LUSAKA (Reuters) – Zambia was plunged into a blackout on Tuesday affecting almost the whole of the country, the state power utility Zesco Ltd said.
“Almost the whole country except for Southern and Western province has experienced a power failure but we are yet to establish what has caused it,” Zesco spokeswoman Bessie Banda told Reuters.
Most of Zambia was affected by a power blackout on Dec. 11 because of a technical fault and supply was restored only the following day.
The southern African country, the continent’s second biggest copper producer, has been grappling with power shortages related to a searing drought as levels in the Kariba dam, which provides much of the nation’s electricity, drop.
Zambia’s Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), owned by Vedanta Resources, said after the Dec. 11 blackout it would suffer slight output losses.
An electricity shortage and weaker copper prices due to slower growth by top consumer China have threatened output and jobs in the mining industry, with the slow-down putting Zambia’s currency on the back foot against the dollar.
(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Writing by Ed Stoddard and Richard Balmforth; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African stocks rose to a more than two-week high on Tuesday, bolstered by bargain hunters and a recovery in oil prices from its lowest level in more than a decade, while the rand dipped in holiday-thinned trade.
The benchmark Top-40 index rose 1.2 percent to 44,900.59, while the broader All-Share index rose by the same margin to 49,780.33.
“What we are seeing is a bit of buying before the close of the quarter,” said Sanlam Private Investments’ portfolio manager David Peacock. “Some stocks were oversold, so now we are seeing some nibbling [back].”
A recovery in oil prices from 11-year lows as investors unwounded some of their bearish bets on the battered commodity also helped boost stocks such as petrochemicals company Sasol, which rose by 2.61 percent to 393 rand.
Other gainers included Africa’s largest mobile operator MTN, which gained 4.53 percent to 141.16 rand, while its rival, Vodacom added 2.34 percent to 151.72 rand.
Among the losers was Tiger Brands, which fell 1.81 percent to 318.00 rand.
Trade was light, with 153 million shares changing hands on the stock market, according to preliminary bourse data, well below the average of 183 million shares.
On the forex market, the rand weakened in shallow, range-bound trade following its brief relief rally ahead of the holiday season.
Trade is expected to be subdued for the remainder of the year as most domestic market players are on holiday, and with no major economic news to provide direction for the rand.
By 1523 GMT the rand had weakened 0.49 percent to 15.1700 per dollar compared to 15.1030, where it closed overnight in New York.
“We expect the rand to hover around R15/$ for the rest of the year,” said NKC African Economics analyst Bart Stemmet. “We see risks to the rand at its current levels to be balanced.”
Government bonds were weaker, with the benchmark paper due in 2026 adding 9 basis points to 9.445 percent.
(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla and Thekiso Lefifi; Editing by Ed Stoddard)
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s central bank will tighten import regulations from January in a bid to support local manufacturing and better preserve its dwindling foreign currency reserves.
Egypt, which depends on imports, has faced a currency crisis since a 2011 uprising drove foreign investors and tourists away. Hard currency reserves have more than halved $16.4 billion since then.
The decision excludes imports of medicine, foods, and other essential goods such as wheat.
The central bank said it aimed to “strengthen the national economy and promote local products, enhancing their competitiveness against foreign products,” in a statement on Tuesday.
Egyptian manufacturers have been pushing for stricter regulations to stop importers putting artificially low values on customs bills to avoid duties, a widespread practice that makes it difficult for local products to compete on price.
Egypt had imports worth $60.8 billion in 2014/15, compared with exports worth $22.1 billion, said Beltone Financial economist Ziad Waleed.
“They are just fine-tuning the present regulations amid the foreign currency shortage. This definitely could increase the pressure on importers,” he said.
The statement said that banks should obtain documents for imports directly from foreign banks, instead of obtaining them from the clients as is the practice currently. This is to stop any manipulation of receipts by importers, the Egyptian customs authority said on Tuesday.
Importers will also have to provide 100 percent of the cash deposit on letters of credit for imports instead of the current 50 percent.
“The central bank is trying to use all available measures to try to limit imports and this could limit the import of luxury goods, but it is not the key solution that would solve the foreign currency shortage,” Waleed said.
Egypt’s central bank has been rationing dollars and keeping the currency artificially strong at 7.7301 through weekly dollar auctions, giving priority to imports of essential goods.
(Reporting by Asma Alsharif and Ehab Farouk, editing by Louise Heavens)
LUSAKA (Reuters) – Zambia, Africa’s second largest copper producer, will in the first quarter next year introduce a new sliding mineral royalty tax that will be adjusted depending on metal prices, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.
Zambian royalty taxes will range between 3 percent and 9 percent depending on the global price of metals, presidential spokesman Amos Chanda said.
Taking a look at Donald Trump and his recent outbursts that might alienate him with the Muslim world.
Donald Trump is making a lot of headlines these days and while they haven’t all been flattering, the 69-year-old business mogul seems unfazed that his brass manners have created such media furor. He is not a repentant person and has shown that he thrives in the media’s spotlight. He is often seen using loud words and confrontational rhetoric that that has helped him create both more supporters and more opponents, effectively polarizing the public, and whether for better or worse, he has been getting lots of media attention during his election campaign.
In a recent interview with Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, multi billionaire and presidential candidate Donald Trump made it clear that he would not be adverse to more surveillance of mosques in the US or even looking into closing some of them down. He believes a lot of the radicalization takes place in these mosques and that hatred towards America emanates from these houses of Muslim worship.
While these actions might alienate him to Muslims in general, they are nevertheless measures aimed at US citizens on US soil and as such they are not targeting the Muslim world in general. However, when he wants to ban all Muslims from entering the US, he’s sending a clear message to the international community as well. Adding to that his recent comments about Saudi Arabia being on par with China and other countries which he deems are cheating the US and one can understand why he might seem confrontational from a more international perspective.
Media feud with Alwaleed bin Talal
In a recent media spat, which was born after Trump had the idea to ban Muslims entering the US, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal let the presidential hopeful know what he thought of him when he tweeted the following: “You are a disgrace not only to the GOP [the Republican Party] but to all America. Withdraw from the US presidential race as you will never win”.
Donald Trump responded with accusations that Alwaleed bin Talal wants to control the US government with his daddy’s money and also called him “dopey”, which will surely not serve to lessen the tension between the two.
While Alwaleed bin Talal does not represent a united Muslim world, he is a well-known business magnate and philanthropist, ranking 34th on Forbes List of the richest people in the world in 2015. He has an estimated net worth of 28 Billion USD, dwarfing Donald Trump’s net worth and recently made headlines when he let the world know he’s donating his fortune to charity.
For the average voter in the US though, Alwaleed bin Talal is not exactly a household name and banning Muslims is not a problem. Among the American public Trump has the majority backing his proposal among Republicans, with a large estimated one third minority among Democrats backing him as well.
Trump and the international business world
The big question for business mogul-come-presidential nominee is not just about winning or losing the presidency. As a business man and a professional he must also contend with the lost business and brand value he is suffering from his remarks in the parts of the world he has been seen as demeaning.
The evidence seems to suggest he is already losing business in the millions from former partners in the Middle East as the Landmark Group is cutting its ties with the Trump Organization and will no longer carry home decor products from the company that is headed by Donald Trump.
What he is losing in business and brand value in the Middle East, he is most likely making back in campaign funding however, which has increased as he rides the wave of fear of Muslims and terrorism that has enthralled certain American voters.
ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria will review all its mining licences as its wants to overhaul a largely unproductive sector dominated by artisan miners, the mining ministry said on Monday.
The West African nation wants to lower dependency on oil production as crude prices tumble and boost output of solid minerals that contribute only 0.34 percent to GDP, according to official data.
Africa’s largest economy has some gold and iron deposits but little seismic data exists as the government has focused on oil exploration in the past decades.
To make a sector 80 percent dominated by artisan miners more efficient, mining minister Kayode Fayemi said all licences would be reviewed by March 1, according to a statement.
“We will work with stakeholders to review existing licenses and bring them up to date where there are issues,” he said in the statement, his first policy comments since taking office last month. “The period from today to 1st March 2016 should be considered an amnesty period to allow regularisation of papers.”
He said Nigeria had 44 known minerals including gold, iron ore, bitumen, zinc, tin and coal but authorities needed to get better data before deciding on a policy focus.
Nigeria has attracted few foreign investors to the mining sector due to a lack of roads, corruption and weak regulation.
CAIRO (Reuters) – Nigeria has restarted its northern Kaduna refinery, an official at state oil firm NNPC said on Monday after a pipeline pumping crude to the plant resumed operations.
The refinery, which has a capacity of 110,000 barrels a day, resumed on Saturday, said Ohi Alegbe, a spokesman for NNPC. He gave no production data.
Nigeria’s four ageing oil refineries produced nothing in October, despite a goal from the state company to produce 30 percent of its own gasoline in 2016.
Despite exporting 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, Nigeria is almost wholly reliant on imported gasoline, kerosene and other petroleum products.
(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by David Goodman)
With ambitions to become a top winter sun destination, Abu Dhabi has launched a new cruise ship terminal and is developing its tourism infrastructure.
With ambitions to become a top winter sun destination, last Sunday, Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Advisor and Deputy Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, officially opened Abu Dhabi’s first purpose-built cruise ship terminal. With capacity for three ships carrying 5,000 passengers at a time, this new terminal, located in the Zayed Port, marks a major landmark for cruise tourism in Abu Dhabi. 205,000 cruise visitors in 112 vessels are already scheduled for this season, 2015-2016, which is a fivefold increase compared to the first cruise season of 2006-2007. Officials expect this figure to increase by at least 15,000 next season to 220,000 cruise passengers in 117 vessels (2016-2017). Longer term growth projections anticipate that figure to reach 300,000 passengers in 130 vessels by 2019-20. Swiss-based cruise line MSC Cruises will be the first cruise line to use the new terminal as its home port for the 2015-16 season. The following season, it will be joined by Celebrity Cruises.
Abu Dhabi’s Economic Vision 2030
Development of the cruise tourism industry is part of a plan to significantly boost tourism in the emirate traditionally seen as second to Dubai as a tourist destination. In 2006, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, mandated the development of a long-term economic plan to increase the non-oil share of the emirate’s GDP. Known as the Economic Vision 2030, the year by which predictions suggest Abu Dhabi’s baseline growth assumptions could achieve economic diversification, the plan focuses on finding tangible solutions to boost tourism and leisure. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of State, said: “By working closely with our strategic partners and building the necessary infrastructure we hope to expand Abu Dhabi’s tourism sector and reinforce its position as a major global destination.”
As part of the Economic Vision 2030 plan, in 2006 Abu Dhabi also formed the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC), a body intended to drive development of the tourism industry. Capitalizing on blue seas, sand dunes, and UNESCO world heritage sites, the TDIC is currently working on more than 55 projects across the emirate which are all set for completion by 2020. Building projects include multi-use complexes, business and leisure resorts, and desert resorts. One of its flagship developments is Saadiyat Island, where branches of the Louvre and the Guggenheim are currently being built, and expected to open towards the end of next year. Two championship golf courses, environmentally-friendly resorts, new hotel developments, and luxury residential developments to house 160,000 residents are also underway.
The Abu Dhabi International Airport is also undergoing expansion in order to increase its capacity to 45 million. The new, high-tech 700,000 square meter Midfield Terminal Building, set to open in 2017, has been designed to process 19,000 bags per hour on a 22 kilometer baggage handling system and to utilize a new check-in system that can automatically verify mobile and printed boarding passes, improve security, and lower waiting times.
These projects will join the Yas Island development, Abu Dhabi’s $40 billion man-made destination island, which is home to the Ferrari World theme park and the $1 billion Yas Marina circuit, the most expensive F1 track ever built, which hosted the first Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2009.
Tourism up in Abu Dhabi
The strategy is already seeing some success. Abu Dhabi’s most recent summer season saw a 21% rise in the number of visitors compared with the previous year. The most significant growth came from Indian visitors, up by 29.8% year-on-year, and Saudi Arabian visitors, up 28% year-on-year. Visitors from the US also grew a significant 24.4%. And visitors from Europe grew 18.1%, with the United Kingdom and Germany contributing to the bulk of the increase. The figures mean that this year Abu Dhabi will exceed 4 million visitors for the first time. Sultan Al Mutawa Al Dhaheri, acting executive director of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA), said: “We are hugely encouraged by number of visitors who came to the emirate, not only from across the GCC but from around the world”.
The TCA will continue to focus on attracting tourists from India, a drive which this year saw a promotion office opened in India’s capital Delhi to increase passengers of Cruise Arabia, a voyage touring Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and Muscat. The TCA is also focused on attracting tourists from China. This year, more than 20 Abu Dhabi hotels, shopping centers, and tourist destinations enrolled in the China National Tourism Administration’s “Welcome Chinese” program to learn about providing services for Chinese travelers such as Mandarin-speaking staff and payment services for China’s UnionPay bank cards. The TCA has also led a delegation of Abu Dhabi travel suppliers, including representatives of Hyatt Hotels and Resorts and The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, to Korea and Japan. And looking toward the African market, the TCA will open an office in South Africa this coming year.
The Middle East looks to tourism
Abu Dhabi’s tourism aspirations are part of a burgeoning trend in the region. Dependent on oil for around 50% of GDP and suffering from high unemployment of the young, Saudi Arabia has begun investing in a number of programs to develop heritage sites, museums, tourist accommodation, and tourism infrastructure. A report by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTNH) confirms: “Tourism represents the second most important economic sector in the Kingdom. Despite its low contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) of only 2.7 percent, development plans in tourism show its ability to raise its contribution to higher levels, and makes it more capable to develop targeted areas especially the rural and remote areas that need comprehensive economic development to create jobs and investment opportunities.” The global Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report currently ranks Saudi Arabia as 64th in the world. This in fact puts it ahead of many of the more traditionally tourist-focused countries in the Middle East: Tunisia is 79th, Egypt is 83rd, and Lebanon is 94th.
Qatar is also looking to boost tourism to diversify its economy; 2013 tourism figures were up 8.3%, but it still lags behind most of its neighbours. The Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) has set a goal of attracting 7.4 million visitors by 2030, and has pledged to spend billions in developing new tourist attractions and training more hospitality workers. And Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) is also busy implementing Dubai Vision 2020, a program designed to double the number of tourists from 10 million in 2012 to 20 million by 2020, and boost tourism’s share of GDP to $81.7 billion.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude prices fell to levels last seen in 2004 on Monday, dropping below the lows hit during the 2008 financial crisis on renewed worries over an oil glut.
Global production remains at or near record highs and new supply looms from the Iran and the United States. Crude markets are also under pressure following last week’s U.S. interest rate hikes and on signs of growing U.S. stockpiles even as more drilling rigs are deployed.
Brent futures fell almost 2 percent and as low as $36.17 per barrel on Monday, the weakest since 2004 and below the $36.20 low reached on Christmas Eve 2008 before edging back to $36.42 at 0620 GMT. Prices are still down 46 cents from their last settlement.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down 24 cents at $34.49 per barrel and close to last Friday’s 2015 lows.
Both benchmarks have fallen more than two-thirds since mid-2014 when the rout began.
An unexpected gain in the U.S. oil rig count – by 17 to 541 – and the strength in the U.S. dollar following last week’s interest rate hike, which makes oil more expensive for countries using different currencies, all weighed on crude prices, said analysts.
“The increase in rig count even in a low crude oil price environment suggests shale producers are committed to maintaining production levels. The resilient production data reflect rising U.S. crude stockpiles, which have surged to 491 million barrels, the most for this time of year since 1930,” ANZ bank said.
The U.S. glut adds to global oversupply as the main producers, including Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), pump hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude every day in excess of demand.
Russian production has surpassed 10 million barrels per day (bpd), the highest since the collapse of the Soviet Union, while OPEC output also remains near record levels above 31.5 million bpd. OPEC leader Saudi Arabia upped production from 10.226 to 10.276 million bpd between September and October.
Iraq’s oil minister Adel Abdul Mahdi told Reuters over the weekend that OPEC would stick to its Dec. 4 decision to not limit production despite the drop in prices.
“OPEC can’t take a unilateral decision, for example, to cut production and others … raise production,” he said.
More oil becoming available soon will add to the glut, with Iran hoping to ramp up sales in early 2016 once sanctions against Tehran are lifted.
Iran will export most of its enriched uranium to Russia in coming days as it rushes to implement a nuclear deal and secure relief from international sanctions, Tehran’s nuclear chief was quoted as saying over the weekend.
This comes only days after the U.S. voted to lift a 40-year-old ban on crude exports which could see some production released on the global market.
(By Henning Gloystein. Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Sterling Bank is open to merger or acquisition talks to build scale to counter weak market conditions caused by slow economic growth this year which could continue into 2016, its chief executive said.
Africa’s biggest economy relies on oil exports for about 58 percent of government revenue and faces its worst economic crisis in years because of the fall in crude prices, which tumbled to their lowest in more than six years last week.
CEO Yemi Adeola said late on Thursday the slowdown in the economy couple with currency weakness provided opportunities for a market consolidation to build scale and cut costs, adding that one or two foreign banks were having discussions about possible acquisitions in Nigeria.
“You could see … one or two international banks taking over one or two Nigerian banks … in 2016 from the look of things,” he said, declining to name the lenders.
“As for us at Sterling, we are always open, anything that will give us scale, we will pursue.”
Sterling Bank, which itself is the product of a merger of six local banks, was the target of a takeover in 2011 by South Africa’s No.2 banking group FirstRand. Acquisition talks collapsed after the two sides failed to agree on terms.
Shares in the bank, which have fallen 25.9 percent this year, are trading at less than 1 times its book value, analysts say. The stock shed 4.79 percent on Friday to 1.79 naira, giving it a market value of 51.5 billion naira ($259 million).
Adeola expects investment flows to reverse after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates this week for the first time in almost a decade, a move that could also hurt borrowers exposed to the dollar.
The naira, which is pegged to the dollar, has been hitting new lows among retail bureaux de change operators since last week with the central bank trying to curb demand to conserve its reserves, hurting commercial banks’ trade business.
Sterling Bank said on Thursday it would raise 35 billion naira ($177 million) in Tier II debt early next year to expand its loan book and saw no need to tap equity markets.
(By Oludare Mayowa. Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Mark Potter)
