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US has choices to deal with Chinese impact in Panama, United States official states
The head of the Federal Maritime Commission will inform a U.S. Senate committee that the United States has choices to resolve the growing presence of China and Chinese firms in Panama. President Donald Trump has sworn that the United States would take back the Panama Canal however has actually given no more details on when or how he planned to reclaim the canal which is the sovereign territory of an ally. We require to increase assistance for American business seeking to do organization in Panama and throughout the Americas. Chinese companies must not be the sole bidders on agreements, Federal Maritime Commission Chair Louis E. Sola said in written testament to be presented on Tuesday at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the Panama Canal. The testimony was seen by Reuters. Sola added that Chinese business have had the ability to pursue billions of dollars in advancement agreements in Panama, much of which were physical facilities jobs, some on or nearby to the Panama Canal. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz stated ahead of the hearing: The United States spent for and developed the Panama Canal, but Panama is dealing with America unjustly and ceding control of key facilities to China. Previously, Trump has declined to dismiss possible use of military force, drawing criticism from Washington's Latin American good friends and enemies alike. In Sola's testimony, he stated: The United States is not without options in dealing with the growing presence of China and Chinese business in Panama and throughout the Americas. Nor are we without alternatives as they associate with the continued viability of the Canal. He also said it was essential to safeguard the independence of the Panama Canal Authority. Panama's president, Jose Raul Mulino, stated last week that Panama has administered the canal responsibly for world trade, including for the United States, and that it is and will continue to be Panamanian. More than 40% of U.S. container traffic, valued at approximately $ 270 billion each year, transits the Panama Canal. In August of last year, Sola and the FMC's then-chair, Dan Maffei, visited Panama and met Mulino after drought conditions seriously impacted canal operations. Maffei stated in composed testament to be presented to the Senate committee on Tuesday that Panama's rainy season in 2015 has actually thankfully reduced intense water-supply problems for the time-being and restored normal transit volumes.
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United States opens probe into sudden motion on United Airlines flight from Nigeria
The U.S. National Transportation Security Board said on Monday it is examining a. United Airlines flight on Friday from Lagos, Nigeria to. Washington D.C., in which a sudden airplane movement caused. injuries of passengers and cabin crew. The NTSB stated the incident on United Flight 613 happened as. the Boeing 787 was flying in Ivory Coast airspace. Air travel authorities in Ivory Coast handed over the investigation to. the NTSB, which will provide a preliminary report within one month,. the company stated. United said the flight to Washington Dulles in Virginia with. 245 passengers, 3 pilots and 8 flight attendants,. returned to Lagos after the unforeseen aircraft? motion and a. technical problem. The plane landed safely in Lagos and four passengers and. two flight attendants were seen at a healthcare facility for small injuries. and have actually been released. We are dealing with air travel authorities in the U.S. and. Nigeria to understand the cause, United stated.
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US power stocks plummet as DeepSeek raises data center demand doubts
The shares of U.S. utility, power and natural gas companies fell on Monday, in some of their biggest one-day drops ever recorded, as new AI from Chinese start up DeepSeek cast doubts on the projected surge in U.S. tech spending and electricity demand. The S&P 500 index rewarded power producers last year, as they anticipated a surge in demand for energy from data centers that are needed to scale Big Tech’s artificial intelligence technology. Analysts and economists have said that the wider adoption of AI-based models, such as DeepSeek's, which they claim was built in just two months, and is cheaper than those currently used by U.S. firms, could lead to a reduction in electricity demand and a decrease in power generation. Analysts at Evercore ISI wrote in a report that if the open-source DeepSeek model is proven to be true, hyperscalers can apply the efficiency of the DeepSeek model to their own models. This would lead to a moderated demand. Over the past year, Big Tech companies, also known as hyperscaling-data center developers, invested tens and tens billions in AI data centers. According to a report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in the U.S. data centers will consume approximately 4.4% of the electricity consumed by all sources by 2023, but 6.7% to 12 % of the total power consumption by 2028. Constellation Energy's shares, which had risen by more than 100% in 2024, were down about 20% on Monday following news about DeepSeek. Vistra fell 30%, while Talen Energy Corp. dropped 22%. DeepSeek AI may also slow the deployment of data centres by current AI leaders based in Silicon Valley. DeepSeek AI's assistance overtook U.S. rival ChatGPT as the most downloaded app in Apple's App Store on Monday. Ed Hirs is an energy economist from the University of Houston. He said that with the adoption of AI and even more energy-efficient model, the demand for power could increase everywhere. He warned that selling off power stocks would be a shortsighted and short lived decision. Hirs explained that if DeepSeek is what everyone wants and the U.S. firms change their algorithms in order to adapt to it, then it will mean a faster, wider development. Even producers of feedstocks for power generation and electricity companies were still under pressure. Constellation purchased private natural gas producer Calpine Energy earlier this month for $16.4 billion, one of the biggest deals in U.S. electricity industry history. This is a sign that there are rising expectations for gas to grow as a source of generation for AI. The shares of publicly traded producers of natural gases, which make up the largest share of fuels that are used to produce electricity in the United States also fell. EQT Corp fell 9%. Energy Transfer, a midstream operator that has said it received connection requests for dozens of data centres, is down around 7%. (Reporting from Liz Hampton in Houston, and Laila Kearney in New York. Editing by Sonali Pau)
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Port Houston reports record cargo volume in 2024
Port Houston signed up a. recordbreaking 53.07 million brief lots of freight last year,. marking a 6% increase over 2023 at its public terminals, the. port reported on Monday. Container volumes increased by 8%, with packed exports rising. 12% in December to 135,446 twenty-foot comparable systems (TEUs),. driven by robust shipments of resin, chemicals, rubber, and. textiles, it stated. In 2015, filled exports climbed up 8%, while imports grew 6%,. supported by strong need for durable goods. Cooled. freight imports rose 15%, Port Houston stated. China accounted for 34% of the port's import market share. through November, up 11% from 2023, the port stated. Trans-Atlantic trade with Europe also rose, with imports from. Belgium, Germany, and Spain recording double-digit development last. year. Steel volumes at multi-purpose terminals called City Docks. reached 4.53 million short tons, the second-highest in five. years. Wind power devices, plywood, and machinery saw annual. development of 680%, 388%, and 45%, respectively, the port stated in a. statement. The overall port, which includes 200 personal and 8. public marine terminals, stays the biggest in the U.S. by. tonnage and deep-water transits.
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Port of Corpus Christi records highest tonnage in 2024
The Port of Corpus Christi signed up recordbreaking throughput volumes in 2024, driven by a surge in need to move crude oil and dry bulk products, the South Texas port stated on Monday. The port and its customers moved 206.5 million lots through the Corpus Christi Ship Channel in 2024, 1.7% greater than the prior record set in 2023, it stated. Petroleum shipments rose 3.5%. year-over-year to 130.5 million loads last year, it added. In the 4th quarter of 2024, a record 54 million tons of. products were transported utilizing the shipping channel, up 4.3% from. the exact same period a year earlier, the Port of Corpus Christi said. Completion of the fourth and last phase of the Corpus. Christi Ship Channel Enhancement Job is expected in early. 2025, the port said, making it a larger and deeper ship channel. with additional barge racks. The Port of Corpus Christi, situated tactically on the. western Gulf of Mexico, is the third-largest port in the U.S. in. total waterborne tonnage and a significant gateway to worldwide. and domestic maritime commerce.
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India and China accept resume air travel after almost 5 years
India and China have agreed to resume direct air services after nearly 5 years, India's foreign ministry said on Monday, signalling a thaw in relations between the neighbours after a deadly 2020 military clash on their challenged Himalayan border. Both sides will work out a framework on the flights in a conference that will be held at early date, the ministry said after a conference in between India's top diplomat and his Chinese counterpart. Stress soured between the 2 countries after the 2020 clash, following which India made it tough for Chinese companies to buy the nation, prohibited hundreds of popular apps and severed traveler routes, although direct cargo flights continued to run between the nations. Relations have enhanced over the past four months with a number of high-level conferences, consisting of talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Russia in October. On Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi informed Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in Beijing that the two countries should operate in the very same instructions, explore more substantive procedures and devote to good understanding. Specific issues in the economic and trade areas were discussed with a view to solving these problems and promoting long-lasting policy openness and predictability, the Indian foreign ministry declaration stated in a declaration. Their meeting was the current between the two Asian powers following a turning point arrangement in October looking for to ease friction along their frontier. Reuters reported in June that China's government and airline companies had asked India's civil aviation authorities to re-establish direct air links, however New Delhi resisted as the border dispute continued to weigh on ties. In October, 2 Indian federal government sources informed Reuters that India would consider resuming the skies and launch fast-tracking visa approvals. Both nations have actually likewise consented to resume discussion for practical exchanges step by step and with an early meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism, India's foreign ministry stated. China and India must devote to shared assistance and shared achievement rather than suspicion and alienation, Wang said during the 2 authorities' meeting, according to the Chinese foreign ministry's readout.
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Russia's Ust-Luga oil exports fall to 4-year lows in January, traders state
Russia's UstLuga port cut its oil loadings by half of its capability in January to a. fouryear low partially due to technical concerns on Transneft's. pipeline system, according to traders. Low loadings from the Baltic Sea port, among the country's. primary exporting entrances, will contribute to Russian crude and fuel. export issues which have actually been compounded by Western sanctions,. drone attacks by Ukraine on Russia's energy facilities also. as high rate of interest. Arranged oil loadings from the Ust-Luga terminal in January. amount to simply 350,000 barrels each day (bpd), or 1.5 million. metric heaps, consisting of 0.2 million tons of oil rollovered from. December, when the port packed 565,000 bpd, or 2.4 million loads,. the traders stated. The maximum volume of oil deliveries from Ust-Luga is about. 700,000 bpd, or 3 million heaps each month, according to loading. schedules for recent years, indicating that currently the port is. packing at half capability. January Ust-Luga exports will likely be the lowest from the. port since 2021, according to traders and data on LSEG. Workspace. Russia's oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, which carries. crude to the ports, did not react to Reuters' request for. comment. The sources said the decrease in oil loadings from Ust-Luga. begun in mid-December, soon after the suspension of supply. by means of the Druzhba pipeline due to a technical problem. Oil supply. through Druzhba to Belarus has actually been below plan this month, traders. stated. Druzhba pipeline and the Baltic system pipeline are both. linked to Transneft's big pumping station in Bryansk area. where Reuters sources had actually said there was a technical concern last. month. Reuters was not able to confirm the nature of the concerns. Up until completion of January, the volume of oil pumped to. Ust-Luga is really low, one cargo is delivered every few days, and. shipments from Primorsk increased from December, one of the. traders stated.
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Ivory Coast cocoa imports increase week on week due to anti-smuggling measures
The cocoa arrivals in ports of Ivory Coast, the top cocoa producer in the world, increased sharply from the previous week in the week ending Jan. 26, as efforts to combat beans smuggling pay off. An official with the Cocoa Sector Regulator CCC announced this on Monday. Between Jan. 20-26, approximately 27,000 metric tonnes of beans were shipped to Abidjan and 25,000 to San Pedro for a combined total of 52,000 metric tons. 34,000 tonnes in Exporters' data showed that the week prior was a busy one. In the same week last season, around 53,000 tonnes of beans were delivered. "We received more cocoa than expected. We think these beans were stored at the border." A bean exporter in Abidjan said that the quality of beans was low due to poor storage conditions. The Government of Ivory Coast Disbanded the previous security unit that was in charge of leading The fight against cocoa smuggling was entrusted to the chief of the army who sent army units along the border with Guinea in order to intensify antismuggling efforts. "We are pleased with the methods used by the army... we see that cocoa is heading towards our ports since a week and the traffickers have greater difficulty crossing the borders," said an official from the Coffee and Cocoa Council. Exporters estimated that cumulative total bean arrivals had reached 1,243 million metric tonnes by Jan. 26, up 23.3% compared to the same period in the previous season. Reporting by Ange Aboua; Writing and Editing by Anait Miridzhanian, Franklin Paul, and Bate Felix
Indonesia's Lion Air ends up being Asia airline company association's very first spending plan provider
I ndonesia's biggest spending plan airline operator Lion Air will join the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines to end up being the regional trade body's first lowcost carrier, the AAPA said on Wednesday.
Lion Air's addition to a group mainly comprised of full-service legacy flag carriers highlights the growing value of low-priced carriers in Asia Pacific.
Spending plan airline company capability globally has actually proliferated in the past 25 years and now represents around a third of all airline seats. 4 of the world's ten biggest airlines today are budget providers, according to airline data firm OAG.
In action, aviation's huge industry bodies such as the International Air Transportation Association have actually made efforts to attract budget airlines.
The 15-member AAPA intends to represent the interests of airlines in the Asia Pacific region, which accounts for around 32% of global traveler traffic, according to IATA.
The AAPA includes significant providers such as Singapore Airlines and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways, however none from mainland China or Oceania.
Air India joined in 2022, adding representation from among the fastest-growing air travel markets, but South Korea's Korean Air and Asiana withdrew throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
AAPA director general Subhas Menon stated the pandemic, which mainly grounded civil aviation, showed airlines the significance of cooperation.
(source: Reuters)