Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has a track record of breaking records. It not only operates the world’s largest online business-to-business platform, but also the world’s largest online consumer marketplace. In 2004, it had the largest initial public offering (IPO) since Google on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In 2014, Alibaba had the biggest IPO in US history with its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on 19 September.
Recently, Bupa, Britain’s largest company for private healthcare, announced to the BBC that they believe they are charging their own customers far too much for care, and that the industry should be encouraged to think urgently about how they set their prices. A Bupa senior executive claimed that he thought costs should be cut by around 15% across the whole of Britain’s private healthcare sector, and Dr. Damien Marmion, the managing director of insurance in Bupa, UK, suggested that the sector was in danger of serious ‘decline’ if actions were not taken soon.
In many developed countries around the world, tap water is widely considered to better for you than the bottled variety and subject to more stringent safety checks. Why then do we insist on purchasing something which is up to 300 times more expensive than what comes out of our taps?
Global sugar prices have risen to a one-year high after a fire broke out at several warehouses in the southern Brazilian port of Santos last Friday, destroying some 180,000 tons of sugar in the process.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the fire damaged six warehouses belonging to Brazilian sugar giant Copersucar, threatening to put the terminal out of action for at least six months while repairs are made.
Two years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Russia is planning the construction of a new line of floating nuclear power plants that could power remote and arid areas of the country, but could also have dire consequences for the maritime environment should any mishaps occur.
So much for the lessons of Fukushima. Never mind oil spills, the Russian Federation is preparing an energy initiative that, if it has problems, will inject nuclear material into the maritime environment.
Most, if not all, wars have been trade wars connected with some sort of material interest. As geopolitical risks multiply and conventional energy reserves decline, could the accelerated development of renewable energy prove to be the only way to avoid an inevitable spiral of war and disaster?
The European Union has filed an official complaint against China’s imposition of anti-dumping duties on steel imports, said the World Trade Organisation on Thursday, in the latest of a series of bilateral disputes that has sparked fears of a trade war breaking out.
The complaint, six months after Japan filed a similar case, centres on high-quality steel products that China needs to build new power plants and is crucial for its plans to upgrade and clean up its electricity infrastructure.
Many investors believe that global oil production would start to decline from 2014-15, a prediction based on the so-called peak oil theory that the world demand for oil would soon outstrip supply and send oil prices through the roof. For several years in the middle of the last decade, as oil prices climbed past $100 a barrel and analysts were betting it would cross $200, peak oil pundits were sure they had it right.
Lakshimi Mittal, owner of the world’s largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal, has urged Europe to erect trade barriers to protect its manufacturers, claiming the future of the European Union manufacturing depended on politicians helping the industry face what he said was unfair competition from China, reported the Financial Times on Sunday.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Mittal accused Chinese producers of overproducing despite weak market demand, lowering the price of the metal globally.
Pirate vessels pose a severe threat to poor coastal fishing communities around the world, threatening ecosystems and committing human rights abuses. But elements of the global fishing industry are finding the means to fight back with the support of charitable organisations.
