2024-10-01 11:31

DUBLIN, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Ireland has leapfrogged the Bahamas to become the world's ninth most significant tax haven, according to a ranking by pressure group the Tax Justice Network, which campaigns for tax transparency. Ireland first appearance in the global top ten puts it alongside countries such as the British Virgin Islands, which tops the list, and the Netherlands, having edged up from eleventh place in the previous report in 2021. The study measures the amount of corporate financial activity in countries, including money flows, as well as transparency and tax schemes on offer, assigning a points-based ranking. The Tax Justice Network is highly critical of Britain's overseas territories, such as the Virgin Islands. But it also highlights the growing importance of Ireland. The list was published shortly after Ireland received $14 billion in back taxes from Apple, after the European Court of Justice said the country's favourable tax treatment of the iPhone maker had been unlawful. A spokesperson for Ireland's Department of Finance said Ireland was not a tax haven and that it had taken steps to tackle aggressive tax planning by reforming its tax code and that it supported international tax reform. Nessa Ni Chasaide of Ireland's Maynooth University said Dublin had responded to criticism by changing rather than dropping favourable tax schemes, allowing international companies write off the value of intellectual property against profits to pay less tax. "Ireland plays global tax games in a very sophisticated way," she said. "Every time it comes under pressure, it has a new game. Ireland is laughing all the way to the bank." Corporate tax revenues have exploded in Ireland over the last decade, jumping from 4.4 billion euros in 2015 to an expected 29.5 billion euros this year, not including the Apple windfall. The receipts, mainly paid by a handful of U.S. multinationals, now make up 28% of all tax collected in Ireland each year, propelling its public finances to becoming the strongest in Europe. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/ireland-edges-into-top-10-global-tax-haven-ranking-2024-10-01/

2024-10-01 11:31

MUMBAI, Oct 1 (Reuters) - India is likely to receive above average rainfall in October after unusually high volumes for the past three months, a senior weather department official said on Tuesday, which could damage summer-sown crops ready for harvesting. October's rainfall is projected at more than 115% of the 50-year average, said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director-general of the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Farmers have begun harvesting summer-sown crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans, corn, and pulses. Rainfall during this period could disrupt the harvesting and damage the crops. Even in September above-average rainfall, arising from a delayed monsoon withdrawal, damaged some summer-sown crops in certain regions of India. India received 11.6% more rainfall than average in September, following 9% and 15.3% above-average rainfall in July and August respectively, the IMD data showed. "The weather department is predicting heavy rain in the first half of October, right when most farmers are harvesting their crops. This has farmers really worried," said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house. However, the rains in October may also enhance soil moisture, benefiting the planting of winter-sown crops such as wheat, rapeseed, and chickpea. The withdrawal of the monsoon started nearly a week later than usual this year, but it is likely to fully withdraw from the country around mid-October, Mohapatra said. India's annual June-September monsoon provides almost 70% of the rain it needs to water farms and replenish reservoirs and aquifers, and is the lifeblood of a nearly $3.5 trillion economy. Without irrigation, nearly half of Indian farmland depends on the rains that usually run from June to September. In October, maximum and minimum temperatures in most parts of the country are likely to be above normal, Mohapatra said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-set-above-average-rains-october-says-weather-office-2024-10-01/

2024-10-01 11:26

Oct 1 (Reuters) - Hot sauce maker McCormick (MKC.N) , opens new tab raised its annual earnings forecast on Tuesday after posting better-than-expected third-quarter results, banking on consumers choosing to make meals at home to curb discretionary spending amid sticky inflation. Shares of the company were up about 2% in premarket trading. McCormick saw uptick in demand for its products like spices and seasonings as consumers have opted to purchase staples to reduce expenses such as eating out in restaurants. The Cholula hot sauce maker's sales volume rose 1% for the quarter ended Aug. 31, after dipping 2% a year earlier. Benefits from cost savings measures to streamline business as well as price hikes taken in the past quarters helped expand its quarterly gross profit margin by 170 basis points to 38.7%. While McCormick and its peer International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF.N) , opens new tab saw steady demand and volume improvement in their latest quarter, larger peer Kraft Heinz reported dour quarterly sales after taking a hit on volumes. For the full year, the company expects sales to be in the range of down 1% to up 1%, compared with its prior forecast range of down 2% to flat. It projects annual adjusted profit to be in the range of $2.85 to $2.90 per share, compared with its prior forecast of $2.80 to $2.85. The company posted third-quarter net sales of $1.68 billion, compared with analysts' estimates of $1.67 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. It reported adjusted profit of 83 cents per share, beating estimates of 67 cents. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/spice-maker-mccormick-lifts-annual-forecast-demand-recovers-2024-10-01/

2024-10-01 11:22

TRIPOLI, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Libya was preparing to restart oil production that has been shut since late of August after an agreement on a new head of the central bank was reached, two oilfield engineers told Reuters on Tuesday. "We are now waiting for orders from the Corporation (the state oil firm) to resume production at its normal levels after a month-long stoppage," said an engineer from the Jalu 59 oilfield. An engineer from the Elfeel oilfield said they took advantage of the almost one-month closure to carry out maintenance. National production and export operations were stopped in August when the parallel government in eastern Libya declared the closure of oil facilities in a protest of the ousting of veteran Central Bank of Libya (CBL) governor Sadiq Kabir by the Presidential Council in Tripoli. A new CBL governor, Naji Mohamed Issa Belgasem, and his deputy, Mari Muftah Rahil Barrasi were approved on Monday by the two legislative bodies; the House of Representatives in Benghazi and High State Council in Tripoli. Belgasem and Barrasi took an oath before parliament on Tuesday during a televised session. Nearly all of Libya's oilfields are in the east, which is under the control of military commander Khalifa Haftar, who leads the Libyan National Army. Libya's National Oil Corporation said on Aug. 28 that oil production had dropped by more than half of typical levels. It has not made public any new production figures since then. Libya's oil output has been disrupted repeatedly in the chaotic decade since the country divided in 2014 between two administrations in its east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/libya-preparing-restart-oil-output-central-bank-crisis-eases-2024-10-01/

2024-10-01 11:10

Platts added U.S. crude to benchmark last year Thomson Reuters competes with Platts in assessing prices Rerouting could influence price, analysts say LONDON, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Big energy merchants trading oil cargoes that form the basis of the Brent benchmark have used a little known rule to reroute U.S. shipments from Europe, in a practice that raises doubts over whether reforms to the crude price marker have succeeded. Brent, the most significant benchmark across commodity markets, is used to price more than 60% of globally traded crude and underpins oil futures. Its value affects fuel prices paid by consumers and businesses. The 2023 addition of U.S. crude to the benchmark had the potential to limit the scope for trading plays that can distort Brent prices, analysts said at the time. But the reroutings have renewed concern in the market about how well the benchmark reflects supply and demand. Platts, a unit of S&P Global Commodity Insights, last year allowed U.S. WTI Midland crude delivered to Europe to be included in its Brent price assessment, called dated Brent. This was to boost liquidity as supplies from the mature North Sea Brent and other oilfields have dwindled. But in recent months, some WTI cargoes that traded for delivery to Europe via the Platts system, known as the window, never arrived, at least five trading sources said, declining to be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly. The later rerouting has not been previously reported. Trading companies that deal in the U.S. oil used a clause in the Platts methodology for all commodities, called bookout, to change destinations from Europe to Asia or to keep oil in the United States. The methodology in which bookouts are noted is publicly available on Platts' website. Although allowed under Platts' rules, the sale and later rerouting of the cargoes can impact prices including that of dated Brent, traders and industry analysts said, because it creates a perception demand in Europe is stronger than it is. Reuters has not, however, been able to establish any conclusive link between the cargo trading activity and prices over the period. "The issue is traders watch the delivered trades and count barrels arriving to Europe. Those barrels set dated Brent," said Adi Imsirovic, a trader, who has published books and papers on Brent and runs consultancy Surrey Clean Energy. "If you then book out those trades, the barrels - which you think there were plenty of, and which have already set the dated price - suddenly disappear." Platts said it had not received any complaints about the practice and it was aware "a small minority of cargoes" changed their sales basis from a delivered cost, insurance and freight (CIF) basis to free on board (FOB), which can go anywhere. "Such contract amendments are typical in many markets," Joel Hanley of S&P Global Commodity Insights said. Platts said more market participants have joined its dated Brent process since WTI was added - in a vote of confidence in the reforms. NO PLAN TO DISCLOSE Trading firms Trafigura, Gunvor and Vitol are among those that have used bookouts to change the destinations of WTI cargoes traded into dated Brent, the trade sources said. A Trafigura spokesperson said: "As set out in the Platts methodology and is common across industry participants, we seek to agree requests from our buyers for additional discharge options where market forces dictate re-direction of cargoes." Gunvor and Vitol declined to comment. Platts assesses dated Brent's price based on the cheapest of five North Sea crudes - Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk and Troll - and WTI Midland on the day. Thomson Reuters competes with Platts in the provision of news and price assessments about the oil market. Imsirovic said Platts should be informed if physical Brent trades are booked out because if the original deal set the price, Platts may need to adjust the assessment. Platts has no plan to make CIF to FOB conversions transparent by publishing them or to retroactively change its assessments if cargoes change destination, Hanley said. He said mutual agreements post-trade are normal practice and the fair value of the oil delivered into Europe was reflected on the day by the CIF trade. U.S. regulator the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) declined to comment as did the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which referred Reuters to the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). AFM declined to comment, saying this was because Platts' crude oil benchmark does not fall under the EU Benchmarks Regulation and AFM does not supervise it. SHIPMENT TO CHINA In one WTI deal that was booked out, Trafigura on Oct. 2 2023 sold three cargoes for delivery to Rotterdam and later negotiated a destination change to China, trade sources said. On that day, Forties, Brent and WTI crude's differentials to dated Brent rose on strong demand, with Forties hitting its highest in over a year according to LSG data. Platts said WTI and Brent were the cheapest grades and helped establish the dated Brent price. Brent crude oil futures dropped by almost 5% and dated Brent as assessed by Platts dropped by 1.8% to $94.555 on Oct. 2. Other trading companies including Vitol and Gunvor have since bought 700,000-barrel cargoes of WTI on a delivered basis to Europe that later converted to FOB, the sources said. Reuters could not quantify the exact number involved. Platts said it had seen six instances of cargoes switching from CIF to FOB in 2024 to be combined in a larger ship. Jorge Montepeque, who developed dated Brent and later left Platts and became a critic of the WTI addition, also said changes of cargo destinations must be disclosed. "One could say that the bidding by traders for WTI cargoes helped distort the perception of demand in Europe where there was no demand for such cargoes," he said. Hanley of Platts disagreed, saying it was not possible to create a perception that demand is higher than it is in pricing terms, because if you bid higher a seller will take up your bid. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/brent-oil-traders-use-little-known-rule-reroute-us-cargoes-2024-10-01/

2024-10-01 11:02

LONDON, Oct 1 (Reuters) - The volume of cocoa in Ivory Coast and Ghana that can be fully traced did not increase last year, a major UN-backed report has found, raising questions about how the world's top two cocoa growers will comply with a new EU law banning the import of commodities linked to deforestation. The new law next year will require importers of commodities and related goods to prove their products weren't grown on deforested land by, amongst other measures, tracing their supply chains down to the plot where their raw materials were grown. The report, published by the Cocoa and Forests Initiative (CFI), found 83% of directly sourced cocoa in Ghana and 82% in Ivory Coast can be traced in this way, roughly stable versus 2022 levels. According to the non-profit Trase however, only around 35% of Ivory Coast's cocoa exports were directly sourced from farmer cooperatives in 2022, and industry experts say figures for Ghana are similar, if not lower. Direct sourcing is when a chocolate-maker or trader buys cocoa directly from farmers rather than through a middleman, making traceability easier. The CFI report said national traceability systems were currently being piloted in both Ivory Coast and Ghana, and that these were expected to yield high traceability figures throughout the supply chain in 2025 when the EU Deforestaion Regulation (EUDR) takes effect. Complying with the law is critical for Ivory Coast and Ghana, who ship about two-thirds of their cocoa to the EU and where millions of largely poor, rural farmers and their families rely on the industry for their livelihood. The EUDR has been hailed as a landmark in the fight against climate change but critics, including the European Cocoa Association, say it could end up excluding small-scale farmers from the lucrative EU market while disrupting the bloc's supply chains. Brussels has come under increased pressure to delay and even to scale back the legislation, including from EU member states. CFI was launched at the COP 23 as a public private partnership between Ivory Coast, Ghana and major cocoa and chocolate firms. Deforestation is seen as the second leading cause of climate change after the burning of fossil fuels. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/cocoa-traceability-rates-fail-improve-eu-deforestation-law-looms-2024-10-01/