China buying N. Korea coal, data show
China resumed coal imports from North Korea five months after suspending them to comply with a United Nations Security Council resolution over the country's nuclear program, according to data supplied by the Chinese.
China imported 1.64 million tons of coal from Kim Jong Un's regime in August, the first such shipments since February, according to data from China's General Administration of Customs emailed Tuesday. Shipments in the first eight months of this year totaled 4.31 million tons, a 71 percent decline from the same period in 2016.
China's Ministry of Commerce said in February that coal imports from North Korea would be halted from Feb. 19 to Dec. 31 in accordance with the U.N. resolution, including cargoes at Chinese ports that hadn't completed customs clearance.
"I can assure you, that as a permanent member of the Security Council, we have always strictly implemented U.N. Security Council resolutions," said Lu Kang, China's foreign ministry spokesman in a regular briefing. Asked if the import figures were inaccurate, Lu referred questions to the General Administration of Customs.
-- Bloomberg News
Biggest gem in century goes for $53M
Lucara Diamond Corp. on Monday sold the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona diamond for $53 million, or $47,777 a carat, to Graff Diamonds, Vancouver, British Columbia-based Lucara said in a statement. While the diamond is significantly bigger than the 813-carat Constellation stone Lucara found at the same time, that stone sold for a record $63 million, or about $77,500 a carat.
The outcome for the Lesedi, or "our light" in the Tswana language spoken in Botswana, is a good example of how size isn't the most important factor in the the diamond industry. The gem is more difficult to cut and the color isn't as good as the Constellation, meaning it probably won't yield as good a polished stone. BMO Capital Markets had forecast that the diamond, which went unsold at a Sotheby's auction in London last year, could sell for $75 million.
"If you take the potential outcomes from the stone into consideration, the risk that the buyer is actually taking, you can now see why it wasn't the easiest one to sell," Lucara Chief Executive Officer William Lamb said in a phone interview.
The Lesedi, just smaller than a tennis ball, is second in size only to the Cullinan, a 3,106-carat gem found in South Africa in 1905. The Cullinan was cut to form the Great Star of Africa and the Lesser Star of Africa, which are set in the crown jewels of Britain.
-- Bloomberg News
Hurricanes abrade consumer confidence
WASHINGTON -- American consumers feel a bit less confident this month, their spirits pulled down by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 119.8 in September from 120.4 in August. Conference Board economist Lynn Franco says that confidence "decreased considerably" in hurricane-hit Florida and Texas.
The reading still shows that U.S. consumers are in a mostly sunny mood, suggesting that "the economy will continue expanding at its current pace," said Franco, the Conference Board's director of economic indicators. The U.S. economy grew at a solid 3 percent annual rate from April through June, lifted by healthy consumer spending.
Just 18.1 percent of respondents told that Conference Board that jobs were "hard to get" in September -- the lowest share since August 2001.
-- The Associated Press
Undefiled by Maria, refineries still suffer
Hurricanes sometimes don't need to make landfall to cause problems for U.S. refineries.
At least two East Coast refineries are making less gasoline and diesel as Atlantic seas churned by Hurricane Maria hamper the transfer of crude oil from ships to barges for delivery to refineries, people familiar with operations say.
Philadelphia Energy Solutions Inc., which operates the largest oil-refining complex serving the New York Harbor market, was said to cut rates about 20 percent. Delta Air Lines Inc.'s Monroe Trainer Refinery in Pennsylvania ran out of crude and had to put its crude units into circulation limbo, heated but not processing. Unless supply is replenished within a few days, Trainer will run vacuum gas oil through the crude units to keep them running and to provide feedstock for processing units like the fluid catalytic crackers.
"Product prices are rallying in response to refinery run cuts on the East Coast, which will result in lower product availability in the short term," Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston, said in a phone interview Monday.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 09/27/2017