Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 27 August 2019
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Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 27 August 2019
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* Remittances from Egyptians working abroad rose to about $3 billion in May
* S.Africa's Sasol lowers LCCP earnings and revises unit start-up dates
* Naspers' Prosus Q2 profit up 31% on Tencent stake - prospectus
* South Africa risks tax revolt, bailouts over govt graft
* Kenya's first crude oil export sparks demands over revenue sharing
* Maroc Telecom signs $1 billion investment deal with Moroccan government
* Kenyan shilling trading in tight range amid excess money market liquidity
* Zambia introduces maize price cap to keep it affordable
* Rate cut to save Telecom Egypt 20% on financing costs -official
* Opioid crisis: Johnson & Johnson hit by landmark ruling
* Trump says US and China to resume trade talks
* Facial recognition specialist Megvii plans share sale
* Ministers and HS2 bosses knew railway over budget years ago
* Asian stocks drop as US-China trade war escalates
* South Africa seizes Air Tanzania plane in Johannesburg
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Remittances from Egyptians working abroad rose to about $3 billion in May
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt received about $3 billion in remittances from
Egyptians living abroad in May, up 43% from $2.1 billion in April, the
central bank said on Monday.
Egypt received $2.6 billion in remittances in May 2018, the statement said.
Remittances are a key source of foreign currency for Egypt.
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S.Africa's Sasol lowers LCCP earnings and revises unit start-up dates
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Sasol said on Monday it had reduced its 2020 core
earnings target for its U.S. ethane cracker project and revised the dates
for the unit’s start-up following technical issues.
Sasol lowered its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortisation(EBITDA) guidance for the Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP)
for the 2020 financial year to between $150 to $300 million from between
$300 to $350 million.
Sasol delayed the release of its annual financial results earlier this month
due to possible “control weaknesses” at the project, sending shares in the
chemicals and energy company sharply lower.
Naspers' Prosus Q2 profit up 31% on Tencent stake - prospectus
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Prosus, the technology holding firm being carved out
of South Africa’s Naspers Ltd, registered a 31% rise in second quarter
profit to $1.40 billion, thanks to its stake in China’s Tencent, its
prospectus showed on Monday.
Prosus, which is to float on Amsterdam’s Euronext stock market on Sept. 11,
holds Naspers’ 31.1% stake in Tencent, worth around $120 billion at current
prices.
Shares in Prosus are not being sold directly to the public. Naspers is
distributing 17-27% of Prosus shares to its own shareholders in the
offering.
Prosus is a holding company for not only the Tencent stake, but also
Naspers’ other international technology businesses, which include an array
of social networking, food delivery, online travel bookings, payments and
other companies.
Most of them grew revenues but suffered trading losses in the most recent
quarter ended June 30, the prospectus showed. Overall, Prosus reported a
second quarter operating loss of $119 million, widening from a $74 million
loss in the same period of 2018.
The Tencent stake contributed trading profits of $1.20 billion in the
quarter. Overall net profit was $1.07 billion in the year-ago quarter.
South Africa risks tax revolt, bailouts over govt graft
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africans could start withholding their tax
payments due to years of corruption which might force the country to seek an
international bailout, the chief of the revenue service said on Monday.
Africa’s most industrialised economy has seen revenue collection fall
sharply since 2015 due to weak economic growth and maladministration,
leading President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire the revenue service boss last
November in the wake of a judicial inquiry that has triggered an executive
clean out.
New Revenue Service (SARS) commissioner Edward Kieswetter, hired in March,
told a tax conference in Johannesburg that falling trust in the collector by
individuals and companies had led to rising levels of tax avoidance and
fraud, bleeding billions from government.
“When public trust wanes, as is the current case, then tax payers feel
morally justified to withhold or manipulate their taxes,” Kieswetter said.
“When revenue collection is undermined it traps us in vicious cycle of
revenue decline, as we’ve experienced, and consequently the need to go with
begging bowls to borrow money, which effectively mortgages our future.”
Earlier in August the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the country’s
debt levels had reached “uncomfortable” levels, but that the country had not
yet reached the point of requiring a bailout.
But with economic growth flagging, contracting 3.2% in the first quarter,
South Africa collected 1.287 trillion rand ($91 billion) in tax in the
2018/19 fiscal year, 15 billion rand short of the government’s target, and
is likely to miss its 2019/20 target of 1.4 trillion rand.
An extra 59 billion rand of financial support for state power firm Eskom, on
top of a 230 billion rand bailout spread over the next decade, is set to
push the 2019/20 budget deficit beyond the 4.5% of gross domestic product
forecast by treasury.
Kenya's first crude oil export sparks demands over revenue sharing
MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenya exported its first crude oil on Monday,
amid pointed speeches by local leaders asking the government to stick to its
commitment to share revenues from future shipments equitably.
Although commercial production is years away, the discovery of oil has
heightened expectations that citizens, especially those living adjacent to
the deposits, will benefit.
President Uhuru Kenyatta in March signed into law a long-awaited petroleum
bill that regulates oil exploration and production and outlines how revenues
will be shared between the government, local communities and companies.
Of the revenues due to the state, the law allocates 20% to local government,
5% to the communities living where oil was found and 75% to the central
government. An earlier draft gave 10% to the communities.
The law also says parliament will review the percentages within 10 years.
The law is required for large-scale oil production but was delayed by
tussles between layers of government and residents of Turkana, the
impoverished northern region where the oil deposits were found.
As the first shipment left Kenya’s port of Mombasa, three governors, an oil
executive and the president compared carving up the profits to sharing a
goat.
“When you slaughter a goat, the owner of the goat is left with the leg,”
Turkana County deputy governor Peter Emuria Lotethiro said. “Turkana want
their leg.”
Tullow Oil estimates that Kenya’s Turkana fields hold 560 million barrels of
oil and expects them to produce up to 100,000 barrels per day from 2022.
London-based Tullow said it and its partners had to date invested $2 billion
in Kenya.
“Having spent $2 billion, the joint venture partners will be able to get a
bit of that goat. There is much more investment to come which will create
jobs across Kenya,” Tullow Chief Executive Paul McDade said.
Mining and Petroleum Minister John Munyes said approval to pump water from
neighbouring West Pokot County to pressurise oil wells had been granted. The
deal is crucial for next year’s final investment decision on proceeding to
commercial production.
“By 2020 we should have the plans to let us proceed with the construction of
the pipeline from Lokichar to Lamu,” he said.
Monday’s shipment was 250,000 barrels of oil. The crude was trucked to the
port since there is no pipeline. The shipment’s destination was not
announced.
Tullow and partner Africa Oil discovered commercial oil reserves in
Turkana’s Lokichar basin in 2012. France’s Total has since taken a 25% stake
in the project.
About two weeks ago, Kenya and a group led by explorer Tullow picked trading
company ChemChina UK Ltd to buy its first shipments. ChemChina UK’s initial
purchases are small-scale, with full commercial shipments due once the
pipeline is built.
Maroc Telecom signs $1 billion investment deal with Moroccan government
RABAT (Reuters) - Maroc Telecom, Morocco’s largest telecoms operator, said
on Monday it had signed a deal worth 10 billion dirhams ($1 billion) with
the Moroccan government to develop telecoms infrastructure over the next
three years.
The deal, covering high-speed mobile broadband in addition to fixed lines,
is the sixth of its kind between the company and the government, brings the
company’s total investments to 68 billion dirhams, Maroc Telecom said in a
statement.
Maroc Telecom, listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange and Euronext in
Paris, is 53% controlled by the United Arab Emirates telecoms group
Etisalat.
The Moroccan government owns 22% after it recently sold an 8% stake in the
company in a privatisation push to curb the country’s budget deficit.
Maroc Telecom operates subsidiaries in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast,
Gabon, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Togo and the Central African Republic.
The group’s customer base grew 3.9% by June 2019 to 63 million users,
including 19.3 million in Morocco.
Kenyan shilling trading in tight range amid excess money market liquidity
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling traded in a narrow range against the
dollar on Monday with inflows from portfolio investors buying government
debt and diaspora remittances helping ease pressure from excess liquidity in
the local money market, traders said.
At 0900 GMT, commercial banks quoted the shilling at 103.20/40 per dollar,
the same as Friday’s close.
Zambia introduces maize price cap to keep it affordable
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia has introduced a cap on the price of maize to keep
the staple food affordable, sparking protest from commercial farmers who
accused the government of bringing back price controls.
Agriculture Minister Michael Katambo said on Sunday that millers, stockfeed
manufacturers, chain stores and grain traders agreed in a meeting with the
government to peg the price of maize at a maximum of 2,600 kwacha ($198.93)
per tonne.
The price of maize meal, Zambia’s staple food, has in some cases doubled to
150 kwacha per 25 kg bag from 75 kwacha early this year.
Zambia’s 2019 maize production is expected to fall 16% to about 2 million
tonnes from 2.39 million tonnes last year largely due to prolonged dry
weather, Katambo said in May.
Katambo said on Sunday that the private sector panicked and rushed into the
market thinking that there was not enough maize and this pushed up prices.
“Maize prices were rising every week because of this panic and the
implication was that the mealie meal price was getting higher,” Katambo
said, referring to maize meal.
Katambo said Zambia still had sufficient maize stocks and indications were
that less than 1 million tonnes of maize had been bought from the 2 million
tonnes the country produced.
“This price is not coming from the government but the private sector players
who attended the meeting,” Katambo said.
In a statement on Sunday, the Zambia National Farmers’ Union (ZNFU), which
represents commercial farmers condemned the cap, saying prices should be
left to market forces.
ZNFU said its members were not invited to the gathering where the price was
agreed and had called for an urgent meeting this week to discuss the
decision.
($1 = 13.0700 Zambian kwachas)
Rate cut to save Telecom Egypt 20% on financing costs -official
CAIRO (Reuters) - Telecom Egypt will save 20% on financing costs after the
Central Bank of Egypt cut interest rates, a company official has said.
“The interest rate cut positively affects Telecom Egypt’s profits, as it
will reduce financing expenses by 20% on the company’s loans, estimated at
11.7 billion pounds ($708 million),” the official told Reuters on condition
of anonymity.
The official did not elaborate.
The central bank cut key interest rates by 150 basis points on Thursday for
the first time since February.
It cut the overnight deposit rate to 14.25 percent from 15.75 percent and
the overnight lending rate to 15.25 percent from 16.75 percent.
Industry leaders hailed the central bank’s decision to cut rates, saying
it would stimulate investment, though they cautioned that further cuts are
needed.
($1 = 16.5200 Egyptian pounds)
Opioid crisis: Johnson & Johnson hit by landmark ruling
Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson must pay $572m (£469m) for its part in fuelling
the opioid addiction crisis in Oklahoma, a US judge has ruled
The company said immediately after the judgement that it would appeal.
The case was the first to go to trial out of thousands of lawsuits filed
against opioid makers and distributors.
Earlier this year, Oklahoma settled with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma for
$270m and Teva Pharmaceutical for $85m, leaving J&J as the lone defendant.
Judge Thad Balkman said prosecutors had demonstrated that J&J contributed to
a "public nuisance" in its deceptive promotion of highly addictive
prescription painkillers.
"Those actions compromised the health and safety of thousands of Oklahomans.
The opioid crisis is an imminent danger and menace to Oklahomans," he said
in his ruling.
The payment would be used for the care and treatment of opioid addicts, he
said.
Deaths
The outcome of the case is being closely watched by plaintiffs in about
2,000 opioid lawsuits due to go to trial in Ohio in October unless the
parties can reach a settlement.
Opioids were involved in almost 400,000 overdose deaths from 1999 to 2017,
according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 2000,
some 6,000 people in Oklahoma have died from opioid overdoses, according to
the state's lawyers.
During Oklahoma's seven-week non-jury trial, lawyers for the state argued
that J&J carried out a years-long marketing campaign that minimised the
addictive painkillers' risks and promoted their benefits.
The state's lawyers had called J&J an opioid "kingpin" and argued that its
marketing efforts created a public nuisance as doctors over-prescribed the
drugs, leading to a surge in overdose deaths in Oklahoma.
J&J vigorously denied wrongdoing, arguing that its marketing claims had
scientific support and that its painkillers, Duragesic and Nucynta, made up
a tiny fraction of opioids prescribed in Oklahoma.
America is the biggest consumer of opioids, followed by Canada and Germany.
The state's case rested on a "radical" interpretation of the state's public
nuisance law, J&J said.
The company said in a statement that since 2008, its painkillers accounted
for less than 1% of the US market, including generics.
"The decision in this case is flawed. The State failed to present evidence
that the company's products or actions caused a public nuisance in Oklahoma.
"This judgment is a misapplication of public nuisance law that has already
been rejected by judges in other states," it added.
The Oklahoma case was brought by the state's Attorney General Mike Hunter.
"Johnson & Johnson will finally be held accountable for thousands of deaths
and addictions caused by their actions," he said after the ruling.--BBC
Trump says US and China to resume trade talks
President Donald Trump has said the US and China will "very shortly" resume
trade talks after a weekend of escalating tension with Beijing.
"China called last night... said let's get back to the table. So we'll be
getting back to the table," he said.
On Friday Mr Trump sharply hiked tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese
imports in retaliation for fresh duties from Beijing.
China has yet to confirm any talks, but said it would not bow to threats.
Mr Trump sent out conflicting messages over the weekend, at first appearing
to express regret about the latest tariffs, only for the White House to
retract his comments on Sunday.
However, at the G7 summit in Biarritz on Monday he said Chinese officials
had made two "very, very good calls" on Sunday night and that Beijing wanted
to "make a deal".
A quick guide to the US-China trade war
The US-China trade war in charts
US-China trade war: 'We're all paying for this'
Suggesting his pressure had brought the Chinese back to the negotiating
table, he added: "They hurt very badly, but they understand this is the
right thing to do.
"We're going to start very shortly to negotiate... but I think we're going
to make a deal."
The US is trying to force Beijing to reform its trade practices, arguing
that American firms face an uneven playing field due to issues such as
intellectual property theft.
However, US allies have pressured Mr Trump at the G7 summit in France,
warning that the trade war is threatening the global economy.
Earlier on Monday Asian stock markets tumbled over concerns about the trade
war, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index losing more than 3% before regaining
ground.
However, European shares climbed after Mr Trump's more conciliatory comments
and US markets opened between 0.7% and 1% higher, having fallen sharply on
Friday.
How has the trade war escalated?
On Friday, the US said it would begin the process of raising tariffs on
around $250bn (£203.8bn) of Chinese imports from 25% to 30% from 1 October.
The US also said fresh tariffs on an additional $300bn of Chinese goods,
announced earlier this month, would now be at a rate of 15% instead of 10%.
The first batch of those tariffs will be introduced in September.
In a tweet, Mr Trump said he planned to order US firms working in China to
move their operations back to the US, although it is unclear how he could
force them to comply.
The moves came after China delivered its latest trade war strike, announcing
plans to hit $75bn worth of US goods with new tariffs and hikes to existing
duties.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he had not heard
that talks were about to re-start.
But he said: "We strongly urge the US not to miscalculate the situation and
immediately cease its wrong actions. If the US implements its plan of
raising tariffs, China will definitely continue to take measures and
safeguard its own legitimate rights. China does not accept any threats or
intimidation."
How did we get here?
The world's two largest economies have been locked in a bruising trade
battle for the past year that has seen tariffs imposed on billions of
dollars worth of one another's goods.
Mr Trump has long accused China of unfair trading practices, but in China
there is a perception that the US is trying to curb its rise.
Sharp falls in the yuan earlier this month prompted the US to officially
name China a "currency manipulator", adding to tensions between the two
countries.---BBC
Facial recognition specialist Megvii plans share sale
A leading Chinese facial recognition provider has filed papers for a listing
on Hong Kong's stock exchange.
Megvii - the maker of the Face++ system - is one of the country's best known
artificial intelligence (AI) companies.
Earlier this year, a Western study suggested its face-checking tech was more
accurate than rival systems from Amazon and IBM.
But it comes at a time when campaigners are voicing concerns about facial
recognition's use for surveillance.
There have also been reports that the White House has considered adding
Megvii to a trade blacklist that would prevent it making use of US-origin
software and components.
Face maps
Face++ has been used in consumer-focused hardware, including:
smartphones made by Huawei, Xiaomi and Vivo
laptops made by Lenovo
Didi Chuxing's ride-hailing app to let passengers check the driver's
identity
"smile-to-pay" terminals tested within KFC restaurants by Alibaba
the Chinese dating website Jiayuan, which offered a way to automatically
find faces a user was likely to be attracted to based on their preferences
But it says that most of its current revenue comes from "smart city"
applications, which include facial recognition and other "security
management" tasks at workplaces, educational institutions and major events.
It has also been reported that the Beijing-based firm's tech has been used
to help make thousands of arrests in China, and has been pitched to police
departments in other countries.
The technology works by first detecting human faces in an image.
Then it creates a pattern determined by where a person's eyes, lips, chin
and up to 1,000 other key features are located.
It can then check whether the pattern matches that of a device's owner, or
cross-reference it against a wider database containing facial maps for an
"unlimited" number of people provided by the client in order to identify a
subject or flag if they appear similar to someone on a watch list.
In addition to being able to carry out face searches, the firm says its
technology can also be used to detect emotions, provide beauty scores, track
eye-gaze and body gestures, and evaluate the health status of a person's
skin.
Most recently the company announced a tie-up with an Austrian firm, Ams, to
start offering 3D-depth sensing facial recognition.
In addition, it has released Hetu - an operating system for warehouse robots
- which it says is already being used by Alibaba's Tmall subsidiary.
The firm has said that part of the proceeds of the stock sale would be used
to fund further research.
It booked a 3.35bn yuan ($468m; £383m) loss in its last financial year, and
a further 5.2bn yuan loss for the first six months of this year.
But its area of expertise makes it a flag-bearer for the Chinese
government's ambition to overtake the US and become the leading AI innovator
by 2030.
It was valued as being worth about $4bn in May.
Toppled lamppost
Megvii has not publicly disclosed how much it intends to raise, but the
Reuters news agency reported that the flotation was aimed at raising between
$500m to $1bn (£410m to £820m).
The firm's Chinese-language prospectus does, however, spell out a long list
of possible risk factors including:
further US-China tariffs or even an all-out "trade war"
the possibility of the US imposing "severe restrictions" on its business
partners, in a similar manner to those already faced by Huawei
the "uncertainty of the Chinese legal system", which can make it difficult
to be sure of being in compliance with the country's rules
Furthermore it adds that it could be damaged by "rumours" about the abuse of
its AI technology.
This has been interpreted by some to reference the fact that earlier this
year, Human Rights Watch claimed to have evidence that Face++ was being used
as part of efforts to repress Uighur Muslims in China. The campaign rights
group subsequently retracted the allegation and issued a correction.
Megvii also faces the fact that facial recognition is becoming an
increasingly controversial subject.
In Hong Kong itself, protesters have demanded the removal of so-called smart
lampposts over fears they could be used to carry out facial ID checks. Last
weekend, footage was shared on social media of one such structure being cut
down with an electric saw.
The Financial Times has reported that the EU plans new regulations to
restrict use of facial recognition and make sure citizens are notified when
it has been deployed, despite the fact the topic was already addressed in
the recently-introduced General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
And in the US, three cities have banned federal agencies from using the
tech, while politicians in the Senate and Congress are considering new laws
to curtail its use by government and commercial bodies.--BBC
Ministers and HS2 bosses knew railway over budget years ago
The government and HS2 knew that the new high speed railway was over budget
and was probably behind schedule years ago, documents seen by the BBC show.
Crucially, the documents were written in 2016, before MPs had signed-off the
first phase of the project.
It is evidence that both the public and Parliament were not given the full
picture about the true cost.
The Department for Transport said: "Like all major, complex projects
delivery plans evolve over time."
"We regularly keep Parliament and members of the public updated on the
progress of the project," the DfT added.
HS2 Ltd is a public company, set-up to build a new high-speed line linking
London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. It is funded by the taxpayer.
The line was due to be built in two phases, beginning with a new railway
linking London and the West Midlands.
This would be followed by a second phase taking services from Birmingham to
Manchester and Leeds.
Phase one of the development was due to open at the end of 2026, with the
second phase scheduled for completion by 2032-33.
In total, the railway was supposed to cost £55.7bn.
Earlier this month, the government said it planned to review the costs and
benefits of the rail project, with a "go or no-go" decision by the end of
the year.
But until recently, ministers and bosses at HS2 have insisted everything was
on track.
Only last month, the transport minister, Nusrat Ghani MP, who is now a
government whip, told Parliament "confidently" that the programme would be
delivered on budget and on time.
"There is only one budget for HS2 and it is £55.7bn," she said.
But the documents obtained by BBC News show that at least three years ago
both the government and HS2 knew that wasn't the case.
'Dear George'
In May 2016, then chancellor George Osborne received a letter from Patrick
McLoughlin, the transport secretary at the time, in which he admitted that
the first stretch of the railway was already a billion pounds over budget.
The budget for phase one of HS2, linking London to Birmingham, is £24bn.
However a former HS2 director told the BBC that the £1bn overspend was
considered, at the time, to be "a very conservative estimate."
"Internally the teams knew it was a lot higher than that," he added.
The £1bn overspend is worse than it first seems because it did not include a
realistic estimate for how much the land and property needed to build the
railway would cost.
Property estimate 'ad-hoc'
The estimate for land and property which HS2 was using at the time for the
London-Birmingham stretch was £2.8bn.
The consultancy firm PwC found that "fundamental parts" of that estimate had
been calculated in an "ad-hoc manner", according to a report seen by the
BBC.
And two senior figures who worked in the Land and Property department at HS2
from August 2015 to April 2016 calculated that, in reality, the true cost
was £4.8bn.
That would have added a further £2bn, taking the total overspend at the time
on phase one of the project to at least £3bn.
Phase one delay
The May 2016 letter to George Osborne also shows that a one-year delay to
the opening of phase one was already being considered as it could "bring
cost savings."
Cost was, in the words of the then transport secretary, "a significant
challenge."
The letter also reveals that, at that time, HS2 failed a critical hurdle
called Review Point One.
According to a former HS2 director that "was like saying it wasn't fit for
purpose."
The BBC has also obtained a Department for Transport briefing note labelled
as "confidential", written in December 2016.
The document acknowledges that even with planned savings "a significant gap
to target price will remain."
And it says, following alterations to the scheme, phase one of HS2 would
need to open a year late.
Worsening situation
The situation has become a lot worse since the two documents were written.
Last month, a leaked letter suggested that HS2 could be up to £30bn over its
budget.
But in December of last year, HS2's chief executive, Mark Thurston, was
still insisting everything was fine.
"We're confident we have a good estimate for the first phase," he told BBC
Panorama.
"We are not over budget."
Second phase doubt
The Department for Transport memo also states that there is a relatively
small chance that the stretch of the railway, linking Birmingham to Crewe,
which is known as phase 2a, would be delivered on time.
It puts the probability of that happening at a mere 35%.
The Crewe to Birmingham stretch is due to run trains from December 2027.
In a statement to the BBC, HS2 Ltd said it had "provided regular updates on
the project".
It said there had been "extensive scrutiny" from the National Audit Office
and Parliamentary Committees.
And it said that chief executive Mark Thurston had "spoken publicly for some
time about the cost pressures facing the project".
Mr Thurston was appointed as HS2's chief executive in March 2017.
His predecessor, Simon Kirby, said during his tenure HS2 Ltd "operated fully
transparently in respect of the Department for Transport who were kept fully
appraised of all relevant information on the cost and timetable of the
project."—BBC
Asian stocks drop as US-China trade war escalates
Asian stock markets tumbled on Monday after a sharp escalation in the
US-China trade war rattled investors.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump announced tariff hikes on effectively
all Chinese imports to the US.
It came after Beijing said it would impose fresh duties and raise tariffs on
US imports into China.
In China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slid 3.2% while the Shanghai Composite
gave up 1.3%.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 2.3%. The Chinese yuan weakened
to a fresh 11-year low against the US dollar. The onshore yuan was around
7.15 per dollar in morning Asian trade.
Sharp falls in the yuan earlier this month prompted the US to officially
name China a "currency manipulator", adding to tensions between the two
countries.
"The trade war between the US and China has escalated dramatically," Louis
Kuijs, head of Asia Economics at Oxford Economics said.
"This tit-for-tat escalation shows how unlikely a trade deal and
de-escalation have become."
A quick guide to the US-China trade war
The US-China trade war in charts
US-China trade war: 'We're all paying for this'
How has the trade war escalated?
On Friday, the US said it would begin the process of raising tariffs on
around $250bn (£203.8bn) of Chinese imports from 25% to 30%. Those hikes
will be introduced from 1 October.
The US also said fresh tariffs on an additional $300bn of Chinese goods,
announced earlier this month, will now be at a rate of 15% instead of 10%.
The first batch of those tariffs will be introduced in September.
In a tweet, Mr Trump said he planned to order US firms working in China to
move their operations back to the US. It is unclear how he could force firms
to comply.
The moves came after China delivered its latest trade war strike, announcing
plans to hit $75bn worth of US goods with new tariffs and hikes to existing
duties.
How did we get here?
The world's two largest economies have been locked in a bruising trade
battle for the past year that has seen tariffs imposed on billions of
dollars worth of one another's goods.
Mr Trump has long accused China of unfair trading practices and intellectual
property theft. In China, there is a perception that the US is trying to
curb its rise.--BBC
South Africa seizes Air Tanzania plane in Johannesburg
South African authorities have seized a plane from Tanzania's national
carrier, the Tanzanian government said.
The Airbus 220-300 was due to fly from Johannesburg, South Africa, on Friday
to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
It was not immediately clear why the action was taken, and South African
authorities have not commented.
But a retired farmer has said the aircraft was impounded because Tanzania's
government had not paid him $33m (£28.8m) it owes in compensation.
Tanzania country profile
Lawyer Roger Wakefield told the BBC the money was awarded after Tanzania's
government seized lands belonging to the South African farmer.
A Tanzanian government spokesperson told the BBC that the country's lawyers
had arrived in South Africa to investigate.
In a statement on Friday, Air Tanzania said that it expected to make flight
schedule adjustments "due to unforeseeable circumstances", but did not give
any further details.
The carrier's managing director Ladislaus Matindi told Reuters arrangements
had been made for passengers to resume their journey on another flight.
The move comes barely two months after Air Tanzania opened its service to
South Africa.
Tanzania's President John Magufuli has led attempts to revive the
state-owned airline, hoping to boost tourism and turn the country into a
major transportation hub.
It had just one plane when the president was elected in 2015. Since then,
millions of dollars have been spent on the purchase of eight new aircraft.
But the carrier is battling several multi-million dollar lawsuits with its
former suppliers.
This is also not the first time Air Tanzania has had a plane seized. In
2017, Canadian construction firm Stirling Civil Engineering seized the
airline's new Bombardier Q400 plane in Canada over a $38m lawsuit.
The Q400 was released in March 2018 after Tanzania's prime minister and
attorney general negotiated its release. No details were given about the
terms of the settlement.--BBC
INVESTORS DIARY 2019
Company
Event
Venue
Date & Time
Companies under Cautionary
Bindura Nickel Corporation
Padenga Holdings
Delta Corporation
Meikles Limited
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