US President, Donald Trump, has said he agreed to visit Beijing in April and invited Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state visit later next year, following a phone call between the two leaders.   Trump and Xi – who met nearly a month ago in South Korea – discussed a range of issues including […]

Europe should “reconsider” its rules for big tech companies if it wants to see lower US tariff rates on its steel and aluminium exports, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said.   His comments come as officials from the US and European Union are meeting in Brussels to discuss the status of the trade framework […]

European polymer prices continued to fall over the week to 21st November. There were reductions of between 5 and 15 EUR per tonne reported in the prices of HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, Polypropylene, ABS and Polystyrene.   Asian polymers also fell with reductions of between 5 and 25 USD per tonne reported in the prices of […]

The UK inflation rate fell to 3.6% in the year to October, but food prices rose again following a dip in September.   Prices are rising at their slowest pace for four months, helped by smaller rises in household energy costs and lower hotel costs, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.   Economists had […]

Chip giant Nvidia has reported stronger-than-expected revenues, easing investor concerns about heavy artificial intelligence (AI) spending that have unsettled markets.   The company said revenue for the three months to October jumped 62% to $57bn, driven by demand for its chips used in AI data centres. Sales from that division rose 66% to more than […]

Japanese stocks related to tourism and retail fell on Monday after China warned its citizens not to travel to the country as Tokyo and Beijing remain locked in a row over Taiwan.   Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who has been a vocal critic of China and its military activities in the region, suggested this […]

European polymer prices fell over the week to 14th November. There were reductions of between 5 and 10 EUR per tonne reported in the prices of HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, Polypropylene, PVC, ABS and Polystyrene.   Asian polymers were relatively unchanged. In China, the price of Polypropylene fell by 15 USD per tonne and the price […]

The makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Claude claim to have caught hackers sponsored by the Chinese government using the tool to perform automated cyber-attacks against around 30 global organisations.   Anthropic said hackers tricked the chatbot into carrying out automated tasks under the guise of carrying out cyber security research.   The company claimed […]

China has lifted export controls on computer chips vital to car production, the country’s commerce ministry said on Sunday.   Exemptions have been granted to exports made by Chinese-owned Nexperia for civilian use, it said, which should help carmakers who had feared production in Europe would be hit.   At the same time, China has […]

The rate of UK unemployment has risen to 5% in the three months to September, showing signs the jobs market has weakened, according to new official figures.   It is the highest rate since the period covering December 2020 to February 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).   The increase in the […]