Latest News
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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
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U.S. restores certificate for Williams' Transco pipeline's expansion project
The U.S. energy regulator has actually reinstated the certificate for Williams Companies' Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Line ( Transco) on Friday, the company stated on Monday, which would allow the expansion of the task. In 2015, a U.S. appeals court said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) need to have better assessed the danger of significant greenhouse gas emissions, throwing away its arbitrary and capricious approval of the Regional Energy Gain Access To (REA) expansion job. The company had actually sought a short-term emergency situation certificate with the FERC to continue running its task, in September. Williams developed REA to assist fulfill increasing gas need and ease supply constraints affecting clients in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The business stated the project, among the greatest under building and construction in the U.S. Northeast, will offer enough gas to serve 4.4 million homes every year. The business said on Monday, the order, for the $1 billion gas job, will work right away upon the issuance of the required by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
EBRD plans to invest 1.25 bln euros in Kazakhstan for China-Europe cargo route
The European Bank for Restoration and Development plans to invest 1.25 billion euros ($ 1.36 billion) in 2 Kazakh projects to increase the capacity of a ChinaEurope cargo transport route bypassing Russia, the head of the EBRD said on Friday.
The route, called the Trans-Caspian or Middle Corridor, is shorter than a northern route through Russia and is becoming significantly crucial for East-West trade offered Western sanctions on Moscow due to its invasion of Ukraine.
The land and sea transportation corridor for products would be an economic advantage for nations whose territories it crosses, including Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The Trans-Caspian job, I imply, the development of the connection as an option to the Russia trade pattern is very essential, EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso told Reuters.
She stated EBRD had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kazakh state train business for a potential 750 million euro investment. The other project, worth 500 million euros, is to rehabilitate the Aktobe-Ulgaisyn roadway in Kazakhstan's Western Aktobe region, she said in an interview.
The bank is likewise purchasing green energy projects in Kazakhstan and the Main Asian area as an entire, Renaud-Basso said, pointing out a battery energy storage job for renewable manufacturers in Uzbekistan as an example.
EBRD likewise prepares a 270 million euro deal with Kazakh state electrical grid operator KEGOC to connect more renewable energy producers to the grid.
She stated the bank, which this year purchased a 5% stake in Kazakh flagship carrier Air Astana throughout its preliminary public offering, was keen to participate in more privatisation offers.
The EBRD anticipates Kazakhstan's economy to grow 5.5% next year compared to this year's 4% growth, partially due to the expansion of the huge Tengiz oilfield.
(source: Reuters)