Friday, November 26, 2021Rabia II 21, 1443 AH

BUSINESSGULF TIMES Supply-chain crisis only

getting worse with China’s 7-week port quarantine

LINGERING WOES: Page 4

Saudi ‘Neom’ plans to expand port to rival region’s biggest

AMBITIOUS PROJECT : Page 2

Qatar-based Global Carbon Council highlights climate solutions at COP26Qatar-based Global Carbon

Council (GCC) has successfully concluded its participation at

the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in Glasgow earlier this month.

GCC is Mena region’s fi rst voluntary carbon off setting programme that is expected to issue more than 20mn car-bon credits by 2022.

Representing GCC programme’s senior leadership, a delegation from the operations team joined the event with technical presentations, semi-nars and panel discussions about carbon off setting and carbon fi nance among other topics addressing climate change.

Leading the team at the event was GCC programme’s president, Dr Yousef Alhorr. Introducing the pro-gramme to a multidisciplinary audi-ence from international organisations attending COP26, Dr Alhorr said, “In the beginning around 2016, the idea and purpose behind GCC’s inception was to assist Mena region through capacity building, developing project level MRV and bringing the ecosystem to Mena to operate carbon market in-struments on ground.

“Now with CORSIA and ICROA ac-creditation of the GCC programme, we have launched it globally. GCC pro-gramme is rapidly growing and we aim

to contribute at much higher scale by delivering high-quality and integrity projects in the coming years.”

At COP26, UNFCCC ActionHub highlighted global initiatives that have made remarkable contribution through climate change mitigation ini-tiatives. Among these select initiatives was GCC. The programme was select-ed by UNFCCC to showcase its eff orts in catalysing sustainable development projects in Mena region.

As part of IETA BusinessHub, GCC’s operations team presented the programme’s upcoming innova-tive green fi nance initiative which is developed to support project owners in their endeavour to contribute to the eff orts of GHG emissions reduc-tion. GCC’s proposed fi nance facil-ity, highlighted at IETA BusinessHub, can catalyse innovation in sustainable technologies.

Expanding the reach of the GCC

programme, its operations team also engaged in a panel discussion at the Turkey Pavilion, where members dis-cussed how the programme is assisting international organisations to off set their unavoidable carbon emissions while also supporting the development of emission reduction projects and catalysing climate actions.

At Qatar Pavilion, GCC representa-tives underscored ways in which the programme can support Qatar Na-

tional Climate Change Action Plan 2030 in meeting the nation’s target to reduce 25% greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

GCC programme is an affi liate of the Gulf Organisation for Research & De-velopment (GORD). It facilitates global stakeholders in implementing climate actions through a voluntary carbon off setting programme developed with overall purpose is to contribute to achieve Paris Agreement objective of

limiting global warming to 1.5°C by developing relevant standards and framework and by providing price sig-nal to the market to catalyse, enhance and leverage climate change mitiga-tion fi nance globally and especially for Mena region, which has largely remained under-represented in using carbon market instruments to speed up climate actions.

GCC credits will be used for off set-ting host country emissions linked with Football World Cup Qatar 2022.

With more than 55 GHG reduction projects submitted so far, GCC pro-gramme is expected to reach up to 120 projects in the fi rst quarter of 2022. The existing projects submitted have a potential to generate more than 7mn carbon credits issuances per year.

With GCC dealing in carbon off sets benefi ting a wide range of GHG reduc-tion projects; it is among eight inter-national programs that are eligible to supply carbon credits to international airlines to meet their carbon neutral growth.

In the global south, GCC is the only international programme fully approved by Carbon Off setting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) of United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organisa-tion (ICAO). GCC is also accredited by ICROA.

IIA Qatar board members and Arab leaders attend workshop with IIA global presidentMembers of the Institute of the Internal Auditors (IIA) Qatar board and Arab leaders have recently attended a workshop on the new strategic goals for the IIA and how to align and operationalise together across the global IIA network.The session, which provided in-depth discussions, deliber-ations, feedback, and clarifications, served as an overview of the institute’s roadmap for the future. “The world is changing and we must upskill the entire profession. The IIA is announcing a new strategy, develop-ing new standards, and introducing a new framework to ensure that our profession is evolving with times, said Anthony Pugliese, president and CEO of IIA Global. More than 15 audit leaders from nine countries from the Middle East participated, including IIA Doha Chapter board members Rajeswar Sundaresan and Rashid al-Rashdi.Pugliese said, “We see a bright future for a vital and grow-ing internal audit profession.” He also discussed macro trends underway, how to move associations forward, and the internal audit view of top risks. Internal audit purpose, vision, and six strategic goals were explained in terms of ‘Where are we now? Where do we

want to go? How will we get there, and how will we meas-ure success?’ The 2021 strategic planning timeline for key milestones indicated an action plan for implementation, he said.“The IIA Chapters’ engagement to support local alignment with the global strategic plan was a key aspect of training. Regional leaders presented their unique challenges with the respective chapter’s readiness and support needed to achieve. The Qatar Chapter always represented important interna-tional and regional events as prominent contributors to the internal audit profession. A special thanks to IIA-UAE and its chairman, Abdulqader Obied Ali, for organising this event,” said Sundaresan.Pugliese visited the UAE to address the ‘10th Chief Audit Executive Conference 2021’, which was held under the theme “Beyond All Barriers.” The conference was held face-to-face with high calibre speakers with the most current topics, such as ESG audit, intelligent automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital transforma-tion, auditor to a prosecutor, robotic process automation, fintex, and audit 2050, among others.

QSE closes fl at after 6-day losing streakBy Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

The Qatar Stock Exchange yesterday remained almost fl at, after a six-day bearish spell, despite buying inter-

ests at the real estate and banking counters.The foreign individuals were increas-

ingly net buyers as the 20-stock Qatar In-dex settled at 11,790.98 points, although it touched an intraday high of 11,823 points.

The local retail investors continued to be net sellers but with lesser intensity in the market, whose year-to-date gains were at 12.98%.

The Gulf individuals turned net buyers, albeit at lower levels, in the bourse, which saw more than 54% of the traded constitu-ents in the red.

The domestic institutions turned net profi t takers in the market, whose capi-talisation saw QR22mn or 0.03% dip to QR679.91bn, mainly on microcap seg-ments.

The industrials and banking sectors to-gether constituted more than 62% of the total trading volume yesterday.

The overall trade turnover grew amidst lower volumes in the main market, which saw as many as 112,500 sovereign bonds worth QR1.13mn across two transactions.

The Arab individuals were seen net profi t takers in the market, which saw a total of 56,128 exchange traded funds (Masraf Al Rayan-sponsored QATR and Doha Bank-sponsored QETF) valued at QR591,425 trade across two deals.

The Total Return Index was up 0.01% to 23,340.95 points and the Al Rayan Is-lamic Index (Price) by 0.03% to 2,619.68

points; while the All Share Index was fl at at 3,734.84 points.

The real estate sector index gained 0.46%, banks and fi nancial services (0.12%) and insurance (0.03%); while consumer goods and services fell 0.48%, telecom (0.41%), industrials (0.16%) and transport (0.02%).

Major movers in the main market in-cluded Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Masraf Al Rayan, Barwa, Milaha, Qatar Islamic Insurance and Qatar National Ce-ment. In the venture market, Mekdam Holding shares gained.

Nevertheless, Investment Holding Group, Aamal Company, Doha Bank, Gulf International Services, Qatar Oman Investment, Medicare Group, Woqod, Widam Food, Qamco, Mesaieed Petro-chemical Holding, Ooredoo and Nakilat were among the losers in the main market.

In the junior bourse, Al Faleh Educa-tional Holding saw its shares depreciate in value.

The foreign funds turned net buyers to the tune of QR8.8mn compared with net sellers of QR18.83mn on November 24.

The foreign individuals’ net buying in-creased markedly to QR1.86mn against QR0.08mn the previous day.

The Gulf individuals were net buyers to the extent of QR0.14mn compared with net sellers of QR0.54mn on Wednesday.

The local retail investors’ net selling declined noticeably to QR5.78mn against QR10.87mn on November 24.

However, the domestic funds turned net sellers to the tune of QR4.64mn compared with net buyers of QR17.33mn the previous day.

The Arab individuals were net sellers to

the extent of QR1.4mn against net buyers of QR7.29mn on Wednesday.

The Gulf institutions’ net buying weak-ened perceptibly to QR1.03mn compared to QR5.52mn on November 24.

The Arab institutions had no major net exposure against net buyers of QR0.03mn the previous day.

Total trade volume in the main market fell 20% to 77.06mn shares, while value rose 2% to QR300.04mn despite 3% lower transactions at 7,308.

The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 54% to 2.12mn equities and value by 26% to QR14.02mn, whereas deals were up 8% to 419.

The market witnessed a 42% plunge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 1.41mn stocks, 23% in value to QR8.54mn and 61% in transactions to 286.

The industrials sector’s trade volume tanked 31% to 25.92mn shares, value by 37% to QR51.71mn and deals by 20% to 1,555.

The banks and fi nancial services sec-tor saw a 22% shrinkage in trade volume to 22.24mn equities but on a 29% jump in value to QR184.42mn and 19% in transac-tions to 3,932.

The insurance sector’s trade volume shrank 12% to 0.5mn stocks, value by 28% to QR1.63mn and deals by 28% to 67.

There was a 9% contraction in the con-sumer goods and services sector’s trade volume to 12.52mn shares and 1% in value to QR22.82mn but on 3% expansion in transactions to 678.

However, the real estate sector’s trade volume shot up 44% to 12.35mn equities and value by 33% to QR16.9mn; whereas deals were down 9% to 371.

IIA regional leaders during the event.

Representing GCC programme’s senior leadership, a delegation from the operations team joined the event with technical presentations, seminars and panel discussions about carbon off setting and carbon fi nance among other topics addressing climate change

BUSINESSGulf Times Friday, November 26, 20212

Total and Eni ready mega energy projects in LibyaBloombergTripoli

France’s TotalEnergies SE and Italy’s Eni SpA said they were ready to invest billions of dollars in Libya as the Opec nation emerges from a decade of conflict and civil war.“I want to contribute to Libya’s comeback,” TotalEnergies’ chief executive off icer Patrick Pouyanne said on Monday at an energy conference in the capital, Tripoli. “Some may see more boldness than wisdom in TotalEnergies’ decision to partner with Libya. I don’t. Where they see risks, I see the opportunities.”The Paris-based firm will put $2bn into Libya’s Waha oil project, which will boost production by around 100,000 barrels a day, he said. It will also work to raise output at the Mabruk field and help build 500 megawatts of solar power to feed the local grid.Libya will be a vital source of supply for global petroleum markets over the next decade, Pouyanne said.The nation contains Africa’s biggest oil reserves but has been mired in fighting for

much of the period since 2011, when leader Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an upris-ing. Warring sides struck a truce in mid-2020, leading to more stability and enabling crude output to rise from barely anything to around 1.1mn barrels a day.The government has said it needs plenty of foreign investment to sustain that level of output, let alone reach its target of between 2mn and 2.5mn barrels per day within six years.The two-day conference was the first prominent energy forum in Libya for over 10 years. Pouyanne and Eni’s chief operating off icer, Alessandro Puliti, were the highest-profile foreign executives to attend on the first day.Eni will push ahead with oil, natural-gas and solar projects, according to Puliti.“Libya has significant remaining oil and gas potential,” he said. “Eni is ready to support that development.”The Italian company was one of the first firms to explore in Libya and struck oil there in the late 1950s. It currently pumps about 400,000 barrels a day of oil and gas, mak-ing it the biggest foreign energy company in the country, Puliti said.

Saudi ‘Neom’ plans to expand port to rival the region’s biggestBloombergRiyadh

Saudi Arabia’s high-tech “Neom” mega-project plans to expand a tiny lo-

cal port into a trade and manu-facturing hub near the Suez Canal that offi cials say will compete with the biggest facili-ties in the Middle East.

The proposal is the latest eye-catching announcement by Neom, with progress on the ground so far limited to earth-works. About 12% of global trade fl ows through the Suez Canal.

The port will anchor an in-dustrial city that Neom an-nounced last week called Oxa-gon, Vishal Wanchoo, Oxagon’s chief executive, said in an in-terview. An existing port near the Red Sea town of Dhiba will be transformed to handle a con-tainer capacity of 3.5mn to 4mn tonnes equivalent units (TEUs) by 2030, he said.

The project could eventually serve Neom’s commercial ten-ants as well as the broader Gulf region, Jordan and Iraq, he said. Capacity might extend up to 9mn TEUs depending on Oxa-gon’s growth, he added.

Dubai’s Jebel Ali port, the re-gion’s largest, has capacity of more than 19mn TEUs.

“We will develop a state-of-

the-art port and supply chain system and we have a real ad-vantage because we’re starting as a greenfi eld,” said Wanchoo, a former GE executive who joined Neom this year.

Announced in 2017, Neom is the crown jewel of Prince Mo-hamed bin Salman’s programme to overhaul the economy of the

world’s largest oil exporter. His plan to turn the remote region on the kingdom’s northwest coast into a robot-driven tech hub encapsulates the major el-ements of his so-called “Vision 2030” to diversify away from crude, loosen social restrictions and boost investment.

But the project has stirred

controversy, including scepti-cism about its feasibility after some previous eff orts to build economic free zones struggled to take off .

Oxagon – which offi cials say will eventually include a com-plex that “fl oats” on the sea – illustrates those ambitions and challenges.

The 50-square-kilometre (19-square-mile) area is expect-ed to house 80,000 to 90,000 residents and 40 to 50 compa-nies by 2030, Wanchoo said. He did not disclose planned spend-ing on the project, which com-bines government and private-sector investment.

The fi rst phase of construc-tion, until 2025, will focus on the segment to be built on land, he said, with the fl oating area still in the “early phases of de-sign.”

“We wanted to look ahead and say with all of the climate change that’s occurring and the rising of the sea levels, could we build a modern day Venice,” he said – “a fl oating city that doesn’t have to deal with rising sea levels, or deals with it be-cause of the way it’s designed.”

Neom is looking at connect-ing Oxagon’s port with north-eastern Saudi Arabia and the broader region fi rst by road transport and later by rail, he said. Port operations with con-tainer capability will start in mid-2022 and expand from there, he said.

The project would rival the Red Sea city of Jeddah’s port in size. Between Jeddah and Oxagon, the kingdom is also expanding a facility called King Abdullah Port, which aims to reach a capacity of 25mn TEUs.

Why consumers are fighting tech for ‘right to repair’By Clara Hernanz Lizarraga

Some of us are old enough to remember the days when you could easily swap out a dud battery in your flip phone. Nowadays, repairing virtually any electronic device – from a smartphone to a gaming console, microwave oven or fan – can cost more than buying a new one. Manufacturers make it hard for technicians to get inside their products, source parts, or update software. So devices are just thrown away, generating potentially hazardous waste and forcing consumers to buy new items whose production further taxes the environment. The industry has long resisted calls from campaign groups for a “right to repair” gadgets. However, the pressure appears to be paying off for some consumers after Apple Inc said it will begin making parts and tools available for users to fix their phones.

1. What’s behind the right to repair movement?

Since the first electronic goods emerged in the 1950s, buyers have sought to keep them going by repairing or replacing broken parts. Today, it’s clear that many products are designed to be unfixable. Manufacturers use non-standard screws, seal devices with

glue or solder parts together unnecessarily, making it virtually impossible to replace individual components. The growing complexity of gadgets means technicians need dedicated manuals and tools that are hard to access or unavailable to the public. Some manufacturers use software to ensure only their own parts work. They’ve even been accused of updating software in products to deliberately impair performance with age. Apple, which says it engineers “each software release to make sure it runs beautifully on all supported devices,” nevertheless has been a particular focus of grievance.

2. What are the complaints about Apple?

Most smartphones have unique components, so the only way to get spare parts is via their maker. Apple, like other tech firms, doesn’t usually share spares with repair shops it hasn’t approved. Critics say this has kept the cost of fixing its products artificially high. When other workshops do switch out batteries or screens, users are plagued by glitches and error messages. Apple says unverified parts can lead to poor performance and serious safety issues. But the tech giant has made some concessions in recent years. In 2019, it launched a programme allowing third parties to fix devices no longer under warranty, and began training

more than 265,000 repair technicians. Then in November, it announced plans to supply spares so that iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 owners can fix their display, battery and camera. Right-to-repair campaigners say they’re waiting to see the price of the new parts, as cost is still the main reason why many users opt to replace their phones instead of mending them.

3. What’s at stake?

Discarded electronic goods generated an estimated 53.6mn tonnes of waste in 2019, and only 17% of that was properly recycled. This trash contains heavy metals and compounds including arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium, which if not disposed of appropriately can expose communities to the risk of cancer, birth defects and mutations. Moreover, the production and shipment of new devices to replace unfixable ones, not to mention the mining of the necessary raw materials, burns energy, often resulting in the emission of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. Researchers estimated in a 2017 study that the production of a smartphone, for example, emits from 40 to 80 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent, about the same as driving the typical passenger car as many as 200 miles (320km). As more people around the world purchase cellphones and other electronic devices, emissions from

their production multiply. The authors of the 2017 study noted that in the previous 50 years, consumption of electronic devices grew sixfold though the world’s population only doubled.

4. How are tech companies resisting the right to repair?

Companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Tesla Inc have spent heavily on lobbyists to make a case that right-to-repair laws would expose industry secrets, give third parties access to sensitive information, and put the safety and security of consumers at risk. When Apple representatives fought a right to repair bill in Nebraska in 2017, they told lawmakers it would turn the state into a hub for hackers. Critics say the industry opposes a free market in repairs because it would lower prices for this work and encourage more people to get their gadgets fixed, hammering sales of new ones.

5. What are governments doing?

Laws enacted in the European Union and the UK are forcing makers of washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators and TVs to ensure parts are replaceable with common tools that consumers can use easily. The EU is looking into regulating mobile phones, tablets and computers. In France, manufacturers must provide a “repairability score” for some

electronic devices. Apple, for instance, gave its iPhone 12 Pro Max, released in late 2020, a six on a scale of zero to 10. In the US, President Joe Biden asked federal off icials to introduce measures limiting manufacturers from barring self- or third-party repairs of their products. Several US states considered right-to-repair bills in 2021, but many were voted down or dismissed, according to consumer groups tracking the proposals.

6. Are the new measures making a diff erence?

It’s early days. In the UK, manufacturers have a two-year grace period to comply. The rules have limitations. Consumer rights advocates complain that they only benefit professional repairers as they don’t guarantee the right to repair for consumers and not-for-profit organisations. Also, the current legislative push focuses on physical components, not software. Replacing a faulty part may be of no use if your device also needs a software update. The regulations also skirt around a practice among manufacturers of selling some parts only as a bundled group, which keeps repair costs high. For example, a consumer looking to replace drum bearings in a washing machine may have to replace the whole drum, making the repair almost as expensive as a new machine.

Bloomberg QuickTake Q&A

Supercharged Turkish stocks rally not everything it seemsReutersIstanbul/London

The lira’s plunge has propelled Turkey’s exporter-dominat-ed stock market to its best

month in 12 years, but for foreign investors, who have just started dip-ping their toes in again, it’s a very diff erent story.

The stock rally, taking in exporters such as steel producer Iskenderun Demir (Isdemir) and glass maker Sısecam, has seen Istanbul’s $37bn main bourse soar nearly 20% in No-vember, which is almost as much as the lira has slumped.

Emerging economy stock markets often surge when their economies runs into trouble because locals see equities as a relatively safe asset as companies either ramp up prices to off set spiralling infl ation or benefi t from a weaker domestic currency if

they export overseas. Big money in-ternational investors are in the op-posite situation though.

They usually have to convert whatever they hold back into dollars or another major currency, meaning they see a huge fall in value.

MSCI’s dollar-denominated in-dex of Turkish shares, for example, slumped 9% during Tuesday’s lira rout, by which time it was down 20% this month and 30% since the start of the year.

The currency slide – triggered by an unorthodox policy of slashing interest rates, in the hope of boost-ing the economy and jobs, while infl ation hovers near 20% – has at least left Turkish shares historically cheap and for some investors, a use-ful hedge against losses elsewhere.

“The main reason for all-time highs in lira terms is the sharp (lira) depreciation...and...export-ing companies’ spectacular stock

returns,” said Doruk Ozaner, fund manager at Istanbul Portfoy. “When we look at the stock market in dollar terms (it) is very cheap historically,” Ozaner added.

Refi nitv IBES data shows the MSCI Turkey Index’s dollar-de-nominated price-earnings (PE) ra-tio now stands at 5.4, well below its equivalent for emerging market peers at nearly 13.

Many Turkish exporters are ben-efi ting from the lira’s slump coupled with the world economy’s bounce-back this year from the initial Cov-id-19 shock.

Isdemir reported that third-quarter net profi t leapt 657% from a year earlier to 3bn lira ($242.09mn), while Sisecam’s third-quarter profi t of 1.35bn lira beat expectations by 6.5%.

It hasn’t gone unnoticed.Foreign investors bought $384mn

worth of Turkish stocks in the seven

days ending November 19, after re-cording their biggest weekly infl ow in a year with $480mn as of No-vember 12, according to central bank data.

Total net transactions of foreign investors stood at $1.14bn in the fi rst three weeks of the month.

“Since foreign investors are get-ting cheap lira in the swap market, they borrow and take positions in the market. I believe, the central bank won’t hike rates and will con-tinue with rate cuts,” Ozaner said.

The damage done by more than a decade of lira weakness – Tur-key’s currency has nosedived nearly 90% since 2011 – is clearly evident though.

Bank for International Settle-ments data shows that nearly 20% of Turkish companies’ revenues were being used just to make interest payments at the end of March.

Back in 2011 it was just 7.4%.

A road sign sits beside a desert highway indicating the distance to the bay at Ras Hameed, Saudi Arabia (file). It’s here that Saudi Arabia plans Neom, a city from scratch that will be bigger than Dubai and have more robots than humans.

Zad Holding Co

Widam Food Co

Vodafone Qatar

United Development Co

Salam International Investme

Qatar & Oman Investment Co

Qatar Navigation

Qatar National Cement Co

Qatar National Bank

Qlm Life & Medical Insurance

Qatar Islamic Insurance Grou

Qatar Industrial Manufactur

Qatar International Islamic

Qatari Investors Group

Qatar Islamic Bank

Qatar Gas Transport(Nakilat)

Qatar General Insurance & Re

Qatar German Co For Medical

Qatar Fuel Qsc

Qatar First Bank

Qatar Electricity & Water Co

Qatar Exchange Index Etf

Qatar Cinema & Film Distrib

Al Rayan Qatar Etf

Qatar Insurance Co

Qatar Aluminum Manufacturing

Ooredoo Qpsc

Alijarah Holding Company Qps

Mazaya Real Estate Developme

Mesaieed Petrochemical Holdi

Al Meera Consumer Goods Co

Medicare Group

Mannai Corporation Qsc

Masraf Al Rayan

Al Khalij Commercial Bank

Industries Qatar

Inma Holding Company

Investment Holding Group

Gulf Warehousing Company

Gulf International Services

Al Faleh Education Holding

Ezdan Holding Group

Doha Insurance Co

Doha Bank Qpsc

Dlala Holding

Commercial Bank Psqc

Barwa Real Estate Co

Baladna

Al Khaleej Takaful Group

Aamal Co

Al Ahli Bank

15.993.811.631.540.920.917.605.1320.605.007.783.159.602.4018.143.282.083.2418.261.8216.9011.473.822.602.451.947.021.031.032.2119.248.424.704.802.2415.424.571.284.821.901.731.541.953.041.496.643.191.534.191.103.98

0.00-0.76-0.370.19-0.22-0.870.840.610.000.000.781.38-0.17-0.290.00-0.55-0.240.06-0.710.00-0.060.000.000.270.04-0.61-0.43-0.290.00-0.76-0.05-0.82-0.231.050.000.060.07-1.39-0.43-1.25-0.920.070.05-0.91-0.270.210.88-0.26-0.36-1.350.00

550 45,123 247,974 1,998,879 6,929,608 1,368,403 1,572,139 153,846 4,870,023 59,716 2,000 25,869 898,461 620,520 1,247,827 366,923 1,450 2,337,518 129,973 447,080 100,341 50,168 - 6,050 273,842 5,063,218 1,157,172 1,943,912 7,684,412 4,337,551 63,407 26,077 102,055 6,437,431 - 301,485 29,124 8,212,701 182,922 6,341,341 142,244 1,564,113 20,000 3,541,856 510,717 934,439 1,103,390 2,882,963 143,231 761,967 15,000

QSE MARKET WATCH

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

BUSINESS3Gulf Times

Friday, November 26, 2021

Dyson dumps Malaysian supplier ATA over labour concernsReutersKuala Lumpur

High-tech home appliance maker Dyson Ltd told Reuters it had cut ties with supplier ATA IMS Bhd following an audit of the Malaysian company’s labour practices and allegations by a whistleblower, sending ATA shares plunging.ATA, which is already being investigated by the United States over forced labour allegations, confirmed Dyson has terminated its contracts and that it has been in talks with its customer over the audit findings.It had previously denied allegations of labour abuse.According to ATA, Dyson accounts for almost 80% of its revenue.The termination is also a significant blow for Malaysia, a major electronics manufacturing hub that has faced scrutiny this year over claims migrant workers are being subjected to abusive working and living conditions.Dyson, privately owned by British billionaire James Dyson, said it received the results of an audit of working conditions at ATA in early October.It said it had also learned in September about allegations from a whistleblower about “unacceptable actions” by ATA staff and had commissioned a law firm to investigate those claims.“Despite intense engagement over the past six weeks, we have not seen suff icient progress and have already removed some production lines,” Singapore-headquartered Dyson said in response to questions from Reuters. “We have now terminated our relationship with six months’ of contractual notice. We hope this gives ATA the impetus to improve, and enables an orderly withdrawal in the interests of the workers that they employ.”Dyson’s comments came after being contacted by Reuters about claims by workers, including a whistleblower, about working conditions at ATA.In interviews with Reuters, seven current and former ATA employees said they had worked overtime hours in excess of limits under Malaysian law and paid recruitment fees in their home countries to labour brokers, a practice activists have criticised as a form of debt bondage.

China non-committal on US ‘drop in the ocean’ oil release China says it will release oil reserves according to its needs Opec+ meets on December 2; no sign of change in tactics Biden under pressure as inflation picks up Oil release a ‘drop in the ocean’: Goldman Sachs

ReutersBeijing

China, the world’s largest crude import-er, was non-committal about whether it will release oil from its reserves as

requested by Washington, while Opec sources said the US action has not made the producer group change course.

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden’s ad-ministration announced plans to release mil-lions of barrels of oil from strategic reserves in co-ordination with other large consuming na-tions, including China, India and Japan, to try to cool prices.

The United States has made the largest com-mitment for a reserves release at 50mn barrels of pre-approved sales along with loans to the market, but without China, the action would have less impact.

There was no further announcement from Beijing on Thursday after China on Wednesday said it was working on its own reserves release, confi rming a Reuters report last week that China would release oil according to its needs.

On Tuesday, Biden had told a briefi ng China

“may do more”. Rumours of co-ordinated ac-tion drove crude prices lower ahead of the US announcement, but the international market rose more than 3% on Tuesday as Washington confi rmed it would tap its strategic reserve and the market lacked clarity on China’s inten-tions.

The market is also keen to see Opec’s next move as Washington’s announcement raised speculation that the Organization of the Pe-troleum Exporting Countries and allies, col-

lectively known as Opec+, might respond.However, three sources told Reuters the

group was not considering pausing its current agreement to boost output by 400,000 bar-rels per day every month, a rate considered too slow by some consumer nations.

Fuel demand collapsed early in the pandem-ic but has resurged this year, and oil prices have climbed, stoking wider infl ation.

Biden, facing low approval ratings ahead of next year’s congressional elections, was frus-

trated after Opec+ shrugged off his repeated requests to pump more oil.

Retail US gasoline prices are up more than 60% in the last year, the fastest rate of increase since 2000.

On Thursday, Brent crude slipped 31 cents to $81.94 a barrel by 1000 GMT.

“The market seems to believe in Opec+ to keep oil balances tight more than it believes in the transitory nature of an SPR release,” said Rystad Senior Oil Markets Analyst Louise Dickson on Wednesday.

Opec+, which includes Saudi Arabia and other US allies in the Gulf as well as Russia, meets again on December 2 to discuss policy.

The group is monitoring whether oil markets are balanced, Iraq’s oil minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said on Wednesday, saying the group needs to study the latest data before making decisions about supply.

Already the producer nations are struggling to pump enough oil to meet existing targets and they are also concerned a resurgence of Cov-id-19 cases could again drive down demand.

Washington’s eff ort to team up with major Asian economies to lower energy prices was a warning to Opec+ to control crude prices that are up more than 50% so far this year.

In the past, multi-country releases from reserves have been coordinated by the Inter-national Energy Agency (IEA), a Paris-based watchdog.

The IEA does not intervene to infl uence prices, but the head of the agency said on Wednesday some producers have been re-stricting supply too much.

Reserves sale may give US oil an edge over Opec+ crude in AsiaBloombergSingapore

The US move to shoulder the bulk of oil sales in a joint reserves release is making its crude cheaper, bringing it closer to being viable for Asian custom-ers to opt for American cargoes over Middle Eastern supplies.The 50mn release announced by President Joe

Biden is weighing on West Texas Intermediate. The US benchmark is falling against Brent and Persian Gulf markers such as Dubai and Murban since the announcement of the joint sales, which also involve China, Japan, South Korea, India and the UK.The level of co-operation between major oil buyers is unprecedented in a market that’s dominated by the Opec+ alliance, and the US is in a unique position because it’s a big producer and

consumer. Buyers have historically had little say in the supply and cost of crude, which is dictated by sellers via monthly sales and off icial prices.The January contract for WTI benchmark slipped to more than $4 a barrel below Murban crude after the coordinated reserve release, data com-piled by Bloomberg show. That’s a much wider discount compared with early November. The US marker also fell sharply against global benchmark Brent crude.

The price of physical WTI Midland cargoes delivered into Asia is now slightly above that of Murban from the United Arab Emirates, with the arbitrage trade becoming closer to being profitable, according to traders and an analyst. Opec+ could also see more competition for its high-sulphur crudes. The majority of the SPR oil from the US is likely to be medium-sour grades, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd.

Oil and gas tanks are seen at an oil warehouse at a port in Zhuhai, China (file). China, the world’s largest crude importer, was non-committal about whether it will release oil from its reserves as requested by Washington, while Opec sources said the US action has not made the producer group change course.

Friday, November 26, 2021

BUSINESSGULF TIMES

Supply-chain crisis only getting worse with China 7-week port quarantineBloombergLondon

China’s increasingly extreme Covid Zero policies are standing in the way of a full recovery for the shipping industry

and prolonging a crisis that’s snarled ports and emptied shelves worldwide.

In its attempts to keep the virus out, China’s continued to prohibit crew changes for foreign crew and recently imposed as much as a seven-week mandatory quarantine for returning Chi-nese seafarers. Even vessels that have refreshed their crew elsewhere have to wait two weeks before they’re allowed to port in China.

To comply, shipowners and managers have had to reroute ships, delaying shipments and crew changes, adding to the supply chain crisis.

“China’s restrictions cause knock-on ef-fects,” said Guy Platten, the secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping, which represents shipowners and operators. “Any re-strictions to ship operations have an accumula-tive impact on the supply chain and cause real disruptions.”

The world’s biggest exporter, China is a key hub for the shipping industry. It is also the last country to hew to a Covid Zero policy, with in-creasingly radical measures. In recent weeks, authorities locked in 34,000 people at Shang-hai Disneyland for mandatory testing. A Beijing school held primary school children overnight after a teacher tested positive. The defi nition of “close contact” now extends to people sepa-rated by as much as a kilometre.

Around the world, factories, shipping and consumers are still adjusting for a pandemic that’s not going anywhere. Supply shortages are showing signs of easing in the US but wors-ening in the UK. Some ports in Asia are getting less congested, but in California, loaded vessels are still piling up.

Ship managers and operators are calling for

China to relax its restrictions and governments to prioritise seafarers and shipping, or risk con-tinued disruptions that may go deeper as mari-ners bear the brunt of the toll.

The latest restrictions at China’s ports tar-get Chinese crew, requiring them to quarantine for three weeks before their return to China, then another two weeks at the port of arrival, and two more weeks in their province before they can reunite with their families, according to Terence Zhao, managing director of Singhai Marine Services, one of the biggest Chinese crew supply agents.

“The ports’ main focus is on quarantine and health matters,” he said at an online industry

forum Monday. “The regulations change very often, depending on the local Covid situation.”

Even seafarers with emergency medical needs aren’t allowed to get care in China, ship managers said. An Anglo-Eastern chief offi cer with a severe tooth abscess couldn’t get off his vessel for treatment. The ship had to divert to South Korea before he could see a dentist.

“China is a major issue,” said Bjorn Hojgaard, chief executive offi cer of ship manager Anglo-Eastern Univan Group and the chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association. “They are doing a good job at keeping Covid at bay but at the cost of not letting seafarers in – even Chinese seafarers sometimes can’t get back into China.”

Operating in China has become challenging even for the biggest operators, including Cargill Inc.

“We’ve had vessels that ran into demurrage” – late fees – “we’ve had instances where we had to deviate, either before we call China, or after,” said Eman Abdalla, global operations & supply chain director at Cargill. “There are instances where the delays are within hours, but there are also instances where the delays could go on to days.”

Euronav NV, one of the world’s largest own-ers of oil supertankers, has spent an estimated $6mn handling disruptions related to the crew change crisis, including the likes of deviations, quarantines and higher travel costs.

“In the past, it was pretty nice to do crew ro-tation when we were in China,” said chief exec-utive offi cer Hugo De Stoop. “And now basically it’s not possible.

The industry has largely absorbed the extra costs with some of the highest container rates on record due to demand, capacity constraints and port congestion. At $9,146 per 40-foot container at the end of the week on November 18, rates have soared six-fold compared to the fi ve-year average through 2019. Rates for oil tankers and bulk carriers have not risen nearly as much.

Ship owners and operators also acknowledge that they are managing China’s restrictions by shifting the burden to the workers on board. Chinese authorities won’t allow more than three Chinese seafarers on a fl ight to the main-land, so their return home can be stretched to months after they’ve signed off from vessels, said Hojgaard.

Anglo-Eastern said as of this week, 555 out of its 16,000 active crew are overdue for relief, and nearly 60 have been on ships for more than 11 months, the maximum mariners are allowed by international law to be on board. “We are trying our best to get them off but can’t,” said Hojgaard.

EU adds more pieces to its ‘elusive’ capital market jigsawReutersLondon

The European Union has moved a step closer to its vision of creating a single capital market across the bloc, a slow moving process but one that is

chipping further away at Britain’s status as Europe’s investment banker.

The bloc fi rst began an ambitious — but tortuous — process of ultimately creating a single EU securities market in 2015.

Creating a single market should make it easier for companies to issue and bonds and shares, enabling them to spread risk and be less reliant on just bank loans for funding — the risks of which were highlighted during the eurozone crisis.

On Thursday, the EU set out proposals to introduce a single ‘consolidated’ set of prices for stocks and bonds listed across the EU and a single portal for corporate information — akin to Wall Street’s Edgar system — analysts say the vision will gain more traction.

“Those two for me are key to setting up the whole CMU (capital markets union) eff ort and when that’s in place you will see a real push to further it.

Onwards and upwards,” said Mairead McGuinness, the EU’s fi nancial services chief.

The initial plans for a capital markets union were set

out in 2015 by McGuinness’ then British predecessor Jonathan Hill to much fanfare, promising the building blocs would be in place by 2019.

Follow-up measures two years later raised expec-tations further, but an EU offi cial acknowledged that there remains a perception that CMU is an ‘elusive’ goal.

“Perhaps the mistake of the original version of capital markets union was that it gave the impres-sion that CMU was a legislative project that could be ‘completed’ by passing lots of new regulations,” said William Wright, head of New Financial, a London-based think tank that does research on European capital markets.

“The current version may look less ambitious but is taking a more practical and tangible approach,” Wright said.

The EU capital market is still little more than a quar-ter as deep as that of the United States, relative to GDP, with Britain’s twice as deep as the bloc, according to New Financial fi gures.

Sander Schol, a former banker who is head of EU public aff airs at consultants Hanbury Strategy, said the less controversial CMU measures have been approved previously and Brussels’ latest proposals tackle more diffi cult issues, though rules on even tougher issues that are crucial, such as harmonising insolvency rules, are still missing.

German economy weaker than expected in third quarterAFPFrankfurt

Germany lowered its growth estimate for the third quarter on Thursday, as clouds gathered over the economy

with the coronavirus pandemic resurging.The federal data agency said the economy

expanded by 1.7% in the July to September period compared to the previous quarter, down 0.1 percentage points from a prelimi-nary fi gure published last month.

“The German economy’s recovery contin-ued through the summer,” Destatis said in a statement.

But growth was decelerating, with the third quarter fi gure easing from 2% posted in the second quarter.

With new curbs imposed again in recent days over record new Covid infections, ex-perts have warned that output in the last three months of the year will be hard hit.

Already, an acute shortage of raw materi-als was crimping growth in Europe’s biggest economy.

Germany’s Bundesbank is now expecting output to be fl at in the fourth quarter.

For the full year, the government forecasts that GDP will come in at 2.6% rather than the 3.5% previously predicted.

Germany announced record coronavirus fatalities and infections Thursday as its to-tal death toll passed 100,000, with its most severe virus wave yet breaking just as a new government prepares to take the reins.

Europe’s largest economy recorded 351 fa-talities in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll since the start of the pandemic to 100,119, according to fi gures from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) health agency.

The weekly incidence rate also hit an all-time high of 419.7 new infections per 100,000 people, the RKI said.

The escalating health crisis poses an im-mediate challenge to the new coalition gov-ernment led by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who is set to take over as chancellor from An-gela Merkel next month.

Seoul, Barbados check into metaverse as governments eye virtual presence

Thomson Reuters FoundationBangkok

The metaverse will soon be a place to not just buy virtual goods and meet avatars, but to also get essential public services, as governments prepare to enter the rapidly expanding digital world despite concerns about privacy and other rights.The city of Seoul and the island nation of Barbados earlier this month said they will enter the metaverse to provide administrative and consular services, respectively.Other cities and countries may follow suit if the technology becomes more mainstream, analysts say.The statements came amid a flurry of an-nouncements from companies including Facebook — now named Meta — saying they would invest in the metaverse, an online realm that uses augmented and virtual reality (VR) to help users interact.“It is in the best interest of governments to know about this universe intimately because the virtual world will replicate life and business,” said Keith Carter, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s School of Computing.

Metaverse — a term first coined in sci-ence fiction — is a combination of the prefix “meta”, meaning beyond, and “universe”.It has been used to describe a range of shared worlds accessed via the internet, from fully-immersive VR spaces to aug-mented reality accessed through devices such as smart glasses.The global metaverse market is expected to reach about $6bn this year and nearly $42bn by 2026, according to research firm Strategy Analytics, helped by increased interest in virtual spaces for work and leisure during the pandemic.There will be new roles for governments in this space where jurisdiction isn’t as clearly defined, said Steve Benford, a professor of computer science at the University of Nottingham.“Cybersecurity, freedom and protection of information, and online safety are issues that governments are already in-terested in, and this list can be expected to grow if and when the metaverse becomes an everyday experience for people,” he said.“Governments are already shaping poli-cies that will impact the metavserse, so arguably they have a duty to be visibly present in it for reasons of accountabil-ity,” said Benford, who co-founded the

Mixed Reality Laboratory at the univer-sity, which studies and creates interactive technologies for daily life.Seoul is the first major city to announce its entry into the metaverse, with the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) building a “metaverse ecosystem for all administrative services regarding the economy, culture, tourism, education and civil complaints”.Metaverse Seoul, a platform for public services, is scheduled to be complete by the end of next year.

A virtual city hall, where citizens can meet avatars of public off icials and file complaints, will be set up in 2023, it said in a statement.Barbados will open what it says will be the world’s first metaverse embassy in the virtual reality platform Decentraland, with embassies on other platforms also planned.“We are a small island nation — this gives us a way to expand our diplomatic foot-print without adding dozens of physical

embassies, which is not feasible for us,” said Gabriel Abed, who is leading the Caribbean nation’s metaverse strategy.“It gives us diplomatic parity with larger nations, and a fully immersive way to showcase our culture and business op-portunities, while being fully in control of our environment,” said Abed, who is also ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.Smaller nations have a lot to gain in the metaverse, he said, noting that Barbados was also quick to embrace a digital cur-rency, like other small nations including Malta, the Bahamas, and El Salvador.“Covid really shook up the world. Who knows when the next pandemic or lockdown will come — we cannot aff ord to not try out new technologies that can help us overcome these limitations,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.While it is unclear whether a full replication of real life is possible in the metaverse, or even how long it will take to build, tech and legal experts are di-vided on who will wield control, and how much cities and national governments can gain.Users are pushing for an open, decentral-ised universe, and it is possible that the metaverse might “eventually become its own constituency or jurisdiction, with its own representatives and civil service,”

said Benford.But governments will have a presence, too, he added.“Where else will the citizens of the metaverse stage a future protest?”Governments may also make the metaverse more inclusive, with Seoul saying it will have “numerous services for the vulnerable, including the disabled”, for their safety and convenience.It is also training older citizens to help navigate the virtual world.But the current technology is not good enough, or cheap enough, so cities “face big costs and no guarantee on returns,” said Tony Matthews, a senior lecturer in urban and environmental planning at Australia’s Griff ith University.“I doubt many cities will be rushing to set up in the metaverse...the opportu-nities right now are limited and very expensive,” he said, noting that people have been quite resistant to VR since it became mainstream a few years ago.When the technology gets good enough to encourage widespread uptake, how-ever, major, permanent virtual cities may emerge with their own economies and markets, he said.In some years, “we might all be as famil-iar with the cities of the metaverse as London, Paris and Tokyo.

Sweden’s Riksbank holds policy unchanged, sees fi rst rate hike at end 2024

Sweden’s central bank left policy unchanged on Thursday, arguing that currently above-target inflation would ease back next year and pencilling in its first rate hike since the Covid-19 pandemic struck for the end of 2024, reports Reuters. The benchmark repo rate has been at zero since the start of 2020 and the Riksbank has been in no hurry to tighten policy despite a rapid recovery from the ef-fects of the pandemic.“If inflation is to be close to the target in the longer term, cost pressures need to increase more permanently. This requires continued support from monetary policy,” the central bank said in a statement.The Riksbank also stuck to plans to maintain its balance sheet through next year before allowing the portfolio to decrease gradually.“While the Bank is in no rush to raise the repo rate, the insertion of a rate hike into the end of its three-year projection period means it is no longer as decidedly dovish,” David Oxley, sen-ior European economist at Capital Economics, said in a note.The Swedish crown strengthened temporar-ily after the decision was published. Central bankers around the world are grappling with the question of whether the currently high pace of inflation is a temporary eff ect of economies restarting after the pandemic, or more long-lasting, and when they should begin to rein in ultra-loose monetary policy.

The global metaverse market is expected to reach about $6bn this year and nearly $42bn by 2026, according to research fi rm Strategy Analytics

Containers stacked at Lianyungang port, in China’s eastern Jiangsu province (file). The world’s biggest exporter, China is a key hub for the shipping industry. It is also the last country to hew to a Covid Zero policy, with increasingly radical measures.