Singapore

Ampol, Australia's largest fuel retailer, recorded a lower third-quarter sales volume due to softer performance in its domestic convenience retailing business as a result of challenging weather conditions during August. The company's shares fell by as much as 3,1% Thursday, their lowest intraday performance since June. Stocks fell to their lowest level since October 23, 2009. The Australian convenience retail segment performed poorly compared to the previous year when it had enjoyed favorable market conditions due to the decline in fuel input costs. In August, New South Wales, Queensland, and other states experienced prolonged bad weather, which negatively affected sales....

Mark Carney, Canada's prime minister, will make his first official trip to Asia this Friday. He is hoping to strengthen trade and security links at a moment when North America struggles to reduce its dependence on the U.S. Canadian officials have said that Carney's trip could include a meeting between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping in an effort to restore a relationship previously strained by a trade war. Donald Trump, President of the United States Termination of trade talks Canada responded to a political ad in Ontario that featured Ronald Reagan, the Republican icon who said tariffs caused economic...

In late June, Indonesian soldiers wearing fatigues entered a palm oil plantation in Borneo and displayed a sign declaring that the estate was under government control. The Melati Hanjalipan Plantation is a perfect example of a military-backed takeover which has shocked the 16 million-strong workforce and the world's largest palm oil producer. Agrinas Palma Nusantara is the new state-owned palm oil firm that has a land area of 9.1 million acres. Nearly half was transferred to it, making it the largest palm oil company in terms of size. This crackdown, ordered by the President Prabowo Subianto, is the largest structural...

Letters show that Hollywood and Bollywood groups lobby an Indian panel to increase copyright protection so that artificial intelligence companies cannot use their intellectual property for training AI models. AI companies are at odds with content owners around the world, and governments are developing rules to govern this new technology. While Japan allows AI firms to use copyrighted material, the European Union's rules are stricter and allow content owners to opt out. The film industry is especially concerned that AI could scrape copyrighted online videos, images and clippings like trailers and promotions - and even more importantly ingest pirated material...

Angola has a complex network of pipelines that snake along the Atlantic coast. They lead to a new refinery, which signals Angola's drive for energy independence. It also shows how private lenders are being used instead of banks to finance a large-scale project. "We are not the lender last resort," said Felipe Berliner. He is the co-founder and CEO of Gemcorp, a emerging markets asset management company that provided the majority of the funding for the refinery using private capital. "Sometimes, we are the sole lender." Veteran investors said that private credit for emerging market countries -- driven by investors’...

Aster Chemicals & Energy, a Singaporean company, has declared force majeure for petrochemicals from its naphtha cracked on Bukom Island. This was revealed in a letter that sources who were directly involved with the matter saw on Thursday. The letter attributed force majeure to "unexpected events" at the ethylene cracker plant, which had been scheduled for maintenance since August 1. In the letter sent to customers, it was not stated which products were affected. The company didn't immediately respond to our request for a comment. It remains unclear how long the 1.1-million-ton-per-year (tpy) unit will be shut, though sources with...

A spokesperson for Mubadala Energy in the United Arab Emirates said that Mubadala Energy had signed an initial contract to supply gas to Indonesia's state fertiliser manufacturer Pupuk Indonesia. Paul Slinger, speaking at an industry conference organized by the Indonesia Petroleum Association, said that Mubadala Energy would supply 115 millions standard cubic feet of methanol per day to Pupuk and 85 mmscfd for its ammonia facility. Slinger stated that the gas will be delivered as soon as production starts at Mubadala Energy South Andaman Block. The Tangkulo-1 well is expected to begin producing by late 2028. Mubadala Energy reported last...

Trafigura’s top executive for Mongolia has been suspended pending an investigation into a fraud scheme worth billions of dollars at the Swiss trading firm. The executive, however, lent more than $500 million from Trafigura to a company owned by his aunt. Lex Oil is Trafigura’s main counterparty in Mongolia. According to three sources and a document, it belonged to Erdenetuul who is the aunt of Trafigura’s suspended local boss Jononbayar Erdenesuren. Trafigura announced last October it had suffered a loss of $1.1 billion after an internal investigation found that employees within its Mongolian petroleum product supply business engaged "serious misconduct"....

The Singapore-based Jadestone Energy PLC, an oil and gas company that develops offshore gas fields, has submitted to the state-controlled PetroVietnam a plan for a joint development of two offshore gasfields in southwest Vietnam. Jadestone stated in a press release that the proposal included drilling two wells at the Nam Du and U Minh field to support a plateau production rate of 80 millions standard cubic feet per day. Jadestone, a separate company, said that the development of Nam Du and U Minh's gas fields will reduce Vietnam's future dependency on expensive liquefied gas imports. Gas will be transported to...

Brava Energia, a Brazilian company, will add four wells to the Atlanta field by 2025. It will also begin shipping oil to Trafigura as part of a six-million barrel supply agreement. The head of Brava's offshore operations, Carlos Mastrangelo, told reporters during a Tuesday visit that the number of wells connected with the floating production storage unit and offloading (FPSO) will now be six. We currently have two wells. In a little more than a month we will be connecting two more, and by the end June, two more. Mastrangelo said that Atlanta produces about 26,000 barrels per day. Mastrangelo...

Reliance Retail launched an app to sell fashionwear in India from China's Shein, under a license deal. This comes almost five years after Shein's App was banned in India following a diplomatic dispute. Reliance is owned by Mukesh Ambani. A person who has direct knowledge of Reliance’s launch plans said that the app was launched on Saturday morning. The launch was not announced by the firm. Shein nor its parent company Reliance Industries did not respond to any requests for comments made outside of normal business hours. Shein India Fast Fashion is a departure from Reliance’s strategy to add brands...

Singapore's jet fuel imports most likely hit multiyear highs in December last year, with India being the top supplier as the arbitrage to Europe stayed shut, trade sources and shiptracking data show. Jet fuel imports into the small city state are closely followed by markets, as it is a major trading and storage hub for refined fuel in Asia. The strong supply to Singapore and expectations of greater exports from China after its refiners received recently their first batch of the 2025 export quota, might weigh on Asia's spot jet fuel prices, included the sources, who all sought anonymity. Singapore's...

Sany Heavy Industry's shares rose up to 4.7% on their Hong Kong debut Tuesday, after the Chinese construction equipment maker raised HK$12.36bn ($1.59bn) in one the biggest listings in the city this year. According to the prospectus, this company was founded in 1994 and is part of the Sany Group. It is now China's leading construction machinery manufacturer, and ranks among the top three worldwide. Sany, which manufactures excavators and concrete machinery as well as road construction equipment and cranes, operates 16 production bases in different countries and sells its products to more than 150. The stock price opened at...

This week, a delegation of Singaporean firms is visiting South Africa to explore partnership opportunities in manufacturing, logistics and consumer goods. Trade between the two countries has almost doubled in the last four years. Enterprise Singapore, Singapore's agency for trade and enterprise, stated that this mission was part of the Scale-Up Programme and aimed to link participating firms with South African counterparts, and potential partners, in a variety of sectors including agriprocessing and industrial supplies. "South Africa is already a close partner of Singapore, and there are many Singaporean firms operating in South Africa," Rahul Ghosh said on Thursday. He...

Two people who have direct knowledge of this matter say that Anugrah Neo Energy Materials, a nickel mining and processing firm in Indonesia, plans to make an initial public offer on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The company hopes to raise $300 million. Sources declined to identify themselves as this information is not public. According to sources, Anugrah Neo Energy Materials could be valued at more than 2 billion dollars. Proceeds will also be used for expansion. They added that DBS and RHB are among the banks involved in the IPO. Anugrah Neo Energy Materials didn't immediately respond to an inquiry...

Rio Tinto is preparing to ship 2 million metric tonnes of high-grade ore from its Simandou mine in Guinea by mid-November, according to three sources. This would be the very first shipment out of the massive mine that will reshape the global supply and pricing. Rio's third-quarter report, released on Tuesday, stated that SimFer, one of two mines in Simandou, had amassed 1,5 million tons of ore. The first ore was loaded onto rail transport back in October. Unspecified details were not provided by a spokesperson, but he said that the company was continuing to progress the project at "pace"....

The CEO of the trading house Trafigura stated on Monday that traditional applications of copper will continue as the largest part of the demand for the metal in the coming decade. This is not data centres or the defence industry. Richard Holtum, speaking at the LME Week in London, noted that artificial intelligence (AI), defence spending and metal demand are "buzzwords". He said that consumer demand will "dwarf three times" the AI demand for copper this year. Holtum, in a conversation with Matt Chamberlain, CEO of the London Metal Exchange said: "The amount that copper goes into air conditioning is...

The Australian government announced on Tuesday that it would provide A$135 (US$87.4M) in financial assistance to two smelters in Australia's southern region owned by Nyrstar. Nyrstar is a subsidiary of commodity trader Trafigura. Trafigura placed its Port Pirie lead-smelting operations, in South Australia, and its zinc processing operation in Hobart in Tasmania under strategic review in early this year after high energy costs and lower processing fees rendered the businesses unprofitable. Nyrstar, as part of its review, assessed the potential of producing antimony, a critical mineral, at its Port Pirie facility, but it would require government assistance to do so....

Three sources familiar with the matter claim that the sale of a majority stake in Bank Pan Indonesia, or Panin Bank, listed on Jakarta's stock exchange by ANZ Australia and Indonesia’s Gunawan Family has been stalled because of a mismatch of pricing. The combined stake is equivalent to approximately 86% of Panin Bank. This bank was valued at $1.45 billion on Friday, based on the 1,140 rupiah share price on the Jakarta Stock Exchange. According to LSEG, the Gunawan family holds 46.5% of the shares. It is willing to reduce its holdings. ANZ, an Australian bank, owns around 39.2%. CIMB...

Chinese media, citing anonymous sources, reported that Ant Group, a subsidiary of China's ecommerce giant Alibaba Group, plans to list Ant International on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Caixin reported, citing sources close to the company that Ant was in communication with regulators regarding the possible listing. The report didn't specify whether discussions took place with regulators from China or other countries. Ant International is a Singapore-based company. Alibaba controls 33% of Ant, which was founded by Jack Ma. It runs China's ubiquitous Alipay mobile payment app. Chinese authorities pulled Ant's $37-billion IPO in Shanghai & Hong Kong in 2020....

S ingapore-headquartered real estate investment manager SC Capital Partners has emerged as a potential bidder for British data centre group Global Switch, two people familiar with the matter told . One of the sources said that the firm, which is backed by the global real estate manager CapitaLand Investment is working with advisors to purchase the London-based Jiangsu Shagang Group. The matter is a private one, so both sources requested anonymity. The people cautioned that the talks are still ongoing and will depend on market conditions. The first person who spoke said that the transaction could be valued between $4...

According to internal memos and sources, the former head of Mercuria's Beijing office will join China's largest oil refining group Rongsheng Holdings as a senior executive. Li Xinhua will assist Xiang Jingjiong as president of Rongsheng Holdings. Li will be responsible for Rongsheng’s coal, petrochemical and oil trading businesses in Singapore, according to sources who declined to name themselves as the move had not yet been announced. Rongsheng has not yet commented. Li has been with Mercuria in Geneva for 17 years, one of the top four commodities and energy traders on the planet. Li's new role is to grow...

The parliament approved the creation of a state-owned investment vehicle that will oversee government investments in some the largest companies. It is similar to Singapore's Temasek investment arm. Soon after Prabowo Subito assumed office in October, the creation of Daya Anagata Nusantara Investment Management Agency (Danantara) was announced with the goal of improving performance and returns on state investments. Danantara will have an initial capital of at least 1,000 trillion Rupiah (61 billion dollars). Sufmi dasco Ahmad, deputy speaker to parliament, told reporters that it would take over the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry's holdings in all state-owned companies. State companies play...

Electric automobile tech company Ideanomics Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on Wednesday to discover a buyer for its wireless charging business and other innovation investments. Ideanomics got in insolvency with over $30 million in debt and simply $189,000 in cash on hand, according to files filed in Wilmington, Delaware personal bankruptcy court. Ideanomics said it has lost over $800 million in the previous five years. The company spent $320 million on electric automobile innovation investments in between 2021 and 2023, but the majority of those investments were unprofitable. It has actually closed down all of its obtained...