Apple: bucking the China doom and gloom
There wasn’t much in Apple’s Q4 results about China. But what few snippets there were to be found were revealing.
In an earnings season that has already seen a number US companies, including Dow Chemical, DuPont, 3M, FedEx, Caterpillar and Alcoa, blame faltering demand in China for their weak earnings, Apple has managed to buck the trend. Continue reading »
GM revs up in Argentina with $450m investment
Payback time? Back in 2009, Argentina lent money to General Motors to ensure production and jobs were preserved amid the global economic slowdown (it paid it back the following year). Three years on, the US automaker is investing 2.13bn pesos – about $450m – to base production of a new vehicle in Argentina. Continue reading »
A bad week for Señor Slim
Even the wealthiest man in the world has bad weeks, or at least difficult ones.
And this has been one for Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecoms, retail, mining, construction – you name it – magnate. Continue reading »
Vale’s Guinea mining headache
It would have been easy to miss. On page 18 of Vale’s 38-page results presentation released late on Wednesday, the mining company gave the following information about the status of its project in Simandou, Guinea: Scope and schedule under review.
It looks like a minor detail, but in reality it was Vale’s own special way of saying that it was putting on hold its $1.3bn Zogota mine in Simandou, the west African country’s richest iron ore deposit. The mine was meant to have started output by the end of 2012. Continue reading »
Venezuela gold sale: desperate or shrewd?
Hugo Chavez caused something of a flutter last year when he announced flamboyantly that he was going to repatriate almost all of the 211 tonnes of gold bullion that Venezuela owned abroad.
It was one of the largest transfers of physical gold in recent history, purportedly to “protect” Venezuela’s reserves from hostile “imperialist” regimes – but it turns out that the central bank has been selling its gold anyway. Continue reading »
Guest post: Argentina’s GDP is bigger than Colombia’s
By Hector Valle of FIDE and YPF
In a recent post, Juan Carlos Echeverry and Luis Fernando Mejía presented an exercise in which they compare the growth rates and sizes of Argentina’s and Colombia’s economies. From their analysis they conclude that Colombia has surpassed Argentina as the third largest economy in the region. However, the methodological drawbacks of their exercise are significant enough to invalidate the results. Continue reading »
Chinese miner looks at Myanmar
Small Chinese companies as well as big state enterprises are casting their eyes on neighbouring Myanmar as it opens its economy to foreign investment. Among them is China Polymetallic Mining (CPM), a Hong-Kong-listed mining group, based in the minerals-rich province of Yunnan which lies along China’s border with Myanmar.
Company officials claim CPM is well placed to profit from developing Myanmar’s mining riches. But, with far bigger Chinese and international resource companies looking at Myanmar, CPM will have to be quick if it is to get ahead of the game. Continue reading »
Ozon.ru: so far so good
By Ben Aris of bne
When Maelle Gavet (pictured) first arrived in Russia as a student in the days following the fall of the Soviet Union, the shops were empty and the phones didn’t work properly. Two decades on, she heads Russia’s leading e-commerce site Ozon.ru – Russia’s answer to Amazon.com – that is well on its way to turnover of $1bn a year. Continue reading »
Kingfisher Airlines – airborne again!
When it comes to Vijay Mallya, India’s billionaire liquor baron, it really ain’t over til it’s over.
That was the message on Thursday afternoon when, after weeks of striking and months of turmoil, employees of his embattled Kingfisher Airlines accepted a deal in which they will receive four months’ salary – out of seven they haven’t been paid – by December. The remaining three months will be paid by March next year. Continue reading »
Guest post: Africa, following in Asia’s footsteps
By Charles Robertson of Renaissance Capital
What is most surprising about Africa’s boom? Probably not the six-fold surge in oil revenues, which will rise to $300bn annually (three times Africa’s estimated annual infrastructure needs) by the end of this decade – most recognise China’s impact on African commodity exports. Nor the services sector growth, which despite the commodity headlines in fact accounts for over half of the GDP gains since 2002, three times more than the mining and mineral sector. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* Brazil admits tight hold over exchange rate
* Yen Weakens to Four-Month Low on BOJ Bets as Pound Rises
* Gupta sentenced to two years in jail
* Nigeria gas deals found to have cost $29bn Continue reading »
RIL OK’d for production increase but price issue unresolved
Photo: Bloomberg
Two months after it got government approval for plans to increase production at its flagging flagship natural gas field, KG-D6, Reliance Industries has received a letter making that approval official (ah, Indian bureaucracy). Continue reading »
Further reading: Che who?
Thursday’s picks from the BB team: how Putin’s Valdai Discussion Club has changed; Fidel lives on, but Che is fading; and Asia’s need for an institution worthy of a Nobel. Plus: Brics – big but not cohesive; India’s urban commons are a public good; and the imprisoned leader of Yukos. Continue reading »
Philippines cuts on growth fears
The Philippines cut its main policy rates by 25 basis points Thursday for the fourth time this year, bringing the central bank’s overnight borrowing rate to 3.5 per cent and overnight lending rate to 5.5 per cent.
The bank has cut rates by 100 basis points this year as it seeks to cushion the Philippine economy from the potentially adverse impact of sluggish growth in rich countries. The International Monetary Fund recently scaled down its growth forecast for global output from 3.5 to 3.3 per cent in 2012. Continue reading »
Vietnam gets E&Y seal of approval
Nguyen Tan Dung, Vietnam’s prime minister, must be breathing more easily.
On Monday, he apologised for economic mismanagement and cut his prediction for 2012 GDP growth to the bottom of the 5.2 to 5.7 per cent range initially forecast. Just three days later, a report by Ernst & Young on rapid-growth markets has labelled Vietnam a “rising star”, predicting the east Asian economy will grow by 6 per cent a year for the next quarter century. Continue reading »
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