Asia

Data from The Steel Index highlighted that the import price of 62 percent iron ore fines at China's Tianjin port added $1.20 to $119.40 per tonne as imports from top consumers China is expected to resume its record breaking pace. This has seen the price of iron or climb 14 percent from the lows it reached in early March.

With its origins in a vegetable oil production company that started at Udaipur in the western Indian state of Rajasthan in 1947, PI Industries is today ranked amongst the top five Indian agrochemical manufacturers, marketers and exporters and is listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). It was also among the first companies to have its R&D facilities recognised by India's Department of Science and Technology, for the development of pesticides and chemicals.

The plans, the first to be unveiled this year, come in the wake of a string of disappointing data that has sparked fears of a slowdown. In response the government has said it will cut taxes on small firms and speed up the construction of the country’s railway lines.

"We will find innovative ways including fiscal and financial methods to...steady economic growth," the cabinet said in a statement on the government's website. "We must roll out policies that spur businesses' vitality, effectively increase demand and boost jobs.”

The decision to use the money to purchase a mix of 30 planes from Airbus and 40 from Boeing, a record order for Japan’s biggest airline, comes as the company anticipates a rise in the demand for air travel when Tokyo hosts the Olympic Games in 2020.

Third time most definitely appears to be the charm for the auction, with two previous attempts at selling the licences in November 2012 and March 2013 both failing to reach even the lowest of estimates. This latest round of bidding however far exceeded the Indian government’s target of £1.8 billion.

The government stands to receive $3 billion initially, with companies required to pay up to a third of the winning price now, with the rest to follow by 2026. The money will be used to help shrink the country’s budget deficit.

Danone is set to pay $663 million to increase its shareholding in China Mengniu Dairy to 9.9 percent from 4 percent, a purchase that will be made through a joint venture with Mengniu's parent company Cofco and Denmark's Arla foods.

Danone chief executive Franck Riboud called the deal a "winning combination" for the companies involved. "This transaction is consistent with Danone's strategy to increase our interest in and join hands with Mengniu to capture the huge growth potential of the chilled dairy products market in China.”

A survey conducted by market research firm IDC shows that 1.004 billion devices were delivered to customers during the course of the year, a 38.4 percent increase on 2012’s results. This means that smartphones made up considerably more than half of the 1.8 billion phones sold in total.

The figure represents a two percent increase on Toyota’s sales figures for 2012 and placed it 270,000 vehicles ahead of its closest rival, General Motors (GM). It also comes at the start of a year during which time the company hopes to see 10.32 million vehicles worldwide.

This marks something of a turnaround for Toyota, which had suffered in recent years from reputation issues following a series of recalls and safety issues, events that saw more than 14 million vehicles recalled in the US alone.

The Chinese telecom equipment company says it expects to make a profit of up to 29.4bn yuan ($4.9 billion), compared with 20bn yuan in 2012. This figure was boosted by the success of Huawei’s smartphone division and various cost cutting measures across the business. The firm also said growth in emerging markets helped offset subdued revenues in economies such as US and Australia, where it has faced security concerns.

“In the early 1990s, a period of time now recognised as being the dawn of China’s economic take-off, the country’s import and export industries were very much in their infantile days,” explains Patrick Lam, Managing Director of Yantian International Container Terminals (YICT). “It was against this backdrop that the Central Government and the Shenzhen Municipal Government resolved to develop a large container port at Yantian, in Guangdong Province, China.