Inkhabar webdesk

BEIJING/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -The United States and China on Tuesday will begin charging additional port fees on ocean shipping firms that move everything from holiday toys to crude oil, making the high seas a key front in the trade war between the world's two largest economies. China said it had started to collect the special charges on U.S.-owned, operated, built, or flagged vessels but clarified that Chinese-built ships would be exempted from the levies. In details published on Tuesday by state broadcaster CCTV, China spelled out specific provisions on exemptions, which also include empty ships entering Chinese shipyards for repair. The China-imposed extra port fees would be collected at the first port of entry on a single voyage or for the first five voyages within a year, following an annual billing cycle beginning on April 17. Early this year, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration announced plans to levy the fees on China-linked ships to loosen that country's grip on the global maritime industry and bolster U.S. shipbuilding. An investigation during former President Joe Biden's administration concluded China uses unfair policies and practices to dominate the global maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors, clearing the way for those penalties. The U.S. is scheduled to also begin collecting fees on October 14. Analysts expect China-owned container carrier COSCO to be most affected, shouldering nearly half of that segment's expected $3.2 billion cost from those fees in 2026. China hit back last week, saying it would impose its own port fees on U.S.-linked vessels from the same day. Jefferies analyst Omar Nokta noted that 13% of crude tankers and 11% of container ships in the global fleet would be affected.  "This tit-for-tat symmetry locks both economies into a spiral of maritime taxation that risks distorting global freight flows," Athens-based Xclusiv Shipbrokers Inc said in a research note. In a reprisal against China curbing exports of critical minerals, Trump on Friday threatened to slap additional 100% tariffs on goods from China and put new export controls on "any and all critical software" by November 1. Administration officials hours later warned that countries voting in favor of a plan by the United Nations' International Maritime Organization to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from ocean shipping this week could face sanctions, port bans, or punitive vessel charges. China has publicly supported the IMO plan. "The weaponisation of both trade and environmental policy signals that shipping has moved from being a neutral conduit of global commerce to a direct instrument of statecraft," Xclusiv said. Shares in Shanghai-listed COSCO rose more than 2% in early trading on Tuesday. The company said its board had approved a plan to buy back up to 1.5 billion yuan ($210.3 million) worth of its shares within the next three months to maintain corporate value and safeguard shareholder interest. The shipping firm did not immediately respond to Reuters' queries about the potential impact of the port fees. ($1 = 7.1337 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Liz Lee in Beijing; Additional reporting by Samuel Shen, Brenda Goh in Shanghai and James Pomfret in Hong Kong; Editing by Stephen Coates)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL (Reuters) -Samsung Electronics on Tuesday said it expects its biggest quarterly profit in over three years, as the global race to boost production of AI chips has tightened supply and driven up prices of conventional memory chips, the tech giant's mainstay. Strong demand for conventional memory chips used in artificial intelligence servers helped offset weaker sales of advanced AI chips of Samsung, which has been lagging rivals in the race to supply to Nvidia, analysts said. The world's leading memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 12.1 trillion won ($8.5 billion) for the July-September period, up 32% from a year earlier and well above a 10.1 trillion won LSEG SmartEstimate. That would mark its best quarterly profit in 13 quarters. Samsung shares rose as much as 2.9% after the announcement to 96,000 won, their highest level since January 2021, notching up a 79% gain so far this year. "The third-quarter earnings surprise came from the chip business," said Ryu Young-ho, a senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities. Although progress in supplying advanced high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to major clients such as Nvidia was slower than expected, gains in commodity memory, supported by tight supplies, helped cushion the impact, analysts said. "Samsung is a big beneficiary of growing demand for commodity chips," said Sohn In-joon, an analyst at Heungkuk Securities. Sohn attributed the earnings beat to stronger-than-expected prices of commodity DRAM and NAND chips, stemming from demand for AI data center servers, and lower chip inventory by chipmakers that gave them bargaining power in pricing. Analysts said Samsung also benefited from narrower losses at its foundry unit, which makes logic chips, as utilisation rates helped ease fixed-cost pressures. The company said revenue would likely rise 8.7% to a record high of 86 trillion won from a year earlier, also helped by the weaker South Korean currency. Samsung is expected to release detailed results including a breakdown of earnings for each of its businesses on October 30. SHORTAGE STOKES CONVENTIONAL CHIP PRICES Analysts said memory makers' focus on investing in advanced chips in recent years may have limited the production of conventional chips, which extended a supply shortage and spurred price increases for conventional chips. Prices of some DRAM chips, widely used in servers, smartphones and PCs, jumped 171.8% in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to TrendForce data. Analysts expect the commodity memory supply shortage to continue into 2026. Following OpenAI's success with ChatGPT, big tech companies have established longer-term plans to expand their spending on AI-related investments, including data centres and servers capable of handling the growing workloads from AI services. While recent chip supply deals with major tech companies, such as Tesla and OpenAI, eased investor concerns about Samsung, analysts cautioned that uncertainties remain, including potential U.S. tariffs that could hurt chip demand, an intensifying trade war between the U.S. and China, as well as China's tightened export controls on rare earth materials used in advanced chips and manufacturing equipment. Samsung has been the world's biggest memory chipmaker for three decades but it is facing increasing competition in advanced AI chips after losing its No. 1 DRAM market share to SK Hynix in the first quarter of this year. Its rivals, SK Hynix and Micron, have benefited from robust memory chip demand driven by AI, while Samsung's exposure to China, where advanced chip sales are restricted by the United States, has constrained its growth. Analysts expect Samsung’s HBM sales to gradually improve after the company made meaningful progress in supplying its latest 12-layer HBM3E chips to Nvidia following delays in recent quarters, though some said shipment volumes remain limited. Samsung is betting on next-generation HBM4 products to narrow the gap with SK Hynix. Morgan Stanley said in a report that Samsung is on track with next-generation HBM4 development, working closely with major U.S. customers. Commercial shipments and sales contributions are expected to begin in 2026. ($1 = 1,427.1000 won) (Reporting by Heekyong Yang, Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee; Editing by Chris Reese and Sonali Paul)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump remains on track to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October as the two sides try to de-escalate tensions over tariff threats and export controls, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday. The latest rupture followed China's announcement on Thursday that it would dramatically expand its rare earths export controls. That drew a sharp countermeasure from Trump on Friday that sent markets and relations between the world's two largest economies into a spiral. Bessent said there were substantial communications between the two sides over the weekend and more meetings were expected. "We have substantially de-escalated," Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Network.  "President Trump said that the tariffs would not go into effect until November 1. He will be meeting with Party Chair Xi in Korea. I believe that meeting will still be on." Trump and Xi had planned to meet during the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum hosted by South Korea in late October. China's Commerce Ministry on Tuesday said it had informed the U.S. in advance it planned to tighten its rare earth controls, and confirmed that the two sides remain in communication, adding that a working-level meeting took place on Monday. But the statement from a Commerce Ministry spokesperson warned "the U.S. cannot ask for talks while simultaneously threatening new restrictive measures." Asian stocks made a tentative rebound in early trade on Tuesday, after Wall Street's main indexes ended as much as 2.2% higher on Monday, following Bessent's signal that trade negotiations between the two superpowers remain on track. Trump's threat on Friday sparked a big sell-off at a time when investors and top policymakers were already growing anxious about a frothy stock market fueled by an investment boom in artificial intelligence that some officials fear could hurt future employment. Bessent said there would be U.S.-China staff-level meetings this week in Washington on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual gatherings. "The 100% tariff does not have to happen," Bessent said. "The relationship, despite this announcement last week, is good. Lines of communication have reopened, so we'll see where it goes." US PUSHBACK AGGRESSIVE Still, Bessent called the China move provocative and said the U.S. pushed back aggressively.  The United States has been in contact with allies and expects support from the Europeans, India and democracies in Asia, he said. "China is a command-and-control economy. They are neither going to command nor control us," Bessent said. China blamed the United States for the rising trade tensions on Sunday and called Trump's latest threatened tariffs of 100% on Chinese goods hypocritical. It defended its curbs on exports of rare earth elements and equipment. China dominates the market for such elements, which are essential to tech manufacturing. Under China's new regulations, foreign companies producing some of the rare earths and related magnets on the list will now also need a Chinese export license if the final product contains or is made with Chinese equipment or material. This applies even if the transaction includes no Chinese companies. The United States would reject licensing requirements from China, Bessent said in the interview on "Mornings with Maria." (Reporting by Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu, David Lawder and Joe Cash in Beijing; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Alistair Bell and Lincoln Feast.)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL (Reuters) -Samsung Electronics on Tuesday said it expects its biggest quarterly profit in over three years, as the global race to boost production of AI chips has tightened supply and driven up prices of conventional memory chips, the tech giant's mainstay. Strong demand for conventional memory chips used in artificial intelligence servers helped offset weaker sales of advanced AI chips of Samsung, which has been lagging rivals in the race to supply to Nvidia, analysts said. The world's leading memory chipmaker estimated an operating profit of 12.1 trillion won ($8.5 billion) for the July-September period, up 32% from a year earlier and well above a 10.1 trillion won LSEG SmartEstimate. That would mark its best quarterly profit in 13 quarters. Samsung shares rose as much as 2.9% after the announcement to 96,000 won, their highest level since January 2021, notching up a 79% gain so far this year. "The third-quarter earnings surprise came from the chip business," said Ryu Young-ho, a senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities. Although progress in supplying advanced high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to major clients such as Nvidia was slower than expected, gains in commodity memory, supported by tight supplies, helped cushion the impact, analysts said. "Samsung is a big beneficiary of growing demand for commodity chips," said Sohn In-joon, an analyst at Heungkuk Securities. Sohn attributed the earnings beat to stronger-than-expected prices of commodity DRAM and NAND chips, stemming from demand for AI data center servers, and lower chip inventory by chipmakers that gave them bargaining power in pricing. Analysts said Samsung also benefited from narrower losses at its foundry unit, which makes logic chips, as utilisation rates helped ease fixed-cost pressures. The company said revenue would likely rise 8.7% to a record high of 86 trillion won from a year earlier, also helped by the weaker South Korean currency. Samsung is expected to release detailed results including a breakdown of earnings for each of its businesses on October 30. SHORTAGE STOKES CONVENTIONAL CHIP PRICES Analysts said memory makers' focus on investing in advanced chips in recent years may have limited the production of conventional chips, which extended a supply shortage and spurred price increases for conventional chips. Prices of some DRAM chips, widely used in servers, smartphones and PCs, jumped 171.8% in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to TrendForce data. Analysts expect the commodity memory supply shortage to continue into 2026. Following OpenAI's success with ChatGPT, big tech companies have established longer-term plans to expand their spending on AI-related investments, including data centres and servers capable of handling the growing workloads from AI services. While recent chip supply deals with major tech companies, such as Tesla and OpenAI, eased investor concerns about Samsung, analysts cautioned that uncertainties remain, including potential U.S. tariffs that could hurt chip demand, an intensifying trade war between the U.S. and China, as well as China's tightened export controls on rare earth materials used in advanced chips and manufacturing equipment. Samsung has been the world's biggest memory chipmaker for three decades but it is facing increasing competition in advanced AI chips after losing its No. 1 DRAM market share to SK Hynix in the first quarter of this year. Its rivals, SK Hynix and Micron, have benefited from robust memory chip demand driven by AI, while Samsung's exposure to China, where advanced chip sales are restricted by the United States, has constrained its growth. Analysts expect Samsung’s HBM sales to gradually improve after the company made meaningful progress in supplying its latest 12-layer HBM3E chips to Nvidia following delays in recent quarters, though some said shipment volumes remain limited. Samsung is betting on next-generation HBM4 products to narrow the gap with SK Hynix. Morgan Stanley said in a report that Samsung is on track with next-generation HBM4 development, working closely with major U.S. customers. Commercial shipments and sales contributions are expected to begin in 2026. ($1 = 1,427.1000 won) (Reporting by Heekyong Yang, Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee; Editing by Chris Reese and Sonali Paul)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump remains on track to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October as the two sides try to de-escalate tensions over tariff threats and export controls, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday. The latest rupture followed China's announcement on Thursday that it would dramatically expand its rare earths export controls. That drew a sharp countermeasure from Trump on Friday that sent markets and relations between the world's two largest economies into a spiral. Bessent said there were substantial communications between the two sides over the weekend and more meetings were expected. "We have substantially de-escalated," Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Network.  "President Trump said that the tariffs would not go into effect until November 1. He will be meeting with Party Chair Xi in Korea. I believe that meeting will still be on." Trump and Xi had planned to meet during the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum hosted by South Korea in late October. China's Commerce Ministry on Tuesday said it had informed the U.S. in advance it planned to tighten its rare earth controls, and confirmed that the two sides remain in communication, adding that a working-level meeting took place on Monday. But the statement from a Commerce Ministry spokesperson warned "the U.S. cannot ask for talks while simultaneously threatening new restrictive measures." Asian stocks made a tentative rebound in early trade on Tuesday, after Wall Street's main indexes ended as much as 2.2% higher on Monday, following Bessent's signal that trade negotiations between the two superpowers remain on track. Trump's threat on Friday sparked a big sell-off at a time when investors and top policymakers were already growing anxious about a frothy stock market fueled by an investment boom in artificial intelligence that some officials fear could hurt future employment. Bessent said there would be U.S.-China staff-level meetings this week in Washington on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual gatherings. "The 100% tariff does not have to happen," Bessent said. "The relationship, despite this announcement last week, is good. Lines of communication have reopened, so we'll see where it goes." US PUSHBACK AGGRESSIVE Still, Bessent called the China move provocative and said the U.S. pushed back aggressively.  The United States has been in contact with allies and expects support from the Europeans, India and democracies in Asia, he said. "China is a command-and-control economy. They are neither going to command nor control us," Bessent said. China blamed the United States for the rising trade tensions on Sunday and called Trump's latest threatened tariffs of 100% on Chinese goods hypocritical. It defended its curbs on exports of rare earth elements and equipment. China dominates the market for such elements, which are essential to tech manufacturing. Under China's new regulations, foreign companies producing some of the rare earths and related magnets on the list will now also need a Chinese export license if the final product contains or is made with Chinese equipment or material. This applies even if the transaction includes no Chinese companies. The United States would reject licensing requirements from China, Bessent said in the interview on "Mornings with Maria." (Reporting by Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu, David Lawder and Joe Cash in Beijing; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Alistair Bell and Lincoln Feast.)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)