Company News in Brief
SARB says policy outlook dependent on inflation expectationsSouth Africa’s central bank said on Tuesday that as price pressures continued to moderate it would shift its policy focus to monitoring how core inflation and inflation expectations respond.The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) lowered its main lending rate by 25 basis points in September to 8.00%, its first cut in nearly four years, after inflation fell to below its targeted midpoint of 4.5%.
The central bank prefers to see inflation at the midpoint of its 3% to 6% target band. In the latest print, headline inflation fell to 4.4% and core inflation to 4.1%.
In its biannual Monetary Policy Review, the central bank said it had brought forward its own inflation expectations three times in six months as disinflation quickened, thanks to falling fuel and food prices.
Although over the next three quarters it expects inflation to average 3.7%, the bank has maintained that any further cuts would remain data dependent.
The SARB said it would now shift its focus to monitoring how second-round effects, namely inflation expectations and core inflation, would respond to the changing inflation outlook.-REUTERS
Total set to back Mozambique LNG Terminal to boost gas importsTotalEnergies SE aims to next year approve an import terminal for liquefied natural gas in Mozambique that may help users in neighbouring South Africa avoid a potential supply crisis. Gas shipments may flow from the Matola project by the end of 2027, according to Gigajoule, a partner helping develop the facility. That’s the same year that fuel piped from Sasol’s fields in Mozambique is scheduled to terminate for companies in South Africa that include units of brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev and steelmaker ArcelorMittal, stoking fears of a so-called gas cliff in the continent’s most industrialised nation.The Matola project next to Mozambique’s capital of Maputo will have the capacity to bring in 2.5 million tons of LNG annually, TotalEnergies said Monday in a response to emailed questions. It may be the first major supplier of the super-chilled fuel to South Africa and is separate from an export plan that the French major has in Mozambique’s northeastern Cabo Delgado province.-BLOOMBERG
Boeing looking to replenish cash flows US aircraft manufacturer Boeing on Tuesday unveiled measures meant to replenish its cash flow, including its intention to raise up to $25 billion (R440 billion), as it navigates recurrent production problems and a major US strike. The company said it could raise the money via securities such as shares or bonds, according to a regulatory document. It also earlier announced that it was in an agreement to obtain $10 billion in credit from multiple banks. The moves come amid a worker strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, who walked off the job on 13 September after overwhelmingly rejecting a contract offer. The direct financial impact of the first month of the strike cost Boeing more than $3 billion, according to Anderson Economic Group. Last week, the company said it planned to cut 10% of its workforce as it projected a large third-quarter loss, in the wake of the strike by some 33 000 workers in the Seattle region. The work stoppage has only added to the company’s litany of problems. - AFP
SpaceX flies first-stage booster SpaceX on Sunday successfully flew the first-stage booster of its Starship megarocket back to the launch pad after a test flight, a technical tour de force that furthers the company’s quest for rapid reusability. The “super heavy booster” had blasted off attached to the uncrewed Starship rocket minutes earlier, then made a picture-perfect controlled return to the same pad in Texas, where a pair of huge mechanical “chopsticks” reached out from the launch tower to bring the slowly descending booster to a halt, according to a livestream from Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. Not long afterward, the upper stage of Starship splashed down, as planned, in the Indian Ocean, a development saluted by Musk on X. “Ship landed precisely on target!” he said of the vehicle’s fifth test flight. “Second of the two objectives achieved.” The successful “catching” of the booster at its Texas launch pad had company staffers erupting in cheers. “Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books,” a SpaceX spokesperson said on the company’s livestream. - AFP Britain looking at improving competitiveness in banking sector Britain will soon put in place a package of reforms to its bank ring-fencing regime to improve competitiveness and support economic growth, city minister Tulip Siddiq said on Monday. The reforms are set to include the introduction of a secondary threshold to exempt retail-focused banks from the regime and new flexibilities to allow ring-fenced banks to operate globally, Siddiq said in a statement. The reforms, which will also include measures to encourage more investment in the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises, will be implemented as soon as parliamentary time allows. - REUTERS EU to negotiate better trade deal with China on vehicles The European Union wants a level playing field with China on car tariffs and is negotiating with Beijing on mechanisms such as price commitments or investments in Europe, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday. Speaking alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, she said negotiations with China will continue even if the EU’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles enter into force. Scholz expressed hope of reaching an agreement by the end of October. “What could be the compensation that is offered instead of countervailing duties, for example? And there is the question of price commitments that are on the table, investments in Europe,” Von der Leyen said. “These are all questions that are on the table, as always in negotiations. Everything has only been negotiated when the last piece has been negotiated.” - REUTERS