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Your weekly coffee briefing from TFG. Here are some of the last week’s updates from the trade sector. The Eurozone business growth recovered but the outlook worsens over trade war fears. The HRMC is automatically allocating EORI numbers to over 88,000 VAT-registered companies. In a series of tweets on Friday, Mr Trump announced an additional tariff increase of 5% on imports from China.
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What happened last week?
Eurozone business growth recovers, but outlook worsens – PMIs
The growth was helped by brisk services activity and as manufacturing contracted at a slower pace, but trade war fears knocked future expectations to their weakest in over six years. That has pushed businesses to be less hopeful of a significant acceleration in economic activity anytime soon, which will, in turn, underscore policymakers’ pledges for more accommodative policy. Read more →
Exporters face auto-enrolment for no-deal customs checks
HM Revenue & Customs, along with the Treasury, will begin automatically allocating Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) numbers to over 88,000 VAT-registered companies over the next two weeks. Read more →
UK High street sales falling at the fastest rate since the financial crisis
The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) latest health check on the retail industry has found that high street sales have slumped at their fastest pace since 2008 in August, leaving retailers’ confidence “crumbling”. Companies in the retail sector are also expecting further trouble in the months ahead, with industry sentiment falling to its lowest levels in more than a decade. Read more →
Standard Bank Group: First South African Bank to join the global Marco Polo Network
“The Marco Polo Network’s goal is to build the optimum trade finance environment that addresses critical market challenges, offers improved user experiences and constantly evolves to meet customer’s needs”, said Daniel Cotti, Chief Network Officer of the Marco Polo Network. Read more →
Glencore, Trafigura pick up aluminium in Qingdao court auctions
Commodity traders Glencore PLC and Trafigura have picked up a combined 70,479 tonnes of aluminium over the past week by winning online auctions of metal inventory dating back to China’s 2014 Qingdao warehousing scandal, according to the e-commerce platform that hosted the sales. Read more →
ING executes first commodity trade transaction on Komgo
Komgo is a blockchain-based platform that will transform the commodity trade ecosystem. It allows traders, carriers, banks and other participants to securely transact in a highly efficient way, resulting in industry-wide simplification of operations and standardised documentation. Read more →
US-China trade war: Trump announces new retaliatory tariff hikes
In a series of tweets on Friday, Mr Trump announced an additional tariff increase of 5% on imports from China. The move came hours after the president hit out at Chinese plans to hit $75bn (£61bn) of US goods with duties. Read more →
