Business

DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday urged Western countries to be "reasonable" in their expectations, underlining its commitment to the global OPEC+ energy alliance.

The grouping of the 13 members of the Saudi-led Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their 10 allies, including Russia, is an "alliance to stay".

"We always believe that whatever we do as countries, when it comes to production and this work, it needs always to stay out of politics," said UAE's Energy Minister Suhail Al-Mazrouei during an energy forum in Dubai. 

A surge in prices and supply fears since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month have led to calls for OPEC to increase output.

But the OPEC+ group plans to boost production by just 400,000 barrels a day in April, the same pace as in past months.

"Russia is an important member and, leaving the politics aside, that volume... is needed today, and unless someone is willing to come and bring 10 million barrels, we don't see that... someone can substitute Russia," said Mazrouei.

Despite increased calls to ramp up production to calm the volatile oil market, Mazrouei said it was "difficult", with countries "facing a natural decline reduction" in large part due to shrinking long-term investments in the oil sector.

At the COP26 conference on climate change held last year in Scotland, "all of the producers felt that they are uninvited and unwanted and felt like they are in corner, but now we are on stage and they want us to produce more so we are again superheroes", he said.

"It's not going to work like that." 

Mazrouei called for long-term investments in the sector and a more "reasonable" approach to a clean energy transition. 

"If Europe needs gas and needs gas quickly... they need to sit with the producers and they need to identify the requirements, and they need to be reasonable and realistic," he said. 

Mazrouei also called for a "diplomatic" solution to the Ukraine war, warning that it was also impacting other commodities, including food.

LONDON — World oil prices dived on Monday as Shanghai's phased COVID lockdown reignited fears over Chinese energy demand.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil and Europe's London Brent crude both slumped by more than six per cent in value.

Stock markets were mixed, with traders hoping for progress in ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Shares in Paris and Frankfurt closed moderately higher, while the FTSE 100 in London was only marginally down.

Wall Street was also trading slightly lower in mid-morning deals.

"Broadly speaking, stock markets remain in a consolidatory phase and have been for almost a couple of weeks but they've certainly received a mild boost at the start of the week," Craig Erlam from OANDA said.

"Whether that can be sustained or not may well depend on whether we can see progress in talks this week."

Gains were tempered by the Shanghai lockdown that also stoked concern over strained supply chains.

Millions of people in China's financial hub were confined to their homes on Monday as the eastern half of Shanghai went into lockdown to curb the country's biggest ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

Authorities are imposing a two-phase lockdown of the city of about 25 million people to carry out mass testing.

The news impacts the global oil market because China is the world's biggest crude consumer.

"A certain portion of the declines we're seeing in the commodity space, most notably oil, can be attributed to the lockdowns we're seeing in China and the impact they'll have on both activity and demand in the near term," Erlam said.

"While that can be viewed as a positive from an oil perspective considering the supply/demand imbalance and very high price, it isn't a sustainable solution, nor a desirable one," he added.

With Russia's Ukraine invasion now in its second month, investors are hoping the two sides will be able to make inroads on ending the crisis when they meet in Turkey.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the first round of in-person talks since March 10 — due to open in Istanbul on Tuesday after near-daily video contacts — must bring peace "without delay".

Ukrainian "neutrality", and the future status of Donbas, could be in the mix for the Istanbul meeting.

Meanwhile, growing expectations that the US Federal Reserve will become increasingly aggressive in its drive to bring down inflation continue to dampen sentiment, with Treasury yields — a gauge of future interest rates — surging.

While stock markets have managed to remain resilient in the face of heightened uncertainty, concerns that the Fed will ramp up interest rates continue to cast a pall.

MADRID — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez unveiled plans on Monday to offer 16 billion euros ($17.5 billion) in direct aid and loans for families and companies hit by the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Details of the long-awaited emergency response plan came as Spain struggles with a wave of social unrest over runaway inflation and rising prices, with lorry drivers striking, production stoppages and mass protests by farmers and fishermen.

The plan, which will be approved at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, will release "approximately 6 billion euros in direct aid and tax rebates and 10 billion euros in state-guaranteed loans to cushion the impact of the crisis on families and businesses", Sanchez told a business forum.

The measures, which will remain in place until June 30, will include "a minimum reduction of 20 cents per litre of fuel", Sanchez said, indicating that 15 cents would be financed by the government and five cents by the oil companies.

But Spain's consumer watchdog FACUA denounced the measures as "totally inadequate" for easing the impact of record light and energy prices. 

On Monday, average petrol prices in Spain ranged between 1.84 and 1.98 euros per litre, while diesel stood at between 1.86 and 1.95 euros, according to dieselogasolina.com. 

Last week, the government announced a similar reduction but only for lorry drivers, with the new reduction to impact everyone. 

Reducing fuel prices by 20 cents per litre was "very low when taking into account the brutal price rises of recent months", FACUA said. 

It attacked the government for "not imposing a special tax on electricity and petrol firms and other large companies whose profits had increased enormously".

'An exceptional situation' 

The plan also extends until the end of June tax cuts already in place such as the reduced rate of VAT on energy and a suspension of tax on electricity production.

It also includes a 362-million-euro aid package for the agriculture and farming sector, 68 million euros for the fishing and aquaculture industries, a 2 per cent cap on rental increases and a 15 per cent increase in the income support to help the most vulnerable. 

In total, it was an investment of 16 billion euros to "ease the impact on families and businesses", Sanchez said.

"This situation is absolutely exceptional and the steps we're taking will, I think, offer us a way out of this huge crisis," said Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz, who is also one of Sanchez's deputies. 

But the right-wing Popular Party said Sanchez had failed to make good on a commitment to reduce taxes.

"There is no reduction in taxes as was initially promised and... we will have to wait for an explanation of exactly what is going to be done after a year in which prices increased by 7.6 per cent," said incoming PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo. 

Spain saw consumer prices surge to their highest level in almost 35 years, with inflation jumping to 7.6 per cent in February, against a backdrop of soaring energy costs, worsened by the war in Ukraine.

On March 14, lorry drivers launched an open-ended strike over mounting fuel prices, staging roadblocks and picket lines and leaving supermarkets with empty shelves and several sectors struggling to cope. 

Fishermen also staged a mass strike last week over diesel prices, while the livestock and farming sector have also hit the street in protest over rising costs, including that of animal feed costs.

BEIJING — The play by Xiang Guangda, China's "Nickel King", was to use his influential market position to short the metal, wait for the price to drop, then soak up the rewards when the value bounced back.

But then Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and things got complicated — fast.

Russia is one of the world's biggest producers of nickel ore, a key component of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). 

As concussive Western sanctions over the invasion struck, the price of the silver-white metal rocketed to a record above $100,000 per tonne.

That was too high for Xiang and the entire metal sector, forcing the 145-year-old London Metals Exchange (LME) to suspend trading for a week and leaving nickel-reliant manufacturers struggling to digest the spike in costs.

Stuck in its positions — reports estimate it was holding at least 100,000 tonnes — Xiang's company Tsingshan Holdings Group was suddenly on the hook for billions of dollars.

Tsingshan, the world's biggest nickel producer, has been forced to buy back a large number of nickel contracts at higher prices to reduce its exposure.

A Bloomberg News report estimates the buy-back has contributed to a loss of $8 billion, suggesting the firm may need a possible bailout by Chinese authorities.

"Xiang is a shrewd player, but he was caught off guard with the Russian issue," Li Bin, a nickel trader in Shanghai said.

When nickel trading resumed last week prices plunged to about $37,200 a tonne — still 50 per cent higher than in February — as volatility courses through the market. "After the historic squeeze, nickel is still struggling to find a price," Susan Zou, senior metals analyst at Rystad Energy said.

Self-made tycoon

The market for nickel, essential to make batteries for EVs and a key alloy in stainless steel, is dominated by a handful of players.

Those include Tsingshan, headquartered on China's eastern seaboard.

It was founded by Xiang, a self-made billionaire who is known among Chinese nickel traders as the "Nickel King" and "Big Shot". 

Xiang started his career as a mechanic in a state fishery and now owns two sprawling nickel manufacturing hubs in Indonesia. 

Those include the Morowali industrial park that spans 2,000 hectares with 44,000 workers and its own airport and is seen as a guarantee a cheap supply of ore for Tsingshan's China-side furnaces.

After his short went wrong, Tsingshan has to either pay off its debts or prove it has sufficient deliverable nickel to repay in kind.

"We are closely watching his next move because it could still roil markets," said Li, the Shanghai nickel trader. 

Those rising costs are already being felt by makers of EVs including Tesla and 20 other Chinese rivals such as Xpeng and BYD, which have all hiked vehicle prices over the past two weeks citing a rise in raw material costs. 

"The price and supply shocks have pushed major battery makers to look for alternative metals to power electric vehicles," analyst Zou said.

Beijing to the rescue? 

Beijing could step in to rescue Tsingshan, Chinese media including financial news site Yicai reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

There are discussions over allowing the company to swap its low-grade nickel products that do not meet LME's quality standards with a purer form of the metal held in state stockpiles to settle its claims, Yicai said.

China is estimated to hold around 100,000 tonnes of nickel in state reserves, according to official data. Tsingshan and China's state reserves administration did not respond to requests for comment. 

Xiang has moved markets before, most notably in 2018 when he released large volumes of nickel pig iron, a cheap alternative to pure nickel, that can be used to make stainless steel. 

"Xiang has always believed that because he is one of the world's biggest players with ultra-low costs, he could keep the nickel price under his thumb," said a former employee at Tsingshan, who declined to be named.

"He has always bet on nickel prices falling because his production cost in Indonesia is as low as $10,000 per tonne." 

Now Xiang has to decide whether to slowly unwind his wager and at what price. 

On March 14, Tsingshan said it had reached an agreement with banks to hold on to the company's nickel positions, signalling the billionaire was digging in his heels to ride out the crisis.

That could beat the LME further and lead to more price uncertainty for nickel, trader Li said, and create challenges for battery producers trying to replace petrol cars.

GENEVA — Can humanity curb spending that harms the world's biodiversity and instead focus funding on protecting it?

That question is at the heart of international negotiations in Geneva, which will set the stage for a crucial United Nations COP 15 biodiversity summit in China later this year. 

Almost 200 countries are due to adopt a global framework this year to safeguard nature by mid-century from the destruction wrought by humanity, with a key milestone of 30 per cent protected by 2030.

These ambitions will only be met with a new approach to biodiversity funding and a rethink of the huge sums spent on subsidies harmful to nature, according to observers. 

Subsidies for things like fossil fuels, agriculture and fishing can often result in environmental destruction and encourage unsustainable levels of production and consumption, experts say.

The exact figure that the world spends on these harmful subsidies is debated, although the group Business for Nature estimates that it could be as much as $1.8 trillion every year, or two per cent of global gross domestic product. 

Financing in general is among the more challenging issues up for debate at the Geneva meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which runs until Tuesday. 

"Resource mobilisation at this meeting has become a thorny issue," said Ghanaian academic Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, who has played a key role in international efforts to protect biodiversity.

"It is a balancing act. At the global level money has continuously been a problem."

'Not peanuts' 

The draft text contains the aim "to redirect, reallocate, reform or eliminate harmful incentives", reducing them by at least 500 billion dollars per year. 

It also includes a goal of increasing total finance from all sources to at least $200 billion a year by 2030 and increasing international money that goes to developing countries by at least $10 billion per year.

Last year, a study by groups including The Nature Conservancy and the Paulson Institute estimated that in 2019, the world spent between $124 and $143 billion per year on activities that benefit nature. 

But they said the amount needed by 2030 should be up to $967 billion per year, which could include refocusing funding for harmful subsidies.

Vinod Mathur, president of the National Biodiversity Authority of India, is calling for $100 billion every year in additional funding.

"There has to be substantial funding, not just peanuts. It should be new funding, or additional funding and it should be timely," he said. 

Without it, developing countries say ambitious conservation targets will be impossible to achieve, a real concern given the world has missed virtually all of its biodiversity targets so far. 

Rich countries "recognise that there are additional efforts to be made", according to one representative, although they took issue with the developing countries' estimates of funding needed. 

Observers expect the private sector to play an increasingly important role.

Private sector role 

Last year, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Mike Bloomberg joined other philanthropists in pledging $5 billion by 2030 for biodiversity restoration and conservation.

The Business for Nature coalition has the support of more than a thousand companies, which like the conservation groups, are asking for an ambitious text. 

"Companies need the political certainty to urgently invest, innovate, shift their business models," said Business for Nature Director Eva Zabey, adding that many firms are prepared to be held accountable for their biodiversity impact. 

As for subsidies, governments often defend them as helping the poor, said Ronald Steenblik, author of the Business for Nature study.

But he said "when you do the analysis you find that actually the major beneficiaries are very often the most wealthy". 

Some 80 per cent of fishing subsidies, for example, go to industrial fishing and not to small-scale fishermen.

But reforms can be challenging because entire sectors of activity depend on them. 

As is often the case in international negotiations, the subject will likely only be resolved in the home stretch, at COP15 in China.

NEW YORK — Uber said on Thursday it will collaborate with New York taxi networks, a longtime transportation rival, boosting driver supply as the city emerges from the pandemic.

Under the partnership, Uber will integrate its smartphone app with those used by the city's 14,000 iconic yellow cabs, an Uber spokesperson said, confirming a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The taxi apps, run by Creative Mobile Technologies and Curb Mobility, allow riders to pay with a credit card.

Passengers will pay roughly the same under either system, while cab drivers will be able to decline rides if they aren't lucrative enough.

As was the case in other cities, Uber's arrival in New York in 2011 pressured its cab network, which had operated under a quasi-monopoly.

City officials froze new licences for rideshare drivers in 2018 after surging Uber and Lyft use lifted the number to more than 120,000.

The partnership comes as Uber has struggled to find enough labor after some drivers took other jobs during the pandemic. The industry has also been tested lately by spiking gasoline prices, which has prompted both Uber and rival Lyft to add fuel surcharges to fares.

Andrew Macdonald, senior vice president for mobility and business operations, said the company's ventures with taxis "look different around the world" and that the latest alliance "will benefit taxi drivers and all New Yorkers".

NEW YORK — Crude prices were higher on Friday and stock markets made decent gains after European countries decided against a ban on Russian oil imports over its invasion of Ukraine — but Germany said it would slash its energy purchases from Moscow.

European stocks, which had been firmly higher earlier in the session, ended the day with only modest gains, but on Wall Street the Dow and S&P 500 climbed out of a midday slump to both gain under one per cent at the close. 

"It seems the skyrocketing move higher with commodity prices has taken a break and that has allowed investors a chance to pile back into equities," said Edward Moya of OANDA.

"Geopolitical risks remain very elevated and the rally in equities over the past two weeks is impressive."

However, analysts say instability in the prices of commodities such as oil were keeping markets volatile, while investors will remain cautious over the economic impact of the war in Ukraine, now entering its second month.

"We're not really getting a lot of news out of the Russia-Ukraine situation," Tom Martin of Globalt Investments said.

"In two to three weeks, we're going to start getting earnings and... those are going to give us somewhat of a window on this new world we find ourselves in, post the Russian invasion of Ukraine."

The United States and European Union have announced a drive to wean Europe off Russian gas imports and so choke off the billions in revenues that are fuelling Moscow's war. 

Europe's biggest economy, Germany, said its own Russian oil imports would be halved by June and coal deliveries stopped by the autumn of this year.

"Anxieties about the increasingly entrenched conflict in Ukraine are" holding back share price gains, said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter. 

Russia launched its assault on Ukraine on February 24, sending shockwaves across global markets that continue to reverberate.

The business climate in Germany worsened in March, the Ifo business confidence index showed, amid fears over soaring energy prices and deepening supply chain woes. 

The crisis in eastern Europe has forced investors to reassess their outlook for the global economy owing to an expected surge in already soaring prices, which some commentators now warn could lead to recession.

Bitcoin rose above $45,000, boosted by talk that the Kremlin could accept the world's biggest cryptocurrency in exchange for Russian gas.