Archives for August 2018

Located in the Republic of Tatarstan, Innopolis was set up as a technology park in 2012, with a focus on supporting high-tech industries. It was later granted ‘town’ status. Around 100 people have signed up to participate in the driverless taxi trials, and they will be able to choose from a number of pre-set destinations, including the university, stadium, and apartment blocks.

The service will first operate two vehicles in test mode with free rides to certain destinations. It allows joint trips to be arranged as the cabin can accommodate up to three passengers.

“Our Yandex self-driving team plans to later expand the autonomous ride-hailing service to include more destinations, additional vehicles, and removing the safety driver, in addition to improving the service based on user feedback,” Yandex said.

According to the company’s general director, Elena Bunina, the service will be offered for free.

Yandex first unveiled its autonomous car in 2017, saying it was entering the driverless technology market and intended to capitalize on its already existing online services like map navigation, traffic surveillance, and image recognition for its other major branch – an Uber-like taxi service.

Autonomous taxi services have already been tested in a number of markets around the world. In 2016, US-based autonomous car startup NuTonomy launched a self-driving car service in Singapore. Uber and Google’s sister company, Waymo, are continuing to trial similar services in various markets. In Asia, self-driving taxi trials kicked off in Tokyo this week; the service is expected to be launched ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games.

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Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/437145-yandex-ride-hailing-service/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

However, it’s not the land reform (currently on hold pending further review) which is seen as a real threat to some farmers. Rather, it is Trump’s ‘America First’ trade strategy.

For many years, Washington and Pretoria were at odds over poultry, with the US banning South African produce due to health and sanitation issues and South Africa keeping American chicken under anti-dumping tariffs. 

‘This is no land grab’: South African president defends property seizure plans

Three years ago, the South African poultry industry agreed to drop the tariffs from 65,000 tons of US chicken in exchange for the renewal of broader duty-free US trade access. The measure helped other South African industries which benefited from mutual trade.

However, the current US agenda, which includes the decision to introduce export duties on steel and aluminum, has brought the poultry strife back on the table, putting at risk $2 billion of South African exports to the US under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The legislation, approved by the US Congress in 2000, was aimed at assisting the economies of sub-Saharan Africa and to improve economic relations between the US and the region.

“We cannot compare our chickens with theirs. The price difference will kill us,” a South African pullet rearer, Herman Pretorius, told Reuters.

Last week, the South African Poultry Association (SAPA) filed a lawsuit against the country’s government, demanding the suspension of the US poultry tariff exclusion quota. The poultry farmers reportedly say the 2015 chicken deal is void, as South African metal producers lost tax-free access to the US market despite the AGOA agreement, which used to give exemption to the country’s aluminum exporters.

“We’ve pulled the trigger,” Marthinus Stander said as quoted by the agency. “The quota should be suspended if any of the benefits that South Africa enjoyed at the time of the renewal of AGOA are suspended. This has happened to steel and aluminum which used to be duty free under AGOA.”

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Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/437143-trump-tariffs-south-africa-farmers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

“This is a significant event for Russia and Japan. The project literally ties our two countries together,” Deputy Minister of Russia’s Economic Development Sergey Gorkov told TASS.

He expressed confidence that the project “will become a symbol of Russian-Japanese friendship and a bridge between our countries.”

Japan’s Deputy Minister of State Lands, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Toshihiro Matsumoto, noted that the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR) has a great development potential for both Russia and Japan.

“We believe that Japanese companies are interested in using this route, and I hope that we will reach a deeper understanding between the carriers of the two countries in the process of implementing this pilot project,” he said.

The shipments will be carried out in containers fitted with temperature, humidity and vibration sensors.

According to Russian Railways (RZD), the first 40-foot container has been dispatched this month from the Japanese port of Kobe to the port of Vostochny in Russia’s Primorsky Krai.

The container is planned to be transported further by rail to Russia’s Kaluga region and after the customs clearance procedure it will be finally delivered by road to the Moscow region. The approximate delivery date is 1 September 2018, which will result in a total travel time of just 14 days.

The next test shipment from Japan to Russia along the Trans-Siberian Railway is scheduled for 31 August 2018, according to RZD.

Current freight transport between Japan and Russia mainly uses sea and air routes. It takes between 53 and 62 days to ship freight from Japan to Moscow using a sea route that crosses the Indian Ocean. The new freight route via the railway will significantly cut transportation time between the two countries and costs could be reduced by up to 40 percent.

The Trans-Siberian Railway connects Moscow with the Russian Far East with a travel time of seven days. It is 9,289 km (5,772 miles) in length and spans a record eight time zones.

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Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/437116-japan-russia-goods-transportation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

“Demand in the EU is rising, but domestic production is declining – which in short means that the import demand is increasing,” Mehren said, as quoted by the company’s press-service.

“In 2030, for example, the EU will have to import around 400 billion cubic meters of natural gas. In order to meet this increasing import demand, we need reliable partners, especially in pipeline distance.

Pass the peace pipe: US promises Germany to leave Russian gas pipeline alone

“Nord Stream 2, for example, will provide an additional capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas when it is completed. This is natural gas that Europe needs,” the CEO stressed.

Mehren noted that crucial importance of Russia as a major partner in European energy projects is set to increase in the future. The head of the German energy major also highlighted the importance of cooperation with Norway.

According to the CEO, natural gas is also making a significant contribution to Germany’s and Europe’s energy transition and to reducing CO2 emissions. The region won’t reportedly achieve its climate goals without natural gas as the most environmentally-friendly fossil fuel.

“Europe has the advantage of being able to use its geographical proximity and direct connection to the large energy reserves in Norway and Russia in pipeline distance,” Mehren said.

“Our well-established and reliable partnerships in particular with these two countries are essential for achieving the climate targets. Europe has to play its trump cards.”

The Nord Stream pipeline project, led by the subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom, is being implemented in cooperation with German energy firms Wintershall and Uniper, French multinational Engie, British-Dutch oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell and Austrian energy company OMV. The future pipeline, which is set to run from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, is expected to double the existing pipeline’s capacity of 55 billion cubic meters annually.

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Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/437061-nord-stream-gas-vital-wintershall/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

In 2015, the ANC proposed a constitutional amendment allowing the government to seize and redistribute land without any compensation to its owners. The draft, which has not been adopted so far, evoked widespread international outrage and multiple media reports of alleged violence against white South African farmers, including murders.

The committee’s chairperson, Humphrey Mmemezi, said the bill was referred to parliament on procedural grounds, but they couldn’t duplicate a separate parliamentary process.

“If we, as Parliament, resolve to hear the people of South Africa on that important clause, it then goes without question that we must send the bill back to Parliament,” he said, adding the committee had no choice but to withdraw it.

However, the ANC reiterated its commitment to pursue the country’s controversial land reform program. The ruling party wants to redistribute the land confiscated from white farmers to the black citizens of the country. Since the end of apartheid in 1994, the ANC has followed a “willing-seller, willing-buyer” model. Under the plan, the government buys land from white landowners and redistributes it among black citizens of the country. However, the land reform program has not brought the results the ANC wanted.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced this month that his government is enforcing a change in the constitution to allow the expropriation of land without compensation. According to the ANC, the white minority in the country still own most of the land more than two decades after the end of apartheid.

‘This is no land grab’: South African president defends property seizure plans

Much of the farmland in South Africa is owned by the country’s white minority, also known as Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch and English settlers. The former British colony instituted a policy of strict racial segregation, known as apartheid, in 1948. It was formally abolished in 1994.

The ANC government denies there is a widespread or systematic campaign to kill or expel white farmers, but maintains that major redistribution is needed to correct the legacy of colonialism. A number of Afrikaners have already emigrated, with as many as 15,000 Boers recently expressing interest in settling in southern Russia.

There has been a reported rise in violent attacks against farmers in South Africa. There were 74 farm murders and 638 attacks, primarily against white farmers, in 2016-17, according to data by minority rights group AfriForum.

The South African officials reportedly seized two farms last week from owners who refused to accept the government-set compensation.

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Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/437051-south-africas-ruling-anc-says/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

The pressure has been on Iran’s customers since May, to cut their purchases of Iranian oil and freeze out the oil producer, OPEC’s third largest, from the world oil market. The US is re-imposing sanctions on Iran following the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, and has threatened secondary sanctions on any country that continues to buy oil from Iran.

US ‘protectorate’ rebelling? Experts doubt EU’s ability to stand up to Washington

The campaign has proven effective thus far. In the first half of August, Iran’s oil exports fell by 600,000 barrels per day (bpd), plunging from 2.32 million bpd to 1.68 million bpd. Iran’s exports have been falling all year, and reached their lowest level in four months by July, before taking a real plunge in August.

Major customers, including South Korea, have suspended imports. China, despite some defiant posturing in the face of US challenges, scaled back its purchases. While China has given no sign that it will comply with the US directive, reports indicate that it is willing to at least halt any increase in Iranian purchases after sanctions are re-imposed on November 4.

But the big cuts were by India, Iran’s second-largest importer, which reduced its purchases from Iran from 706,452 bpd to 203,938 bpd during the August 1-16 period.

India has been trying to keep a middle-ground between the US and Iran, as it navigates the new sanctions regime while still preserving access to cheap Iranian oil and gas imports. India imports 80 percent of its energy and Iran is its third-largest supplier. Trade links between Tehran and New Delhi have strengthened in the last several years, but now India faces considerable pressure to cut its ties with Iran as the US seeks to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero. Iran has offered cargo insurance and freedom to use Iranian tankers to India as a way of enticing it to keep buying.

Read more on oilprice.com: Which refiners win from strict fuel regulations?

If India were to comply with US sanctions, Iran’s oil exports would fall to around 1.5 million bpd. Reports indicate India doesn’t want to cut its purchases completely, and that like China it will continue buying Iranian oil. But India may pivot towards new sources of supply, including American crude, to make up the difference. India imports from the US have been steadily increasing, reaching 264,000 bpd in May 2018 according to EIA data.

Where China has some geopolitical reasons to oppose the US, including its on-going trade and tariff war with the Trump Administration, India needs to maintain ties to the US financial system and can’t risk isolating itself. Facing a shortfall in imports due to the collapse in Venezuelan production, India will be hard-pressed to replace all of its Iranian supply, and could seek a waiver if it reduces Iranian imports by 50 percent.

Turkey, another major importer of Iranian crude, reduced its purchases in a big way last June: imports from Iran fell from 262,225 bpd to 81,075 bpd between May and June. It’s made up the difference by importing from Iraq and Russia.

China sticks to Iranian oil imports as Europeans bail out under US pressure

Turkey was expected to follow the US lead, but a recent diplomatic rift with the Trump Administration and a faltering economy may encourage Ankara to maintain access to Iranian oil, which it can import cheaply. Iran is a major source for Turkey, which like India relies heavily on energy imports: in the first six months of 2018 Iran supplied 49 percent of Turkish oil imports.

During the August 1-16 period, Iran’s flow to Europe increased from 465, 450 bpd to 631,814 bpd. Reports had indicated that European purchases would plummet this summer, as importers shied away from Iran in order to avoid US secondary sanctions. Along with India, Europe has contributed the most to Iran’s resurgent oil exports after sanctions were lifted in January 2016. Purchases fell to about 415,000 bpd earlier this year, before jumping back in August.

The EU has shown an unwillingness to go along with the Trump Administration’s policy. It has attempted to keep the July 2015 nuclear deal alive and hopes to retain commercial ties with Iran even as US sanctions go into effect.

But while European governments have resisted the US campaign to isolate Iran, European refiners began to wind down purchases earlier this summer. European energy companies like Total SA have walked away from investing in Iran, and while European cooperation with the sanctions regime won’t be on the same level as 2012-2015 (when both the EU and the US supported imposing sanctions), it will likely prove strong enough to cut into European purchases of Iranian supply.

Read more on Oilprice.com: Texas oil producers: Trade war puts US oil gas sector at risk

Again, the question is: will the US succeed in pushing Iran’s exports to “zero?” Probably not, though it will come pretty close. If Chinese imports hold steady, India and Turkey reduce to 50 percent of the pre-sanctions level and Europe cuts about the same, Iran’s exports will fall to less than 1 million bpd. Production will be diverted to floating storage, as it was in 2012-2015, but Iranian earnings from oil exports will be significantly depressed. Rising prices may mitigate some of the damage, but the impact on Iran’s already-shaky economic system will be severe.

This article was originally published on Oilprice.com

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/437040-us-iranian-oil-exports-zero/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS