June 10 (Reuters) – Russia and China opened a new cross-border bridge in the far east on Friday which they hope will further boost trade as Moscow reels from sweeping Western sanctions imposed over its actions in Ukraine.
The bridge linking the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk to the Chinese city of Heihe across the Amur river – known in China as Heilongjiang – is just over one kilometre long and cost 19 billion roubles ($342 million), the RIA news agency reported.
Amid a firework display, freight trucks from both ends crossed the two-lane bridge that was festooned with flags in the colours of both countries, video footage of the opening showed.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Russian authorities said the bridge would bring Moscow and Beijing closer together by boosting trade after they announced a “no limits” partnership in February, shortly before President Vladimir Putin sent his forces into Ukraine.
“In today’s divided world, the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe bridge between Russia and China carries a special symbolic meaning,” said Yuri Trutnev, the Kremlin representative in the Russian Far East.
China wants to deepen practical cooperation with Russia in all areas, Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua said at the opening.
Russia’s Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev said the bridge would help boost bilateral annual trade to more than 1 million tonnes of goods.
Flags of China and Russia are displayed in this illustration picture taken March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration
CUTTING JOURNEY TIME
The bridge had been under construction since 2016 and was completed in May 2020 but its opening was delayed by cross-border COVID-19 restrictions, said BTS-MOST, the firm building the bridge on the Russian side.
BTS-MOST said freight traffic on the bridge would shorten the travel distance of Chinese goods to western Russia by 1,500 kilometres (930 miles). Vehicles crossing the bridge must pay a toll of 8,700 roubles ($150), a price that is expected to drop as toll fees begin to offset the cost of construction.
Russia said in April it expected commodity flows with China to grow, and trade with Beijing to reach $200 billion by 2024.
China is a major buyer of Russian natural resources and agricultural products.
China has declined to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine and has criticised the Western sanctions on Moscow.
($1 = 57.8000 roubles)
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Reuters
Editing by Gareth Jones
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
FASTIV, Ukraine, May 8 (Reuters) – A salvo of missiles brought the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine to Fastiv, a quiet town abounding with flowering cherry trees and set in sweeping farmland hundreds of kilometres from the front lines.
The strike on April 28, which injured two people, hit an electrical substation that feeds power to a confluence of railway lines that forms a key hub of networks linking central Europe, Russia, and Asia.
The damage quickly was repaired, said Ukrainian officials, and a Reuters visit last week revealed no lingering impact. Trains plied between Kyiv and the southern port of Odesa, disgorging passengers into the station at Fastiv, a town of 45,000 people 75 km (45 miles) south of the capital.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Officials said the attack was part of an escalating Russian assault on infrastructure, aimed in part at paralysing rail deliveries of Western-supplied arms and also reinforcements sustaining Ukrainian forces fighting in the east and south.
So far, Moscow’s effort has failed, making state-owned Ukrainian Railways a leading symbol of the country’s resilience.
“The longest delay we’ve had has been less than an hour,” said Oleksandr Kamyshin, 37, a former investment banker who keeps the trains running as the CEO of the railways, Ukraine’s largest employer.
“They haven’t hit a single military train.”
The Russian defences ministry has said Ukrainian facilities powering the railways have been targeted by missile strikes because trains are used to deliver foreign arms to Ukrainian forces.
The rail system is being hit not just because it is critical to military supplies, Ukrainian officials said.
Moscow’s “goal is to destroy critical infrastructure as much as possible for military, economic and social reasons,” Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yuri Vaskov said in an interview.
With Russian warships blockading Black Sea ports, downed bridges and checkpoints obstructing roadways, and a fuel crunch snarling trucking, Ukraine’s 22,000 km (14,000 miles) of track are the main lifeline of the struggling economy and a passage to the outside world.
Trains have evacuated millions of civilians fleeing to safer parts of the country or abroad.
They have begun running small grain shipments to neighbouring counties to circumvent Russia’s maritime blockade. Ukraine was the world’s fourth largest grain exporter in the 2020/21 season and exports disrupted by the war have interrupted global food chains and helped fuel worldwide inflation.
Internally, trains are distributing humanitarian aid and other cargoes. They enabled the restart of the AcelorMittal steel plant, in Kryvyi Rih, by bringing workers in and product out, said Kamyshin. They carry civilian casualties in hospital cars staffed by Doctors Without Borders.
Since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, he said, trains have distributed more than 140,000 tonnes of food and will have carried some 1 million kilos of mail for the state postal service by mid-May.
Russian attacks on some of the 1,000 stations have killed scores of civilians, including dozens killed in an attack in April in the station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk.
That has not deterred passengers.
Daily ridership has reached as many as 200,000 passengers, Kamyshin said in an interview on Saturday as he rode a train across a bridge that had been repaired after being badly damaged during Russia’s failed advance on Kyiv from the suburb of Irpin.
Nor have the railway’s 230,000 personnel stayed home even though 122 have been killed and 155 others wounded on the job and in their houses, said Kamyshin.
Moscow denies striking civilian targets in what it calls a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of what it calls anti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and the West say Russia launched an unprovoked war of aggression.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the assertions of Kamyshin and other Ukrainian officials about their successes keeping the railways going in wartime.
Helena Muskrivska, 56, the Irpin station master, said she worked for the first four days of the Russian assault, helping evacuate some 1,000 people and relaying local developments by landline to Kyiv. She took documents and equipment home when it became too dangerous.
“I was here when the Russians came into the station. I didn’t want to see them face to face,” said Muskrivska.
A group of current and former U.S. and European railway executives formed the International Support Ukraine Rail Task Force in March to raise money for protective gear, first aid kits and financial aid for railway staff.
“There’s a lot of fundraising efforts everywhere for Ukraine, but none of it goes to the railroad,” said Jolene Molitoris, a former U.S. Federal Railroad Administration chief who chairs the group. “It is the lifeline of the country.”
The group also aims to fund purchases of heavy machinery, rails and other equipment sought by the railways.
Kamyshin said he is racing against the Russian attacks, deploying teams of workers and dispatchers around the clock to fix tracks and reroute trains. “It’s all about hours, not about days.”
He and top aides constantly move, taking trains to inspect damage and repairs around Ukraine, he said, adding: “Once they break it, we fix it”.
Kamyshin said his top priority is redirecting grain exports from Ukraine’s southern ports to Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states to help revive the economy. He said Russia would remain a threat even after what he called its inevitable defeat.
“This crazy neighbour will stay with us,” he said. “No one knows when they will come again.”
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk
Editing by Frances Kerry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz makes a statement after talks with European leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden, in Berlin, Germany, April 19, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/Pool
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Scholz warns Germany may be considered party to war if it sends tanks
Scholz could soon be forced to decide on approving exports
Says top priority is avoiding nuclear war
Does not believe banning Russian gas would end war
BERLIN, April 22 (Reuters) – NATO must avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia that could lead to a third world war, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview with Der Spiegel when asked about Germany’s failure to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine.
Scholz is facing growing criticism at home and abroad for his government’s apparent reluctance to deliver heavy battlefield weapons, such as tanks and howitzers, to Ukraine to help it fend off Russian attacks, even as other Western allies step up shipments.
Asked in an extensive interview published on Friday why he thought delivering tanks could lead to nuclear war, he said there was no rule book that stated when Germany could be considered a party to the war in Ukraine.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
“That’s why it is all the more important that we consider each step very carefully and coordinate closely with one another,” he was quoted as saying. “To avoid an escalation towards NATO is a top priority for me.
“That’s why I don’t focus on polls or let myself be irritated by shrill calls. The consequences of an error would be dramatic.”
This was a departure from his previous statements on the topic, focusing on the fact that the stocks of Germany’s own military were too depleted to send any heavy battlefield weapons while those the German industry has said it could supply could not easily be put into use.
Asked why he would not explain that his government’s reluctance was due to the threat of nuclear war, he said such “simplifications” were not helpful.
However, Scholz could soon be forced to take a clear position on whether heavy weapons can be sent directly from Germany to Ukraine. The Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported that defence contractor Rheinmetall had applied for a licence to sell 100 Marder armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine.
According to the contractor, the Marders could be delivered quickly, but all military exports have to be approved by a committee on which the chancellor sits.
Germany has in the past allowed other countries, including the Netherlands, to send heavy weapons it made to the Ukraine.
Separately, Scholz defended his decision not to immediately end German imports of Russian gas in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
“I absolutely do not see how a gas embargo would end the war. If (Russian President Vladimir) Putin were open to economic arguments, he would never have begun this crazy war,” Scholz said.
“Secondly, you act as if this was about money. But it’s about avoiding a dramatic economic crisis and the loss of millions of jobs and factories that would never again open their doors.”
Scholz said this would have considerable consequences not just for Germany but also for Europe and the future financing of the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Russia calls its invasion a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext for a war that has killed thousands and uprooted a quarter of Ukraine’s population.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Riham Alkousaa and Kirsti Knolle; Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jonathan Oatis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Energy is Russia’s most powerful lever against West
Western nations reject currency switch in gas deals
Russia won’t export gas as ‘charity’, says Putin
Europe already struggling to find alternative supplies
BERLIN/LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding foreign buyers pay for Russian gas in roubles from Friday or else have their supplies cut, a move European capitals rejected and which Germany said amounted to “blackmail”.
Putin’s decree on Thursday leaves Europe facing the prospect of losing more than a third of its gas supply. Germany, the most heavily reliant on Russia, has already activated an emergency plan that could lead to rationing in Europe’s biggest economy.
Energy exports are Putin’s most powerful lever as he tries to hit back against sweeping Western sanctions imposed on Russian banks, companies, businessmen and associates of the Kremlin in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Moscow calls its Ukraine action a “special military operation”.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Putin said buyers of Russian gas “must open rouble accounts in Russian banks. It is from these accounts that payments will be made for gas delivered starting from tomorrow,” or April 1.
“If such payments are not made, we will consider this a default on the part of buyers, with all the ensuing consequences. Nobody sells us anything for free, and we are not going to do charity either – that is, existing contracts will be stopped,” he said in televised remarks.
It was not immediately clear whether in practice there might be a way for foreign firms to continue payment without using roubles, which the European Union and G7 have ruled out.
Italy said it was in contact with its European partners to give a firm response to Russia, adding its own gas reserves would allow economic activity to continue even in the event of disruptions. read more
Meantime, Germany’s energy firms said they were in close talks with Berlin about how to respond to possible supply disruptions and draw up a roadmap on what to do should Russia stop gas exports.
SEARCHING FOR ALTERNATIVES
Under the mechanism decreed by Putin, foreign buyers would use special accounts at Gazprombank to pay for the gas. Gazprombank would buy roubles on behalf of the gas buyer and transfer roubles to another account, the order said. read more
A source told Reuters that payments for gas delivered in April on some contracts started in the second half of April and May for others, suggesting the taps might not be turned off immediately. read more
Putin’s decision to enforce rouble payments has boosted the Russian currency, which fell to historic lows after the Feb. 24 invasion. The rouble has since recovered much lost ground.
“What sounded grandiose has turned into a storm in a teacup. By making it the main recipient of money for gas, it puts an extra shield against sanctions around Gazprombank,” said Jack Sharples of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
Western companies and governments have rejected any move to change their gas supply contracts to another payment currency. Most European buyers use euros. Executives say it would take months or longer to renegotiate terms.
Payment in roubles would also blunt the impact of Western curbs on Moscow’s access to its foreign exchange reserves.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on the development of air transportation and aircraft manufacturing, via a video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia March 31, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS
Read More
Meanwhile, European states have been racing to secure alternative supplies, but with the global market already tight, they have few options. The United States has offered more of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) but not enough to replace Russia.
“It is important for us not to give a signal that we will be blackmailed by Putin,” Germany Economy Minister Robert Habeck said, adding that Russia had not been able to divide Europe.
Payments would continue to be made in euros, Germany said.
French economy minister Bruno Le Maire said France and Germany were preparing for the possibility of Russian gas flows being halted. He declined to comment on technical details linked to latest Russian demands for rouble payment.
Putin said the switch to roubles would strengthen Russia’s sovereignty. He said the West was using the financial system as a weapon, and it made no sense for Russia to trade in dollars and euros when assets in those currencies were being frozen.
“What is actually happening, what has already happened? We have supplied European consumers with our resources, in this case gas. They received it, paid us in euros, which they then froze themselves. In this regard, there is every reason to believe that we delivered part of the gas provided to Europe practically free of charge,” he said.
“That, of course, cannot continue,” Putin said, although he said Russia still valued its business reputation and would continue to meet obligations in its gas and other contracts.
STAYING UNITED
European gas prices have rocketed higher on mounting tension with Russia raising the risk of recession. Companies, including makers of steel and chemicals, have been forced to curtail production. read more
British and Dutch gas prices , were up 4% to 5% after Putin’s announcement.
European companies had little or no immediate comment on the Russian announcement or on their contracts with Gazprom (GAZP.MM), which has a monopoly on Russian gas exports by pipeline.
Poland’s PGNiG (PGN.WA) said it remained in contact with Gazprom with which it has a long-term contract that expires at the end of this year, but it said it would not discuss details.
Italian energy firm Eni (ENI.MI), another major European buyer of Russian gas, also had no comment. It bought around 22.5 bcm of Russian gas in 2020. Its contracts with Gazprom expire in 2035.
Danish energy firm Orsted (ORSTED.CO), which has a long-term take-or-pay contract with Gazprom, said it was waiting to hear from the Russian firm and declined to comment further.
Uniper (UN01.DE) and EnBW’s (EBKG.DE) VNG (VNG.UL), two major German buyers of Russian gas, declined to comment, while RWE (RWEG.DE) did not immediately respond.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Reuters correspondents including Stephen Jewkes in Milan, Vera Eckert, Joseph Nasr and Tassilo Hummel in Berlin, Nina Chestney in London, Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw and Christoph Steitz and John O’Donnell in Frankfurt; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Edmund Blair and Grant McCool
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
The Toyota logo is seen at a booth during a media day for the Auto Shanghai show in Shanghai, China, April 19, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
TOKYO, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said it will suspend domestic factory operations on Tuesday, losing around 13,000 cars of output, after a supplier of plastic parts and electronic components was hit by a suspected cyber attack.
No information was immediately available about who was behind the possible attack or the motive. The attack comes just after Japan joined Western allies in clamping down on Russia after it invaded Ukraine, although it was not clear if the attack was at all related.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his government would investigate the incident and whether Russia was involved.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
“It is difficult to say whether this has anything to do with Russia before making thorough checks,” he told reporters.
Kishida on Sunday announced that Japan would join the United States and other countries in blocking some Russian banks from accessing the SWIFT international payment system. He also said Japan would give Ukraine $100 million in emergency aid.
A spokesperson at the supplier, Kojima Industries Corp, said it appeared to have been the victim of some kind of cyber attack.
A spokesperson from Toyota described it as a “supplier system failure.”
The company does not yet know if the halt at its 14 plants in Japan, which account for about a third of its global production, will last more than a day, the spokesperson added.
Some plants operated by Toyota’s affiliates Hino Motors (7205.T) and Daihatsu (6023.T) are included in the shutdown.
Toyota, which has experienced cyber attacks in the past, is a pioneer of Just-In-Time manufacturing with parts that arrive from suppliers going straight to the production line rather than being stockpiled.
State actors have launched cyberattacks on Japanese corporations in the past, including an attack on Sony Corp (6758.T) in 2014, which exposed internal data and shut down computer systems.
The United States blamed North Korea for that attack, which came after Sony released “The Interview”, a comedy about a plot to assassinate the regime’s leader Kim Jong Un.
Toyota’s production halt comes as the world’s biggest automaker is already tackling supply chain disruptions around the world caused by the COVID pandemic, which has forced it and other carmakers to curb output.
Toyota this month also saw some production stopped in North America due to parts shortages caused by the Canadian trucker protests. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama, Tim Kelly and Maki Shiraki; Editing by Louise Heavens and Tomasz Janowski
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
ADDIS ABABA, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Ethiopia began producing electricity on Sunday from its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a multi-billion-dollar hydropower plant on the River Nile that neighbours Sudan and Egypt have worried will cause water shortages downstream.
After flicking a digital switch to turn on the turbines in the first phase of the project, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sought to assure those nations that his country did not wish to harm their interests.
“Ethiopia’s main interest is to bring light to 60% of the population who is suffering in darkness, to save the labour of our mothers who are carrying wood on their backs in order to get energy,” Abiy said.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Abiy’s government says the project is key to its economic development, but Egypt and Sudan depend on the waters of the Nile and have worried it will affect them.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry accused Ethiopia of further violation of a preliminary deal signed between the three nations in 2015, prohibiting any of the parties from taking unilateral actions in the use of the river’s water.
Water flows through Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam as it undergoes construction work on the river Nile in Guba Woreda, Benishangul Gumuz Region, Ethiopia September 26, 2019. Picture taken September 26, 2019. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri
Read More
The first violations of the initial agreement related to the filling of the dam, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
There was no immediate comment from Sudan.
Ethiopia, the second most populous country on the continent, has the second biggest electricity deficit in Africa according to the World Bank, with about two thirds of the population of around 110 million lacking a connection to the grid.
The project will ultimately cost $5 billion when it is completed and become the biggest hydropower plant in Africa by generating 5,150 MW of electricity, some of which will be exported to neighbouring nations, the government says.
The government has so far invested more than 100 billion Ethiopian birr ($1.98 billion) in the project, state-affiliated FANA broadcaster reported. It is located at a place called Guba in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region.
($1 = 50.6000 birr)
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Additional reporting by Moataz Mohamed in Cairo
Writing by Duncan Miriri
Editing by Frances Kerry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Region destabilised by conflict in Ethiopia, Somalia
Minister Wang suggests regional pece conference
Deal signed for Kenya to sell avocados to China
MOMBASA, Kenya, Jan 6 (Reuters) – China said on Thursday it would appoint a special envoy to foster peace in the turbulent Horn of Africa and wanted to shift focus on the continent to trade over infrastructure.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the comments in Kenya, which has been active in diplomatic efforts to halt war in Ethiopia since late 2020 between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal government.
He also visited Eritrea, which borders the northern Tigray region and has been an ally of Abiy in a conflict that has killed thousands of people, uprooted hundreds of thousands, and spread hunger. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
“To share political consensus and to coordinate actions, China will appoint a special envoy of the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs for the Horn of Africa,” Wang told a news conference in the port city of Mombasa, via an interpreter.
Horn of Africa nations should decide their own destiny and convene a peace conference, Wang added. The region’s other major war is in Somalia where Islamist militants al Shabaab are battling a Western-backed government.
China has traditionally been more focused on economic development and trade in Africa than politics and diplomacy, and Wang gave no further details of the envoy’s role.
Beijing wants to help develop Eritrea’s Red Sea coastline, he added, without elaborating on that either.
Eric Olander, managing editor of The China Africa Project website and podcast, saw the visit to Eritrea as strategic in China’s rivalry with the United States, which has sanctioned Eritrea for its role in Tigray. read more
“This is part of a big push to rally countries against the use of sanctions,” he said. “I think they (China) feel they’re gaining momentum against the U.S.”
U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman was due to visit the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Thursday.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Kenyan counterpart Raychelle Omamo bump elbows during a news conference in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya January 6, 2022. REUTERS/Joseph Okanga
Read More
Feltman will step down from his post this month after more than nine months in the job, and David Satterfield, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Turkey, will take up the role, Reuters reported on Wednesday. read more
AVOCADOS AND VACCINES
Chinese officials signed six agreements with Kenyan counterparts, including one allowing Kenyan farmers to export fresh avocados to China. That will enable Kenya to narrow its considerable trade imbalance with China, said Rachel Omamo, Kenya’s foreign minister.
Kenya will receive a donation of 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China, both sides said, part of 1 billion extra doses pledged to Africa by China late last year.
China has been shifting from offering African nations hard infrastructure loans towards increasing trade. “It is never about what China wants to do, it is about what Africa wants to do,” he said.
The continent’s needs were expanding from the building of roads and railways, Wang said, citing the need for vaccines and export opportunities.
Analysts have also attributed the slowdown in Chinese infrastructure lending in Africa to China’s own economic troubles and a commodity price crash that has complicated African debt servicing.
China’s interests in the Horn include its naval base in Djibouti, overlooking a key global shipping route. Beijing has granted large loans to landlocked Ethiopia, which relies on Djibouti’s port for trade.
The region is also threatened by instability in South Sudan, where China has substantial oil investments, and spillover from Somalia that has brought deadly attacks in neighbouring Kenya.
After Kenya, Wang was due to travel to Comoros, an Indian Ocean archipelago. “They (China) see the Indian Ocean as a contested space, so it’s a priority,” Olander said. “Wang simply going to a tiny country like Comoros is symbolic in itself.”
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Duncan Miriri and Joe Bavier, writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Anti-nuclear consensus still strong, minister says
BERLIN, Jan 1 (Reuters) – Germany has pulled the plug on three of its last six nuclear power stations as it moves towards completing its withdrawal from nuclear power as it turns its focus to renewables.
The government decided to speed up the phasing out of nuclear power following Japan’s Fukushima reactor meltdown in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the coastal plant in the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
The reactors of Brokdorf, Grohnde and Gundremmingen C, run by utilities E.ON (EONGn.DE) and RWE (RWEG.DE), shut down late on Friday after three and half decades in operation. read more
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
The last three nuclear power plants – Isar 2, Emsland and Neckarwestheim II – will be turned off by the end of 2022.
Preussen Elektra, which runs the Brokdorf and Grohnde plants, said in a statement on Saturday the two had been shut down shortly before midnight on Friday. RWE said the Gundremmingen C plant also stopped generation on Friday evening.
PreussenElektra CEO Guido Knott thanked staff for their commitment to safety: “We have made a decisive contribution to the secure, climate-friendly and reliable supply of electricity in Germany for decades.”
The phase-out of an energy deemed clean and cheap by some is an irreversible step for Europe’s biggest economy even as it faces ambitious climate targets and rising power prices.
The six nuclear power plants contributed to around 12% of electricity production in Germany in 2021, preliminary figures showed. The share of renewable energy was almost 41%, with coal generating just under 28% and gas around 15%.
Germany aims to make renewables meet 80% of power demand by 2030 by expanding wind and solar power infrastructure.
Japan’s government on Tuesday mapped out a plan for releasing contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, angering neighbouring China and South Korea. read more
($1 = 0.8797 euros)
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Emma Thomasson, Editing by Louise Heavens
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
TOKYO, Dec 15 (Reuters) – The Japanese government overstated construction orders data received from builders for years, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday, an admission that could dent credibility of official statistics widely used by investors and economists.
It was not clear why the government started the practice of rewriting the data. It is also unclear how gross domestic product (GDP) figures may have been affected, though analysts expected any impact to be minimal, particularly as the builders involved were likely to be smaller firms.
“It is regrettable that such a thing has happened,” Kishida said. “The government will examine as soon as possible what steps it can take to avoid such an incident from happening again.”
Register now for FREE unlimited access to reuters.com
Register
He made the comment in a parliamentary session after the Asahi newspaper reported the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism had been “rewriting” data received from about 12,000 select companies since 2013 at a pace of about 10,000 entries per year.
Kishida said “improvements” had been made to the figures since January 2020 and that there was no direct impact on GDP data for fiscal year 2020 and 2021.
While the impact on past GDP numbers may be small, the revelation is likely to raise questions about the reliability of data that is a cornerstone for economists and investors looking to understand and forecast trends in the world’s third-largest economy.
It is also not the first time that issues have been raised about government data, including a flaw in health ministry data in 2018.
“The biggest problem is not the effect on the GDP per se but the damage to reliability of (official) statistics,” said Saisuke Sakai, senior economist at Mizuho Research and Technologies.
“We can’t help doubting this kind of issue could happen across government ministries,” Sakai said.
SLOPPY
The survey compiles public and private construction orders which in the 2020 fiscal year totalled roughly 80 trillion yen ($700 billion), and is among data used to calculate GDP.
For the survey, the ministry collects monthly orders data from construction companies through local prefecture authorities.
Companies that were late in submitting data would often send in several months’ worth of figures at once, the Asahi said. In these instances, the ministry would instruct local authorities to rewrite the orders for the combined months as the figure for the latest, single month.
“Overall GDP data is unlikely to change much,” said Akiyoshi Takumori, chief economist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management.
Considering Japan has hundreds of thousands of construction companies, the ratio of those concerned is very small, he said.
“How much influence do they have? The kind of sloppy company – which puts out numbers late – is probably not a big one.”
Land Minister Tetsuo Saito, a member of the Komeito party – the junior partner of the ruling coalition – confirmed the practice in parliament, calling it “extremely regrettable”.
Asked about the issue, the government’s top spokesperson said only that the land ministry had been instructed to analyse “as soon as possible” what led to the practice.
“We will first wait for the results of that investigation,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a news conference when asked whether past GDP figures, the government’s monthly economic report or other data may need to be revised.
The rewriting of the data, which may be in breach of law, continued until this March, the Asahi said.
($1 = 113.7100 yen)
Register now for FREE unlimited access to reuters.com
Register
Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto, Kantaro Komiya, Leika Kihara and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Christopher Cushing and David Dolan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden and top officials in his Cabinet are hitting the road to promote the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed in Congress last week, as they explain when and where Americans can expect to see some of the funds in their own communities.
White House aides are planning a bipartisan signing ceremony for the infrastructure bill as soon as this week, after it gained final passage on Friday night when Democrats who control the House of Representatives ended months of bickering and approved it. read more
Biden is also pressing lawmakers to approve a separate, climate and safety-net package known as his Build Back Better plan. It is estimated to cost about $1.75 trillion and has been the subject of fierce debate on Capitol Hill.
“It’s going to be a tough fight. It ain’t over yet, as the expression goes, but I feel good, and I think people are beginning to realize it’s important to get it done,” Biden told reporters on Monday.
Biden heads to the Port of Baltimore on Wednesday to promote the infrastructure bill and will travel to places where the “need is and the action is,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told the White House daily news briefing on Monday.
Buttigieg and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo are fanning out across the country as well.
“In the coming weeks, those members and other senior officials will travel to red states, blue states, big cities, small towns, rural areas, tribal communities and more to translate what this deal means for real people across the country,” a White House source said.
The American Flag flies at the U.S. Capitol Building, as Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a State of Emergency due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 18, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo
A Democratic National Committee source told Reuters the party would unveil a slogan based on the bill: “Democrats delivered.”
The bill sends tens of billions of dollars to federal agencies and states for bridge and highway repair, new broadband and public transportation projects and will fund a network of electric-vehicle charging stations across the country.
“A lot of this sells itself,” Buttigieg said, “because communities never needed to be persuaded that their bridge needed to be fixed or their airports needed an upgrade. … They’ve been trying to get Washington to catch up to them.”
It gives Biden and Democrats a much-needed jolt of good news after poll numbers have fallen for the president. Republicans made gains in local elections last week, winning the governor’s office in Virginia and coming closer than expected in heavily Democratic New Jersey.
The White House victory lap will include messages on African-American and Spanish-language media and partnering with labor unions, business groups and state and local leaders.
The DNC source said that while the infrastructure bill is an important milestone, Democrats need to pass Biden’s social safety and climate spending plan next.
“Voters have a short memory. They have already forgotten the CARES Act (COVID-19 relief program). They will forget a bridge that was built or a highway that was repaired, but they will remember the monthly child tax credit payment. It is necessary that we pass that,” the source said.
Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons, David Gregorio and Peter Cooney
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.