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By Maggie Fick and Soren Jeppesen LONDON/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk has laid off dozens of employees at the largest U.S. manufacturing site for its blockbuster obesity and diabetes drugs, a Reuters review of LinkedIn posts showed, a signal of where it is making cuts in a major restructuring under new CEO Mike Doustdar. The previously unreported cuts included staff in manufacturing roles, from quality control to production line technicians, at Novo's major Clayton, North Carolina, plant and other facilities in the state, an analysis of 73 posts and profiles show. The layoffs, while only a small part of a planned 9,000 job cuts globally, underscore how Novo is cutting back even on frontline production in the top market for Wegovy as it looks to sharpen its focus, trim costs, and claw back lost ground in fierce competition with rival Eli Lilly. The cuts, which follow earlier ones focused on the obesity education team in the U.S., come as the administration of President Donald Trump pressures pharmaceutical companies to expand U.S. drug production and create more domestic jobs. The Danish drugmaker last year became Europe's most valuable listed company on unprecedented demand for weight-loss drugs before a sharp share price slide as sales growth slowed. It is now trying to turn around its fortunes and reduce costs and staff that bloated as it rode the Wegovy boom. A Novo spokesperson declined a Reuters request for further details beyond last month's global layoffs announcement. "This process takes time and our highest priority is to support our employees," the spokesperson said. PLANT MAKES WEGOVY, OZEMPIC The announced wider cuts helped boost Novo's shares, though the company has provided little detail about its plans. It said around 5,000 jobs would be cut in its native Denmark. The North Carolina cuts hit technical manufacturing workers, project coordinators, a strategic communications manager and an HR assistant, the posts revealed. Of the total, 47 directly posted they were looking for work or had been laid off. Novo's Clayton facility makes semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic. It also does manufacturing steps including filling, finishing and packaging the injections. It also will play a key role in producing the new pill version of Wegovy once that becomes available. CEO Doustdar this month heralded an ongoing $4.1 billion expansion at the North Carolina plant that employed some 2,500 people in 2024 and was expected to add 1,000 more. Reuters could not determine the exact number or the reason for the layoffs in Clayton, which came three weeks after Doustdar announced the broader restructuring. Reuters contacted about 30 of the Novo employees who posted on LinkedIn that they had been laid off. One replied, saying a non-disclosure agreement prevented them from speaking to the media. (Reporting by Maggie Fick in London and Soren Jeppesen in Copenhagen; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Bill Berkrot)

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MUMBAI (Reuters) -The operator of India's popular unified payments interface (UPI) is the first payments system partner onboarded on PayPal's platform PayPal World, CEO Alex Chriss said on Tuesday. (Reporting by Ashwin Manikandan in Mumbai; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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By Scott Murdoch (Reuters) -Australia's corporate regulator on Tuesday approved Cboe Global Markets' bid to list new companies on its local exchange, ramping up direct competition with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in the country's tough initial public offering (IPO) market. Cboe Australia, the local unit of the Chicago-headquartered exchange operator, can now list new companies, offering investors increased access to investment options such as initial public offerings and dual-listed foreign entities. ASX shares fell as much 2% to the lowest since mid-June 2024 as it faces ongoing regulatory scrutiny into its beleaguered operations. The stock closed at A$58.96, down 1.35%, while the S&P/ASX200 was off by 0.3%. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) launched an investigation in June into the ASX, following years of tension over a failed software upgrade and recurring trade-processing glitches. Australia's central bank said last month the ASX needed to implement major cultural and governance improvements after a 2024 trading settlement failure. "This move will provide more choice for companies to list in Australia, build more links to offshore markets and create more options for investors," ASIC Chair Joe Longo said in a statement. Heightened competition in Australian equities markets has already led to reduced trading costs and broader access to products like exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the regulator said. The ASX said it supported competition which helped to strengthen Australian's capital markets and said it already competed with CBOE in some trading categories. "Public markets play a critical role in supporting companies to raise capital for growth opportunities, and we're confident in the strong value proposition that ASX provides," ASX said in an emailed statement to Reuters. Listing fees are a major revenue source for the ASX, which in the last financial year earned A$208 million ($137.30 million) from listings, the results released in August showed. IPO fees earned in the year fell from $A20 million to $A18.9 million, according to the results. There has been $1.3 billion worth of IPOs in Australia so far this year, according to LSEG data, up from $382.6 million at the same time last year. Desite the jump, most of the funds raised in 2025 have come from just two IPOs – Virgin Australia and Gemlife – which raised almost $950 million combined. CBOE Australia currently has 20% of Australia's equity market turnover, representing almost A$2 billion of trades each day, ASIC said. CBOE Australia told Reuters in an emailed response that it was pleased to have received the regulator's approval. It operates exchanges in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands alongside its Australian operations, according to its website. There are now four markets, including Cboe, licensed to list securities in Australia: ASX, National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX) and Sydney Stock Exchange (SSX), ASIC said. ($1 = 1.5142 Australian dollars) ($1 = 1.5149 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney, additional reporting Adwitiya Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber, Sam Holmes, Subhranshu Sahu and Kim Coghill)

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By Rocky Swift TOKYO (Reuters) -The yen weakened to a two-month low against the dollar on Tuesday as attention in Japan turned to who may join the administration of fiscal dove Sanae Takaichi after her party leadership victory. With the yen also trading at an all-time low against the euro, Japan's finance minister said authorities were watching out for excessive moves in currency markets. Takaichi, expected to become Japan's next prime minister, chose former premier Taro Aso as vice president of her ruling party. The euro remained on a fragile footing following the resignation of France's prime minister and statements by European Central Bank officials that a rate cut may be necessary. Traders will be on watch for speeches from Federal Reserve policymakers later in the day as a U.S. government shutdown squelches other data signals. As markets await more clarity on how Takaichi will structure her government, Japanese officials may try to talk the yen down from recent extremes, said Bart Wakabayashi, the Tokyo branch manager of State Street. "We'll see if the expected policies that she is tied to will come through," Wakabayashi said of Takaichi. The 150 yen per dollar mark is "a very important level, psychologically and economically." "From an economic and corporate competitive perspective, where is the Bank of Japan and the Ministry of Finance comfortable? I do believe it's at a lower level," he added. The yen slid 0.1% to 150.46 per dollar and earlier touched 150.62, the weakest level since August 1. Japan's currency also skidded to 176.35 per euro, a fresh all-time low, before rebounding slightly. Takaichi was considered to be the most dovish among five candidates in Japan's Liberal Democratic Party race on Saturday to replace hawkish Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Along with her appointment of Aso to her inner circle on Tuesday, she chose former finance minister Shunichi Suzuki as secretary-general of the LDP. There remains considerable uncertainty if Takaichi, as prime minister, will be able to fully implement her agenda of looser fiscal and monetary policy, said Carl Ang, a fixed income analyst at MFS Investment Management. "One consideration is fiscal conservative Taro Aso and his faction, which were instrumental to Takaichi’s success at the LDP leadership election," Ang added. Reacting to the yen's swoon, Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato on Tuesday reiterated that currencies should move in a stable manner reflecting fundamentals.  A closely watched auction of 30-year Japanese government bonds went smoothly on the day, after yields on the debt jumped to a record high. The euro slid against the dollar and the pound in the previous session after France's new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and his government resigned on Monday. The ECB may need to reduce borrowing costs slightly if the risk of inflation going too low increases, but interest rates are appropriate now, the central bank's top brass said on Monday. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.1% to 98.23. The euro slid 0.1% at $1.1694, after a 0.3% drop on Monday. Sterling weakened 0.1% to $1.3463. The White House on Monday backed off President Donald Trump's assertion that government employees were already being laid off due to the shutdown, but warned job losses could result as the standoff looked set to stretch into a seventh day. The shutdown delayed last Friday's closely watched monthly jobs report for September and is set to postpone other key releases until the government reopens. Market attention is now focused on the Fed itself for signs of the timing and extent of more easing. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and newly installed fellow Governor Stephen Miran are due to speak later on Tuesday, while Wednesday brings minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting for September. Markets are pricing in additional 25 basis-point rate cuts in both October and December, with probabilities of 92.5% and 81.5%, respectively, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The Australian dollar weakened 0.1% to $0.6608, while New Zealand's kiwi fell 0.3% to $0.5822. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.7% to $124,334.94, and ether rose 0.5% to $4,713.78. (Reporting by Rocky SwiftEditing by Shri Navaratnam and Sam Holmes)

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MUMBAI (Reuters) -The operator of India's popular unified payments interface (UPI) is the first payments system partner onboarded on PayPal's platform PayPal World, CEO Alex Chriss said on Tuesday. (Reporting by Ashwin Manikandan in Mumbai; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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By Rae Wee SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Political upheaval in Japan and France gripped currency and bond markets for a second day running on Tuesday, while global shares sputtered despite a multi-billion dollar chip-supply deal between AMD and OpenAI. Broader European stock futures pointed to a muted opening, with EUROSTOXX 50 futures flat and FTSE futures down 0.08%. The weekend election of fiscal and monetary dove Sanae Takaichi as leader of the ruling party in Japan propelled the Nikkei to yet another record high early in the session, as her likely appointment as the country's next premier stoked bets on a revival in big spending and loose monetary policy. The yen struggled on the weaker side of the 150 per dollar level and sank to a two-month low, while Japanese government bonds slid, pushing yields higher. A closely watched auction of 536.8 billion yen ($3.57 billion) of 30-year JGBs passed smoothly, allaying some worries that investors might baulk at buying long-dated debt given the fiscal uncertainty. "The yen looks likely to remain under pressure for some time. The political shift under Sanae Takaichi has reinforced expectations that fiscal stimulus will take precedence over monetary tightening, reducing the odds of a near-term BOJ rate hike," said Tareck Horchani, head of prime brokerage dealing at Maybank Securities. "Fiscal expansion financed by higher bond issuance is also steepening the yield curve and weighing further on sentiment toward the currency." Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said on Tuesday that the government will be vigilant to volatile movements on the currency market. In France, the shock resignation of Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister threw the nation deeper into political crisis and unnerved markets. French OAT futures fell slightly in the early Asian session after bonds tumbled on Monday, while the euro came under pressure and eased 0.14% to $1.1696. "(President Emmanuel) Macron could try to put together a new cabinet for the National Assembly's approval. But in the interim, Macron is likely to come under a lot of pressure to dissolve the National Assembly and move toward completely new legislative elections," said Thierry Wizman, global FX and rates strategist at Macquarie Group. SEARCHING FOR GOOD NEWS The political jolts across major economies, made no better by a lengthening U.S. government shutdown, gave investors little to cheer about, with the overall mood sombre, overshadowing enthusiasm about artificial intelligence. AMD will supply AI chips to OpenAI in a multi-year deal that would bring AMD tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue and give the ChatGPT creator the option to buy up to roughly 10% of the chipmaker. Nasdaq futures were down 0.02% in Asia and S&P 500 futures eased 0.05%, retreating slightly from their record closing highs on Monday. Markets in Hong Kong and China were closed for a holiday. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.38%. In currencies, the U.S. dollar was on the front foot, helped in part by weakness in the yen and euro. Sterling was down 0.11% to $1.3470. The Aussie fell 0.09% to $0.6612. "A buoyant USD despite the U.S. shutdown has probably wrong-footed some and intrigued many insofar as it flies in the face of received wisdom that the USD weakens into shutdowns," said Vishnu Varathan, head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho. "Recent evidence from comparable shutdowns in December 2018 and October 2013 suggest that USD declines were considerably reversed within two weeks out of the shutdown. And so, the case to go big on bearish USD bets is less compelling." Elsewhere, oil prices steadied on Tuesday, with Brent crude futures up 0.15% to $65.57 a barrel, while U.S. crude rose 0.15% to $61.78. [O/R] Spot gold hit an all-time high of $3,977.19 an ounce, while bitcoin similarly hovered near a record peak, as investors turned to alternative assets as a store of value. (Reporting by Rae Wee; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kim Coghill)

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(Reuters) -Elon Musk has named Anthony Armstrong, a former Morgan Stanley banker who advised him on the acquisition of X, as the new chief financial officer of his artificial intelligence group xAI, the Financial Times reported on Monday. Armstrong will lead the finance operations for both xAI and social media platform X, the report said, citing several people familiar with the matter. Veteran dealmaker Armstrong has been working with xAI for several weeks and was formally appointed the CFO in recent days, the newspaper said. xAI and X did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Armstrong could not be immediately reached. Musk launched xAI in 2023 to challenge Big Tech's AI push, accusing industry leaders of excessive censorship and lax safety standards. Armstrong will also be responsible for steering the social media business back to financial stability following an exodus of advertisers after Musk relaxed its content moderation standards. As Morgan Stanley's global head of tech M&A, Armstrong was part of the team Musk enlisted to manage the $44 billion purchase of Twitter in 2022. As the Morgan Stanley-financed deal took shape, Armstrong and Musk developed a close relationship, according to the report. Earlier this year, Armstrong helped Musk oversee the Office of Personnel Management during his stint in Washington at the Department of Government Efficiency. Armstrong will replace Mike Liberatore as finance chief of xAI. Liberatore left the artificial intelligence startup this year following clashes with members of Musk's inner circle over corporate structure and aggressive financial targets, the FT report said. Armstrong's X account now features the xAI logo next to his name, indicating his new role as an employee. His appointment as CFO comes amid a broader wave of executive departures. In July, X CEO Linda Yaccarino resigned, and over the summer, xAI's Liberatore and general counsel Robert Keele also left the company. Additionally, X's finance chief Mahmoud Reza Banki exited after less than a year in the role, the FT report said. xAI is reportedly in discussions for a new funding round that could value the company at approximately $200 billion, though investors say the deal has not yet been finalized, the report added. (Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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By Libby George and Rodrigo Campos LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -An intricate series of pipes off Angola's Atlantic coast snakes toward a new fuel refinery that signals the country's push for energy independence — and its use of private creditors, instead of banks, to fund a big-ticket project. "We're not the lender of last resort," said Felipe Berliner, co-founder of emerging markets asset manager Gemcorp, which provided the bulk of funding for the refinery, using private capital. "Sometimes we are the only lender." Private credit for emerging markets — driven by investors' hunt for yields and saturation in developed Western markets — could grow exponentially, veteran investors told Reuters, providing tens of billions in funding as bilateral lending and foreign aid shrink. "This is a paradigm shift," said Pramol Dhawan, head of emerging markets portfolio management at PIMCO. "The need to globally reallocate is not a hedge — it's a secular thesis." PIMCO has committed around $30 billion across 140 emerging market deals in five years, and expects to boost annual lending by 30% this year to $10 billion. Other investors are targeting similar increases. RAPID GROWTH, BUT YIELDS SQUEEZED  Private credit skyrocketed over the past 20 years, with global assets under management rising to over $1.2 trillion from $200 million in the early 2000s, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The funding filled a gap for companies, mainly in the U.S., as banks limited lending due to regulations and capital requirements. Today, emerging markets get less than 10% of that cash. But the U.S. and Europe are saturated; competition has driven down margins, and bets are riskier. Experts from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the IMF warn private credit looks shaky; the collapse of U.S. firms Tricolor and First Brands underscored the risks. Emerging markets, investors say, have bankable projects so keen for cash that you can pick and choose. "Emerging market companies have been forced to be more fundamentally conservative," said Matt Christ, portfolio manager at London-based global investment manager Ninety One. Developed markets are "priced for perfection", while emerging markets offer more upside. He said EM yields are 150 to 300 basis points higher than their developed market peers — and risk is often lower than ratings suggest. Christ, whose private credit portfolio is around $8 billion globally, sees scope to expand to $15 billion. EM firms, he said, are used to volatility and political instability — unlike most Western firms. "Developed market companies are going into an era they've never experienced before, but emerging market companies have been doing this for a long time," he said. Gustavo Ferraro, head of capital solutions at emerging markets-focused fund manager Gramercy, also said EM risk profiles and returns have surpassed those in developed markets. "The U.S. market isn't the benchmark anymore," he said. "Our (investors) want yield and uncorrelated exposure." Gramercy has doubled its private credit investment in five years to $4.8 billion, focusing on Latin America, Turkey and parts of Africa. Ninety One said that in Turkey, where authorities are limiting bank lending to cool inflation, private credit is filling a gap. FROM SOVEREIGNS TO SAUDI COMPANIES Most EM private credit is asset-backed — giving investors anything from company shares to control over the project itself. The structure favours infrastructure, but funding has gone to sovereign budgets and Turkish cities' transport networks. Angola's new refinery, mostly funded by Gemcorp with state oil company Sonangol also providing funds, will ultimately run at 60,000 barrels per day and make sub-Saharan Africa's No. 2 oil producer less reliant on costly fuel imports. The plant's first phase, which cost $475 million, is due to start operation by the end of the year. Gemcorp has also funded a wind farm in Lake Turkana in Kenya, a water sanitation project in Angola and power transmission between Angola and Namibia. A Gemcorp survey showed 67% of EM private credit went to large or medium corporates, and 22% to sovereign or quasi-sovereign projects. Gemcorp is launching a $1 billion fund targeting mid-market Saudi companies. "They are underfunded, they don't have access to the flexible capital they need to maintain growth from the government's fiscal push," Berliner said. The firm also funds Central American commodity exports to the U.S., West African fuel prepayment deals and gold producers. Berliner and others say private credit is flexible, fast and offers customised repayment terms — from upfront fees to extended maturities or EBITDA warrants (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) — making it ideal for upstarts and lower-rated sovereigns. "We're not replacing banks anymore. We're building something that didn't exist," Ferraro said. "This is bespoke financing for bespoke problems. That's what EM has in abundance." Privately, some bond investors worry private credit — nimbler and less onerous than bonded debt — could eat into their business. Others fear bigger problems if borrowers hit trouble. "If something goes wrong, like a big restructure, how does private credit deal with that? We don't really know," said Daniel Cash, associate professor of law at the UK's Aston University, adding that the "much more opaque" lending could also create issues. (Reporting by Libby George in London and Rodrigo Campos in New York. Additional reporting by Nell Mackenzie; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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By Abhirup Roy (Reuters) -Tesla is expected to unveil on Tuesday a more affordable version of its best-selling Model Y SUV, as the electric vehicle maker seeks to reverse falling sales and waning market share amid rising global competition. Chief Executive Elon Musk for years has promised mass market vehicles, though last year he canceled plans to build an all-new $25,000 EV, Reuters first reported. The car expected this week is an "affordable" vehicle based on current manufacturing and design platforms. Tesla posted two clips on X over the weekend, igniting excitement among Tesla fans. One video shows headlights peering out of the dark and another shows what looks like a wheel spinning for a few seconds, followed by "10/7", the U.S. format for the date October 7. Neither Tesla nor influencers have indicated that an in-person event is in the works, in contrast to previous major Tesla launches. Still, analysts, investors and fans expect the company to make some kind of announcement. Major questions include the car's price, driving range and efforts to strip down costs. Late last year, Musk said the vehicle would be priced below the "key threshold" of $30,000 including U.S. EV tax credits. In the United States, prices effectively rose by $7,500 at the end of last month, when the credit ended. That helped goose quarterly sales to a record, but expectations are that they will slow down for the rest of the year, unless the affordable car comes to the rescue. "The desire to buy the car is very high. (It's) just (that) people don't have enough money in the bank account to buy it," Musk said in July during Tesla's second-quarter earnings call. "So the more affordable we can make the car, the better." Musk initially promised that production of the vehicle would start by the end of June. But Tesla only made what it called "first builds" of the car, it said in July, adding that it would be available for customers sometime in the last three months of the year. Tesla has already been grappling with slowing sales of its aging lineup as competition has grown rapidly, especially in China and Europe, where Musk's far-right political views also have undermined brand loyalty. Earlier this year, Tesla launched a refreshed version of the Model Y with improvements including new light bars and a rear touchscreen. Musk has been pivoting the company toward artificial intelligence, focusing on robotaxis and humanoid robots. Tesla has said it will launch more affordable vehicles in its lineup but has not provided details. Sources have told Reuters the EV maker also plans to roll out a stripped-down version of its Model 3 midsize sedan. Affordable cars will also be key to Tesla delivering 20 million vehicles over the next decade – one of the several operational and valuation milestones set by the company's board as part of its proposed $1 trillion pay package for Musk. (Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; editing by Peter Henderson and Richard Chang)

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(Reuters) -China is building oil reserve sites at a rapid clip as part of a campaign to boost crude stockpiles that increased in urgency after Russia's Ukraine invasion upended global energy flows and has accelerated this year, according to public data, traders and industry experts. State oil companies including Sinopec and CNOOC will add at least 169 million barrels of storage across 11 sites during 2025 and 2026, according to public sources including domestic news reports, government reports and company websites. Of that, 37 million barrels of capacity has been built, the sources show. Once completed, the new sites will be able to store two weeks of China's net crude imports, according to Reuters calculations based on Chinese trade data, a significant volume as China is by far the world's biggest oil importer. Beijing's reserve-building – S&P Global Commodity Insight last month estimated China had stockpiled an average of 530,000 barrels per day thus far in 2025 – is soaking up surplus global supply and supporting prices under pressure as the OPEC+ producers group winds down production cuts. Traders and consultancies say they expect the stockpiling, fuelled by prices recently below $70 per barrel, to continue at least through the first quarter of 2026. China's heavy dependence on foreign oil, carried mainly by tankers, is a strategic vulnerability that Beijing is seeking to mitigate through storage, diversification of import sources and maintaining domestic production. China is also rapidly developing renewable energy and electrifying its vehicle fleet, with both gasoline and diesel demand declining and overall oil consumption likely to peak in 2027. Its reserve site construction is accelerating. The new additions planned for this year and next, based on Reuters research, nearly match the 180-190 million barrels of capacity that analytics firms Vortexa and Kpler, respectively, estimate were added in the previous five years. China's secrecy about its reserves means the list may not be comprehensive and the status of projects could change. Beijing built its first strategic reserve site in 2006, but its recent push stems from the aftermath of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which triggered a wave of disruptive sanctions on Moscow and highlighted the vulnerability of Beijing's oil imports, traders and analysts said. Since late 2023, Beijing has quietly issued mandates to state-owned companies to stockpile oil, traders and analysts say. London-based Energy Aspects in July cited a mandate calling for 140 million barrels to be purchased for strategic reserves, with deliveries through March 2026. "China's stockbuilding strategy has always been to have sufficient energy security for the nation that is highly dependent on crude imports," said June Goh, Singapore-based analyst at Sparta Commodities. "The agenda has become more urgent this year with heightened geopolitical risks surrounding Russia and Iran," she said, citing potential conflict-related disruptions. China is the top crude customer for both countries. BLURRED LINES China's government stockpiles comprise dedicated Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) sites built before 2019 and more recent storage known as "commercial reserves". Both serve as emergency reserves, experts say, with the latter operated with more flexibility under the oversight of the national reserve bureau, which allows state refiners to rotate stockpiles to meet commercial needs. A law passed in January codified the integration by including both government and commercial stocks in a single definition of national reserves, saying companies should maintain government-supervised "social responsibility" reserves. All the reserves are managed by dedicated divisions under state oil firms that are supervised by the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, which holds title to the stockpiles, according to two industry sources who declined to be named given the sensitivity of the matter. In inland Shaanxi province, two sites under construction with combined capacity of 11 million barrels were described online by the provincial government as part of state reserves, according to local state media reports. Another site, a 20-million-barrel Sinopec facility under construction on Hainan island, was described in February by a local state media outlet both as commercial storage and a contribution to national reserve capacity. The National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, Sinopec and CNOOC did not immediately reply to requests for comment. MORE TO COME Beijing's last public update on its stockpiling capacity dates to 2017, when the National Bureau of Statistics said China had built nine storage bases with capacity totalling 238 million barrels. In August, the semi-official China Petroleum and Petrochemical Industry Federation was cited in state media as saying state reserve storage capacity should grow to more than 1 billion barrels, equivalent to three months of net imports, without giving a timeline. That would be in line with the International Energy Agency's requirement that members hold stocks of at least 90 days of net imports, although China is not a member. Two trade sources said Beijing aims to grow its stockpile to cover six months of imports, or roughly 2 billion barrels. By comparison, the U.S. held 404 million barrels of crude in its strategic petroleum reserve at the end of August, although the country is the world's biggest oil producer and since 2019 has been a net exporter. Consultancy Kpler pegged China's total onshore national reserves and commercial stocks, including holdings by state and private firms, at 799 million barrels by early September, 109 million barrels above levels at the start of 2023. Vortexa estimated state-company controlled stockpiles, including refinery stocks, at 735 million barrels – a 73-million barrel-build over the same period. Not included in those private estimates is oil stored at four underground SPR sites that Reuters reported in 2021 have capacity to hold 110 million barrels. (Reporting by Reuters staffEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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