2025-07-17 22:40
SAO PAULO, July 17 (Reuters) - Brazilian fuel retailer Vibra (VBBR3.SA) , opens new tab began talks with Brazilian conglomerate Cosan (CSAN3.SA) , opens new tab to buy Cosan's lubricants arm, Moove, local news outlet Brazil Journal reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The talks were sparked as a minority shareholder, European private equity firm CVC Capital Partners (CVC.AS) , opens new tab, expressed interest in selling its stake, Brazil Journal said, adding that Vibra has also shown interest in buying 100% of the company. Sign up here. However talks stalled, it added, saying that according to a source, controlling shareholder and chairman Rubens Ometto has no interest in selling his stake. Last year, Cosan scrapped a planned initial public offering (IPO) for Moove in the United States. Cosan, Vibra, CVC and Moove did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-vibra-started-talks-buy-cosans-lubricants-arm-media-reports-2025-07-17/
2025-07-17 22:09
Shift to cane sugar would disrupt supply chains, increase costs Corn syrup cheaper than sugar, widely used in U.S. food industry Eliminating corn syrup to result in $5.1 bln loss in farm revenue -CRA Tariffs complicate potential cane sugar imports from Brazil NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters) - A possible move by Coca-Cola (KO.N) , opens new tab , and other beverage and food industries, to use cane sugar instead of corn syrup as a sweetener would be difficult and expensive to implement, while mostly negative for farmers in the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Coca-Cola had agreed to use cane sugar in its beverages in the country after his discussions with the maker of the top soda pop brand. Sign up here. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and activists from his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) campaign have been pushing for changes in ingredients used by the food and beverage industry, claiming the proposed substitutes are healthier. Kennedy has said the consumption of both sugar and high fructose corn syrup are unhealthy, and scientists say sugar presents some nutritional benefits over high fructose corn syrup. Coca-Cola already sells Coke made from cane sugar in other markets, including Mexico, and some U.S. grocery stores carry glass bottles with cane sugar labeled "Mexican" Coke. In response to Trump's comment, Coca-Cola said "more details on new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range will be shared soon.” PepsiCo (PEP.O) , opens new tab also said on Thursday it would use sugar in its products like Pepsi beverages if consumers want it. Industry analysts, however, said changes in the formulation of the rest of the Coke sold in the U.S., and other beverages and candies, would involve significant adjustments to companies' supply chains, since corn syrup and sugar come from different producers. It would also involve changes to product labeling, and cost more. "Food and beverage industries started to use corn syrup in the U.S. in the past because of costs. It is cheaper than sugar," said Ron Sterk, a senior editor at SOSland Publishing, an information provider for the ingredients industry in the U.S. He said the beverage industry uses 55% High Fructose Corn Syrup, or 55HFCS, while bakers use 42% HFCS. The Corn Refiners Association said the complete elimination of high fructose corn syrup from the U.S. food and beverage supply would cut corn prices by up to 34 cents a bushel, resulting in a loss of $5.1 billion in farm revenue. "The resulting economic shockwave would lead to rural job losses and significant economic consequences to communities across the country," CRA said. Agricultural processors such as Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM.N) , opens new tab and Ingredion (INGR.N) , opens new tab, two of the largest HFCS producers, grind corn at mills dotted around the Midwest farm belt to produce corn sweetener and other goods like ethanol biofuel. Shares of both companies fell on Thursday. ADM is estimated to ship 4 billion to 4.5 billion pounds of high fructose corn syrup every year, accounting for roughly 6% to 7% of projected 2026 earnings, said analyst Heather Jones of Heather Jones Research. "If Coke were to shift the entirety of its HF55 usage to cane, the cost increase would very likely exceed $1 billion given the current price gap between HF55 and cane sugar and the probability of very large price increases for the latter," Jones said in a research note. To produce one pound of HFCS, the industry uses around 2.5 pounds of corn, so a large shift in corn syrup use in the U.S. would hurt demand for the cereal, hurting corn growers, while probably boosting imports of cane sugar since there is not enough produced in the U.S. to satisfy American consumers' sweet tooth. SUGAR DEFICIT Around 400 million bushels of corn are used annually to make corn syrup for drinks and other food products, representing around 2.5% of U.S. corn production, according to U.S. government data. The U.S. produces around 3.6 million metric tons of cane sugar per year, half of that in Trump's home state of Florida, compared with around 7.3 million tons of corn syrup. Trump's ongoing trade wars, however, would make it difficult to cover the deficit, sugar analyst Michael McDougall said. "It will most likely come from Brazil," he said, referring to the world's top cane sugar producer, "but Trump just hit Brazil with a 50% import tariff." Not only does cane sugar cost more, but Coca-Cola has independent bottlers with hundreds of facilities already designed for use with high fructose corn syrup, said James McDonnell, partner at CIL Management Consultants. A reformulation would require additional investments, said McDonnell, and it is unlikely that bottlers would want to eat the cost. Consumers will also balk at the added cost, he said, "and you thought they were angry at the price of eggs!" https://www.reuters.com/world/us/cokes-shift-cane-sugar-would-be-expensive-hurt-us-farmers-2025-07-17/
2025-07-17 22:07
July 17 (Reuters) - Canada and New Zealand have reached a "mutually satisfactory" resolution to a long-running dispute over access for dairy products, the Canadian government said in a statement on Thursday. "This agreement, negotiated in close consultation with Canadian dairy stakeholders, will result in certain minor policy changes to Canada's TRQ (tariff rate quotas) administration, and does not amend Canada's market access commitments," International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu and Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald said in a statement. Sign up here. New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay added in a separate statement that the government was pleased the dispute has now been settled, and New Zealand exporters are guaranteed better access to the Canadian market. "Today's agreement reinforces support for the rules-based trading system," McClay said. New Zealand launched a claim against Canada in May 2022, arguing that Ottawa's implementation of dairy tariff rate quotas under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade agreement were against the its rules. Under the new agreement, Canada has committed to make commercially meaningful changes to the way it administers its dairy quotas under CPTPP, according to the New Zealand government. The Canadian government added that this means there are technical policy changes but these are limited to quotas administered under the terms of the CPTPP. Canada's supply management system, which since the 1970s has tightly controlled supplies of dairy, eggs and poultry by restricting production and limiting imports through onerous tariffs, has become a sticking pointing in its ongoing trade negotiations with the U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized what he calls tremendously high Canadian tariffs on dairy products. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/canada-new-zealand-resolve-dairy-trade-dispute-canada-says-2025-07-17/
2025-07-17 22:04
Japan's upper house elections set for Sunday Ruling coalition expected to lose majority, polls show Investors sell government bonds, fearing fiscal shift Far-right party could gain as populism takes root TOKYO, July 18 (Reuters) - Japan's shaky minority government is poised for another setback in an upper house vote on Sunday, an outcome that could jolt investor confidence in the world's fourth-largest economy and complicate tariff talks with the United States. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled for most of the post-war period, and its partner Komeito, are forecast to lose their majority in a repeat of last year's election for the more-powerful lower house. Sign up here. The ruling coalition needs to win 50 seats of the 125 up for grabs in order to retain its majority. While the vote will not directly determine whether Ishiba's government falls, investors are nervous it will leave him beholden to opposition parties advocating fiscal largesse that could exacerbate mass selling of Japan's government bonds. In a worst case scenario, some analysts say Ishiba may have to resign, unleashing political drama as Tokyo heads for an August 1 deadline to win reprieve from punishing import levies set by its largest trading partner, the United States. "If he had an overwhelming loss, I think he would have to resign," said David Boling, director for Japan and Asian Trade at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. "That then creates a lot of questions about who replaces him and what impact that has on the U.S.-Japan trade negotiations." Other financial and political analysts, such as Joseph Kraft of Rorschach Advisory in Tokyo, say the LDP is unlikely to opt for a leadership change at a pivotal moment in talks on tariffs hammering key industries such as automakers. In a sign of that urgency, Ishiba took a break from campaigning on Friday to ask Washington's chief tariff negotiator and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to continue tariff talks actively. Bessent, who is visiting Japan for the World Expo in Osaka, later said a deal with Tokyo was possible. 'BALANCING ACT' More likely is that Ishiba will seek to either broaden his coalition or strike informal deals with opposition parties to keep his government functioning after the election, Kraft said. That prospect has made investors nervous. Inflation has been a killer issue for Ishiba, as it recently has been for incumbents elsewhere. The price of rice, which has doubled since last year, has become a lightning rod for voter discontent. In response, opposition parties have promised tax cuts and welfare spending to soften the blow, while the LDP, with one eye on a very jittery government bond market, has been calling for fiscal restraint. Any opposition deals to weaken that restraint will only heighten investor nervousness about Japan's ability to refinance the world's largest debt pile and hamper the Bank of Japan's long-held goal of normalising monetary policy. But not only parties advocating for more spending have chipped away at LDP support. The far-right Sanseito, espousing anti-foreigner rhetoric once confined to the political fringe, has been the surprise performer of the campaign. Birthed on YouTube spreading anti-vax conspiracy theories five years ago, the party may win 10 to 15 seats, polls show. That would herald the arrival of a new force of populist politics that has yet to take root in Japan as it has in the United States and Europe. One reason the LDP has stayed so long in power, analysts say, is because it has served as a "broad church" for political views. But bringing into the fold the likes of Sanseito may trigger a deeper crisis of faith. "If the party (LDP) goes too far right, it loses the centrists," said Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation think tank in Tokyo. "But without the right wing, it has other problems. It's a balancing act and a tough one." https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/japans-minority-government-faces-election-snub-economic-storm-brews-2025-07-17/
2025-07-17 21:45
July 17 (Reuters) - Leaders of ethnically split Cyprus have agreed to continue discussions towards confidence building, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday, in a dispute which has kept NATO partners Greece and Turkey at odds for decades. The Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities will press ahead with attempts to open new crossing points between the two sides and cooperating on solar energy initiatives, Guterres said after hosting the Cypriot leaders at U.N. headquarters in New York. Sign up here. "It is critical to implement all these initiatives as soon as possible, for the benefit of all Cypriots," Guterres said. The two sides had agreed in an encounter with Guterres earlier this year to open four additional crossing points, demine, establish a youth affairs committee, and launch environmental and solar energy projects. There are presently nine crossing points along a 180-km-long (116-mile-long) ceasefire line splitting the two sides. Guterres said there was a "question of itinerary" in relation to one of the new checkpoints opening but that there had been important progress on the issue. Cyprus was split more than 50 years ago in a Turkish invasion after a brief Greek-inspired coup, following years of sporadic violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Reunification talks collapsed in mid-2017 and have been in a stalemate since. The Cyprus conflict is a key source of disagreement between NATO allies Greece and Turkey, fiercely defensive of their respective kin on the island. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/cyprus-leaders-continue-discussions-confidence-building-says-un-2025-07-17/
2025-07-17 21:44
WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday vowed to fight an "illegal" move by President Donald Trump's administration to cancel $4 billion in federal grants for the state's ambitious but much-delayed high-speed rail project. Trump’s announcement on Wednesday added yet another hurdle to the 16-year effort to link Los Angeles and San Francisco by a three-hour train ride, a project that would deliver the fastest passenger rail service in the United States. Sign up here. Newsom said the move by Trump's Transportation Department came as the high-speed rail project was on the verge of laying track, with "active construction" under way on the initial 171-mile segment between Bakersfield and Merced in California's politically conservative Central Valley. The rail system, whose first $10 billion bond issue was approved by California voters in 2008, has built more than 50 major railway structures, including bridges, overpasses and viaducts, and completed more than 60 miles (97 km) of guideway. State Attorney General Rob Bonta told reporters on Thursday he was "poised to take imminent action" on the issue, indicating the dispute would end up in court. "California is putting all options on the table to fight this illegal action," Newsom said in a statement. The funding cancellation marked the latest confrontation between the Republican president and a Democratic governor widely viewed as a leading contender for his party’s 2028 White House nomination. The two men have clashed over issues from transgender athletes and electric car rules to the use of National Guard troops during Los Angeles protests and even egg prices. 'LEGALLY BINDING AGREEMENTS' Ian Choudri, chief executive officer of the California High Speed Rail Authority, said that canceling the federal rail grants "without cause isn't just wrong, it's illegal." "These are legally binding agreements, and the authority has met every obligation, as confirmed by repeated federal reviews, as recently as February 2025," Choudri said, adding that the program has created some 15,500 jobs. The Federal Railroad Administration issued a 315-page report last month finding the project was plagued by missed deadlines, budget shortfalls and questionable ridership projections. Choudri's rail authority has called those conclusions "misguided," saying they failed to reflect "substantial progress made to deliver high-speed rail in California." Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy chided the project for having failed to lay a single mile of track after spending $15 billion over 16 years. But Choudri said installing track is a final step after land acquisition, environmental clearances and construction of supporting structures. Still, the project has faced its share of setbacks. The San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route was initially supposed to be completed by 2020 for $33 billion. But the projected cost has since risen to $89 billion to $128 billion, and the start of service is estimated no sooner than 2030. As designed, the system would feature electric locomotives traveling at up to 220 miles per hour (354 kph), powered entirely by renewable energy. Planners said it would eliminate 200 million miles driven by vehicles on highways. 'WE HAVE TO PULL THE PLUG' A second phase of the project called for extending the rail line north to Sacramento and south to San Diego. A separate project plans to link Los Angeles and Las Vegas with high-speed rail. Duffy said on Thursday that he was confident the Trump administration will defeat any lawsuit challenging the department's move. "We have to pull the plug," he told reporters outside the department's headquarters. In 2021, Democratic President Joe Biden restored a $929 million grant for the project that Trump revoked in 2019 during his first term in office after calling the project a "disaster." State Assembly member Corey Jackson, a Southern California Democrat who has questioned the project's soaring costs, said Newsom's call to fight the funding cut could galvanize support for Democrats from organized labor and voters in the area where the first railway jobs would be created despite its Republican leanings. "The people of San Joaquin Valley will now know that their economic engine is coming from the Democratic Party," Jackson said. "This is also a message to our labor friends. Democrats continue to deliver these high-paying jobs. Republicans continue to try to kill them." Rufus Jeffris, senior vice president of the Bay Area Council, a business-sponsored policy group in the San Francisco area, pointed to economic benefits associated with high-speed rail and called the funding cut unfortunate. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/california-governor-vows-fight-trumps-4-billion-high-speed-rail-rescission-2025-07-17/
