Western Europe

According to a preliminary investigation that pointed out maintenance issues, the cable that snapped in September and caused a Lisbon railcar funicular to hurtle downhill, killing 16 passengers, was not approved for passenger transport. The Office for Air and Rail Accident Investigations in Portugal (GPIAAF), said that despite the fact that other factors may have been at play, it is still difficult to determine whether an inadequate cable was the cause of the crash. The final report of the GPIAAF is due in September. After leaving the track, the yellow tram-like vehicle, which transports people up and down steep hillsides...

Mario Draghi's eponymous Report, in which he urged the European Union (EU) to increase productivity and resilience of its economy by investing heavily, has been out for more than a full year. The EU's follow-through has been widely criticized. The region might not have to worry about this. The former president of the European Central Bank, when he presented his report on EU Competitiveness in 2024 urged the EU to continue reforms that would improve productivity. On September 16, the European Commission held a conference at a high level to assess its progress. While the Commission tried to take credit...

Longacre Square Partners, a corporate advisory firm, has formed a partnership with InvestorSight - a startup that uses artificial intelligence to analyze investor behavior during takeovers and board battles. InvestorSight is a company co-founded by Dartmouth Professor Mark DesJardine, and data scientists. It has developed the first interactive tool that models how institutional investors and mutual funds are likely to respond to different corporate situations. This tool can be used to collect advanced data including the voting patterns of investors in previous contests to determine a company's or an activist investor's vulnerability. InvestorSight, a tool interactive that allows users to...

Mota-Engil is Portugal's biggest construction company. It has announced that it has won rail construction contracts worth over 1 billion euros (1.16 million dollars) in Mexico, increasing its order books in the country to more than 3.7 billion euro. In a press release, Mota-Engil said that with these contracts it would resume growth in its backlog of work in Mexico, "strengthening its position as the largest European rail infrastructure constructor in the country". Mota-Engil's shares rose 2.3% on Monday morning after the announcement. The contract with the Mexican government, worth 820 millions euros, involves the design and building of the...

Industry leaders stated on Sunday that a massive fire at Dhaka Airport's import cargo complex has caused extensive damages to goods and materials belonging major garment exporters. Losses and impacts on trade are likely to be in the millions of dollars. The fire broke out in the cargo village of the airport on Saturday afternoon, forcing the suspension of flights. On Sunday, smoke continued to rise as firefighters and airport officials assessed damage. The fire destroyed storage areas that housed imported raw materials, ready to export apparel, and sample products, all of which are essential for Bangladesh's $47 Billion garment...

Sky News reported that Philip Jansen, former CEO of BT Group and now chairman of marketing services group WPP is in advanced discussions with Heathrow’s board of directors and shareholders about becoming the chairman of the airport. The report cited sources to say that Jansen was the clear frontrunner of the shortlisted candidates. An announcement could be made within weeks, if discussions are successful. Could not verify the report immediately. Heathrow Airport didn't immediately respond to an inquiry for comment. Sky News reported in July that the British aviation hub had been working with headhunter Russell Reynolds Associates on recruiting...

Portugal's state owned railway operator CP announced on Friday that it would purchase 117 electric self-propelled railcars for EUR746m ($871m) from the French/Portuguese consortium Alstom/DST, in its largest ever acquisition. In a separate press release, Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz stated that the government "bets on the railroad" and that the purchase will address the long-standing delays of modernising CP’s fleet and improve service quality for the growing number of passengers. CP stated that the deal included 118 million euro in co-financing by European funds and 212.5 millions euros from the Portuguese Environment Fund. The first units are scheduled to...

Sources said that stocks of BHP's iron ore have piled up in major Chinese ports at the highest level in three months. Trade has stalled because the miner is still in negotiations with China's government-run buyer to secure a new contract. Sources claim that China Mineral Resources Group (CMRG), a subsidiary of BHP, told steel mills last month to stop buying BHP's Jimblebar Fines. Two sources said that inventories of Jimblebar Fines in some Chinese ports had risen to around 2.6 millions metric tons by October 14. This was the highest level seen since July. They also added that the...

Analysts say that congestion in the Belgian Port Antwerp-Bruges is causing oil deliveries to be disrupted after a harbourpilots' strike. The port authority has reported up to 188 ships still waiting to berth, or depart. Analysts say oil deliveries are still disrupted, despite the fact that Flemish seapilots who have a crucial role in navigating vessels through dangerous or congested waters temporarily suspended their strike. The strike began on October 5, in protest at federal pension reforms. Backlogs have forced shipping lines, which are responsible for rerouting or delaying cargo, to strain supply chains. S&P Global Commodity Insights quoted market...

Despite Western sanctions against the project and the ships, data from LSEG and market sources showed that several tankers were delivering cargoes of gas condensate from Russia's Arctic LNG 2 to China. Gas condensate, a by-product of the liquefied gas industry, is used as a feedstock by refineries for naphtha production, diesel production, jet fuel and other petrochemicals. It can also be mixed with crude oil to make it less viscous. Before the U.S., EU and Russian sanctions were imposed over Moscow's conflict in Ukraine, Arctic LNG 2 was set to be one of Russia's biggest LNG plants. According to...

Ardian, an investment firm, and Finint Infrastrutture, a company that manages assets in Italy, have agreed to acquire Milione Spa together, which is the holding company of Save, which operates several airports, including Venice Marco Polo. According to a source familiar with the transaction, the equity value for the company is approximately 1.2 billion euro ($1.4 billion). The value of the company increases to 2.1 billion euro when debt is included. Milione is controlled by DWS Infrastructure & Infravia Capital Partners. The two companies announced their partnership on Wednesday. It was "designed to support the growth of Save and (Italian...

According to trading sources, at least five crude oil tankers have been diverted from a major eastern Chinese port after the U.S. imposed a ban on an import terminal on Friday. U.S. sanctions disrupted plans by the country's refining companies to unload cargoes in the port of Lanshan, the hub for refinery activity in Shandong Province. The diverting of the ships could also lead to congestion in alternative ports. This is especially true at Zhoushan located further south, off the coast Zhejiang Province, where multiple ships have been redirected. The U.S. sanctioned the Rizhao-Shihua Crude oil Terminal in Lanshan on...

The companies, which include Chevron, Shell and others, said that they had reduced their oil and gas production at a major Kazakh field following a drone strike by Ukraine, which damaged a Russian gas processing plant that supported their operations. The Orenburg gas plant strike, which took place about 1,056 miles (1,700 km) east of Ukraine marks the first incident known in Kyiv’s campaign to disrupt Western oil majors' operations abroad. Erlan Akkenzhenov said that the Karachaganak field's daily production had been reduced by 8,500 metric tonnes (66,810 bbls) to 9,000 tons as a result of the strike. He said...

Enagas, the Spanish gas grid operator, said Tuesday that it was on track to reach its 2025 goals after turning a profit in the first nine-months of the year. The swing was due to a combination of gains from disposals, the revision upwards of the amount awarded by an arbitrator in relation to an investment in Peru and operating costs that were in line with the previous year. The company reported a profit of 262.8 million euros ($306.5 millions) compared to a net loss of 130.2 million euros in the same period 2024. This was due to a capital loss...

The fire at the main refinery of the Hungarian oil company MOL, located south of Budapest on the Danube River, has been put out. Firefighters are still on site. MTI, the state-run news agency, reported that a fire started late Monday night at a feed unit. The fire did not affect production immediately. "A fire broke out Monday night at the AV3 unit of the Danube refinery. The fire has been contained and firefighters are still on site. MOL stated in an email that the cause of the fire is still being investigated. According to MOL’s official website, the Danube...

Two industry sources said on Monday that a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Orenburg Gas Plant has forced Kazakhstan to reduce its production at Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field by 25 to 30%. Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry said that Orenburg, one of the largest gas processing facilities in the world, was forced to stop importing gas from Kazakhstan following the attack. Ukraine confirmed that it had hit a gas station in the Orenburg area, located 1,700 km (1,060 mi) east of Russia's border with Ukraine. It also confirmed hitting an oil refinery, in the Samara Region. Since August, Kyiv's attacks...

Two industry sources said on Monday that a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Orenburg Gas Plant has forced Kazakhstan to reduce its production at Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field by 25 to 30%. Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry said that Orenburg, one of the largest gas processing facilities in the world, was forced to stop importing gas from Kazakhstan following the attack. Ukraine confirmed that it had hit a gas station in the Orenburg area, located 1,700 km (1,060 mi) east of Russia's border with Ukraine. It also confirmed hitting an oil refinery, in the Samara Region. Since August, Kyiv's attacks...

Tenaga Nasional Bhd's (TNB) chief executive said that Malaysia would generate more electricity using natural gas by 2032 than it will from coal. Megat Jalaluddin, CEO of TNB, said that the demand for electricity from data centres is expected to stabilize, and the total amount of electricity used in Malaysia will likely be consistent with the projected growth rate of Malaysia's economy of 4%-4.5 percent in 2026. The investment in data centres has stabilized. Jalaluddin stated that the data centre investment is currently growing steadily. Malaysia has been compelled to increase its coal-fired energy output in recent months and import...

An early morning fire at a substation of Brazilian company Eletrobras caused a power outage in several parts of Brazil. Officials said that the shutdown affected more than one million Brazilians and around 10,000 megawatts of load. OnS, Brazil's energy operator, said that the incident took place in a reactor of a substation located in the south. It shut down the facility, and caused the disconnection for the entire region. The region was exporting 5,000MW to the rest of Brazil. The fire in the South resulted to a loss of 1,600 MW. In other areas, an automatic protection system was...

The general strike in Belgium that took place on Tuesday caused the majority of planes to be grounded at both main airports, and also disrupted public transportation in Brussels. The protest was part of a larger series this year that has been against government proposals to reform the pension system and labour market. A spokesperson for the airport confirmed that all flights scheduled to depart and land from Brussels International Airport were cancelled on Tuesday after the staff of the security company providing X-ray scanning walked out. According to the website, all flights have been cancelled at Charleroi Airport, located...

The firms announced on Monday that private equity firm Warburg Pincus had struck a deal with German PSI Software to purchase it for over 700 million euros (811 million dollars), while shareholder and customer E.ON remains a strategic investor. First reported both the near takeover of PSI and Warburg Pincus offer for the maker software for energy network networks last week. After a Friday jump of nearly 11%, PSI shares have gained another 35% and are now trading at 44.9 Euros each - the highest since January 2022. This was close to Warburg Pincus’ offer of 45 euros per shares,...

The differential between Brent and Urals crudes dated on Wednesday remained unchanged, but the Azeri BTC plan for exports from Turkey's Ceyhan Port in November was set at 15,3 million barrels compared to the 15.4 million barrels exported in October. Calculations showed that Azeri BTC crude exports would increase by approximately 3% per day in November compared to October. Alexander Novak, Deputy Premier of Russia, said that the country has gradually increased its oil production. It was very close to achieving the output quota set by OPEC+ last month. PLATTS WINDOW There were no bids or offerings reported on the...

These are the most popular stories from the New York Times' business pages. These stories have not been verified and we cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports. Tesla unveiled on Tuesday new versions of two of its most popular models: Model Y, and Model 3. These will be sold for $40,000 each and $37,000 separately. A Los Angeles jury on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $966 Million to the family a California woman, who died of a rare cancer. The company had been found liable after a lawsuit claiming that its baby powder products caused cancer....

The differentials between Urals crude and Brent for the date of February weakened on Monday due to rising shipping costs from Russia to India. This was driven by an increase in cargoes coming from Primorsk and Novorossiisk. Industry sources say that the current freight costs to transport Urals from the Baltic port of Primorsk to India for Aframax tanks rose from $6-6.5 millions for one-way trips in late August to middle September. The traders reported that the prices of Urals at western Indian ports remained constant. The exact plans for October remain unknown, but they expect Urals to continue exporting...