul minerals that are critical to the global shift to cleaner energy.
Angola in 2022 handed LAR, a consortium of Trafigura, Mota-Engil and Vecturis SA, a 30-year concession to operate the rail link and provide a quick route for copper and cobalt exports from the Democratic Republic of Congo through the Lobito port on the Atlantic coast.-REUTERS
India’s Tata Motors returns to South African car market after six yearsIndia’s Tata Motors returned to South Africa’s passenger vehicles market after a six-year absence, launching three ranges of SUVs and an entry-level compact hatchback to take on Chinese competitors.
Growing demand for budget-friendly cars is luring global automakers to offer consumers more options, in a shift that spotlights rising reliance on low-cost imports from India and China, but puts a question-mark on future domestic production.
“Our aspiration, as part of our mid-term plan, is to be one of the top five passenger vehicles in South Africa, with a 6% to 8% market share,” Thato Magasa, the new country head for Tata Motor Passenger Vehicles (TMPV) said at Tuesday’s launch.
Tata unveiled the Punch compact sports utility vehicle (SUV), the Curvv coupe-inspired SUV, the compact hatchback Tiago and its flagship premium SUV Harrier, all combustion engine cars that go on sale from September.
Its return pits Tata against a rising tide of Chinese automakers such as Chery Group, BYD, Beijing Automotive and GWM, which have offered competitively priced vehicles with different powertrains in recent years.-REUTERS
China’s Baidu misses quarterly revenue estimates on advertising weaknessChinese search engine giant Baidu’s, quarterly revenue fell and was just shy of market estimates on Wednesday, signaling persistent weakness in the advertising market amid prolonged economic uncertainty.
U.S.-listed shares of the company fell about 2% in premarket trading.
Slammed by a property market downturn, weak employment rates and choppy consumer demand, companies in the world’s second-largest economy have reined in advertising spending to cut costs and protect their margins.
Baidu, which relies heavily on advertising in its search engine, also took a hit. Its core online advertising business, which typically makes up 60% of the overall company revenue, reported a 15% decrease in revenue to 16.2 billion yuan during the April-June quarter.
That eclipsed upbeat growth at the company’s AI cloud segment, which drove a 34% increase in Baidu’s non-online advertising business.
The company reported total revenue of 32.71 billion yuan ($4.56 billion) during the second quarter, down 4% from the year earlier. Analysts on average estimated 32.76 billion yuan, according to data compiled by LSEG.-REUTERS
China’s rare earth magnet exports hit six-month high in JulyChina’s exports of rare earth magnets recovered to hit a six-month high in July, showing trade flows of the critical minerals key to electric vehicles have returned to levels seen before Beijing imposed export curbs.
Exports from the world’s largest rare earth magnet supplier rose nearly 75% from June to hit the highest for a single month since January at 5 577 metric tons last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Wednesday.
The July volume, which was in line with analysts’ expectations, was also 5.7% higher than 5 278 tons shipped in the same month last year.
The continued recovery in exports came after Beijing agreed to a series of deals with the United States and Europe to increase shipments and ease the export control imposed in April in retaliation for US tariffs.
Shipments declined sharply in April and May due to lengthy approval processes for securing export licences, upending global supply chains and forcing some automakers outside China to halt some production due to a rare earths shortage.
By country, Germany remained the No.1 export destination with a volume of 1 116 tons, up 46% from the prior month.
-REUTERS
The US development lender pledged the loan in 2024 to support the revamp of 1 300 kilometres (800 miles) of railways and provide a quick route to haul minerals that are critical to the global shift to cleaner energy.
Angola in 2022 handed LAR, a consortium of Trafigura, Mota-Engil and Vecturis SA, a 30-year concession to operate the rail link and provide a quick route for copper and cobalt exports from the Democratic Republic of Congo through the Lobito port on the Atlantic coast.-REUTERS
India’s Tata Motors returns to South African car market after six yearsIndia’s Tata Motors returned to South Africa’s passenger vehicles market after a six-year absence, launching three ranges of SUVs and an entry-level compact hatchback to take on Chinese competitors.
Growing demand for budget-friendly cars is luring global automakers to offer consumers more options, in a shift that spotlights rising reliance on low-cost imports from India and China, but puts a question-mark on future domestic production.
“Our aspiration, as part of our mid-term plan, is to be one of the top five passenger vehicles in South Africa, with a 6% to 8% market share,” Thato Magasa, the new country head for Tata Motor Passenger Vehicles (TMPV) said at Tuesday’s launch.
Tata unveiled the Punch compact sports utility vehicle (SUV), the Curvv coupe-inspired SUV, the compact hatchback Tiago and its flagship premium SUV Harrier, all combustion engine cars that go on sale from September.
Its return pits Tata against a rising tide of Chinese automakers such as Chery Group, BYD, Beijing Automotive and GWM, which have offered competitively priced vehicles with different powertrains in recent years.-REUTERS
China’s Baidu misses quarterly revenue estimates on advertising weaknessChinese search engine giant Baidu’s, quarterly revenue fell and was just shy of market estimates on Wednesday, signaling persistent weakness in the advertising market amid prolonged economic uncertainty.
U.S.-listed shares of the company fell about 2% in premarket trading.
Slammed by a property market downturn, weak employment rates and choppy consumer demand, companies in the world’s second-largest economy have reined in advertising spending to cut costs and protect their margins.
Baidu, which relies heavily on advertising in its search engine, also took a hit. Its core online advertising business, which typically makes up 60% of the overall company revenue, reported a 15% decrease in revenue to 16.2 billion yuan during the April-June quarter.
That eclipsed upbeat growth at the company’s AI cloud segment, which drove a 34% increase in Baidu’s non-online advertising business.
The company reported total revenue of 32.71 billion yuan ($4.56 billion) during the second quarter, down 4% from the year earlier. Analysts on average estimated 32.76 billion yuan, according to data compiled by LSEG.-REUTERS
China’s rare earth magnet exports hit six-month high in JulyChina’s exports of rare earth magnets recovered to hit a six-month high in July, showing trade flows of the critical minerals key to electric vehicles have returned to levels seen before Beijing imposed export curbs.
Exports from the world’s largest rare earth magnet supplier rose nearly 75% from June to hit the highest for a single month since January at 5 577 metric tons last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Wednesday.
The July volume, which was in line with analysts’ expectations, was also 5.7% higher than 5 278 tons shipped in the same month last year.
The continued recovery in exports came after Beijing agreed to a series of deals with the United States and Europe to increase shipments and ease the export control imposed in April in retaliation for US tariffs.
Shipments declined sharply in April and May due to lengthy approval processes for securing export licences, upending global supply chains and forcing some automakers outside China to halt some production due to a rare earths shortage.
By country, Germany remained the No.1 export destination with a volume of 1 116 tons, up 46% from the prior month.
-REUTERS
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