2024-07-27 09:25

BEIJING, July 27 (Reuters) - More than 27,000 people in northeast China were evacuated and hundreds of factories were ordered to suspend production as Typhoon Gaemi brought heavy rains, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. Gaemi lashed towns on China's coastal Fujian province on Friday with heavy rains and strong winds as the most powerful storm to hit the country this year began its widely watched trek from the southeastern coast into the populous interior. Heavy rains caused water levels to rise in 40 reservoirs across Liaoning province, the area is expected to experience torrential rain from early on Sunday Tuesday, the report said. Hundreds of chemical and mining companies across the province have suspended operations and nearby residents have been relocated to avoid flood risks, Xinhua said. The storm, which killed dozens as it swept through Taiwan and worsened seasonal rains in the Philippines, has affected almost 630,000 people in China's Fujian province, with almost half of them being relocated, Xinhua has reported. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/typhoon-gaemi-forces-evacuation-factory-suspension-northeast-china-2024-07-27/

2024-07-27 07:21

BUDAPEST, July 27 (Reuters) - Hungary is planning to allow the temperature limit for a section of the Danube which receives cooling water from the Paks nuclear power plant to be exceeded for security of supply reasons, the energy ministry said in a statement on Friday. The plant's four reactors operate by using the water of the Danube to cool its operations. Currently, according to the regulation, the river cannot receive water if its temperature exceeds 30 degree Celsius, in which case the operator must cut output and wait for the river to cool below the limit. "Due to climate change, weather conditions may increasingly lead to the limit being reached in summer, especially at low water levels," the statement read. The energy ministry's proposed plan would keep this limit in place but would allow the operator to exceed it on a case-by-case basis with the permission of the minister of energy, if this is unavoidable for security of supply. "The curtailment of Paks' output could directly jeopardise the smooth supply of domestic consumers in a tight energy market," the statement read. "In addition to environmental considerations, it may therefore be justified to exceed the limit value on a case-by-case basis if this is unavoidable for security of supply." The Paks plant has four Russian-built VVER 440 reactors with a combined capacity of about 2,000 megawatts. The reactors became operational between 1982 and 1987 and are scheduled to be retired in 2032-2037. Hungary plans to expand the plant, with Russia's Rosatom building two VVER reactors with a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts each, in addition to the currently working four reactors. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/hungary-allow-nuclear-plant-exceed-danube-water-temperature-limit-2024-07-27/

2024-07-27 04:40

ZURICH, July 27 (Reuters) - Central banking is not boring, although being prepared to carry the label is perhaps the key to success, departing Swiss National Bank Chairman Thomas Jordan said on Saturday. Jordan, who is due to step down at the end of September, defended his record steering the central bank through a raft of crises over the past 12 years. The executive has come under fire for being inflexible and sticking doggedly to his mantra of price stability, as well as not doing more to help Credit Suisse before the bank's implosion last year. "What we do is not boring, that's a cliche," Jordan told the Bieler Tagblatt in an interview published on Saturday. "I believe that the people who are responsible for the national bank should concentrate on their job. They must fulfil their mandate and not get themselves noticed with other activities." The 61-year-old told his hometown newspaper that perhaps being boring was the key to success. "It's better to be called boring or stubborn than for people to say I'm pursuing the wrong monetary policy," said Jordan, who added that he has not decided what to do next in his career but that a political role did not appeal. The central bank had done its best to maintain price stability, which it defines as inflation of 0-2%, he said. The effort has paid off, with Swiss inflation currently on target for the last 12 months. "We prevented deflation several times, and then successfully fought inflation after Covid," Jordan said. "Inflation was much lower in Switzerland than elsewhere." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/being-boring-key-central-bank-success-says-snbs-jordan-2024-07-27/

2024-07-27 00:55

HOUSTON, July 26 (Reuters) - Motiva Enterprises plans to begin restarting the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) at its 626,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery as early as Saturday, people familiar with plant operations said. Motiva plans to finish repairing a leak on the 81,000-bpd FCC on Saturday and begin the restart, the sources said. A Motiva spokesperson was not immediately available to discuss refinery operations on Friday night. The FCC, which uses a fine powder catalyst to convert gas oil into unfinished gasoline, was shut on Wednesday to repair the leak, the sources said. Motiva's Port Arthur refinery is the second largest in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/motiva-plans-restart-texas-fcc-over-weekend-sources-say-2024-07-27/

2024-07-26 23:48

NASHVILLE, July 26 (Reuters) - Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr on Friday questioned Republican nominee Donald Trump's recent pro-cryptocurrency stance, as the two vie for votes in November's election from crypto-holders at the Bitcoin 2024 conference. Trump is set to speak on Saturday at the conference in Nashville, Tennessee, which is estimated to have about 20,000 attendees. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Kennedy was favored by 8% of voters in a recent Reuters poll, which could be significant if he draws voters from Trump or Kamala Harris, poised to become the Democratic nominee. Kennedy has yet to qualify for the ballot in many states. Kennedy's comments come after Trump recently suggested to Kennedy that he could support the former president's campaign. KEY QUOTES "President Trump has orange hair... But I have an orange heart," Kennedy said in the conference speech, referring to the color of the bitcoin logo. "I hope President Trump's commitment to bitcoin is more than political expediency." Kennedy promised that if elected as president he would direct the U.S. Treasury to purchase enough bitcoin to build a reserve comparable to U.S. gold reserves. He would also make direct ownership of bitcoin tax-free. CONTEXT Trump recently slammed Democrats' attempts to regulate the sector and indicated he would like to see expanded bitcoin mining by U.S. firms, even though in 2021 he called bitcoin a "scam." The Republican Party increasingly has courted crypto holders' votes by promising lighter regulation. WHAT'S NEXT Conference attendees on Friday said they were looking forward to seeing Trump speak on Saturday. "Make Bitcoin Great Again" red hats, a play on Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan, were for sale at the conference. THE RESPONSE The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rfk-jr-questions-trumps-recent-pro-crypto-tone-two-vie-votes-2024-07-26/

2024-07-26 23:46

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 26 (Reuters) - Japan sees the reaffirmation in the latest G20 joint communique of existing commitments against excessive foreign exchange volatility as one of the major achievements, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Friday. "We believe there were major achievements at G20, such as the inclusion of the reaffirmed foreign exchange commitments in the joint communique," Suzuki said, speaking at a press conference after the Group of Twenty (G20) finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Rio de Janeiro. The commitments say the G20 major economies recognize that excessive volatility or disorderly movements in exchange rates can have adverse implications for economic and financial stability. In the same press conference, Japan's top currency diplomat Masato Kanda said that Japan pushed for the inclusion of the commitments in the communique as their absence "could give a misleading message to the market." While a weak yen gives exports a boost, it has become a source of concern for policymakers by pushing up the cost of imports and hurting consumption. The yen rallied sharply this week, rebounding from 38-year lows hit earlier this month, as market participants unwound their long-held bets against the currency ahead of a Bank of Japan (BOJ) meeting next week. Some politicians have recently called on the BOJ to offer more clarity on its rate hike plan partly to prevent the yen from testing fresh lows against the dollar. Suzuki said he met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the sidelines of the G20 meeting on Friday. They discussed "wide-ranging topics including Russia, taxation and markets," according to Kanda, who briefed reporters on the bilateral meeting. Asked if foreign exchange was included in the talks on markets, Kanda confirmed it was on agenda, but noted that it was just an extension of two countries' routine communications and did not mean there were any major issues that needed to be addressed. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/japan-touts-g20-reaffirmation-forex-commitments-key-achievement-2024-07-26/