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EV maker VinFast to build 2nd production plant in Vietnam
Vietnamese electric lorry ( EV) manufacturer VinFast on Sunday revealed a plan to develop its second domestic production plant that will double its output capability, saying it is needed to meet increased need for its little and midsized designs. VinFast stated the brand-new facility is anticipated to produce 300,000 systems yearly in its preliminary phase, the very same capability as its existing plant in Haiphong. The business provided less than 45,000 automobiles worldwide in the first nine months of 2024. The new factory in the main Ha Tinh province will mostly produce VF 3 and VF 5 designs for both domestic sales and export, with operations set to start in July next year, the business stated in a declaration. Need in global markets is growing rapidly, so the building of an additional electric automobile factory ... will develop a strong foundation for an important and explosive advancement phase ahead for VinFast, said Nguyen Viet Quang, Vice Chairman and CEO of VinFast's parent business Vingroup. VinFast, a subsidiary of significant Vietnamese corporation Vingroup, said last month its third-quarter bottom line had narrowed to $550 million, which it stated reflected lower product expenses and increased production. The automaker provided 44,773 cars throughout the first 9 months of this year, simply over 55% of its target of 80,000 units for the year. Company officials have actually stated they stay confident of reaching the objective. The new plant will be located in the same complex as VinFast's battery plant and will utilize parts from the business's. existing factory in Haiphong. VinFast has likewise announced plans for assembly plants in both. Indonesia and India, and has postponed the launch of a planned. North Carolina center till 2028.
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UniCredit states ready to take a seat with Credit Agricole over Banco BPM
UniCredit is all set to take a seat with Credit Agricole, a representative for the Italian bank stated in a LinkedIn post after the French loan provider increased its possible stake in Unicredit's takeover target Banco BPM. UniCredit's quote for its smaller peer prompted Credit Agricole to state on Friday it had entered derivatives that would raise its stake in BPM to 15% from 9.9% once the European Reserve bank offers its thumbs-up. The other day's news about Credit Agricole's increased stake in BPM changes nothing for UniCredit, the representative for UniCredit stated on social media network LinkedIn. We were always prepared to negotiate with CA, as this would have been needed whatever the scale of their shareholding. Sources with understanding of the French bank's method have told Reuters Credit Agricole's focus is to safeguard the business collaborations that enable it to sell its products in Italy. Credit Agricole has actually ruled out a complete buyout of BPM, in which it is the single most significant shareholder. UniCredit's early move made Credit Agricole's financial investment more expensive and more complicated. BPM shareholders need to not welcome this development, the UniCredit spokesperson stated. UniCredit last month declared a seat at Italy's bank debt consolidation table by introducing a 10 billion euro ($ 11 billion). all-share unsolicited bid for Banco BPM. The relocation ambushed plans by the Rome government to broker a. merger in between BPM and state-backed Monte dei Paschi di Siena . Both banks partner with fund supervisor Anima Holding. , which Banco BPM remains in the process of taking over. On Saturday, sources informed Reuters th at Credit Agricole had got informal support from the Rome. federal government prior to announcing its increased stake in Banco BPM. The UniCredit spokesperson warned BPM shareholders they. need to watch out for a possible combination of BPM with the. Italian company of Credit Agricole, or of any effort to merge. BPM with Monte dei Paschi. A quote for Monte dei Paschi is a possible defence technique. for BPM, which has spurned UniCredit's deal as too low-cost. Credit Agricole's most likely options would be to merge BPM. with Credit Agricole Italia
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Israeli strikes on southern Lebanese towns kill 6, Lebanese health ministry states
Israeli strikes on 2 southern Lebanese towns eliminated 6 people and wounded 5, the Lebanese health ministry said on Saturday, in the most recent potential challenge to a fragile ceasefire that has remained in place for less than 2 weeks. 5 people were eliminated in an attack on Beit Lif town while one person was killed in a drone strike on Deir Seryan, the health ministry said in a statement. The Israeli armed force has yet to discuss the incidents. Tensions have actually continued despite the ceasefire, with Israel and the Lebanese armed faction Hezbollah trading accusations of offenses. Earlier today, Israel threatened to return to war if its truce with Hezbollah collapsed. The U.S. said last Monday that the ceasefire was holding, although it anticipated that there may be violations.
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Reaction to Syrian rebels' expanding advance against Assad
Syrian rebels went into residential areas of the city of Homs on Saturday, sources stated, pushing a lightning week-long advance as front lines collapse across the nation and government forces battle to save President Bashar al-Assad's 24-year guideline. Following are responses. U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP Syria is a mess, however is not our pal, & & THE UNITED STATES NEED TO HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH IT THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT. PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!, Trump stated in a post on his social networks platform Truth Social. RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEI LAVROV It's inadmissible to allow the terrorist group to take control of the lands in violation of arrangements. TURKISH PRESIDENT TAYYIP ERDOGAN There is now a new reality in Syria, politically and diplomatically. And Syria comes from Syrians with all its ethnic, sectarian and religious elements. Individuals of Syria are the ones who will choose the future of their own country. As Turkey, our wish is for our neighbour Syria to rapidly gain back the peace, stability and serenity it has been yearning for 13 years. SYRIAN PRIME MINISTER MOHAMMAD GHAZI AL-JALALI The real battle our nation is fighting is the battle for ... national identity. The geographical fight is a secondary one, which our brave army and armed forces have actually been combating because 2011 and continues to this day. TOBIAS LINDNER, A MINISTER OF STATE AT THE GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTRY We prompt all celebrations to de-escalate and to remind them of their commitment to safeguard civilians. There need to be no foreign escalation. Russian airstrikes on civilian targets are especially fretting. What we require now is a political procedure, a solution in the U.N. structure of resolution 2254. HAMISH FALCONER, BRITAIN'S MINISTER FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA I stay very concerned by the capacity for big full-blown attacks by the regime or by Russia. Any suggestion of making use of chemical weapons would be intolerable. NORWEGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ESPEN BARTH EIDE I think there is time for really to call for discussion, for a political settlement and to try to stop this before it really goes absolutely down the drain.
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Trump says United States needs to 'NOT GET INVOLVED' in conflict in Syria
Presidentelect Donald Trump said on Saturday the U.S. need to not be involved in the conflict in Syria, where rebel forces are threatening the federal government of President Bashar alAssad. Syria is a mess, however is not our buddy, & & THE UNITED STATES NEED TO HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH IT THIS IS NOT OUR BATTLE. LET IT. PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!, Trump stated in a post on his social media platform Reality Social. Trump stated because Russia, an Assad ally, is bound battling a war with Ukraine it seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have secured for years. If Russia were forced out of Syria, it might in fact be the best thing that can take place to them due to the fact that there was never much of an advantage in Syria for Russia, Trump stated. Trump's comments appeared to show his opposition to the presence of some 900 U.S. troops in Syria, mostly of them in the northeast, where they have actually backed a Syrian Kurd-led alliance in preventing a revival of Islamic State militants. Trump revealed in 2018 during his very first term that he wished to withdraw the U.S. troops due to the fact that he said Islamic State was near defeat. But he held off as advisers warned that a pullout would leave a space that would be filled by Iran and Russia.
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Iran's nuclear leap \extremely serious\, injures diplomacy, Western source states
Iran's velocity in its enrichment of uranium to near to bomb grade is extremely. serious, has no civilian validation and contradicts Tehran's. assertions on desiring serious nuclear settlements, a Western. diplomatic source stated on Saturday. Iran has long denied looking for nuclear weapons. U.N. nuclear guard dog chief Rafael Grossi told Reuters on. Friday that Iran was drastically accelerating its enrichment of. uranium to as much as 60% purity, near to the about 90% level that. is weapons grade. The International Atomic Energy Company later verified in a. personal report to member states that Iran was accelerating. uranium enrichment, a process that fine-tunes the raw product so. that it can be utilized as fuel in civil nuclear power generation. or, possibly, nuclear weapons. The information reported by the Director General of the. Agency, showing a substantial increase in Iran's capacity to. produce highly enriched uranium at 60%, is very major,. the Western diplomatic source told Reuters. These measures have no reliable civilian validation and. could, on the contrary, directly sustain a military nuclear. programme if Iran were to take the decision ... They remain in. contradiction with Iran's statements on its willingness to. return to trustworthy negotiations..
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Denmark to Engage with Industry to Seek Clarity Over Failed Offshore Wind Tender
Denmark's latest offshore wind farm tender in the North Sea has failed to attract any bids, authorities said on Thursday, in a further setback for the industry.After a year of challenges, the global offshore wind industry no longer has much prospect of hitting the lofty targets set by governments in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere, hindering efforts to fight climate change."This is a very disappointing result," energy and climate minister Lars Aagard said in a written statement."The circumstances for offshore wind in Europe have changed significantly in a relatively short time, including large price and interest rate increases," Aagard added.The Danish Energy Agency said it would start a dialogue with market participants to identify reasons for the lack of bids, adding that a number of companies had expressed interest during the initial market dialogue.Danish offshore wind farm developer Orsted said it had opted not to bid due to an unfavourable risk-reward balance and acknowledged the changing industry factors such as higher inflation, rising interest rates and supply chain bottlenecks."To mitigate the impact of this and support the ongoing expansion of offshore wind energy, industry and policymakers should work together to create the necessary conditions for a sustainable future for offshore wind," Orsted's Chief Commercial Officer Rasmus Errboe said in a written comment.Denmark had in April launched its biggest offshore wind tender to date, offering no subsidies to companies competing for the right to erect turbines on six sites with a combined capacity of up to 10 gigawatts.The deadline for bids for three sites in the North Sea was on Thursday, while the deadline for an additional three sites in the Baltic Sea and Kattegat is on April 1, 2025.No subsidies were offered in the tender.Shell, one of the major energy companies which have touted offshore wind as a key market they can invest in as part of the world's energy transition, on Wednesday said it was stepping back from new offshore wind investments in a move mirrored by others.Denmark, also home to turbine maker Vestas, has been a pioneer in both onshore and offshore wind, thanks also to its favourable wind speeds.(Reuters - Reporting by Stine Jacobsen; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Keith Weir)
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China's central bank resumes gold purchases after six-month hiatus in Nov.
China's central bank resumed purchasing gold for its reserves in November after a sixmonth pause, official information by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) revealed on Saturday. The PBOC was the world's largest authorities sector purchaser of gold in 2023. Resumption of its purchases may support Chinese investor demand which was silenced since the PBOC paused its 18-month purchasing streak in May. China's gold holdings rose to 72.96 million fine troy ounces at the end of November, up from 72.80 million troy ounces a. month previously. The value of China's gold reserves fell to $193.43 billion. at the end of last month from $199.06 billion at the end of. October. November was gold's very first month-to-month price drop given that June due. to a post-U.S. election sell-off driven by Donald Trump's win. Spot rates for the precious metal are down 5% since. striking a record high of $2,790.15 an ounce on Oct. 31, but are. still up 28% so far this year. The resumption will send out a signal that the PBOC has actually grown. accustomed to these record high price levels and is prepared to. construct reserves regardless, said Ole Hansen, head of commodity. method at Saxo Bank.
United States targets scrap to close the vital minerals space: Andy Home
The United States hasn't had a tin smelter because 1991. That year marked the closure of the Longhorn plant in Texas, which was constructed with federal funds in 1942 to decrease the country's import dependency at a time when can quite actually fed the war effort.
Tin is still a crucial metal, now for its usage in circuit-board soldering instead of in preserved food, and the U.S. federal government is as soon as again thinking about how to decrease the nation's dependence on imports, presently performing at 75% of yearly usage.
Without any mines and no active reserves, the only way of closing the import space is to recycle more. The Department of Defense (DOD) has actually recently awarded $19 million to U.S. secondary tin manufacturer Nathan Trotter & & Co. to expand domestic recycling capability and catch more of the 38,000 metric lots of tin scrap that is exported every year.
Such recycling, or city mining, is the typically overlooked part of the crucial minerals self-sufficiency formula.
URBAN MINING The DOD has also funnelled funds to business such as 6K Additive, which recycles titanium alloys, and Rare Earth Salts, which recuperates terbium from old light bulbs. The Department of Energy (DOE) will invest $22 million for an upgrade of Golden Aluminum's recycling operations in Colorado and allocated approximately $270 million for boosted copper recycling at Wieland's Shelbyville facility in Kentucky. The DOE is also aiming to construct from scratch an electric car (EV) battery recycling chain. It has dispersed funds for new processing capacity, brand-new scrap arranging innovation and, in the case of B2U Storage Solutions, even the transportation of utilized batteries.
Urban mining has many advantages over main mining and smelting. Recycling metals is less expensive than producing virgin metal because it needs much less energy, up to 90% less in the case of aluminium.
It is for that reason also much greener, giving off 80% less greenhouse gas than primary metal, according to the International Energy Company's (IEA) just-released unique report on recycling.
Maybe most notably of all for U.S. supply-chain coordinators, increasing domestic crucial metals production by broadening recycling capacity indicates a much shorter allowing procedure than constructing brand-new mines.
UNTAPPED POTENTIAL
Recycling alone will not replace the requirement for new mines however it can make a huge distinction, possibly minimizing global demand for new mining activity by 25-40% by 2050 in a scenario that meets nationwide climate promises, according to the IEA.
Nevertheless, city mining's full capacity has yet to be fulfilled.
The share of secondary supply of copper in international need, consisting of direct melt scrap in products make, fell from 37% in 2015 to 33% in 2023, the IEA said.
The share of recycled nickel reduced from 33% to 26% over the exact same period. Aluminium bucked the pattern with an increase from 32% to 35% thanks to well-established waste management programs and helpful regulations, the IEA kept in mind.
But the United States is a laggard with secondary copper representing simply 30% of national usage, lower than the international average.
The country is the world's largest exporter of both copper and aluminium scrap, much of the outbound circulation ending up in China.
The core problem is the hollowing out of U.S. scrap processing capacity, particularly that needed to deal with old end-of-life material that often needs careful sorting and taking apart before getting in a remelt heating system.
An effective recycling economy likewise requires an efficient collection system, which is still doing not have in the United States.
U.S. recycling rates for aluminium cans, among the easiest products to loop back into the supply chain, are listed below 50%,. according to the U.S. Aluminum Association. That indicates the. equivalent of $800 million of important resource going to. land fill every year, almost enough to build a new main. smelter.
BATTERY OBSTACLE
Recycling EV batteries comes with an entire different set of. challenges.
Extracting important metals such as nickel and cobalt from a. invested battery can be a rewarding organization but what about. batteries with none of those components?
The EV battery sector has actually rotated towards cheaper. lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) chemistry in the last couple of. years, such batteries now accounting for around 40% of the. global market.
The fairly low worth of the core metal inputs undercuts. the financial case for recycling LFP batteries, implying the. sector may need to take a look at different rates mechanisms such as. toll-based recycling.
A global regulatory framework for recycling spent EV. batteries is also still operate in progress. Waste codes for black. mass, the concentrated mixture of cathode and anode in an invested. battery, differ extensively by country and region.
Additionally, as the IEA report explains, China still. controls the middle processing stage of the supply chain, where. recycled metals are fed back into precursor aspects for new. batteries.
Today the world's leading 20 business for invested battery. pre-treatment and materials recovery are Chinese, representing a. new possible dependence for Western nations.
LEAD TEMPLATE
Most of the difficulties can be gotten rid of with the right policy. mix, both at national and global level, according to the. IEA.
An effective design template for EV batteries and indeed all metals. recycling is supplied by the simple lead-acid battery. Recycling. rates for what is classified as a health hazard can be as high. as 99% in developed countries such as the U.S. or in Europe.
The lead market still needs new mines but far fewer of them. thanks to its high recycling rate.
As the U.S. federal government is finding, purchasing brand-new. scrap processing capacity is far less expensive and greener than. developing brand-new mines. Most notably of all from a nationwide. security viewpoint, the metal is likewise already captive in the. domestic market.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a. writer .
(source: Reuters)