2025-07-30 12:42
SAN FRANCISCO, July 30 (Reuters) - Helion Energy, a startup backed by OpenAI's Sam Altman and SoftBank's venture capital arm, has started construction on a site for a planned nuclear fusion power plant that will supply power to Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab data centers by 2028, the company said on Wednesday. The site in Malaga, Washington, is in the center of the state along the Columbia River, where Helion hopes to take advantage of grid infrastructure in place for the nearby Rock Island Dam hydroelectric plant. Sign up here. The startup still has to secure final permits from Washington's government but said the work puts it on track to sell power to Microsoft under a deal it struck in 2023. Fusion generates electricity by ramming atoms into each other, releasing energy without emitting significant greenhouse gases or creating large amounts of long-lasting radioactive waste. But despite billions of dollars of investment, scientists and engineers still have not figured out a way to reliably generate more energy with fusion than it takes to create and sustain the reaction. Helion is still working on how to do that with its current prototype, called Polaris, which is housed in Everett, Washington, where it plans to build components for the machine to be built at Malaga, called Orion. Orion will connect to Washington's primary power delivery networks, David Kirtley, Helion’s co-founder and CEO, told Reuters. "We'll actually be able to connect to the exact same grid just upstream of the Microsoft data centers," Kirtley said. Microsoft has for years said that nuclear energy should be part of a mix of carbon-free energy sources and has also signed power purchase agreements for conventional fission-based nuclear power. Fusion is a longer-term bet, said Melanie Nakagawa, Microsoft's chief sustainability officer. "Over the last three, four years, you've been seeing from across the fusion space different types of milestones being met by other companies and peers, Helion included," Nakagawa told Reuters. "There's a lot of optimism that this could be the moment that fusion actually comes forward within this decade, or near in this decade." https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/helion-energy-starts-construction-nuclear-fusion-plant-power-microsoft-data-2025-07-30/
2025-07-30 12:36
Trump vows sanctions unless Russia makes progress on peace deal U.S. also warns China over Russian oil China unlikely to comply with U.S. sanctions, analysts say LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied on Wednesday as investors awaited developments on U.S. President Donald Trump's tighter deadline for Russia to end the war in Ukraine and his tariff threats to countries that trade its oil. The most active Brent crude futures were down 5 cents or about 0.1%, at $71.63 a barrel by 1226 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 5 cents to $69.61. Sign up here. The Brent crude September contract that expires on Wednesday was steady at $72.50. Both contracts had fallen nearly 1% earlier in the day. "Events in the last few days have moved the needle a touch more, but we still appear to be somewhat rangebound and testing the next resistance level," said Rystad Energy analyst Janiv Shah. Trump had said on Tuesday that he would start imposing measures on Russia, such as secondary tariffs of 100% on trading partners, if it did not make progress on ending the war within 10 to 12 days, moving up from an earlier 50-day deadline. The United States also warned China, the largest buyer of Russian oil, that it could face huge tariffs if it kept buying, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a news conference in Stockholm. JP Morgan analysts wrote that while China was unlikely to comply with U.S. sanctions, India has signalled it would do so, which could affect 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil exports. "Oil prices reacted strongly yesterday, so there is some profit booking," said UBS commodity analyst Giovanni Staunovo, adding that data from the American Petroleum Institute from Tuesday was also bearish for crude. "Market participants are also taking into account that low prices and secondary sanctions/tariffs on Russia won’t work at the same time." U.S. crude and distillate stocks rose last week while gasoline inventories fell, market sources said, citing API data. "Depending on the outcome of the U.S.-Russia discussions, tariff implementation and the OPEC+ meeting and announcement on unwinding (of output cuts), the market could see some movement," Rystad's Shah added. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-steadies-market-weighs-up-supply-risks-2025-07-30/
2025-07-30 12:10
Rio Tinto first-half profit drops 16% to $4.81 billion Interim dividend drops to $1.48, lowest in seven years Focus shifts to copper and lithium due to strong demand July 30 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto reported its smallest first-half underlying profit since 2020 and lowest interim dividend in seven years on Wednesday, as falling iron ore prices and rising costs in Australia highlighted the challenges facing its incoming CEO. The world's largest iron ore producer posted underlying earnings of $4.81 billion for the six months to June 30, down 16% from a year earlier and slightly below a $5.05 billion Visible Alpha consensus. Sign up here. Prices the miner received for its iron ore fell by 15%, though that was partly offset by stronger prices for copper, bauxite, alumina, aluminium and gold. Rio (RIO.AX) , opens new tab, (RIO.L) , opens new tab, which is increasingly shifting its focus to copper and lithium, declared a $1.48 per share interim dividend, down from $1.77 last year. Its London-listed shares were down 1.3% at 1145 GMT. Still, outgoing CEO Jakob Stausholm said the company was in "good shape", with lots of opportunities ahead for iron ore boss Simon Trott, who will take charge from August 25. "With the CEO transition ... one question is: how will Rio's strategy change? The consensus is that management will be focused on operational improvements," analysts at Jefferies, who don't expect major changes, said. Stausholm said his major achievements included Rio Tinto's progress towards cutting carbon emissions by 50% by the end of the decade. Costs rose during his tenure, but the miner was boosting operational efficiency as it worked on new lithium and copper projects, Stausholm said, declining to comment on any potential headcount reduction. "We are streamlining the company, and there might be more to come," Stausholm told investors. Reuters reported that Rio Tinto is considering a possible sale of its titanium unit, as well as streamlining the structure of its core businesses. Asked by analysts, Stausholm said the Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium (RTIT) business had low profitability in the first half. "They had very difficult conditions. But the question is still, are we the best owner of it or are we not? And I happily leave that for my successor," he said. Rio Tinto's unit costs at its flagship Pilbara iron ore operations in Western Australia rose to $24.3 per wet metric ton (wmt) in the first half, from $23.2 per wmt last year, due to lower shipments and impact from cyclones. Iron ore prices eased on lower steel production in top consumer China and more supply from Australia, Brazil, and South Africa. Rio maintained its full-year Pilbara shipment guidance at the lower end of its 323-338 million tons range. In lithium, prices have started to recover from a downturn, and Rio Tinto has seen robust demand from the stationary battery sector which has doubled from a year ago, Stausholm said. TARIFFS Stausholm said U.S. tariffs on copper represented an opportunity for Rio's Kennecott project, where he expects the smelter to become "much more profitable from the tariffs immediately". He said that growing power demand from data centres could double U.S. copper consumption to 4 million tons, adding that the company's Resolution Copper project in Arizona, if built, "should be able to produce one-fourth of the copper consumption in the U.S. for decades to come." But talking about the company's aluminium business in Canada, he said the end consumer would be charged for the 50% U.S. import tariff in effect since June 4. "Do we like all this? Do we like a 50% tariff on aluminium? Not really. But it's not for us to make statements around that," Stausholm said. "I think it's much more the final consumer that will have to pay. We are able to pass on things." https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/rio-tinto-logs-smallest-first-half-profit-five-years-lower-iron-ore-prices-2025-07-30/
2025-07-30 12:01
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/fed-decision-live-updates-trump-pressures-powell-cut-ahead-fomc-meeting-2025-07-30/
2025-07-30 12:01
July 30 (Reuters) - U.S. grain trader and processor Bunge Global (BG.N) , opens new tab reported a smaller-than-expected drop in second-quarter profit on Wednesday on improved oilseed processing margins and better results from its grains and oils merchandising business. The earnings beat came as Bunge secured final regulatory approvals for its long-delayed deal to acquire grain handler Viterra, a transaction that officially closed at the start of the third quarter on July 2. It also completed the sale of its U.S. corn milling business. Sign up here. Bunge maintained its 2025 earnings guidance of $7.75 per share, which would be its lowest in six years, but said it would update it to include the Viterra merger prior to reporting third-quarter results. Its shares were up 1.2% in pre-market trading. Bunge and agribusiness peers including Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM.N) , opens new tab and Cargill have seen profits erode in recent quarters due to ample global crop supplies and thinning margins. Trade tensions stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs further disrupted trade flows while biofuel policy uncertainty has dented demand for green energy feedstocks like corn and soybean oil. Bunge posted an adjusted profit of $1.31 per share for the three months ended June 30, compared with analysts' average estimate of $1.14, according to data compiled by LSEG. Its core agribusiness segment, the largest by revenue and volume, saw adjusted profit fall 22% while net sales fell 5.1% to $9.17 billion in the reported quarter from a year earlier. Weak soybean prices amid bumper crops in Brazil and the United States, the top two producers and exporters, helped to expand oilseed processing margins in the second quarter, boosting Bunge's full-year outlook for the agribusiness unit. But the company lowered its outlook for its refined and specialty oils segment after adjusted second-quarter profit dropped nearly 40%. https://www.reuters.com/business/bunge-beats-quarterly-profit-estimates-processing-margin-recovery-2025-07-30/
2025-07-30 12:00
8.8 magnitude quake strikes near city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Tsunami of 3-5 metres recorded in Kamchatka Peninsula French Polynesia warns of 4-metre waves Warnings issued, then downgraded in Japan, Hawaii July 30 (Reuters) - Parts of French Polynesia were told to brace for waves as high as 4 metres (13 ft) on Wednesday, after a powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's Far Eastern coast triggered tsunami warnings as far away as Hawaii, Japan and Chile. The shallow tremor off the Kamchatka Peninsula damaged buildings and injured several people in the remote Russian region, while much of Japan's eastern seaboard - devastated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 - was ordered to evacuate, as were parts of Hawaii. Sign up here. By Wednesday evening, Japan and Hawaii had downgraded their tsunami warnings, but authorities in French Polynesia warned residents of several of the remote Marquesas Islands to move to higher ground, and follow official instructions. The waves were expected to hit some islands in the early morning hours. "Our armed forces in French Polynesia are on alert as a precautionary measure, to be ready to assist our fellow citizens and state services in potential search and rescue operations or medical evacuations," French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on the social media platform X. While the Marquesas are high-rising volcanic islands, much of French Polynesia consists of low-lying atolls. Russian scientists said the quake in Kamchatka was the most powerful to hit the region since 1952. "Today's earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors," Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app. "It felt like the walls could collapse any moment. The shaking lasted continuously for at least three minutes," said Yaroslav, 25, in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. In Severo-Kurilsk in the northern Kuril Islands, south of Kamchatka, tsunami waves exceeded 3 metres, with the largest up to 5 metres, Russia's RIA news agency reported. Alexander Ovsyannikov, the town's mayor, urged residents to assess damage to their homes and not to use gas stove heating until inspections had been carried out. Tsunami waves partially flooded the port and a fish processing plant in the town, sweeping vessels from their moorings, regional officials and Russia's emergency ministry said. Verified drone footage showed the town's entire shoreline was submerged, with taller buildings and some storage facilities surrounded by water as it swept back out to sea. Hawaii recorded waves of up to 1.7 metres (5.5 feet) while in Japan the largest recorded came to 1.3 metres, officials said. Tsunami warnings and orders to head for higher ground in both places were later downgraded in most areas to advisories, with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center saying Hawaii no longer expected to see a major tsunami. Flights out of Honolulu airport resumed in the evening, the transportation department said. Waves of nearly half a metre were observed as far as California, with smaller ones reaching Canada's province of British Columbia. WARNINGS ACROSS THE PACIFIC The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles), and centred 119 km (74 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000. Tsunami alarms had sounded in coastal towns across Japan's Pacific coast and evacuation orders were issued for tens of thousands of people. Workers evacuated the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, where a meltdown following the 2011 tsunami caused a radioactive disaster, operator TEPCO said. Broadcaster Asahi TV reported a 58-year-old woman died when her car fell off a cliff while she was evacuating in central Japan's Mie prefecture. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said no injuries or damage had been reported, and there were no irregularities at any nuclear plants. But hundreds of thousands of commuters in Tokyo and surrounding areas faced being stranded as they headed home, with operations on railway lines along the Pacific coast remaining halted. 'RING OF FIRE' Russia's Ministry for Emergency Services said on Telegram that a kindergarten was damaged, but most buildings withstood the quake. Several people in Kamchatka sought medical assistance following the quake, Oleg Melnikov, regional health minister, told Russia’s TASS state news agency. Video footage from the region's health ministry showed a team of medics in the city of 165,000 residents performing surgery as the tremors shook their operating theatre. Kamchatka and Russia's Far East sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region that is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. "However, due to certain characteristics of the epicentre, the shaking intensity was not as high ... as one might expect from such a magnitude," said Danila Chebrov, director of the Kamchatka Branch of the Geophysical Service, on Telegram. "Aftershocks are currently ongoing ... Their intensity will remain fairly high. However, stronger tremors are not expected in the near future." https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/huge-quake-rocks-russias-far-east-triggering-tsunami-warnings-around-pacific-2025-07-30/
