2025-12-04 18:25

Serra Verde renegotiates 10-year Chinese deals, to now conclude end-2026 Serra Verde's mine rich in heavy rare earths, unlike many Western deposits Price floors by Western governments seen crucial for rare earths sector growth LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Brazilian rare earths miner Serra Verde has slashed the contract periods of its Chinese processing deals, opening up the potential to supply Western companies when their separation capacity becomes available in coming years, its CEO said. The West has been racing to develop alternative sources of rare earths, vital for defence, electronics, electric vehicles and wind turbines, since China controls 90% of processed global supply. Sign up here. When Serra Verde's mine was being developed, it agreed 10-year offtake deals with Chinese companies to buy its concentrate for processing since no other options were available. The Serra Verde mine is rich in heavy rare earths, unlike many other Western deposits, but only now are plants gearing up in the West to process them. "In a couple of years we'll have some options to separate the heavies outside of China," CEO Thras Moraitis told Reuters. Privately-held Serra Verde renegotiated the Chinese deals and now they conclude at the end of next year, giving the company multiple options to diversify its customer base, Moraitis said. "The Chinese, the Americans, the Japanese, the Europeans, the Canadians all have approached us, given that we are the only supplier of heavy rare earths, at least for the foreseeable future." Forecast shortages of heavy rare earths dysprosium and terbium could be a stumbling block in the West's drive to create domestic supply chains of rare earths and permanent magnets. PRICE FLOOR ESSENTIAL Moraitis, formerly an executive of Xstrata, which was acquired by commodity group Glencore, said a price floor guaranteed by governments was key for the development of the rare earths sector outside of China. The U.S. provided a guaranteed minimum price to rare earths group MP Materials (MP.N) , opens new tab in July as part of a multibillion-dollar investment by the Pentagon and sources told Reuters the mechanism would likely be extended to other firms. Group of Seven members and the European Union are also considering price floors , opens new tab to promote rare earth production. Serra Verde's Brazilian mine is an ionic clay mine deposit. The standard extraction technique for such deposits in China and Myanmar has involved flushing the deposit with chemicals, which has caused contamination of water supplies and deforestation. Serra Verde has spent several hundred million dollars building a plant that does not discharge toxic waste. The company launched commercial production in early 2024, but has been optimising output so it has not yet hit full output, which is expected to be about 6,500 metric tons of total rare earth oxides a year by 2027. The U.S. Development Finance Corporation approved a $465 million loan earlier this year. Serra Verde is owned by private equity groups Denham Capital, Energy and Minerals Group and Vision Blue, which is led by the former head of Xstrata, Mick Davis. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/serra-verde-cuts-short-china-offtake-deals-approached-by-western-firms-2025-12-04/

2025-12-04 17:02

Dec 4 (Reuters) - Argentina's monetary and foreign exchange policies will need to support a stronger accumulation of reserves to facilitate the country's access to international capital markets, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday. "Monetary and FX policies will need to support a more ambitious reserve accumulation path to build adequate buffers in Argentina," IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said in a scheduled press briefing, adding that a "concerted effort" in that sense from President Javier Milei's government is essential. Sign up here. "This will help Argentina better address shocks, and it will also help facilitate a timely re-access to international capital markets." Argentina has signalled it is looking to issue international bonds under specific scenarios, while local governments and corporations have already begun to tap the market. Kozack said the IMF will assess the details of the announced $20 billion swap line extended by the U.S. to Argentina to determine whether it can be treated as part of the South American country's reserves, and in what manner. The result of this assessment will be included in the global lender's next staff report, she said. The IMF said it will measure the next set of targets included in its Argentina program at the end of December, after which a new review could be scheduled. There is no date set yet for the next country mission, Kozack said. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/imf-says-argentina-needs-more-ambitious-reserve-accumulation-policies-2025-12-04/

2025-12-04 16:30

WARSAW, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Poland's central bank will probably move to a wait-and-see mode for a while now before making any further rate reductions, its governor Adam Glapinski said on Thursday, a day after cutting its main interest rate. The reduction (PLINTR=ECI) , opens new tab by another 25 basis points to 4.00%, in line with most analysts' expectations, came after a lower-than-expected November inflation reading. Sign up here. The National Bank of Poland has now cut rates six times this year, by a total of 175 basis points. "The outlook is good... I think the (Monetary Policy) Council will want to move to a wait-and-see approach to see how all the cuts we've made are working, and then proceed with further cuts," he said during a press conference. "The current rate of 4.0% is perfect at this point. Whether we can go down to 3.75 or 3.50 depends on other council members... There definitely won't be any sudden moves." He added that the bank needed to act with caution and that a high budget deficit limited the scope for further rate cuts. Following the comments, the zloty briefly returned to Wednesday's closing levels at 4.226 against the euro, before backtracking to trade 0.15% lower at 4.2315 by 1557 GMT. "(Glapinski's) comment that the Council could enter a wait-and-see mode before engaging in further rate cuts might have caught some investors off guard," Roman Ziruk, senior market analyst at Ebury, said. "This should not come as a major shock, however. Most of the easing in this 'adjustment process' is now behind us, and we seem to be entering the fine-tuning phase, where the MPC moves with added caution and the importance of data is paramount." The central bank targets inflation of 2.5% plus or minus one percentage point, and Glapinski said he expects CPI to stay in that range "in coming years". A flash estimate from the statistics office showed inflation fell to 2.4% in November year-on-year, down from 2.8% in October and below the 2.6% expected by analysts. https://www.reuters.com/business/polish-central-bank-could-go-into-wait-and-see-mode-governor-says-2025-12-04/

2025-12-04 15:29

TORONTO, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Canadian economic activity contracted in November for the first time in six months as a measure of employment declined, Ivey Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data showed on Thursday. The seasonally adjusted index fell to 48.4 last month from 52.4 in October, marking the first move below the 50 threshold since May. Sign up here. The Ivey PMI measures the month to month variation in economic activity as indicated by a panel of purchasing managers from across Canada. A reading below 50 indicates a decrease in activity. The gauge of employment declined to an adjusted 48.0 from 51.8 in October, while the prices index was at 66.1, up from 64.3. The unadjusted PMI fell to 44.5 from 51.7. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadas-ivey-pmi-shows-activity-contracting-november-employment-falls-2025-12-04/

2025-12-04 13:28

Economy grew 0.1% in Q3, below 0.2% forecast Interest rates at nearly 20-year high, central bank cautious Services sector rose 0.1%, industry 0.8%, agriculture 0.4% BRASILIA, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Brazil's economy slowed more than expected in the third quarter as weak services and household spending reinforced signs of cooling under high interest rates, boosting expectations of easing early next year. Latin America's largest economy grew 0.1% in July-September from the previous quarter, statistics agency IBGE said on Thursday, just below the 0.2% rise forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. Sign up here. The reading marked a further loss of momentum after a revised 0.3% expansion in the second quarter, as well as a sharp slowdown from 1.5% growth in the first quarter. Signs of cooling activity are being closely watched by markets for clues on when the central bank might start cutting rates after holding them at restrictive levels for months. Arnaldo Lima, an economist at Polo Capital, said the data underscores the ongoing slowdown, confirming a soft landing amid muted services growth and modest household consumption. "This is another indicator that supports our expectation for a rate cut in January," he said. BORROWING COSTS AT 20-YEAR HIGH Policymakers, who have kept interest rates at their highest in nearly 20 years since July, have said they still see a resilient economy, with sticky services inflation and a tight labor market. They meet next week for this year's final policy decision, with expectations centered on another hold at 15% while investors look for hints of easing in January or March. Year-on-year, Brazil's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.8%, compared with the poll's 1.7% forecast. Capital Economics' senior emerging markets economist Liam Peach noted it represented a three-year low. "While there are still reasons for the central bank to remain cautious, an easing cycle now appears just around the corner," he said, also forecasting a January cut. POSITIVE FARM DATA IBGE said the services sector, the backbone of Brazil's economy, rose just 0.1% from the previous quarter. Industry grew 0.8%, still supported by extractive activities, while agriculture rose 0.4%. Although the boost from the soybean crop in the world's largest producer and exporter had faded, as the harvest is concentrated in the first half, IBGE noted that livestock contributed to farm sector performance. The agency also cited higher corn, orange, cotton and wheat output and yields. On the demand side, household consumption posted a 0.1% increase, its weakest outcome in a year. Government spending climbed 1.3%, while investment measured by gross fixed capital formation expanded 0.9% despite high borrowing costs. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-gdp-slows-more-than-expected-services-falter-2025-12-04/

2025-12-04 12:56

N3XT founded by ex-Signature Bank executives Shay and Wallis Company will operate under Wyoming special-purpose bank charter N3XT to target digital asset clients at outset Dec 4 (Reuters) - Former Signature Bank executives are launching a new blockchain-based bank focused on facilitating instant, around-the-clock U.S. dollar payments, nearly three years after the collapse of the New York-based bank known for serving cryptocurrency clients. The bank, called N3XT, was founded by Scott Shay, the founder and former chairman of Signature Bank. Jeffrey Wallis, who was previously director of digital asset and Web3 strategy at Signature, will be N3XT's CEO. Reuters is reporting the new venture for the first time. Sign up here. N3XT will operate globally under a Wyoming special-purpose bank charter and will not engage in any lending activities. Every dollar of deposits in N3XT will be backed by cash or short-term U.S. Treasuries, and it will publish its reserve holdings on a daily basis, which distinguishes it from Signature, Wallis said. Its reserves will be held at custodial partners, which he declined to name. The blockchain-based bank will not be insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Wyoming special-purpose banks are not required to obtain FDIC insurance. "We do not lend against our balance sheet, so clients always have confidence that their capital is available to them and never at risk and always stands ready to be able to be used according to their economic needs," Wallis said. Signature was a commercial bank with $110 billion in assets and several business lines, including commercial real estate and digital asset banking. Regulators closed Signature in March 2023, days after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, making it the third-largest failure in U.S. banking history. It collapsed after mounting outflows that were triggered by depositors' rush to withdraw their money. Signature operated a payment network called Signet that allowed its commercial crypto clients to make payments 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which Wallis said was an "influential" experience in building N3XT. "N3XT, in of itself, takes advantage of not only the technology experience that we have and the model experience we have, but also thinking about really creating a bank structure that is new and unique and very different, whereby we make our clients' liquidity or their capital always available to them," Wallis said. A subsequent FDIC report said Signature's failure was caused by "poor management" and a pursuit of "rapid, unrestrained growth" with little regard for risk management. Wallis said N3XT's risk management standards are not comparable to those of Signature. "We are not making any lending decisions with the balance sheet," he said. "We ... are keeping our clients' assets in full liquid form." N3XT plans to target digital asset clients at the outset, many of which Wallis said have already started the onboarding process. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/former-signature-bank-executives-launch-blockchain-based-bank-2025-12-04/