Stock Markets

South Africa court bars some ArcelorMittal workers from strike – union

Published

7 days ago

May 12, 2022

South Africa court bars some ArcelorMittal workers from strike - union

(Reuters) – South Africa’s labour court has ordered workers at ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) South Africa Ltd’s steel plants, blast furnaces and coke batteries to be excluded from an ongoing job boycott, after the company argued these are essential services barred from striking by law, the metal-workers union said.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) began a strike at Africa’s biggest steel company on Wednesday, after wage negotiations broke down last week.

On Wednesday, ArcelorMittal said it had approached the court to seek the exclusion of certain essential workers from the strike citing South African labour law.

“Justice Mahosi of the labour court interdicted the strike temporarily but only for workers in the blast furnaces, coke batteries and the steel plant, until a final judgment has been made,” NUMSA said in a statement.

“This means that only workers in these departments are unable to participate in the strike but all other workers can participate.”

The union is demanding a 10% pay increase, a housing allowance and payment of 80% of medical insurance costs, against the company’s final offer of a 7% wage increase.

ArcelorMittal was not immediately available to comment.

A NUMSA spokesperson said she could not immediately establish how many of union members worked in the departments affected by the court order but said NUMSA was the biggest union at ArcelorMittal, with about half of the company’s permanent employees affiliated to it.

The company, majority owned by Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal SA, had 7,133 permanent workers at the end of 2021, its latest annual report showed.

Stock Markets

Plotkin’s Melvin Capital to Wind Down – Report

Published

19 mins ago

May 18, 2022

letizo News

Plotkin's Melvin Capital to Wind Down - Report

Gabe Plotkin’s Melvin Capital Management, a hedge fund that lost billions after its bearish wagers were caught up in a Reddit-fueled rally of buying stocks including GameStop (NYSE:GME), announced its plans to wind down funds and return cash to investors, Bloomberg News reported.

Plotkin wrote to investors about his decision to step away from managing external capital, noting they have not been able to deliver the returns investors should expect.

“The past 17 months has been an incredibly trying time for the firm and you, our investors,” Plotkin wrote to investors. “I have given everything I could, but more recently that has not been enough to deliver the returns you should expect. I now recognize that I need to step away from managing external capital.”

By Davit Kirakosyan

Stock Markets

Chevron, Schlumberger withdraw request for California carbon-capture permit

Published

20 mins ago

May 18, 2022

letizo News

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Chevron, Schlumberger withdraw request for California carbon-capture permit

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Chevron Corp is seen in its booth at Gastech, the world’s biggest expo for the gas industry, in Chiba, Japan April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

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By Liz Hampton and Sabrina Valle

(Reuters) – Top U.S. energy companies Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) have withdrawn an application to capture carbon dioxide emissions and store them deep underground in central California, spokespeople said on Wednesday, putting the clean-energy project on hold after U.S. environmental regulators questioned it.

Burying industrial gases has become a focus for energy companies seeking to show investors they are willing to reduce emissions and help fight climate change. Their permit was one of more than a dozen filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which requested the application be withdrawn.

In a March 25 letter, the EPA said the application was “substantially incomplete,” citing changes to the application and the failure to supply financial assurances.

The companies had formed a venture to revive an idled biomass-fueled power plant and generate “carbon negative power” in Mendota, near Fresno, California. The project included an underground carbon sequestration site and would remove about 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.

“The EPA did the right thing by hitting the brakes on the Mendota carbon capture project,” said Victoria Bogdan Tejeda, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. “Carbon capture is risky, expensive, and incompatible with environmental justice.”

Chevron and Schlumberger said they elected to withdraw the permit application and the group would continue “to gather and evaluate project information.”

“The team remains committed to developing lower carbon solutions and doing so in an environmentally and socially responsible manner,” spokespeople said.

Separately, Chevron on Wednesday said it was launching a carbon-capture and storage project in the San Joaquin Valley aimed at reducing emissions from its own operations in California.

Stock Markets

Synopsys Shares Up 4% Following Q2 Beat, Upbeat Guidance

Published

49 mins ago

May 18, 2022

letizo News

Synopsys Shares Up 4% Following Q2 Beat, Upbeat Guidance

Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS) shares were trading more than 4% higher after-hours following Q2 results, with EPS of $2.50 coming in better than the consensus estimate of $2.37. Revenue was $1.28 billion, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.26 billion.

The company expects Q3 non-GAAP EPS in the range of $2.01- $2.06 and revenue in the range of $1.21 billion – 1.24 billion. This is better than the consensus of $1.61 and $1.14 billion, respectively.

For the full 2022-year, the company expects EPS in the range of $8.63 – $8.70 and revenue in the range of $5 billion – $5.05 billion. This compares favorably to the consensus of $7.90 and $4.81 billion, respectively.

Shares of Synopsys were down 26% year-to-date going into the results.

By Davit Kirakosyan