Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 19 April 2024

Fri Apr 19 10:06:44 CAT 2024

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Major International Business Headlines Brief:::  19 April 2024 

ü  Oil price rises as US says Israel has struck Iran

ü  US rate setter tells BBC 'no hurry' to cut interest rates

ü  Netflix: Profits soar after password sharing crackdown

ü  Can TikTok's owner afford to lose its killer app?

ü  EU proposes some free movement for UK young people

ü  The West says China makes too much. Its workers disagree

ü  Tesla pushes for $56bn pay deal for Elon Musk

ü  Biden calls for tripling tariffs on Chinese metals

ü  Billionaire twins invest in ninth-tier football club

ü  Africa’s lithium supply to almost triple this year – Benchmark Mineral Intelligence

ü  IMF under pressure to cut billions of dollars in fees for large borrowers

ü  Sibanye cuts more jobs after shutting loss-making Marikana shaft

ü  Forget About Peak Oil - We Aren’t Close To Peak Coal Yet

ü  Electric air taxis are nearing launch. Here’s how to invest.

ü  China's fiscal stimulus is losing its effectiveness, S&P says

 <https://www.cloverleaf.co.zw/> Oil price rises as US says Israel has struck Iran

Oil and gold prices have jumped after US officials said an Israeli missile had struck Iran.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose by 1.8% to $88 a barrel while gold briefly came close to a record high before falling back to nearly $2,400 an ounce.

Investors have been closely watching Israel’s reaction to Iran's direct drone and missile attack last weekend.

There are concerns a worsening conflict in the Middle East could disrupt oil supplies.

Oil prices had jumped by as much as 3.5% initially. However, gains receded after Iranian state media claimed that there was "no damage" in Isfahan province where there had been reports of explosions.

Sharp and sustained rises in oil prices risk fuelling inflation. Countries are heavily reliant on the commodity, which is used to produce fuels such as petrol and diesel.

Fuel and energy prices have been a major driver behind the higher cost of living worldwide in the past couple of years.

Randeep Somel, fund manager at M&G Investment Management, told the BBC's Today programme: "The concern for markets would mainly be the inflationary one, that this would actually add to inflation."

While the pace of inflation has been slowing, in the UK it is still above the Bank of England's 2% target and some economists have forecast that a cut to interest rates may not happen until summer or later on in the year.

"In the UK, the inflation rates is still around 3.2% - still someway off the target – and it is becoming a bit of a concern for policy makers," said Mr Somel.

"It is good to see that this hasn’t escalated any further and that hopefully the disruption to markets is short-lived.”

The gold price often rises at times of uncertainty as it is seen as a safe investment.

The heightened tension in the Middle East has led to concerns about whether shipping through the Strait of Hormuz between Oman and Iran will be affected.

It is a crucial shipping route, as about 20% of the world's total oil supply passes through it.

Members of the oil producers' cartel Opec - Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE, Kuwait and Iraq - send most of the oil they export through the strait.

Iran is the seventh largest oil producer in the world, according to the US Energy Information Administration, and the third-largest member of Opec.

The initial spike in oil prices was "a knee-jerk reaction to fears of a renewed escalation of warfare between Israel and Iran," said energy market expert Vandana Hari of Vanda Insights.

"What the latest events underscore is the heightened fragility and volatility in the Mid East situation," she added.

Stock markets in Asia fell on worries over the situation in the region. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 2.7%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.2%. The Kospi in South Korea fell by about 1.7%.-bbc

 <https://www.cloverleaf.co.zw/> 

US rate setter tells BBC 'no hurry' to cut interest rates

A key member of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, has told the BBC that inflation is only coming down "very, very slowly" and "let's not be in a hurry" on interest rate cuts.

Raphael Bostic, the President of the Atlanta Federal Reserve, told BBC News that US interest rates will have to be kept at a "restrictive level" and might only ease "at the end of 2024".

Expectations of a delay to US interest rate cuts has sent reverberations around the world economy in recent weeks, impacting government borrowing costs, including in the UK.

At the beginning of the year, markets expected a series of rate cuts in the US and across Europe.

The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told reporters on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meeting that "what happens in the US has a knock-on impact in the UK… inflation coming in slightly above expectations in the US has had some impact on market yields in the UK".

Those changes in the market for government debt can feed through to higher mortgage and business borrowing costs. The Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey was at pains to say in Washington that the pattern of UK inflation was different to what was occurring in the US.

Mr Bostic, who casts one of the votes to decide US interest rates, said the American economy was creating lots of jobs and performing well: "I've been saying for a long time that I expect the US economy to be strong, to continue to be strong, but not quite this strong, it is much stronger and more resilient than I have expected."

The strength in the US economy was keeping inflation higher than expected, he said: "Let's be patient, let's not be in a hurry [on rate cuts], especially since there's so much good stuff that's happening on the employment side".

He also expressed some concern about US government debts, on course to hit a record, with little sign of either main Presidential election candidate addressing the issue: "Maybe we should be having a conversation about, are we undermining the confidence in the full faith and credit of the US government, because we really can't afford to do that".

He also said that while the US dollar's role as the world's number one reserve currency was "safe today" he thought that "everyone has to do things to make sure safety occurs. When we ride a bus or a car or plane, we put on a seatbelt".-bbc

Netflix: Profits soar after password sharing crackdown

Netflix says its profits have soared in the first three months of this year, partly thanks to a crackdown on password sharing.

The streaming giant said it added 9.3 million customers in the first quarter, bringing its total number of subscribers to almost 270 million.

The company also said its profits in the first quarter jumped to more than $2.3bn (£1.85bn).

But the firm will stop reporting key subscriber numbers from next year.

Announcing the decision, the firm said in a letter to shareholders: "In our early days, when we had little revenue or profit, membership growth was a strong indicator of our future potential".

It added that today, subscriber numbers have become "just one component of our growth", asking investors to focus on its profits and revenue.

Its revenue for the first quarter rose by nearly 15% year-on-year to $9.37m.

The firm also credited a "drumbeat" of hits, such as crime drama Griselda.

Some investors saw its unexpected decision to stop reporting subscriber numbers as a sign that Netflix's wave of customer growth may be coming to an end.

Jamie Lumley of research firm Third Bridge wrote that the decision raises "questions about the growth prospects of Netflix's subscriber base".

Other technology giants such as Facebook parent Meta and social media platform X, formerly Twitter, also stopped reporting monthly active user numbers as growth slowed.

Netflix shares were almost 5% lower after the announcement.

"Streaming is a notoriously choppy market, and keeping hold of customer dollars is an uphill climb," said Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at share dealing platform Hargreaves Lansdown.

"One area Netflix has an edge is its original content slate, which is known to be an excellent retention tool when compared to repurposed shows and films."

Netflix last raised the price of its popular "standard" plan in 2022.

The move was followed by an unusual drop in subscribers that startled investors and intensified concerns that Netflix was losing dominance over the industry it had pioneered.

Soon after, the company said it would reignite growth by cracking down on password sharing and launch a new plan that was less expensive but showed adverts.

The firm is also pushing into areas such as sports and video games, while continuing to license material from rival media firms looking for ways to boost profits.

Analysts said the company also benefited from its global footprint, which helped it maintain a relatively strong pipeline of new shows, despite strikes that rocked Hollywood last year.

Netflix shares have risen by more than 30% since the start of this year, close to their 2021 peak.-bbc

Can TikTok's owner afford to lose its killer app?

US lawmakers could vote this weekend on a second bill in as many months that corners TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance with a stark choice - sell its US business or be banned.

Fears that data about millions of Americans could land in China's hands have driven Congressional efforts to split TikTok from the Beijing-based company.

TikTok has said ByteDance "is not an agent of China or any other country". And ByteDance insists it's not a Chinese firm, pointing to the many global investment firms that own 60% of it.

But the app's extraordinary success in the US has made it yet another flashpoint between Washington and Beijing.

Some 170 million Americans spend at least an hour of their day swiping on TikTok. That includes about six in 10 teenagers, a fifth of whom say they are on it "almost constantly", according to Pew Research Center. More than 40% of US users say it's their regular source of news.

A ban on TikTok could be challenged as a violation of free speech. It's also difficult to police and possibly unpalatable in an election year. While forcing ByteDance to sell the app is seemingly simpler, that option also faces obstacles.

For one, analysts say Beijing will try its best to scupper a sale. But who will buy TikTok's US operations, which, by some estimates, could fetch up to $100bn (£80.2bn)?

And the biggest question of all: Would ByteDance sell its most successful app?

Tick tock

Founded in 2012 by Chinese entrepreneurs, ByteDance first hit the jackpot with short video app Douyin in China. A year later, it launched TikTok, an international version. TikTok was banned in China but gained a billion users in five years.

It is now run by a limited liability company based in Los Angeles and Singapore but is essentially owned by ByteDance. While its founders own only 20% of ByteDance, it's the controlling stake in the company. About 60% is owned by institutional investors, including major US investment firms such as General Atlantic, Susquehanna and Sequoia Capital. The remaining 20% is owned by employees around the world. Three of its five board members are American.

Getty Images TikTok content creators protest against a potential ban outside the US CapitolGetty Images

Some believe a ban will spark public outcry, especially in an election year

But Beijing's grip over private companies in recent years worries the US about how much control the Chinese Communist Party has over ByteDance, and the data it holds. These concerns are not unfounded. Last year, a former ByteDance employee alleged in a lawsuit that Beijing had accessed TikTok user data in 2018 to spy on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong - ByteDance dismissed this as "baseless".

Is TikTok really a danger to the West?

'Confused' TikTokers deluge US lawmakers' phones

The US has been cracking down on China's massive footprint on its soil as intelligence officials increasingly warn of espionage, surveillance and hacks. In 2022, Washington banned the sale and import of communication devices from five Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE. Now, the suspicion has spread to infrastructure such as Chinese-made cranes that are common in US ports, including those used by the military.

Beijing has dismissed these concerns as American paranoia and has warned that a TikTok ban will "inevitably come back to bite the US".

Since 2022, TikTok has been routing all US users' data through Texas-based technology giant Oracle to address security concerns. TikTok has stressed US data will be ringfenced and stored on Oracle servers in the US.

TikTok's Singaporean CEO Shou Zi Chew was grilled by Congress twice in less than a year, and downplayed the app's connection - and his personal links - to Chinese authorities. His repeated reminders that he is Singaporean and not Chinese went viral. And he said after the House vote that TikTok "will continue to do all [they] can, including exercising [their] legal rights" to protect US users' access to the app. TikTok pointed to his statement in response to the BBC's queries.

0:41

TikTok boss grilled on CCP ties: ‘I am Singaporean’

Despite ByteDance's attempts to reassure Washington, the US House of Representatives voted in March to give ByteDance six months to sell TikTok to non-Chinese owners, or have the app blocked in the US. That bill is still pending Senate approval. On Saturday they are expected to vote again on the same measure - except this time it's bundled with other bills that promise aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The newer version gives ByteDance nine months to decide TikTok's fate - if the Senate passes it and if the chances for a sale look promising, President Joe Biden can further extend the deadline by another 90 days. Mr Biden has already said he would sign it into law when it reaches his desk.

Putting a price on TikTok

Valuing TikTok for a sale is tricky.

As a privately-owned company, it does not release financial details, but reports estimate its US revenue stood between $16bn to $20bn in 2023, making up as much as 16% of ByteDance's revenue.

"In a normal market, it won't be hard to fetch a $100bn valuation. However, under the current political risks and lack of liquidity, the valuation would take a big hit if a transaction does happen," said Li Jianggan, who runs Singapore-based venture capital firm Momentum Works.

In other words, it would be akin to a distress sale, a further blow for ByteDance's bottom line.

Getty Images Photo illustration of a teenager using TikTok on her mobile phoneGetty Images

TikTok's US business is its most lucrative

And arm-twisting ByteDance will not work, analysts say.

"It will just shut down [in the US] rather than make a few billion dollars," said Ling Vey-Sern, an adviser for Asia technology at Swiss private bank Union Bancaire Privée.

A ban would still allow it to return "when circumstances change, while a sale means a more definite outcome", Mr Li said.

The US wouldn't be the first to block TikTok - India banned the app in 2020, citing security concerns. But TikTok survived that ban because the Indian market, which was then about as big as the US market is now, wasn't as profitable, said Jayanth N Kolla, founder of technology advisory firm Convergence Catalyst.

The US is now TikTok's largest market, accounting for about 17% of its total users, and its most lucrative. "If TikTok were to lose its US operations, it is not just losing the user base, but a large portion of its revenue pie. That's an immense loss," Mr Kolla said.

Who wants TikTok?

For one, not many companies can afford to buy TikTok. And those with deep enough pockets, such as Meta or Alphabet, could be stymied by anti-competition laws.

The other major obstacle is whether the deal will include TikTok's so-called recommendation engine. The AI-driven secret sauce that feeds content to users is crucial to the app's success.

When the US last tried to force a sale in 2020, ByteDance said the addictive algorithm, which it owns, was not on the table. But selling TikTok without the algorithm would neither allay Washington's concerns nor attract buyers.

0:45

Watch: How do young Americans feel about a ban on TikTok?

The algorithm is the "most contentious" part of any deal, Mr Li said. "Any potential acquirer just buying TikTok's user base and content will probably be looking for a heavy discount."

And replicating it is hard because analysts say companies like that operate in China are far better at targeting users. They have a huge market to tap into, which means AI models have more information and practice to get better. Companies can also mine more data because regulation is weak and the Community Party itself runs a sophisticated surveillance state.

A sale also leaves open the question of how a US-owned TikTok interacts with the app elsewhere. "Imagine if TikTok [users from outside the US] want to send TikToks to the US," said Anupam Chander, a law professor specialising in global tech regulation at Georgetown Law.

"How do we know that isn't Chinese propaganda? Do we now have to prevent foreign accounts from being seen by Americans? That begins to sound a lot more like what China did a quarter-century ago."-bbc

EU proposes some free movement for UK young people

The EU wants to agree a deal with the UK that would make it easier for people aged between 18 and 30 to study and work abroad in the wake of Brexit.

This would be a limited arrangement, not a restoration of free movement of people, the European Commission says.

The UK already runs schemes with some non-EU countries to allow people to come to the UK for up to two years.

It says it is open to extending that to individual EU member countries, rather than throughout the EU.

Downing Street says it prefers country-by-country deals to an agreement that would apply across all 27 member states.

And Labour has said it has "no plans for a youth mobility scheme" if it wins the general election later this year.

A party spokesperson said it had already pledged "no return to the single market, customs union or free movement" if it takes office.

It added it wanted to improve the UK's relationship with the EU by agreeing new arrangements for recognising work qualifications, trading food and agricultural products, and touring performers.

The EU's free movement rules were a key part of the 2016 Brexit referendum, with the Leave campaign pledging to exit them to give the UK greater control over immigration.

The proposed EU scheme would not exactly replicate the regime, as the freedoms would be time limited and UK participants would only be able to stay in the EU country that accepted them.

But it would significantly reduce immigration controls on young people moving between the UK and EU, with the commission suggesting no quotas on overall numbers.

In a policy document, the European Commission said it was stepping in after the UK approached several unnamed EU countries last year to discuss individual deals.

It said this risked "differential treatment" of EU citizens, and instead there should be a bloc-wide deal to ensure they are "treated equally".

Instead, the commission wants to negotiate a new international agreement, tagged on to the post-Brexit trade deal with the UK, which came into force in 2021.

It would be the first such mobility deal the bloc has struck with any country outside the European Economic Area (EEA), except Switzerland.

Fee cut urged

Any decision to open negotiations with the UK would ultimately be a decision for EU governments, which would also have to agree on the terms to be negotiated. A date for them to discuss the proposal is yet to be set.

The UK already has a youth mobility scheme visa allowing young people from 10 countries including Australia, New Zealand, and Canada to study or work in the UK for up to two years. However, it is not open to EU applicants.

The European Commission is proposing an EU-UK deal that would go further, lasting up to four years with no restrictions on time spent working, studying, training or volunteering.

It also says EU applicants should not have to pay the annual UK charge towards the NHS, which ranges from £776 for students and under-18s to £1,035 for workers.

And EU students should pay the same tuition fees as UK students, rather than the higher fees they have had to pay since Brexit, and have rights to reunite with family members, under the proposals.

'Valuable route'

In a statement, the Home Office said its existing youth mobility programmes had been "successful" and it remained "open to agreeing them with our international partners, including EU member states".

"Our agreements provide a valuable route for cultural exchanges providing partner countries are also willing to offer the same opportunities for young British people," the department added.

Levels of immigration from the EU to the UK have declined since freedom of movement rules ended in 2021, requiring EU citizens to get a visa to live the UK, study, or get a job.

The deal proposed by the commission is likely to have an impact on official immigration figures, with immigrants living in the UK for longer than a year showing up in the official statistics.

The UK turned down an offer to continue participating in the EU's Erasmus student exchange scheme after Brexit, and has put in place a replacement, called the Turing Scheme.-bbc

The West says China makes too much. Its workers disagree

Ren Wenbing is reluctant to leave the hollowed-out brick shell which was once a thriving factory in China's manufacturing hub of Dongguan.

"All the workers feel astonished," says the 54-year-old as he points out where he once assembled furniture and where everyone would gather to eat lunch.

The owner of the company has moved production to South East Asia to cut costs. Mr Ren says he is owed more than 80,000 RMB ($11,000; £8,800) in redundancy pay, which could take him years to earn.

"We are disappointed, and we grieve," he adds, as a machine takes a sledgehammer to the windows.

Mr Ren is not just mourning the loss of a furniture firm. He grieves for the passing of China's once unstoppable economy, which is making it harder for millions of workers to find a job.

For people like him, not enough is now made in China.

But the West has been accusing China of making far too much - it was the dominant message during US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's recent visit. She chided Beijing for "unfair economic practices," for producing more than it needs or the world could afford to absorb.

The "Made in China" brand that is etched, sewn or branded on t-shirts, tables and TVs in so many homes around the world is changing. It is now at the heart of the electric cars that are pouring into Germany, and the solar panels that are powering Europe's renewable policies. And that is worrying the West.

Rising trade tensions with the United States, strict Covid lockdowns and a global downturn mean some manufacturers who once flocked to Chinese shores are looking elsewhere. Foreign investment in the country is at a 30-year low.

But now the old industrial pillars of furniture, clothing and electrical goods are struggling, Beijing is looking to its "new productive forces": solar panels, lithium batteries and electric cars.

"We are exporting to the UK, Belgium, Germany, mostly European countries, but also to Africa, Australia, South America, North America and also South East Asia," salesperson Yan Mu says as he shows off the company's storage batteries.

His is one of the stalls at an exhibition held by hundreds of green energy storage companies in a refurbished and repurposed steel plant on the edge of Beijing.

Wang Xiqing/BBC Man stands in front of model of buildings at energy expoWang Xiqing/BBC

China is increasingly turning to clean energy products such as solar panels, lithium batteries and electric cars

"I think Chinese companies are leading the whole energy storage market. With innovation, with new technologies, battery sales, PCS [power conversion systems]... well, everything. Right now, I think 80% to 90% of the energy storage equipment are designed and manufactured in China."

A few hours' drive from Dongguan, there are more signs of the scale of this industry: there are solar panels as far as the eye can see.

China has installed more solar panels in the last year than the United States has managed to build in a decade, the mass manufacturing going on here driving the cost down to half of what it was last year.

Manufacturers across Europe are struggling to compete. In 2023, 97% of the solar panels installed across Europe came from China.

Wang Xiqing/BBC Rows of solar panels surrounding a houseWang Xiqing/BBC

Solar panels dominate the landscape in this part of China - and Chinese-made panels make up 97% of those installed across Europe

But China's new industries are far less labour-intensive than the ones that once fuelled its spectacular growth - and they require specialised, high-skilled workers and, increasingly, robots. While China's youth unemployment has made the bigger headlines, its overall urban unemployment rate is still over 5%.

The US and the European Union believe this is how China is trying to save its economy - producing cut-price and state-subsidised green technology to sell abroad. They say it's a tactic that is driving down the cost of solar panels and other emerging technology and driving Western firms out of business.

China says its success is down to innovation, not state subsidies and there is a demand for their exports as countries transition from fossil fuels to more climate-friendly sources of energy.

Out with the old

But Mr Ren can't find a job in China's new success story.

He left his family farm in Henan as a teenager and moved to Dongguan, a city in the southern coastal Guangdong province with so many manufacturers it has become known as the "factory of the world". On one occasion, he didn't return home for 11 years.

He is one of nearly 300 million migrant workers who've moved from villages across China to major cities in search of work. Most leave their families behind: Mr Ren's children are being raised by their grandparents while he and his wife live in Dongguan, where three-quarters of the city's 10 million residents are thought to be migrants.

"My children of course miss me," he says, adding he and his wife "had no choice".

Wang Xiqing/BBC Ren WenbingWang Xiqing/BBC

Ren Wenbing says he had "no choice" but to leave his children with grandparents so he could earn a living in Dongguan

"We didn't earn much. After the daily costs of living, the money we sent home for our parents, the money for our children's education... we didn't have much left."

"All the migrant workers face this," he continues. "If we want to provide for our elderly and our children, we have to live away from our loved ones and work in other provinces. This is the reality."

Now, as China's future sits at a crossroads, so too do their lives.

Ren and his wife now live in a room that can fit only one bed and a side table. That is where he sits as he scrolls through his phone looking for job advertisements. Most factories are offering less than the 16RMB ($2.50; £2) per hour minimum wage. One advert offered only 13RMB an hour.

He needs his redundancy money and has gone to court to get it. But the owner appears to have left the country, leaving him and some 300 former colleagues in limbo.

"We witnessed the changes in Dongguan and have strong feelings for this land. This is our second home. We'd feel very sad and lost if we need to leave here. We won't forget what the local government did trying to give us more benefits. It's because of the government policies which gave us jobs and we were able to earn a living."

>From around the mid-1980s, just after China opened to the world, Dongguan became the country's leading export and manufacturing base. It churned out cheap clothes, toys and shoes.

Back then, tens of thousands of workers would have queued at the gates to start their shift making shoes to export to the United States.

Lan Pan/BBC Empty buildings in DongguanLan Pan/BBC

Rows of abandoned buildings - formerly clothes and shoe factories - stand empty in this quarter of Dongguan

But in more recent years, workers began to demand higher wages, while companies began cutting prices in order to win contracts, squeezing profits further. Then Donald Trump arrived in the White House, slapping tariffs on Chinese products - including shoes. Firms - searching for cheaper running costs and protection from the US-China trade wars - began to look elsewhere.

Now in one almost abandoned quarter of Dongguan, there are miles of empty low-rise buildings which look like ghost factories. The only inhabitant is a solitary security guard waving away any curious onlookers.

The constant hum of sewing machines has been replaced by a chorus of birdsong and the stubborn roots of banyan trees have worked their way under the concrete skeletons of buildings. The warm and often humid southern climate is helping nature take over what man has left behind.

In with the new

Dongguan is not giving up though: it is trying to transform itself as a high-tech hub to try to restore some of its former glory. On the edge of Songshan Lake, the technology giant Huawei has been building a campus to house 25,000 employees. There's a new science park and a string of hotels.

Alan Lee is sleeping in his freshly painted office as he tries to capitalise on the city's new direction. The 32-year-old - having survived the economic downturn to start his business - has set his sights on exporting high-tech machinery to Europe.

Wang Xiqing/BBC Construction on building in New DongguanWang Xiqing/BBC

Dongguan is trying to transform itself into a high-tech hub, including the construction of a Huawei campus for 25,000 employees

"Lots of people lost their jobs in recent years. People went into debt and were forced to sell their properties. We see that many companies suffer declining demands in exports. The managers face a lot of financial pressure and even have to close their factories. We chose to focus on trade so we don't have pressure on production."

But these jobs require knowledge of the new tech skills which people like Mr Ren have yet to acquire. His hopes of receiving the money he is owed are fading.

He thinks about what he will tell his children about why their father stayed away.

"I don't know how to give a good answer. I could simply say - your mother and I are away because we want to give a better life and better education. We hope you can learn things so that in future you don't need to work as hard as us."-BBC

Tesla pushes for $56bn pay deal for Elon Musk

Tesla is again seeking to award boss Elon Musk the biggest pay deal in corporate American history, worth $56bn (£44.9bn).

The electrical vehicle (EV) company is asking shareholders to vote on its chief executive's record-breaking pay that was set in 2018.

However, the deal was rejected by a US judge in January who described it as "an unfathomable sum".

It comes just days after Musk announced plans to cut more than 10% of its global workforce.

In a memo issued to staff Musk said there was nothing he hated more, "but it must be done".

Now, his remuneration is in the spotlight - although the proposed compensation includes no salary or bonus.

Instead, the 2018 deal set rewards based on Tesla's market value rising to as much as $650bn over 10 years. Stock in the EV company is now valued at $500.36bn, according to data.

At the time of her ruling Delaware-based Judge Kathaleen McCormick said the pay deal was unfair to shareholders.

She found Tesla directors, who negotiated the deal, were "perhaps starry eyed" due to Mr Musk's "superstar appeal" and did not fully inform shareholders.

The decision outraged Mr Musk, who subsequently threatened to move Tesla's headquarters from Delaware to Texas.

On Monday, Tesla filed paperwork asking shareholders to approve that move and sign off on the 2018 pay package again.

Board chair Robyn Denholm wrote in a letter included in the regulatory filing: "Elon has not been paid for any of his work for Tesla for the past six years... That strikes us, and the many stockholders from whom we already have heard, as fundamentally unfair."

Ms Denholm also maintained the board did not agree with the court's ruling. "We do not think that what the Delaware Court said is how corporate law should or does work," she said.

Musk's compensation for 2023 was $0, the filing showed, as the billionaire does not take a salary from the company and is compensated through stock options.

"If it is legally advisable, we suggest simply subjecting the original 2018 package to a new shareholder vote," Tesla said, adding that it still planned to appeal the ruling.

The re-vote comes at a tricky time for the company which has seen the fewest deliveries of EVs since 2022. The weak demand comes ahead of its quarterly earnings which are revealed next week.

Musk is also trying to recover his reputation after a turbulent year. Tesla had to recall cars over safety concerns, Mr Musk was caught up in an antisemitic conspiracy row and had repeated problems with X, his social media platform.

But regardless, Bloomberg and Forbes estimated Musk's net worth to be between $198bn and $220bn in November 2023, making him the richest person in the world.-BBC

Biden calls for tripling tariffs on Chinese metals

US President Joe Biden has called for a tripling of tariffs on some steel and aluminium from China.

It is the latest protectionist policy to be embraced by Mr Biden as he campaigns for re-election against Donald Trump, who was known for his tough trade stance against China.

The White House said the proposal was aimed at protecting US jobs against "unfair" competition.

China has previously denied claims of dumping steel and aluminium overseas.

Dumping is selling excess product in another country for a very cheap price and can often decimate the local industry's own market of that product.

Speaking to members of the United Steelworkers union in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, the president said the Chinese prices were "unfairly low" due to the government subsidising companies "who don't need to worry about making a profit".

"They're cheating," Mr Biden said. "And we've seen the damage here in America."

He said tens of thousands of steelworker jobs had been lost in the early 2000s because of Chinese imports.

"We're not going to let that happen again," he said.

The Chinese embassy in the US said it "firmly opposes" the measures proposed by Mr Biden.

"Many trading partners of the United States, including China, are strongly dissatisfied with the United States' frequent use of national security, non-market behaviour, overcapacity and other reasons to impose restrictions and politicise trade issues," embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said in a statement to the BBC.

Mr Pengyu added he hopes the US will work with China "to stop actions that violate international economic and trade rules" and cancel the tariffs.

The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that this kind of geopolitical tension risked damaging global economic growth and pushing inflation in the wrong direction.

The White House has denied that the tariffs - which would lift a key border tax rate from an average of 7.5% to 25% on a tiny fraction of imports - would raise prices in the US.

Mr Biden discussed the proposal - and other pro-manufacturing efforts - at an election rally in Pittsburgh, a key base for the steel industry in the US.

He and Mr Trump are competing for support from working class voters, who could be a deciding voting bloc in November's election.

As well as the tariffs, the White House said it would launch an investigation into unfair trade practices in the Chinese shipbuilding and logistics sectors, acting on a request from the US Steelworkers union and others.

The White House said it was also pushing for action against Chinese firms looking to avoid US border taxes by shipping through Mexico.

Mr Biden has also spoken out against a proposed takeover of US Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel, saying he believed the business should remain US-owned.

The higher tariffs would affect metals imports being reviewed under a so-called 301 investigation, which focuses on policies affecting US commerce.

Many steel and aluminium imports from China already face border taxes, including a 25% duty on certain steel products, which the US put in place under former president Donald Trump using national security justifications.

Those were ruled to be in breach of global trade rules by the World Trade Organization and were later dialled back for many countries.

Those tariffs marked a key turn in Washington's approach to trade, which had long been dominated by free-market, pro-trade consensus.

Mr Trump, who called himself "tariff man", has pledged to be even more aggressive on trade should he be re-elected.

He has proposed a 10% border tax on all imports, which would jump to more than 60% for products from China.-BBC

Billionaire twins invest in ninth-tier football club

A non-league football club has received an injection of $4.5m (about £3.6m) from a pair of cryptocurrency investors.

Real Bedford FC (RBFC) received the Bitcoin investment from Winklevoss Capital, an investment firm owned by Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

Podcaster Peter McCormack bought the side, currently in the ninth tier of English football, in 2021 with the goal of turning it into a Premier League club.

Following the investment the twins will assume the role of co-owners of the club alongside the cryptocurrency podcaster.

The Winklevoss brothers are pretty familiar with controversy. They famously accused Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the idea for his site from them when they were all at Harvard together.

Following a lengthy lawsuit, eventually the twins received a settlement that included a whopping $20m (£16m) in cash and shares in the company.

You might remember it all playing out in the 2010 Oscar-winning film The Social Network. Well, since then the pair have been carrying the flag for cryptocurrencies, and are two of the world’s first well-known Bitcoin billionaires.

Not only do Tyler and Cameron own an enormous number of Bitcoins, they also built a crypto exchange called Gemini which is, essentially, a stock exchange for crypto coins.

But that endeavour hasn’t been plain sailing, either; just this year they were ordered to return more than $1bn (£800m) to customers due to a defunct lending programme and pay a large fine for unsafe and unsound practices.

It’ll be interesting to see how their fortunes fare when it comes to football but it’s really not a bad time for Bitcoin right now. Its value has risen to an all-time high in recent weeks.

'Investing in a dream'

Gemini started its sponsorship of the club in January 2022.

The investment will be used for the development of a new training centre, the launch of a football academy for new talent and to continue supporting girls and youth football.

The club said the funds would also be used to establish "a Bitcoin treasury to secure the club’s long-term ambitions".

Tyler Winklevoss said he was excited to work alongside Mr McCormack as a co-owner.

“We share in Peter’s deep conviction in Bitcoin and its ability to supercharge RBFC’s quest to make it into the Premier League," he said.

His brother added: "We’re not just investing in a football club. We’re investing in a dream to bring Premier League football to Bedford."

RBFC currently sit at the top of the Spartan South Midlands Football League Premier Division.

Mr McCormack said: "The backing from Tyler and Cameron will allow us to continue investing in Bedford and the local community."-BBC

Africa’s lithium supply to almost triple this year – Benchmark Mineral Intelligence

Lithium production from Africa is projected to almost triple in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

In 2023, the region contributed 4% to global lithium production, but this year it’s expected to reach 10% of the global supply. This significant surge is largely due to increased Chinese investment in the continent.

Chinese companies hold a virtual monopoly on lithium extraction in Africa, with over 90% of the continent’s projected lithium supply for this decade stemming from projects partly owned by Chinese entities, as estimated by Benchmark.

Most of the increased supply is expected to come from Zimbabwe. It is estimated that the country produced 3,400 tonnes in 2023, placing it among the seven largest producers globally.

The country is home to Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt’s Arcadia lithium mine, one of the world’s largest lithium-producing operations with a capacity of up to 450,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate per year.

Chinese interest in Africa reflects its strategy to secure critical minerals necessary for clean energy technologies.

Despite China possessing only 11% of global lithium reserves, it refines 60-70% of the metal, according to the US Geological Survey.

IMF under pressure to cut billions of dollars in fees for large borrowers

The IMF released a statement last week saying that “a number” of its board members were open to reviewing policies around surcharges, the fees that it charges nations that borrow more than their allotted share or take longer to repay. The rates have climbed above 8 per cent on some loans, with the burden carried by a handful of countries including Argentina, Egypt and Ukraine topping $6 billion.

Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as host of the Group of 20 this year, promised to make it a top issue amid his calls to reform the international financial system. Representative Chuy Garcia, an Illinois Democrat, plans to reintroduce legislation from 2022 directing the Treasury Department to support a review and end of surcharges, his office said Tuesday.

Chart

The IMF describes the fees as a necessary part of its financial model, meant to discourage borrowing too much or taking too long to repay. Borrowers and their supporters say they drain resources needed for essentials such as food and healthcare, and are increasingly punitive given faster inflation and higher interest rates. 

The board plans another meeting on the topic in June, according to people familiar with the process who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. It’s still not clear how many board members support the idea of cutting the fees.

“In this perfect storm situation, it’s particularly egregious to be facing these surcharges,” said Michael Galant of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive think tank that supports surcharge relief. He said the extra charges make loans from other sources, including China, more attractive and risk diluting the fund’s influence.

The fees have been around for years, but higher global interest rates, particularly from the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank, mean that the total rate on some loans from the IMF is now more than 8 per cent. That’s double the level before the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Sibanye cuts more jobs after shutting loss-making Marikana shaft

South Africa’s Sibanye Stillwater will close its 4 Belt shaft at Marikana and shed 855 jobs after failing to return it to profitability due to low platinum group metal (PGM) prices, the company said on Thursday.

The diversified miner, like its industry peers Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum, is restructuring to contain costs after PGM prices plunged last year.

In February, Sibanye said it cut about 2,000 jobs after restructuring its PGM operations, includingclosing mature and money-losing shafts.

Sibanye had held off shutting down the 4 Belt shaft during the previous restructuring round announced in October, on condition that it could be operated profitably.

The shaft, which employed 1,496 workers and 54 contractors, was initially targeted for closure in 2019, but had continued operating, supported by a metal price rally since then.

In a statement, Sibanye said 643 workers had been granted voluntary separation or early retirement, 93 employees on fixed-term contracts would not be renewed while 65 workers and 54 contractors were laid off outright.

Some 469 employees were transferred to Sibanye’s other PGM operations, while another 226 were taken off the payroll due to natural attrition.

“We cannot however continue to absorb ongoing losses, which in turn affects the viability of the rest of the SA PGM operations to the detriment of all stakeholders,” Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said in the statement.

On April 11, Sibanye also announced plans to restructure its South African gold operations, which could result in the loss of 4,022 jobs at its Beatrix 1 shaft, which has not delivered planned production.

Sibanye also plans to cut jobs at its Kloof 2 plant, which has had insufficient processing material after the closure of Kloof 4 shaft in 2023.

Forget About Peak Oil - We Aren’t Close To Peak Coal Yet

While the International Energy Agency continues to argue with OPEC on the topic of when the world will reach peak demand for crude oil, the question of when, if ever, the global community will achieve peak coal demand continues to plague efforts to reach the goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, or frankly by any other date.

The world’s two most populated nations, China and India, remain the main stumbling blocks for the central planners of this heavily subsidized energy transition. While western nations like Germany and Britain feverishly work to decarbonize and deindustrialize their economies, destroying economic growth in the process, China, and to a lesser extent, India, continue using rising amounts of coal to power the growth of their own economic engines.

In its annual global survey of coal usage published this month, the Global Energy Monitor finds that worldwide operating capacity for coal rose by 2% last year, led by China’s domestic growth. China accounted for fully 2/3rds of the 69.5 gigawatts (GW) of global coal-fired power generation capacity growth during 2023. And, despite its pledges to focus on reducing its carbon emissions, the Xi Jinping government appears set to exceed the 48.4 GW expansion during 2023 over the course of 2024.

For its own part, India added 5.5 GW of new coal-fired power plants during 2023, despite continuing pledges from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet his country’s own stated emissions targets. The Economic Times of India reports that, despite the massive investments India has made in adding new wind and solar fleets to its generating capacity, the power sector has been unable to keep up with the country’s rapid economic growth and the energy demands it requires. India’s consumption of energy rose at a faster pace than any other nation during 2023.

As the two Asian powerhouses continued to exploit the use of cheap, plentiful coal to power their growing economies, global retirements of coal capacity dropped to the lowest level since 2010, with just 21.1 GW retired during 2023. The US led the way, retiring 9.7 GW during 2023, but that number was well down from the 14.3 GW it retired in 2022, and the record high of 21.5 it retired in 2015. The UK led the decarbonization march in Europe, retiring 3.1 GW, far more than the entire European Union combined managed to achieve. That is not surprising given that Germany had to resort to restarting several mothballed coal plants to keep the lights on as its wind industry continued its long record of failure to live up to its promises.

Electric air taxis are nearing launch. Here’s how to invest.

You could be flying above traffic to the airport in an electric air taxi for the same cost as an Uber (UBER) by 2025, at least according to Joby Aviation (JOBY). Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing vehicles (eVTOLs) promise efficient, battery-powered transport akin to urban Ubers or Lyfts (LYFT) in the sky.

With backing from major players like Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Toyota (TM), Joby thinks they can be first to market in the crowded space. However, regulatory approval remains a key hurdle. The Federal Aviation Administration thinks a competitive, scaled air taxi market could launch in at least one location by 2028.

Yahoo Finance spoke with industry investors, officials, and analysts, and traveled to Joby’s manufacturing facility in Marina, CA, to get a closer look at what to expect from this emerging sector. For those looking to play the future of aviation, regulatory hurdles, lack of infrastructure, and customer affordability are among the top considerations when sussing out eVTOL investments.

If you’re going to future-proof your portfolio, you need to know what’s NEXT. In this series, Yahoo Finance will feature stories that give a glimpse at the future, and show how companies are making big moves today that will matter tomorrow.

For more on our NEXT series, click here, and tune in to Yahoo Finance Live for more expert insight and the latest market action, Monday through Friday.

BONNY SIMI: So we're at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport. And what we're going to do is we're going to take off.

All I want you to do is pull back with your right hand. That will make you go up. Just pull back hard. Yep. There you go. Now you're flying.

MADISON MILLS: I'm flying.

We're not actually flying above the Statue of Liberty. That's a simulator from Joby Aviation, which is used to train traditional pilots on how to fly this battery-powered aircraft. With the backing of Toyota and Delta, it's one of the largest companies looking to bring battery-powered air taxis to market. These aircraft are called eVTOLs, which stands for electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing.

At first glance, it may look like a helicopter with extra propellers on top. But unlike choppers, eVTOLs run off electricity rather than fuel.

- This is for charging.

China's fiscal stimulus is losing its effectiveness, S&P says

BEIJING — China's fiscal stimulus is losing its effectiveness and is more of a strategy to buy time for industrial and consumption policies, S&P Global Ratings senior analyst Yunbang Xu said in a report Thursday.

The analysis used growth in government spending to measure fiscal stimulus.

"In our view, fiscal stimulus is a buy-time strategy that could have some longer-term benefits, if projects are focused on reviving consumption or industrial upgrades that increase value-add," Xu said.

China has set a target of around 5% GDP growth this year, a goal many analysts have said is ambitious given the level of announced stimulus. The head of the top economic planning agency said in March that China would "strengthen macroeconomic policies" and increase coordination among fiscal, monetary, employment, industrial and regional policies.

High debt levels limit how much fiscal stimulus a local government can undertake, regardless of whether a city is considered a high or low-income region, the S&P report said.

Public debt as a share of GDP can range from around 20% for the high-income city of Shenzhen, to 140% for the far smaller, low-income city of Bazhong in southwestern Sichuan province, the report said.

"Given fiscal constraints and diminishing effectiveness, we expect local governments will focus on reducing red tape and taking other measures to improve business environments and support long-term growth and living standards," S&P's Xu said.

"Investment is less effective amid [the] drastic property sector slowdown," Xu added.

Fixed asset investment for the year so far picked up pace in March versus the first two months of the year, thanks to an acceleration of investment in manufacturing, according to official data released this week. Investment in infrastructure slowed its growth, while that into real estate dropped further.

The Chinese government earlier this year announced plans to bolster domestic demand with subsidies and other incentives for equipment upgrades and consumer product trade-ins. The measures are officially expected to create well over 5 trillion yuan ($704.23 billion) in annual spending on equipment.

Officials told reporters last week that on the fiscal front, the central government would provide "strong support" for such upgrades.

S&P found that local governments' fiscal stimulus has generally been bigger and more effective in richer cities, based on data from 2020 to 2022.

"Higher-income cities have a lead because they are less vulnerable to declines in property markets, have stronger industrial bases, and their consumption is more resilient in downturns," Xu said in the report. "Industry, consumption and investment will remain the key growth drivers going forward."

"Higher-tech sectors will continue to drive China's industrial upgrade and anchor long-term economic growth," Xu said. "That said, overcapacity in some sectors could spark price pain in the near term."

 Invest Wisely!

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DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by Bulls ‘n Bears, a division of Faith Capital (Pvt) Ltd for general information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for any securities. The information contained in this report has been compiled from s believed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty is made or guarantee given as to its accuracy or completeness. All opinions expressed and recommendations made are subject to change without notice. Securities or financial instruments mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors. Securities of emerging and mid-size growth companies typically involve a higher degree of risk and more volatility than the securities of more established companies. Neither Faith Capital nor any other member of Bulls ‘n Bears nor any other person, accepts any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this report or its contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. Recipients of this report shall be solely responsible for making their own independent investigation into the business, financial condition and future prospects of any companies referred to in this report. Other  Indices quoted herein are for guideline purposes only and d from third parties.

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