- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21693944-new-businesses-are-breathing-life-some-americas-old-industrial-cities-rust-beltThree powerful forces are breathing life into bits of America that had looked as if they were permanently left behind. First, old industrial skills are acquiring new relevance thanks to such things as advances in materials science. As Messrs Van Agtmael and Bakker note, Akron, in Ohio, has capitalised on its heritage as home to America’s four biggest tyremakers by turning itself into America’s capital city of polymers. The University of Akron’s Polymer Training Centre houses 120 academics and 700 graduate students. Companies such as Akron Polymer Systems and Akron Surface Technologies are inventing new ways to commercialise synthetic materials. North Carolina has done the same for textiles. Its state university is home to the Nonwovens Institute, which does research on textiles that can resist heat and chemicals, including ones used in weapons. Second, old industrial towns are realising that they have a vital asset: cheap property. Disused mills and warehouses, with their high ceilings and exposed bricks and beams, can make attractive homes and workspaces for knowledge workers. In Watervliet, New York, firms such as Cleveland Polymer Technologies occupy space in an old US Army arsenal. In Manchester, New Hampshire, the old and once-crumbling riverside mill district now buzzes with knowledge businesses and fancy restaurants.
The hunt for Lebensraum is driving young entrepreneurs to explore the neglected peripheries of big cities, such as Boston’s South Side (“Southie”), Seattle’s South Lake Union Area and San Francisco’s twin city of Oakland. Some entrepreneurs are cutting the cord completely and swapping broom-cupboard-sized premises by the Bay for mansions in flyover territory. Mr Fallows also found older industries reviving in out-of-the-way places, such as in north-eastern Mississippi, where a steel mini-mill was expanding and a $300m new tyre factory was opening. The third trend combines elements of the first two: the rise of manufacturing entrepreneurs. Startups are beginning to transform manufacturing just as they transformed service industries like taxi-hailing and short-term room lets. New techniques such as 3D printing, combined with a rapid decline in the cost of computing power, are making it easier for small firms to compete with big ones. Crowdfunding sources such as Kickstarter are making it easier for them to raise capital. And big companies such as GE are trying to crowdsource innovation by providing small manufacturing firms with space and seed-money. Exponents of this “hardware renaissance” frequently locate themselves in old industrial towns such as Pittsburgh and Detroit, in part because there is lots of cheap space available and in part because they can draw on established manufacturing skills.
defense
- https://www.ft.com/content/eb8de732-7318-11e9-bf5c-6eeb837566c5 American companies are in the running to take over the training of UK Royal Navy recruits after the Ministry of Defence chose two US groups to compete for the lucrative contract. Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, two of the world’s biggest defence companies, are pitted against the British defence group Babcock International for the programme, which is estimated to be worth up to £2bn over the next 12 years. The three companies were selected this year and negotiations are now ongoing. The wide-ranging project, nicknamed Selborne, will bring together a number of existing contracts with the aim of delivering all levels of naval personnel training, according to a contract note for prospective bidders. This includes all operational sea training, and training and simulation in military electronic systems. The contract is due to start from 2021. Both Lockheed Martin and Raytheon already provide training and logistics support for the US military. Raytheon trains the US Army under multiple contracts. Richard Daniel, chief executive of Raytheon UK, said the company’s experience of commercial training for car companies was beneficial for its bid.
- 美軍接替V-22「魚鷹」的下一代通用傾轉旋翼機的驗證機V-280已在去年12月18日完成了首次自主飛行，這種自主飛行技術未來或可發展出無人駕駛版本。本次飛行測試中，由美國貝爾公司和洛馬公司聯合研發的V-280在飛行員調整號程序之後實現全自動起飛，飛行過程中實現無飛行員干預的自主着陸。首席工程師保羅─威爾遜表示，V-280完成了所有預編程的飛行，飛行員只要在各個環節上進行控制。比如在垂直起飛之後轉入水平飛行，這時候需要飛行員進行操作，提示V-280的電腦進行下一步飛行。http://paper.takungpao.com/resfile/PDF/20200203/PDF/a14_screen.pdf
prisons
- private prisons economist 19oct19 "capital punishment", https://www.economist.com/united-states/2019/10/17/in-defence-of-americas-prison-industrial-complex
financial
- https://www.ft.com/content/e83f9a78-b1bc-11e6-9c37-5787335499a0 Fintech start-ups look to build on US mortgage market share
- https://www.ft.com/content/41af5986-5e05-11e8-9334-2218e7146b04 The US’s banks have largely sat out the mergers and acquisitions wave of recent years. While deal records have fallen in almost every other sector, big banks have done almost nothing, shrinking rather than expanding. And merger activity among small and mid-sized banks — some 5,607 of them, at last count — has been subdued. But when Fifth Third Bancorp of Cincinnati revealed its $4.7bn swoop for Chicago’s MB Financial on Monday morning, shares in other Chicago-area banks began to move, too. Wintrust, a similar-sized bank based in Rosemont, Illinois, ended the day up almost 4 per cent, while First Midwest of Itasca closed up 3 per cent. The implications were obvious: after years of thin activity in bank M&A, this deal could mark a turn.
- Shares of Intercontinental Exchange — the company that owns the NYSE — fell more than 2 percent Monday as some of Wall Street's largest financial companies neared the launch of a low-cost rival trading platform. Shares of Nasdaq also fell more than 2 percent Monday. The new venue is called Members Exchange, or MEMX. Nine banks, brokerages and other firms including Morgan Stanley, Fidelity Investments and Citadel Securities will maintain control over MEMX. MEMX investors also include Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS, as well as retail brokers Charles Schwab, E-Trade and TD Ameritrade. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/07/ice-nasdaq-shares-tank-as-wall-street-giants-plan-rival-exchange-memx.html
- community banks
- economist 11may19 "they khow their customers"
- economist 1jun19 "trouble logging in" online banks in america - america's regulatory system is unfit dor digital age
Fashion/apparel
- http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/fashion-hub-coming-sunset-park-article-1.2033951 The city's Economic Development Corp. announced Thursday a $3.5 million plan to create a fashion design and manufacturing hub in the Liberty View Industrial Plaza next to Industry City.
Film
- http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1606718/us-cinema-chains-refuse-premiere-crouching-tiger-sequel
- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21629377-other-industries-have-lot-learn-hollywood-creative-capitalism
- 多家荷里活片商近期相繼進軍東南亞，與泰國及 菲律賓等地電訊商合作，推出類似 Netflix的電視及 電影串流服務。這些地區大多存在盜版猖獗、流動網 絡質素參差及電子交易不普及等問題，片商有見及 此，主動提供不少特別優惠，例如低至 3美元(約 23 港元)月費、現金支付、免費公共WiFi下載影片等， 希望盡量讓服務普及至基層。 華納兄弟及索尼影視電視公司早前與新加坡電訊 合資 1億美元(約 7.75億港元)，在印度、菲律賓和泰 國推出Hooq串流服務。菲律賓最大電視商 PLDT亦 與投資銀行及澳洲投資者合作，在馬來西亞及泰菲等 地推出iflix服務，與Hooq競爭。 與歐美等發達國家盛行的Netflix不同，東南亞網絡基 建不足以支援龐大串流需求，而且盜版問題也遠較歐美 嚴重。兩家服務供應商因此想出對策，其中iflix向片商 爭取「先下載後觀看」授權，容許用戶透過公共WiFi下 載整套劇集或影片後，再在手機上觀看；3美元的月費， 也是為了針對低廉的盜版DVD。http://pdf.wenweipo.com/2015/11/03/a23-1103.pdf
Hotel
- http://nypost.com/2014/10/20/elderly-woman-takes-on-airbnb-and-landlords-for-illegal-bookings/
Hospital
- http://www.statista.com/statistics/245010/top-us-for-profit-hospital-operators-based-on-number-of-hospitals/
- http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21701172-catholic-hospitals-are-gaining-market-share-and-influence-over-gynaecology-gloria
medical equipment
- state of illinois has a far east office which exhibited at 2017 hktdc medical equipment fair
healthcare
- health care industry almanac published by plunkett research
ophthalmic
- http://economists-pick-research.hktdc.com/business-news/article/International-Market-News/US-Ophthalmic-Industry-Eyes-Sustainable-Vision-as-its-Future-Focus/imn/en/1/1X308LSH/1X0AIY33.htm
Agriculture
- http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2015-01/28/content_19430923.htm This month, the US Federal Aviation Administration issued the first permit for agricultural use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Steven Edgar, president and CEO of ADAVSO, said his Idaho-based business will use a lightweight, fixed-wing drone to survey fields of crops. Drone technology, already used in other countries, can make farmers more efficient by helping them locate problem spots in vast fields or ranchlands. Increased efficiency could mean lower costs for consumers and less impact on the environment if farmers used fewer chemicals because drones showed them exactly where to spray. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a trade group, said agriculture could account for 80 percent of all commercial drone use, once government regulations allow it. That could be a while. The Federal Aviation Administration has been working for years on rules that would balance the desire for commercial flights of small drones with the need to prevent collisions involving manned aircraft.
- 有美國聯邦儲備銀行報告指出，貿易戰關稅成本每年達四百億美元（約三千一百二十億港元），並由美企及美國消費者承擔；申請破產的美國農場數量更創下八年新高。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20191127/00180_001.html
cotton
- There is uncombed cotton. Combed cotton. And Pima cotton.
All of it is grown by US farmers and as of Friday, it's subject to the 25 percent tariff that China has slapped on $34 billion worth of US goods in retaliation for the same tariff percentage on the same amount of goods imposed by the Trump administration earlier Friday. Cotton is produced in 17 states. Texas produces the most, followed by Georgia and Mississippi. In 2017, the US produced 21.3 million bales of cotton, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The US is the world's largest exporting country for cotton and exports around three to four times more than what is consumed domestically. For the past decade, cotton contributed around $5.48 billion annually to the US farm-level production value, the USDA said. American Upland cotton and American Pima cotton are two cotton species grown in the US. Upland cotton made up around 96.7 percent of all US cotton production in 2017, according to the USDA. Pima cotton is primarily grown in California and Arizona. Pima cotton is soft to the touch and durable. In the Central Valley region of California, one type of cotton that represents the majority of the state's cotton acreage and that will be hit by the tariffs is the highly prized long-staple American Pima cotton. It's soft to the touch and durable. Most of the crop is exported to China and India. California exported $88.5 million worth of cotton to Chinese mainland and Hong Kong in 2016. For the 2017-18 crop year, that value has jumped to about $185 million due to increased shipments, said Jarral Neeper, president of Calcot, which markets cotton from California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. It'll be difficult for China to find another reliable source of Pima cotton, Neeper told The Daily Democrat newspaper in Woodland, California. because there aren't too many places except California that produce it. China could buy extra-long staple cotton from Egypt, and there are some varieties of Pima produced in India, but not as good quality, he added. Many textile mills have licenses to use the Supima trademark and the only way they could produce their goods is to buy US Pima cotton, Neeper said. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201807/10/WS5b4424dba3103349141e1d39.html
Dairy
- http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21663258-what-goes-one-countrys-biggest-dairy-farms-moo-you Between 80 and 100 calves are born every day to around 36,000 cows on 11 farms covering 35,000 acres at Fair Oaks Farms, one of America’s biggest and most modern dairy operations. It is also the country’s only dairy theme park (though many other farms are open to the public). Its milking parlour attracts more than 400,000 visitors a year, who watch from a balcony as cows step onto a slow-motion merry-go-round to be milked three times a day. Afterwards spectators are whisked off in a bus painted like a black-and-white Holstein cow for a tour of the barns. Children can clamber up a “Calcium Climber” magnetic wall, ascend “udder heights” on a 25-foot milk bottle, milk a robotic cow and watch the making of 12 varieties of cheese and ice cream.
- https://www.ft.com/content/73b37e7a-67a3-11e7-8526-7b38dcaef614?mhq5j=e1
each person in the US and many parts of Europe, including the UK, have on average almost halved the amount of cows’ milk they drink. In some countries, including bucolic Switzerland, people are consuming less than the government’s daily recommended level of dairy products. Against this backdrop of falling demand, the dairy industry is now becoming rebellious itself — with a cause of combating the fast-growing $16bn market for plant-based food and drinks that have become increasingly popular with consumers as a dairy replacement. TofuTown, a German vegetarian food manufacturer selling products called “plant cheese” and Soyatoo “tofu butter”, was told by the European Court of Justice last month to change its labelling or face potential legal action. Only milk from animals can be described as such, with the same applying to yoghurt, butter, cream and cheese. Adding the plant name — tofu — “has no influence on that prohibition”, the court said.
Eggs
- http://paper.takungpao.com/resfile/PDF/20151017/PDF/a16_screen.pdf 美國雞蛋零售成本和無骨西冷牛扒售價，九月升至紀錄水位。據勞工部統計顯示，雞蛋價格按月升0.8%至每打2.966美元，較八月時漲15%。自五月的低位價格急升51%。 美國中西部今年初爆發禽流感，導致4800萬隻雞包括火雞死亡，自六月以來沒有新爆發，雞農仍然在重建供應量。美國農業協會經濟員指出，供應顯著減少。美國農業部表示，紅肉和家禽生產料增加2.7%至944億磅，明年增幅料為3%。無骨西冷牛扒售價升1.9%至每磅8.864美元。相反，碎牛肉售價則跌0.8%，烤牛肉售價跌1.5%，兩款售價跌至2014年底來低位。明年牛肉生產料出現六年來首次上升。
Livestock
- http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2015-02/04/content_19482582.htm For the past two decades, chicken has outranked beef as the most produced meat, and nowpork is about to surpass it as well. Hog herds have rebounded from a deadly virus last year, whilerecord-high meat prices and cheaper feed led to breeding of more sows and bigger pigs. Aspork output in 2015 jumps 4.6 percent to a record, cattle ranchers have yet to recover from a2012 drought, and beef production is headed for a 22-year low, the US Department ofAgriculture estimates.
- pork
- https://www.ft.com/content/d14decea-6b5e-11e8-b6eb-4acfcfb08c11 The US pork industry is squealing after its two biggest foreign markets imposed steep tariffs in retaliation for steel and aluminium duties from the Trump administration. Mexico last week declared a 20 per cent duty on imports of pork from the US, up from zero. China in April raised tariff rates on US pork from 12 per cent to 37 per cent, putting the meat at a disadvantage in a global market. The duties target an industry with a strong presence in states that voted for President Donald Trump, including Iowa, Indiana and North Carolina. Before Mexico’s announcement, the government estimated the US would export nearly a quarter of its 12.2m tonnes of pork production this year. Mexico has been the industry’s top customer by volume, taking delivery of more than 800,000 tonnes of hams and other cuts worth $1.5bn last year. China bought almost half a million tonnes, according to the US Meat Export Federation. Canada, whose prime minister Justin Trudeau received a blast of criticism from Mr Trump at the weekend, is the US’s fourth-largest pork export market. The new tariffs come as fortunes darken for the US pork industry.
- ft 25mar19 "abattoir economics" - mentioned that iowa is the biggest pork producing state in US
- https://www.quora.com/Why-do-American-chicken-farms-soak-their-chicken-in-chlorine-when-its-illegal-in-Europe
corn ethanol
- The US corn ethanol industry is increasing production capacity even as domestic fuel sales and government support reach a plateau.Two new refineries, the first in years, are proposed in Iowa and South Dakota. They are part of a nationwide expansion that would add 500m gallons per year of capacity by 2018, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.The US biofuels industry is the world’s largest, producing 44 per cent of global supply. It was unleashed by a law requiring a sharp rise in domestic ethanol sales.But the federal corn ethanol mandate — which dictates minimum amounts of ethanol used in US fuel supplies — has levelled off at 15bn gallons per year, a volume the Trump administration is expected to maintain in a pending proposal for 2018. Stagnant gasoline demand is also capping sales, as most petrol sold in the US contains no more than 10 per cent ethanol.https://www.ft.com/content/8ffff052-52b0-11e7-bfb8-997009366969
Estate agents
- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21635019-internet-hasnt-wiped-out-estate-agents-some-online-firms-are-still-trying-home
Infrastructure
- http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21633848-states-and-cities-seize-initiative-transport-funding-going-their-separate-ways
Steel
- 以徵收鋼鐵進口稅25%為例，美國的最大鋼鐵進口來源是加拿大、巴西、南韓、墨西哥，這四個盟友已佔了美國鋼鐵市場的48%，再加上日本、印度、德國和台灣，八個「朋友」共佔了62%：實施高關稅只會傷害朋友感情，與朋友作對。中國鋼鐵出口往美國在2017年有19.6億美元，為數不大，重關稅對中國的打擊，微不足道。中國的鋼鐵產能過剩，直接拉低世界鋼鐵價格，令高成本生產國（如美國）受損，固然是實情，但遠在中國成為鋼鐵大國之前，美國的鋼鐵業已逐漸因為成本問題，把工廠搬去加拿大和墨西哥，美國鋼鐵工人人數從1998年22萬餘人，逐步下降至2017年的14萬人，這筆賬不能算在中國頭上。中國鋼鐵產品的最大市場是南韓（16%）、越南（10%）、菲律賓（6%）、泰國（4%）、印尼（4%）、印度（4%）、巴基斯坦（3%），香港、台灣、馬來西亞各（2%），以上合共53%，除南韓之外，沒有一個地區是美國鋼鐵市場的大供應商，故此鋼鐵貿易戰如果真的發生，美國只會把自己的朋友推往敵人陣營，毫無得益。美國近20年來已習慣了使用外來鋼材，美國鋼鐵業根本沒有足夠的產能和工人來滿足國內市場需求，美國其他工業必然受苦，盈利增長受損！股市高位難以維持了。https://hk.lifestyle.appledaily.com/lifestyle/columnist/左丁山/daily/article/20180310/20327141
aerospace
- 美國太空總署（NASA）將於二○二四年進行月亮女神號載人探月計劃，並於周四宣布，決定讓太空探索科技公司（SpaceX）、亞馬遜始創人貝索斯旗下的太空公司Blue Origin和科技公司Dynetics，競爭開發、建造及發射月球着陸器，是美國首次有私人企業參與此項目研發。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20200502/00180_034.html
- 美國太空探索科技公司（SpaceX）的載人「龍」飛船，於美東時間前日下午三時廿二分（香港時間昨日凌晨三時廿二分）載着兩名美國太空總署（NASA）太空人，於佛羅里達州甘迺迪太空中心成功發射升空，翌日抵達國際太空站。今次不但是美國九年來首次載人太空任務，更是美國首個商業營運的載人升空任務。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20200601/00180_018.html
Aviation
- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21688875-lack-competition-means-high-air-fares-cosy-club
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/06/donald-trump-calls-ridiculous-new-boeing-air-force-one-scrapped/ Donald Trump has called for the scrapping of multi-billion dollar plans for Boeing to build a new Air Force One, calling the costs "ridiculous and totally out of control". Boeing shares immediately dropped one per cent following Mr Trump's comments.
Airport
- only commercial airport privately owned - branson airport
Container port
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/59345b68-8615-11e4-b248-00144feabdc0.html A labour dispute and problems handling vast new container ships have led to the worst delays in 10 years at US west coast container ports, with shipping lines being forced to divert vessels or cancel services.
- http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21641262-if-dockworkers-union-blocks-west-coast-ports-shippers-will-find-others-watching-fruit ON JANUARY 22nd KFC announced that its Japanese stores faced a shortage of potatoes. McDonald’s, too, rationed fries in Japan in December, despite an “emergency” airlift of nearly 1,000 tonnes of spuds. The cause in both cases: massive delays at America’s West Coast ports. Cargo is piling up inside the terminals. Exporters and importers are bleeding cash. The North American Meat Institute says delays are costing meat and poultry producers $30m a week. Chelan Fresh Marketing, a Washington fruit supplier, has laid off a fifth of its workforce. It is “a huge mess,” says Jon Wyss, Chelan’s head of government affairs. The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents port operators, is battling the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The two groups have worked without a contract since July. The PMA says the union is co-ordinating a slowdown. By limiting the availability of skilled workers such as crane operators, the union has quietly created a bottleneck. “It’s like putting a football team of 11 guys out on the field, but not one of them is a quarterback,” says a spokesman for the PMA. The union denies it, arguing that the bottleneck is caused by larger ships and a near-record volume of goods.
- http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1707665/us-port-dispute-sees-some-goods-shift-air-sea
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/84059a76-2cca-11e5-acfb-cbd2e1c81cca.html Savannah, where container throughput grew 16.4 per cent year on year over the first five months of 2015, has also taken longer-term market share. The port has lured retailers to build distribution centres nearby — a strategy that has turned it into the US’s fourth-busiest container port, after Los Angeles, Long Beach and New York/New Jersey. Curtis Foltz, executive director of the Georgia ports authority, admits that this year’s growth has been an “anomaly” and “over the top”. Los Angeles and Long Beach on the west coast are down 3.67 per cent and up 0.1 per cent for the first six months, respectively. “Just like most east coast ports are experiencing, we’re seeing a lot of diversion from the west coast to the east coast,” says Mr Foltz. The traffic at Savannah is surprising not only because of quantity but owing to some vessels’ size. Among the ships at the quay is the NYK Arcadia, a vessel 332m long and 46m wide that, until a few years ago, few operators would have considered sending to Savannah. The port is 40 miles from the open sea up a shallow river that such vessels can safely navigate only at high tide.
Railway
- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21692867-second-golden-age-american-railroads-drawing-close-consolidation-may
air taxi
- commuters in the US city of Irvine, California, will soon be able to hail rides from an on-demand robotaxi service set up by South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Group, using technology from Chinese start-up Pony.ai. The new service, called BotRide, will start operations on November 4 with an initial fleet of 10 autonomous sport utility vehicles providing free rides in Irvine through January, according to the two companies on Friday. Hyundai Motor has adopted Pony.ai’s self-driving system in the SUVs for BotRide, which can be accessed by commuters via an app created by on-demand, ride-sharing services provider Via. The BotRide app can support carpools, which allows multiple commuters to share a ride, and direct passengers to nearby pickup points to avoid detours.“The pilot introduces BotRide to several hundred Irvine residents, including college students,” said Christopher Chang, head of business development at Hyundai Motor’s strategy and technology division, in a statement. “The goal is to study consumer behaviour in an autonomous ride-sharing environment.” https://www.scmp.com/tech/start-ups/article/3034640/hyundai-chinese-start-ponyai-join-forces-driverless-robotaxi-service
Hoverboard
- http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/08/hoverboard-inventor-money-rights-knockoffs Shortly before Christmas, with sales of hoverboards surging as the must-have gadget of 2015, Shane Chen flew to China to confront his tormentors. Chen is the man who developed and patented the hoverboard design in his lab on the US west coast four years ago. With its two wheels, the “hoverboard” doesn’t quite match up to the promise of its namesake in Back to the Future – but that has not put a dent in its popularity. Hundreds of thousands of hoverboards have been flying off shelves; celebrities have posted videos of themselves riding – and falling – off them. Even a Filipino priest got in on the act – and was promptly suspended for riding one during Christmas Eve mass.. Someone was making lots of money, but it wasn’t Chen. He marketed his design under the brand name Hovertrax, which sold for about $1,000. Cheap imitations, made in Chinese factories, have flooded the market at about one quarter of the cost.
Biotech
- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21688385-bostons-biotech-hub-surviving-challenge-silicon-valley-clusterluck
iron
- 民主黨傳統票倉明尼蘇達州鐵礦區（Iron Range）
rare earth
- 美國國內唯一一家的稀土礦企業MP Materials擬在明年大幅增聘二百名員工，啟用此前已倒閉的氯鹼工廠，並花費二億美元重啟封存在礦井的設備及建造巨型烘爐，成為美國本土在一五年後首家提煉稀土的企業。企業聯合主席利廷斯基表示，中國已意識到稀土是個具戰略意義的產業。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190825/00180_007.html
Aviation
- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21688875-lack-competition-means-high-air-fares-cosy-club
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/06/donald-trump-calls-ridiculous-new-boeing-air-force-one-scrapped/ Donald Trump has called for the scrapping of multi-billion dollar plans for Boeing to build a new Air Force One, calling the costs "ridiculous and totally out of control". Boeing shares immediately dropped one per cent following Mr Trump's comments.
Airport
- only commercial airport privately owned - branson airport
Container port
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/59345b68-8615-11e4-b248-00144feabdc0.html A labour dispute and problems handling vast new container ships have led to the worst delays in 10 years at US west coast container ports, with shipping lines being forced to divert vessels or cancel services.
Retailers have called on President Barack Obama to intervene after they were left struggling to get hold of stranded goods. Other sectors of the US economy including manufacturing and agriculture have also been hit.
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/59345b68-8615-11e4-b248-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3NdLSUD23 Big ships leave ports awash with problems- http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21641262-if-dockworkers-union-blocks-west-coast-ports-shippers-will-find-others-watching-fruit ON JANUARY 22nd KFC announced that its Japanese stores faced a shortage of potatoes. McDonald’s, too, rationed fries in Japan in December, despite an “emergency” airlift of nearly 1,000 tonnes of spuds. The cause in both cases: massive delays at America’s West Coast ports. Cargo is piling up inside the terminals. Exporters and importers are bleeding cash. The North American Meat Institute says delays are costing meat and poultry producers $30m a week. Chelan Fresh Marketing, a Washington fruit supplier, has laid off a fifth of its workforce. It is “a huge mess,” says Jon Wyss, Chelan’s head of government affairs. The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents port operators, is battling the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The two groups have worked without a contract since July. The PMA says the union is co-ordinating a slowdown. By limiting the availability of skilled workers such as crane operators, the union has quietly created a bottleneck. “It’s like putting a football team of 11 guys out on the field, but not one of them is a quarterback,” says a spokesman for the PMA. The union denies it, arguing that the bottleneck is caused by larger ships and a near-record volume of goods.
- http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1707665/us-port-dispute-sees-some-goods-shift-air-sea
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/84059a76-2cca-11e5-acfb-cbd2e1c81cca.html Savannah, where container throughput grew 16.4 per cent year on year over the first five months of 2015, has also taken longer-term market share. The port has lured retailers to build distribution centres nearby — a strategy that has turned it into the US’s fourth-busiest container port, after Los Angeles, Long Beach and New York/New Jersey. Curtis Foltz, executive director of the Georgia ports authority, admits that this year’s growth has been an “anomaly” and “over the top”. Los Angeles and Long Beach on the west coast are down 3.67 per cent and up 0.1 per cent for the first six months, respectively. “Just like most east coast ports are experiencing, we’re seeing a lot of diversion from the west coast to the east coast,” says Mr Foltz. The traffic at Savannah is surprising not only because of quantity but owing to some vessels’ size. Among the ships at the quay is the NYK Arcadia, a vessel 332m long and 46m wide that, until a few years ago, few operators would have considered sending to Savannah. The port is 40 miles from the open sea up a shallow river that such vessels can safely navigate only at high tide.
- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21692867-second-golden-age-american-railroads-drawing-close-consolidation-may
- economist 22sep18 "back on track" on american passenger railways, company brightline mentioned
Automobile
- http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21642228-vehicles-make-waiting-traffic-pleasure-vans-rich-and-gridlocked For three years in a row, congestion in Los Angeles has been the worst in America. That is good news for Howard Becker, the founder of Becker Automotive. He began his business in the 1970s, installing sound systems for the Beverly Hills glitterati. Today, he customises cars and vans for clients such as Mark Wahlberg, an actor, and King Abdullah of Jordan. The vans take up to seven months to complete and come with such features as touch-screen computers, wireless Internet, cable TV, seats for half a dozen people, bathrooms—and, in one case, an exercise bicycle welded to the floor so the owner could work out. Becker cars are not cheap: they range from $150,000 for a basic rolling palace to more than $500,000 for an armoured one. (These are apparently popular in the Middle East and Africa, where security is a priority, as well as with nervous celebrities.) On the inside, Mr Becker’s cars can be as opulent as you like, but most customers prefer the outside to be understated. If you are a star stuck in traffic, it is unwise to advertise the fact. Who wants to be mobbed by fans on the freeway?
Automobile
- http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21642228-vehicles-make-waiting-traffic-pleasure-vans-rich-and-gridlocked For three years in a row, congestion in Los Angeles has been the worst in America. That is good news for Howard Becker, the founder of Becker Automotive. He began his business in the 1970s, installing sound systems for the Beverly Hills glitterati. Today, he customises cars and vans for clients such as Mark Wahlberg, an actor, and King Abdullah of Jordan. The vans take up to seven months to complete and come with such features as touch-screen computers, wireless Internet, cable TV, seats for half a dozen people, bathrooms—and, in one case, an exercise bicycle welded to the floor so the owner could work out. Becker cars are not cheap: they range from $150,000 for a basic rolling palace to more than $500,000 for an armoured one. (These are apparently popular in the Middle East and Africa, where security is a priority, as well as with nervous celebrities.) On the inside, Mr Becker’s cars can be as opulent as you like, but most customers prefer the outside to be understated. If you are a star stuck in traffic, it is unwise to advertise the fact. Who wants to be mobbed by fans on the freeway?
air taxi
- commuters in the US city of Irvine, California, will soon be able to hail rides from an on-demand robotaxi service set up by South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Group, using technology from Chinese start-up Pony.ai. The new service, called BotRide, will start operations on November 4 with an initial fleet of 10 autonomous sport utility vehicles providing free rides in Irvine through January, according to the two companies on Friday. Hyundai Motor has adopted Pony.ai’s self-driving system in the SUVs for BotRide, which can be accessed by commuters via an app created by on-demand, ride-sharing services provider Via. The BotRide app can support carpools, which allows multiple commuters to share a ride, and direct passengers to nearby pickup points to avoid detours.“The pilot introduces BotRide to several hundred Irvine residents, including college students,” said Christopher Chang, head of business development at Hyundai Motor’s strategy and technology division, in a statement. “The goal is to study consumer behaviour in an autonomous ride-sharing environment.” https://www.scmp.com/tech/start-ups/article/3034640/hyundai-chinese-start-ponyai-join-forces-driverless-robotaxi-service
Hoverboard
- http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/08/hoverboard-inventor-money-rights-knockoffs Shortly before Christmas, with sales of hoverboards surging as the must-have gadget of 2015, Shane Chen flew to China to confront his tormentors. Chen is the man who developed and patented the hoverboard design in his lab on the US west coast four years ago. With its two wheels, the “hoverboard” doesn’t quite match up to the promise of its namesake in Back to the Future – but that has not put a dent in its popularity. Hundreds of thousands of hoverboards have been flying off shelves; celebrities have posted videos of themselves riding – and falling – off them. Even a Filipino priest got in on the act – and was promptly suspended for riding one during Christmas Eve mass.. Someone was making lots of money, but it wasn’t Chen. He marketed his design under the brand name Hovertrax, which sold for about $1,000. Cheap imitations, made in Chinese factories, have flooded the market at about one quarter of the cost.
Biotech
- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21688385-bostons-biotech-hub-surviving-challenge-silicon-valley-clusterluck
iron
- 民主黨傳統票倉明尼蘇達州鐵礦區（Iron Range）
rare earth
- 美國國內唯一一家的稀土礦企業MP Materials擬在明年大幅增聘二百名員工，啟用此前已倒閉的氯鹼工廠，並花費二億美元重啟封存在礦井的設備及建造巨型烘爐，成為美國本土在一五年後首家提煉稀土的企業。企業聯合主席利廷斯基表示，中國已意識到稀土是個具戰略意義的產業。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190825/00180_007.html
- 美國共和、民主兩黨眾議員於周二提出議案，鼓勵美國國內的稀土生產，降低美國對中國稀土進口的依賴。議案名為《收回美國稀土法案》，由共和黨籍德州眾議員古登、民主黨籍德州眾議員岡薩雷斯提出，要求推出減稅刺激計劃，鼓勵美國國內生產科技製造領域所需的稀土，確保美國的國家安全。古登辦公室指，美國內政部將三十五種稀土礦列為關鍵資源，其中十四種完全依靠外國供應商提供，而中國是廿二種稀土資源的主要供應國。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20200904/00180_003.html
Oil
- reserve
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dc2683b4-7bd6-11e4-a695-00144feabdc0.html US proven oil reserves last year rose to their highest level since 1975, official figures have shown, in the latest sign of how the shale revolution has transformed the country’s energy supply outlook. Proven reserves — oil that is expected to be recoverable with existing technology at current prices — were in decline in the US up until 2009, when companies began experiments with producing oil from the Bakken shale of North Dakota.
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/583bc736-650a-11e4-ab2d-00144feabdc0.html The convincing Republican victory in the US midterm elections has raised hopes in the oil industry that the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline for exporting crude from western Canada could at last secure the approval it needs.
- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21679452-overhyped-business-model-heading-trouble-running-emptyChampions of the pipeline operators had argued that, since they tend to sign long-term contracts with fixed fees, they should be reasonably well insulated from any weakness in the prices of the commodities. But as American gas prices have stayed weak, and the global price of oil has slumped since mid-2014, worries have grown among investors that “upstream” production firms may seek to renegotiate their pipeline contracts. And as those upstream firms have scaled back their exploration projects, demand for new pipelines has fallen. The fewer that are laid, the harder it is for MLPs to meet a promise to investors to keep increasing their payouts. Kevin Kaiser of Hedgeye, a financial-research firm, says that retail investors, who do not fully understand the companies’ business model and were lured in by the promise of big dividends at the tail-end of the boom, are “getting completely fleeced.” The last straw could be an interest-rate rise by the Federal Reserve, which is widely anticipated later this month and which would reduce the appeal of risky but high-yielding assets. However, pipeline firms are trying to stay optimistic. Some executives argue that future demand for their assets is assured by an increasing need for gas to burn in power stations, cross-border shipments to Mexico and the prospect of America exporting oil and liquefied natural gas to other countries. Trisha Curtis, a midstream specialist at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, a think-tank in Washington, DC, says that pipelines may have been “overhyped” and there may be overcapacity in some parts of the country, but there are private-equity firms eager to buy them if the MLPs are forced to sell. Like the railways before them, America’s network of pipelines could continue to serve the country for many decades to come. But the companies that built them may not survive anything like as long.
biofuel
- https://www.ft.com/content/02eeb934-b1a0-11e6-a37c-f4a01f1b0fa1 The White House handed a victory to the corn ethanol industry and dismayed oil companies by requiring US cars and trucks to burn more biofuels next year. The rule finalised on Wednesday will require a 6 per cent increase in the use of renewable fuels to 19.28bn gallons in 2017. While well below the 24bn gallons originally mandated by law, it nevertheless drew cheers from biofuel advocates fighting limited domestic distribution of their product.
lng
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f1773832-b5ee-11e5-b147-e5e5bba42e51.html The plunge in oil prices since the summer of 2014 has dragged down the value of LNG, which is often sold on crude-linked contracts, and damped the excitement over US exports. The economics of shipping gas from the US were compelling two years ago, but are now marginal. Deteriorating market conditions have put the brake on any new investments in US LNG. Even so, US LNG exports are likely to have a significant impact, holding down energy costs for consumers in Europe, Latin America and Asia. They will also provide tough competition for anyone hoping to build rival LNG plants, such as the proposed projects in east Africa, the west of Canada, or Russia. By the end of the decade, the US is likely to be the world’s third-largest exporter of LNG, after Qatar and Australia. Combined with the new supplies from Chevron’s huge Gorgon and Wheatstone projects in Australia, which are scheduled to come on stream this year, exports from the US are making it a buyers’ market for LNG.
Shale gas
- article on producers reducing costs ft 23oct14 page 19
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1fedfe66-7f9b-11e4-b4f5-00144feabdc0.html When Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries last month rejected calls for a production cut by Opec, the oil cartel, they put the responsibility for stabilising plummeting crude prices on to the US shale industry. Suhail al-Mazroui, energy minister for the United Arab Emirates, said US shale companies and other producers who had created an oil glut should “respect the needs of the market”. Less diplomatically, Scott Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources, one of the leading shale oil producers, said Opec had “declared war” on the US industry.
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3aaefcbc-bda0-11e4-9d09-00144feab7de.html People in Carrizo Springs are nervous and the pain is likely to get worse. In recent weeks, they have begun to feel the economic shockwaves amid cuts enforced by the oil price slump — another jolt for a formerly sleepy town that was transformed with little warning in only a few short years into a bustling energy hub. Tens of billions of dollars have been invested in the Eagle Ford, a sedimentary rock formation that stretches for 400 miles from the Mexican border. But the number of active oil and gas drilling rigs in the area — a measure of industry vibrancy — has fallen from a high of 228 in January 2014 to 168 earlier this month, according to Baker Hughes, an oilfield services company. The drop points to the retrenchment taking place among US oil producers due to a near halving of crude prices since the summer.
coal
- wyoming
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/673b439e-aa18-11e4-8f91-00144feab7de.html The latest sign of the deepening crisis hitting the US coal industry came on Friday, when Alpha Natural Resources announced that it planned to idle production at three mines in West Virginia and cut jobs at two more, affecting about 91 workers in total.
- people
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/three-mile-island-site-1979-meltdown-shuts-down-completely-n1057211 The money-losing Three Mile Island, the 1979 site of the United States' worst commercial nuclear power accident, was shut down Friday by its energy giant owner. The end of the 45-year electricity-producing career of Three Mile Island Unit 1 came after Chicago-based Exelon Corp. tried and failed to get financial aid from Pennsylvania in the spring. Three Mile Island's Unit 1 opened in 1974 and was licensed to operate through 2034, but Exelon complained the plant was losing money in competitive electricity markets. Three Mile Island also faced particularly difficult economics because the 1979 accident that destroyed Unit 2 left it with just one reactor.
Wind energy
- http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21660171-americas-first-offshore-wind-farm-test-bed-new-industry-wondering-about-wind
solar power
- https://www.ft.com/content/10d2852a-68d0-11e7-9a66-93fb352ba1fe California is a leader in solar and wind power. The Golden State is well on its way to reaching a self-imposed goal of getting a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, part of an aggressive agenda to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Yet this bold strategy is causing complications. At noon on clear spring days, too much solar power courses through the state’s electrical grid. Generators must pay customers to take excess supply — a condition called “negative prices” — or unplug their plants. Still, California consumers have some of the highest electricity rates in the country. To mop up some of the surplus, California’s grid operator has formed a new marketplace that automatically dispatches power across the US west. The move underlines how the spread of clean power in countries from the US to the UK and Germany has forced energy traders and utilities to respond.
- https://solarsavings.news/s1/
ict
- 美國能源部周二發表聲明，指已與美國超級電腦生產商克雷公司（Cray）簽訂價值高達六億美元（約四十七億港元）的合約，研製全球運行速度最快的超級電腦，其運算能力較現時最頂級的超級電腦快五十倍，預計二○二一年交付。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190510/00180_032.html
5g
- 美國第三大電訊商T-Mobile周一宣布，成為首間在美國全國推出5G網絡服務的公司。T-Mobile在聲明中表示，其5G網絡會覆蓋兩億人口，將竭盡所能超越規模更大的國內競爭對手維里佐通訊（Verizon）和AT&T的有限度5G網絡服務。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20191204/00180_006.html
blockchain
- ft 2jul18 "beefing up supply chain"
ecommerce
Oil
- reserve
- 美國戰略石油儲備一九七五年由時任國務卿基辛格推動建立，同年聖誕節前夕由時任總統福特簽署立法。當國家面臨威脅經濟的石油斷供時，總統有權動用作緊急出售。不過，這並非代表立即令全球石油供應增加，因為石油先從油庫取出，再在市場出售，過程需時約兩周。戰略石油儲備由能源部管理，存放在德州及路易斯安那州沿岸、六百米至一千二百米深的地下洞穴內。截至本月六日，美國的石油儲備有六億四千萬多桶，當中近四億桶屬重質石油，餘下均是輕質石油。美國高峰時期的石油儲備是二○○九年，數量高達七億二千七百萬桶。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190917/00180_003.html
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dc2683b4-7bd6-11e4-a695-00144feabdc0.html US proven oil reserves last year rose to their highest level since 1975, official figures have shown, in the latest sign of how the shale revolution has transformed the country’s energy supply outlook. Proven reserves — oil that is expected to be recoverable with existing technology at current prices — were in decline in the US up until 2009, when companies began experiments with producing oil from the Bakken shale of North Dakota.
- http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/29/us/dakota-pipeline-standing-rock-sioux/ They've come from Japan, Russia and Germany. Australia, Israel and Serbia. And, of course, there are the allies, not exclusively Native American or indigenous, who've flocked here from all corners of the US. Together they stand in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline, a $3.7 billion investment to move 470,000 barrels of domestic crude oil a day through four states. They're fighting against what they see as corporate greed, an environmental threat and an assault on sacred land.
- https://www.ft.com/content/8951bf62-bb0f-11e6-8b45-b8b81dd5d080 The companies building the controversial Dakota Access crude oil pipeline said on Monday they intend to press ahead with the project on its planned route, in spite of the US Army’s decision to delay a crucial permit to give time for further studies.Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners, the companies leading the $3.8bn project, said in a statement that the move to block Dakota Accesswas a “purely political decision” on the part of the Obama administration, and they “fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting”. They added that the White House’s call for a delay showed it had “abandoned the rule of law in favour of currying favour with a narrow and extreme political constituency”. Donald Trump’s team has said he supports the pipeline, and his administration is expected to grant the approvals that have so far been denied.
- http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38734450 US President Donald Trump has infuriated environmentalists by signing executive orders that support two controversial oil pipelines. The new Republican president backed the Keystone XL and Dakota Access projects, provided American steel is used. The Obama administration in late 2015 halted Keystone, which would carry crude from Canada to Texas. The Army decided last year to explore other routes for the Dakota pipeline amid huge protests by Native Americans.
- Citizen’s groups on Friday delivered a petition with more than 11,300 signatures to three of Japan’s mega-banks to demand they halt funding for the Dakota Access Pipeline reinstated by U.S. President Donald Trump. A group of concerned citizens started the online petition last December at Change.org. They are calling on Mizuho Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, and the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group to withdraw their funding for the Dakota Access Pipeline, saying the $3.7 billion project threatens Lake Oahe, the indigenous Standing Rock Sioux Nation’s only source of drinking water in North Dakota.https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/02/17/national/japanese-protesters-demand-mega-banks-end-funding-dakota-pipeline-project/
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/583bc736-650a-11e4-ab2d-00144feabdc0.html The convincing Republican victory in the US midterm elections has raised hopes in the oil industry that the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline for exporting crude from western Canada could at last secure the approval it needs.
- http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38734450 US President Donald Trump has infuriated environmentalists by signing executive orders that support two controversial oil pipelines. The new Republican president backed the Keystone XL and Dakota Access projects, provided American steel is used. The Obama administration in late 2015 halted Keystone, which would carry crude from Canada to Texas. The Army decided last year to explore other routes for the Dakota pipeline amid huge protests by Native Americans.
- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21679452-overhyped-business-model-heading-trouble-running-emptyChampions of the pipeline operators had argued that, since they tend to sign long-term contracts with fixed fees, they should be reasonably well insulated from any weakness in the prices of the commodities. But as American gas prices have stayed weak, and the global price of oil has slumped since mid-2014, worries have grown among investors that “upstream” production firms may seek to renegotiate their pipeline contracts. And as those upstream firms have scaled back their exploration projects, demand for new pipelines has fallen. The fewer that are laid, the harder it is for MLPs to meet a promise to investors to keep increasing their payouts. Kevin Kaiser of Hedgeye, a financial-research firm, says that retail investors, who do not fully understand the companies’ business model and were lured in by the promise of big dividends at the tail-end of the boom, are “getting completely fleeced.” The last straw could be an interest-rate rise by the Federal Reserve, which is widely anticipated later this month and which would reduce the appeal of risky but high-yielding assets. However, pipeline firms are trying to stay optimistic. Some executives argue that future demand for their assets is assured by an increasing need for gas to burn in power stations, cross-border shipments to Mexico and the prospect of America exporting oil and liquefied natural gas to other countries. Trisha Curtis, a midstream specialist at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, a think-tank in Washington, DC, says that pipelines may have been “overhyped” and there may be overcapacity in some parts of the country, but there are private-equity firms eager to buy them if the MLPs are forced to sell. Like the railways before them, America’s network of pipelines could continue to serve the country for many decades to come. But the companies that built them may not survive anything like as long.
biofuel
- https://www.ft.com/content/02eeb934-b1a0-11e6-a37c-f4a01f1b0fa1 The White House handed a victory to the corn ethanol industry and dismayed oil companies by requiring US cars and trucks to burn more biofuels next year. The rule finalised on Wednesday will require a 6 per cent increase in the use of renewable fuels to 19.28bn gallons in 2017. While well below the 24bn gallons originally mandated by law, it nevertheless drew cheers from biofuel advocates fighting limited domestic distribution of their product.
lng
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f1773832-b5ee-11e5-b147-e5e5bba42e51.html The plunge in oil prices since the summer of 2014 has dragged down the value of LNG, which is often sold on crude-linked contracts, and damped the excitement over US exports. The economics of shipping gas from the US were compelling two years ago, but are now marginal. Deteriorating market conditions have put the brake on any new investments in US LNG. Even so, US LNG exports are likely to have a significant impact, holding down energy costs for consumers in Europe, Latin America and Asia. They will also provide tough competition for anyone hoping to build rival LNG plants, such as the proposed projects in east Africa, the west of Canada, or Russia. By the end of the decade, the US is likely to be the world’s third-largest exporter of LNG, after Qatar and Australia. Combined with the new supplies from Chevron’s huge Gorgon and Wheatstone projects in Australia, which are scheduled to come on stream this year, exports from the US are making it a buyers’ market for LNG.
Shale gas
- article on producers reducing costs ft 23oct14 page 19
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1fedfe66-7f9b-11e4-b4f5-00144feabdc0.html When Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries last month rejected calls for a production cut by Opec, the oil cartel, they put the responsibility for stabilising plummeting crude prices on to the US shale industry. Suhail al-Mazroui, energy minister for the United Arab Emirates, said US shale companies and other producers who had created an oil glut should “respect the needs of the market”. Less diplomatically, Scott Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources, one of the leading shale oil producers, said Opec had “declared war” on the US industry.
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3aaefcbc-bda0-11e4-9d09-00144feab7de.html People in Carrizo Springs are nervous and the pain is likely to get worse. In recent weeks, they have begun to feel the economic shockwaves amid cuts enforced by the oil price slump — another jolt for a formerly sleepy town that was transformed with little warning in only a few short years into a bustling energy hub. Tens of billions of dollars have been invested in the Eagle Ford, a sedimentary rock formation that stretches for 400 miles from the Mexican border. But the number of active oil and gas drilling rigs in the area — a measure of industry vibrancy — has fallen from a high of 228 in January 2014 to 168 earlier this month, according to Baker Hughes, an oilfield services company. The drop points to the retrenchment taking place among US oil producers due to a near halving of crude prices since the summer.
- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21656671-americas-shale-energy-industry-has-future-many-shale-firms-do-not-fractured-finances America’s shale-energy industry has a future. Many shale firms do not
- https://www.ft.com/content/30ae7306-dcce-11e6-86ac-f253db7791c6 Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Tuesday that Opec had little to fear from an immediate recovery in the US shale oil industry, with production unlikely to rise substantially in the near future.
- economist 20oct18 "peering inside the permian"
- https://www.ft.com/content/30ae7306-dcce-11e6-86ac-f253db7791c6 Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Tuesday that Opec had little to fear from an immediate recovery in the US shale oil industry, with production unlikely to rise substantially in the near future.
- economist 20oct18 "peering inside the permian"
- wyoming
- carbon valley is the largest coal producing region in america ft 13sep19 "turning coal into gold"
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/673b439e-aa18-11e4-8f91-00144feab7de.html The latest sign of the deepening crisis hitting the US coal industry came on Friday, when Alpha Natural Resources announced that it planned to idle production at three mines in West Virginia and cut jobs at two more, affecting about 91 workers in total.
- people
- Christopher Cline was an American billionaire. He was the majority owner of Foresight Reserves LP, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Regarded by Bloomberg as the "New King Coal", Cline was considered to have been responsible for reviving the Illinois coal industry.
nuclear
- https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/06/us/bahamas-crash-billionaire-daughter-friends-killed/index.html West Virginia coal billionaire Chris Cline died in a plane crash near the Bahamas along with his daughter, her three college friends and three other people, authorities said. The helicopter took off from Big Grand Cay early Thursday and was reported missing more than 12 hours later when it didn't arrive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, its intended destination. Local residents and police discovered the helicopter overturned in 16 feet of water two miles off Grand Cay in the Abacos and recovered the bodies of four females and three males, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force. Six of the victims were from the United States while the pilot was from the United Kingdom, police said.
- https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/three-mile-island-site-1979-meltdown-shuts-down-completely-n1057211 The money-losing Three Mile Island, the 1979 site of the United States' worst commercial nuclear power accident, was shut down Friday by its energy giant owner. The end of the 45-year electricity-producing career of Three Mile Island Unit 1 came after Chicago-based Exelon Corp. tried and failed to get financial aid from Pennsylvania in the spring. Three Mile Island's Unit 1 opened in 1974 and was licensed to operate through 2034, but Exelon complained the plant was losing money in competitive electricity markets. Three Mile Island also faced particularly difficult economics because the 1979 accident that destroyed Unit 2 left it with just one reactor.
Wind energy
- http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21660171-americas-first-offshore-wind-farm-test-bed-new-industry-wondering-about-wind
solar power
- https://www.ft.com/content/10d2852a-68d0-11e7-9a66-93fb352ba1fe California is a leader in solar and wind power. The Golden State is well on its way to reaching a self-imposed goal of getting a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, part of an aggressive agenda to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Yet this bold strategy is causing complications. At noon on clear spring days, too much solar power courses through the state’s electrical grid. Generators must pay customers to take excess supply — a condition called “negative prices” — or unplug their plants. Still, California consumers have some of the highest electricity rates in the country. To mop up some of the surplus, California’s grid operator has formed a new marketplace that automatically dispatches power across the US west. The move underlines how the spread of clean power in countries from the US to the UK and Germany has forced energy traders and utilities to respond.
- https://solarsavings.news/s1/
ict
- 美國能源部周二發表聲明，指已與美國超級電腦生產商克雷公司（Cray）簽訂價值高達六億美元（約四十七億港元）的合約，研製全球運行速度最快的超級電腦，其運算能力較現時最頂級的超級電腦快五十倍，預計二○二一年交付。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190510/00180_032.html
5g
- 美國第三大電訊商T-Mobile周一宣布，成為首間在美國全國推出5G網絡服務的公司。T-Mobile在聲明中表示，其5G網絡會覆蓋兩億人口，將竭盡所能超越規模更大的國內競爭對手維里佐通訊（Verizon）和AT&T的有限度5G網絡服務。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20191204/00180_006.html
blockchain
- ft 2jul18 "beefing up supply chain"
- About a dozen rural US telecoms carriers that depend on Huawei for network gear are in discussions with its biggest rivals, Ericsson and Nokia, to replace their Chinese equipment, sources familiar with the matter said.The carriers, which include Pine Belt in Alabama, and Union Wireless in Wyoming, are seeking discounted pricing and looking forward to government assistance but have yet to reach agreements, these sources said. Nokia and Ericsson declined to comment.The talks are critical for small carriers that have relied on Huawei Technologies or ZTE for inexpensive, high-quality mobile network gear in recent years even as the big US telecoms companies shunned the Chinese firm.https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3016073/push-replace-huawei-rural-us-carriers-look-nokia-and-ericsson
-https://www.ft.com/content/30fc84da-f781-11e9-a79c-bc9acae3b654 Microsoft has beaten Amazon to win a highly sensitive $10bn US defence contract, following several rounds of bidding, a legal challenge and a last-minute intervention by Donald Trump. The Pentagon announced on Friday that Microsoft had won the so-called Jedi cloud computing contract, which will allow the company to handle large parts of the defence department’s data and communications. Many had expected Amazon to win the contract, but President Trump intervened at the last moment to warn that “great companies” had complained about the process, sparking a final review by Mark Esper, the US defence secretary. Mr Trump has regularly clashed with Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and chief executive, and his intervention was seen by some as politically motivated. Amazon is the only technology company that is currently able to provide secure enough encryption to meet the US government’s “top secret” requirements. The US Department of Defense made the announcement on Friday evening in a brief and technical statement that contrasted with much of the drama that has surrounded the awarding of the contract. Dana Deasy, the department’s chief information officer, said in the statement: “The DoD digital modernisation strategy was created to support this imperative. This award is an important step in execution of the digital modernisation strategy.” Ms Deasy’s announcement was the culmination of a two-year process which originally saw four companies bid for the contract. The contract forms the key plank of the Pentagon’s efforts to move much of its computing power away from physical servers and on to the cloud. The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, known as Jedi, has been highly contested not just because of its value but also because it places the winner in pole position to win a host of other similar contracts from governments and large institutions around the world. The bidding process was held up earlier this year when Oracle, one of the original four bidders, challenged the process in the courts. The company lost its appeal, but Mr Trump made his intervention soon afterwards, prompting a last-minute review by Mr Esper, who had recently been appointed as defence secretary. Mr Trump’s comments were widely interpreted as an attack on Amazon, not least because he named Microsoft, IBM and Oracle — all three other bidders — as the companies who had complained about the process.
-https://www.ft.com/content/30fc84da-f781-11e9-a79c-bc9acae3b654 Microsoft has beaten Amazon to win a highly sensitive $10bn US defence contract, following several rounds of bidding, a legal challenge and a last-minute intervention by Donald Trump. The Pentagon announced on Friday that Microsoft had won the so-called Jedi cloud computing contract, which will allow the company to handle large parts of the defence department’s data and communications. Many had expected Amazon to win the contract, but President Trump intervened at the last moment to warn that “great companies” had complained about the process, sparking a final review by Mark Esper, the US defence secretary. Mr Trump has regularly clashed with Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and chief executive, and his intervention was seen by some as politically motivated. Amazon is the only technology company that is currently able to provide secure enough encryption to meet the US government’s “top secret” requirements. The US Department of Defense made the announcement on Friday evening in a brief and technical statement that contrasted with much of the drama that has surrounded the awarding of the contract. Dana Deasy, the department’s chief information officer, said in the statement: “The DoD digital modernisation strategy was created to support this imperative. This award is an important step in execution of the digital modernisation strategy.” Ms Deasy’s announcement was the culmination of a two-year process which originally saw four companies bid for the contract. The contract forms the key plank of the Pentagon’s efforts to move much of its computing power away from physical servers and on to the cloud. The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, known as Jedi, has been highly contested not just because of its value but also because it places the winner in pole position to win a host of other similar contracts from governments and large institutions around the world. The bidding process was held up earlier this year when Oracle, one of the original four bidders, challenged the process in the courts. The company lost its appeal, but Mr Trump made his intervention soon afterwards, prompting a last-minute review by Mr Esper, who had recently been appointed as defence secretary. Mr Trump’s comments were widely interpreted as an attack on Amazon, not least because he named Microsoft, IBM and Oracle — all three other bidders — as the companies who had complained about the process.
- 美國每年超市雜貨市場規模達8,400億美元（約6.55萬億港元），近年是零售商兵家必爭之地。沃爾瑪以販賣一般零售產品起家，但亦透過銷售超市雜貨，吸引消費者定期光顧店舖。亞馬遜過去十年亦搶攻市場，甚至斥巨資收購實體超市Whole Foods Market。據Brick Meet Click/Mercatus調查顯示，有4,300萬美國人在五月網購超市雜貨產品，訂單總數達7,350萬張，平均單價90美元，合共涉及66億美元，較四月增長24%，更較去年同期勁升4.5倍。調查亦顯示，網上超市滲透率由四月的僅2%，跳升至五月的33%。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/finance/20200617/00202_024.html
Wine & liquor
- http://paper.takungpao.com/resfile/PDF/20141211/PDF/b16_screen.pdf 美國威士忌期待打開中國市場
- Cannabis haze hangs over US drink makers ft 26nov16
- 兩家疫市賺錢的美國電商http://hk.hkcd.com/pdf/202008/0804/HA07804CECC_HKCD.pdf
Coffee
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f155441e-2ec3-11e5-91ac-a5e17d9b4cff.html Competition in the US coffee market has intensified amid growing pressure from single-serve pods and premium beans, forcing big ground coffee companies to cut prices to try to lure back traditional customers. US-based brands such as Folgers and Maxwell House, which have dominated mid-market sales of ground coffee in the US for decades, have seen their share of the market shrink as the use of Nespresso-like coffee pods and exclusive high-end beans has spread from the coasts across America. For coffee growers from Kenya to Brazil, it is an ominous sign. Mid-market US ground coffee accounts for 83 per cent of the country’s coffee market and almost 15 per cent of global demand for beans, according to Euromonitor.
chemical
- https://www.ft.com/content/28649ac0-2f23-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a
The surge in investment into the US petrochemicals industry over the past seven years has been one of the biggest spending booms in a developed country this century. A series of giant new plants that will make chemicals used to produce plastics, from companies including Dow Chemical and ExxonMobil, are about to come online. A second wave of projects is now being proposed, as some chemicals producers become increasingly confident that the cheap gas feedstock that makes their spending possible will last for a long time. But the industry is split, with some companies questioning whether the market is strong enough to justify a fresh investment surge. A decade ago, the US petrochemicals industry seemed doomed to long-term decline, eclipsed by rivals in the Middle East, which had cheap oil and gas for feedstock, and in Asia, where the market growth was strongest. The US shale revolution transformed that outlook, unleashing a flood of cheap natural gas liquids such as ethane and propane, which are key chemical feedstocks.
recreational marijuana
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/01da3e7e-6e81-11e4-a65a-00144feabdc0.html Privateer Holdings, a Seattle-based private equity firm that invests in the marijuana industry, has struck a deal with the estate of the Jamaican reggae star to launch a global cannabis brand.
- Marijuana is legal in many US states but tax rules are stifling its revenue potential https://www.ft.com/content/697389f2-05c7-11e7-ace0-1ce02ef0def9
- "cracking on" economist 14apr18 issue
- https://www.ft.com/content/157135ce-5860-11e8-b8b2-d6ceb45fa9d0 New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy wants to legalise adult use to remedy years of racially uneven enforcement of drug offences, and raise tax revenues. His push has run into resistance from allies such as Rev James, who says the policy would instead keep poorer blacks down.
- 美國加州於二十多年前通過醫藥用大麻合法化後，於二○一八年一月一日成為美國第六個能夠在受監管和課稅之下合法販賣消閒用大麻的州份。約九十間大麻零售商獲發牌照，可於元旦日開始售賣。http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20180102/00180_022.html
- 美國加州南部三名華裔男子涉嫌非法經營大麻種植場，周四被警方拘捕。當局檢獲約九十公斤已加工大麻、三千棵大麻植物，以及槍械和現金，並相信該種植場是以來自中國的資金經營。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190309/00180_018.html
- scmp 2jun19 a chinese from hk started a luxury cannabis brand
gambling
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c012dddc-807f-11e4-9907-00144feabdc0.html Efforts to allow internet gambling across the US have stalled, after a campaign backed by casino owners pushed back against industry efforts to allow more widespread wagering on laptops and smartphones. New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada became the first states to liberalise online betting in 2013, prompting industry executives to predict that longstanding prohibitions on the practice would soon crumble as others followed their example. “Make no mistake: internet gaming is here to stay,” said Geoff Freeman, the new president of the American Gaming Association, told Congress in December 2013, noting that a dozen more states were also considering online play. Instead, 12 months later, revenues from the three states have failed to come close to lofty expectations, and quarrelling within the industry has shelved hopes for further expansion. The momentum began to slow just three months after Mr Freeman’s declaration, when casino mogul Sheldon Adelson used his presence on the AGA board to persuade the group to withdraw its support for online betting. Mr Adelson, the billionaire chairman of Las Vegas Sands, pledged to spend “whatever it takes” to stop internet gaming.
- US fantasy sports games remain a gamble
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/42eb1ac6-92c8-11e4-a1fd-00144feabdc0.html
- http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20150208/00180_023.html 為配合美國紐約州於四年後開設三個賭場，紐約市將會開設首間由州教育局批准的賭場執照學校，訓練學生們各種賭博技術以考取執照，為到賭場當荷官作準備。對於設立荷官學校，當地華人普遍興趣不大，箇中原因是擔心當荷官後會把薪金輸清。
Wine & liquor
- http://paper.takungpao.com/resfile/PDF/20141211/PDF/b16_screen.pdf 美國威士忌期待打開中國市場
- Cannabis haze hangs over US drink makers ft 26nov16
- 兩家疫市賺錢的美國電商http://hk.hkcd.com/pdf/202008/0804/HA07804CECC_HKCD.pdf
Coffee
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f155441e-2ec3-11e5-91ac-a5e17d9b4cff.html Competition in the US coffee market has intensified amid growing pressure from single-serve pods and premium beans, forcing big ground coffee companies to cut prices to try to lure back traditional customers. US-based brands such as Folgers and Maxwell House, which have dominated mid-market sales of ground coffee in the US for decades, have seen their share of the market shrink as the use of Nespresso-like coffee pods and exclusive high-end beans has spread from the coasts across America. For coffee growers from Kenya to Brazil, it is an ominous sign. Mid-market US ground coffee accounts for 83 per cent of the country’s coffee market and almost 15 per cent of global demand for beans, according to Euromonitor.
chemical
- https://www.ft.com/content/28649ac0-2f23-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a
The surge in investment into the US petrochemicals industry over the past seven years has been one of the biggest spending booms in a developed country this century. A series of giant new plants that will make chemicals used to produce plastics, from companies including Dow Chemical and ExxonMobil, are about to come online. A second wave of projects is now being proposed, as some chemicals producers become increasingly confident that the cheap gas feedstock that makes their spending possible will last for a long time. But the industry is split, with some companies questioning whether the market is strong enough to justify a fresh investment surge. A decade ago, the US petrochemicals industry seemed doomed to long-term decline, eclipsed by rivals in the Middle East, which had cheap oil and gas for feedstock, and in Asia, where the market growth was strongest. The US shale revolution transformed that outlook, unleashing a flood of cheap natural gas liquids such as ethane and propane, which are key chemical feedstocks.
- http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/01da3e7e-6e81-11e4-a65a-00144feabdc0.html Privateer Holdings, a Seattle-based private equity firm that invests in the marijuana industry, has struck a deal with the estate of the Jamaican reggae star to launch a global cannabis brand.
- Marijuana is legal in many US states but tax rules are stifling its revenue potential https://www.ft.com/content/697389f2-05c7-11e7-ace0-1ce02ef0def9
- "cracking on" economist 14apr18 issue
- https://www.ft.com/content/157135ce-5860-11e8-b8b2-d6ceb45fa9d0 New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy wants to legalise adult use to remedy years of racially uneven enforcement of drug offences, and raise tax revenues. His push has run into resistance from allies such as Rev James, who says the policy would instead keep poorer blacks down.
- 美國加州於二十多年前通過醫藥用大麻合法化後，於二○一八年一月一日成為美國第六個能夠在受監管和課稅之下合法販賣消閒用大麻的州份。約九十間大麻零售商獲發牌照，可於元旦日開始售賣。http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20180102/00180_022.html
- 美國加州南部三名華裔男子涉嫌非法經營大麻種植場，周四被警方拘捕。當局檢獲約九十公斤已加工大麻、三千棵大麻植物，以及槍械和現金，並相信該種植場是以來自中國的資金經營。https://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20190309/00180_018.html
- scmp 2jun19 a chinese from hk started a luxury cannabis brand
gambling
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c012dddc-807f-11e4-9907-00144feabdc0.html Efforts to allow internet gambling across the US have stalled, after a campaign backed by casino owners pushed back against industry efforts to allow more widespread wagering on laptops and smartphones. New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada became the first states to liberalise online betting in 2013, prompting industry executives to predict that longstanding prohibitions on the practice would soon crumble as others followed their example. “Make no mistake: internet gaming is here to stay,” said Geoff Freeman, the new president of the American Gaming Association, told Congress in December 2013, noting that a dozen more states were also considering online play. Instead, 12 months later, revenues from the three states have failed to come close to lofty expectations, and quarrelling within the industry has shelved hopes for further expansion. The momentum began to slow just three months after Mr Freeman’s declaration, when casino mogul Sheldon Adelson used his presence on the AGA board to persuade the group to withdraw its support for online betting. Mr Adelson, the billionaire chairman of Las Vegas Sands, pledged to spend “whatever it takes” to stop internet gaming.
- US fantasy sports games remain a gamble
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/42eb1ac6-92c8-11e4-a1fd-00144feabdc0.html
- http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/china_world/20150208/00180_023.html 為配合美國紐約州於四年後開設三個賭場，紐約市將會開設首間由州教育局批准的賭場執照學校，訓練學生們各種賭博技術以考取執照，為到賭場當荷官作準備。對於設立荷官學校，當地華人普遍興趣不大，箇中原因是擔心當荷官後會把薪金輸清。
No comments:
Post a Comment