Business

SYDNEY — Dozens of supermarket staff have suffered abuse as two major Australian grocery chains struggled to impose a ban on single-use plastic bags, with one irate customer putting his hands around a shop assistant’s throat.

Woolworths and Coles last year announced plans to voluntarily remove free lightweight plastic bags from their stores nationally and instead offer more environmentally friendly reusable bags for 15 Aus cents (11 US cents) each.

The Coles ban came into force on Sunday. Woolworths’ took effect on June 20, but the company was forced to delay the move by ten days after customers complained, with staff bearing the brunt of their anger.

A survey by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association — the union that represents shop assistants — showed that of the 141 members employed by the two chains to respond so far, 61 said they had been subjected to abusive behaviour.

It included a worker being assaulted by a customer after being told there were no free plastic bags at a store in Western Australia state.

“A male customer in the self-serve area swore loudly at a female worker,” the union’s assistant secretary Ben Harris told AFP on Monday. “She provided him with some complimentary bags and apologised.”

The customer then made a mistake by scanning an item twice, but when the same worker came to help him, “he walked up behind her and put his hands around her throat”, Harris said.

Other customers have thrown grocery items on the floor and stormed off after swearing at staff.

“While we understand that some customers may be frustrated by this change, there is absolutely no excuse for abusive or violent behaviour towards retail staff,” Gerard Dwyer, the union’s national secretary said in a statement.

He said the ban could also pose a health risk, with people bringing filthy used bags to pack their shopping without considering hygiene issues.

“In some cases, customers have attempted to use bags which contained vomit, dirty nappies or rat faeces. This is obviously unacceptable and presents a serious health risk to retail staff,” he said.

According to US journal Science, eight million tonnes of plastic are dumped into the Earth’s oceans and seas each year, with toxic particles ingested by fish and, through the food chain, by humans.

In response to mounting community calls for change, all states and territories in Australia now either have a plastic bag ban or are planning one, except New South Wales. Retailers face fines of up to Aus $6,000 if they do not comply.

SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla Inc. nearly produced 5,000 Model 3 electric sedans in the last week of its second quarter, with the final car rolling off the assembly line on Sunday, several hours after the midnight goal set by Chief Executive Elon Musk, two workers at the factory told Reuters.

The 5,000th car finished final quality checks at the Fremont, California factory and was ready to go around 5 am PDT (12:00 GMT), one person said. It was not clear if Tesla could maintain that level of production for a longer period of time. 

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tesla had a goal of producing 5,000 Model 3s per week before the close of the second quarter on Saturday to demonstrate it could mass produce the battery-powered sedan.

Money-losing Tesla has been burning through cash to produce the Model 3, and delays have also potentially compromised Tesla's first-to-market position for a mid-priced, long-range battery electric car as a host of competitors prepare to launch rival vehicles.

Production of the Model 3 has been plagued by a number of issues, including problems with an over-reliance on automation on its assembly lines, battery issues and other bottlenecks.

As the end of the quarter neared, Musk spurred on workers, built a new assembly line in a huge tent outside the main factory, and fanned expectations that Tesla could hit its target, including tweeting pictures of rows of auto parts and robots over the final days of the quarter.

"It was pretty hectic", said one worker who described the atmosphere as "all hands on deck".

Another worker speaking after the 5,000th car was made described the factory as a "mass celebration".

Tesla is likely to announce production and delivery numbers for the quarter later this week, and investors will watch to see whether the company can keep up its end-of-quarter production speed. 

The company regularly engages in so-called "burst builds", temporary periods of fast-as-possible production, which it uses to estimate how many cars it is capable of building over longer periods of time. 

Analyst Brian Johnson of Barclays warned investors in March to be wary of brief "burst rates" of Model 3 production that were not sustainable.

Tesla said in May that its net Model 3 reservations — accounting for new orders and cancellations — exceeded 450,000 at the end of the first quarter.

Despite touting the Model 3 as a $35,000 vehicle, Tesla has yet to begin building that basic version and instead is currently building a higher-priced version. It is not clear how many of the orders are for the higher-priced versions. 

Tesla in January pushed back its target date for building 5,000 vehicles per week to the end of the second quarter, the latest in several delays that have concerned some investors.

Steady progress has enthused others, however, and Tesla's market value is close to that of General Motors Co. The company has said it will not need to raise cash this year.

June was turbulent for Tesla. It laid off 9 per cent of its workforce, endured at least two fires at its Fremont, California plant and accused a former employee of engaging in sabotage for speaking to the media. The ex-worker claims he is a whistleblower.

In early June, Musk said it was "quite likely" that Tesla could deliver 5,000 Model 3s per week by the end of quarter. At the time, Tesla was producing 3,500 of the vehicles per week, he said.

As the end of June approached, workers told Reuters that the company was building fewer than its 5,000 per week goal.

FRANKFURT AM MAIN — German industrial giant Thyssenkrupp on Friday said it had finally agreed the merger of its steelmaking business with India's Tata, making the merged firm Europe's second biggest steelmaker.

Conceived to take on the flood of cheap Chinese steel unbalancing world markets, the merged firm known as "Thyssenkrupp Tata Steel" will be based in the Netherlands. It will be second only to ArcelorMittal in the European steel industry.

Thyssenkrupp's executive and supervisory boards agreed to "create a 50/50 joint venture, which will combine the European steel businesses of Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel", the Essen-based group said in a statement.

Final signatures would follow "shortly", it added, while competition authorities in the European Union and other jurisdictions must still give the go-ahead.

Bosses hope the tie-up, which took more than two years to negotiate, will create between 400 and 500 million euros ($468-585 million) per year in savings.

The merged firm will boast 48,000 employees spread around 34 sites, producing around 21 million tonnes of steel per year for revenues of around 15 billion euros.

Thyssenkrupp and Tata previously warned that the merger would mean around 4,000 jobs will be slashed in both production and administration, split evenly between the two firms.

Last December, Thyssenkrupp offered guarantees against layoffs and site closures to powerful German trade union IG Metall.

Workers had demonstrated several times against the plans by the group, whose products range from elevators to submarines as well as steel.

SAN FRACISCO — After seven years of litigation that spanned the globe, Apple and Samsung have definitively ended a patent battle launched after the US company accused its rival of "slavishly" copying the iPhone's groundbreaking design.

According to a brief US court filing on Wednesday, the world's two biggest smartphone makers finally reached a settlement.

Financial terms were not revealed, and neither company elaborated on the court order by US District Court Judge Lucy Koh which dismissed the litigation "with prejudice" — leaving no option of reopening the case in future.

The deal came a month after a federal court jury ordered the South Korean consumer electronics giant to pay Apple some $539 million for copying patented iPhone features.

That award was seen as a victory for Apple, which had argued in court that design was intrinsic to the iPhone, and so should enjoy protection as a whole against copycats beyond the usual patents afforded to hardware components.

The US action was the first of dozens of lawsuits spanning Europe, Asia and Australia. The rival companies went head to head over what constitutes protected design in both the hardware and features of their phones and tablet computers.

In the original US lawsuit filed in 2011, Apple said Samsung had "chosen to slavishly copy" the technology, interfaces and product design of the iPhone, which revolutionised mobile telephony when it was launched in 2007.

As their tussle escalated worldwide, a lawyer for Samsung in turn accused Apple of behaving like a "jihadist" in its determination to fight on. 

But Wednesday's court order declares an armistice between the sector leaders, and legal experts said it was the inevitable outcome given the pace of change in smartphones since 2011.

"The market has moved on, the designs have changed, so it becomes increasingly more difficult for anybody to validate any [patent] infringement," Ranjit Atwal, personal technology analyst at Gartner, told AFP in Paris.

"There are more interesting battles to follow, and they are not necessarily going to be fought in court," he added.

"The smartphone market is saturated — where do they find the next market, how do they move forward?"

Apple insisted it was fighting for a core principle that design is so important to its products that it can actually be considered the "article of manufacture" under patent law. 

The three design patents in the case applied to the shape of the iPhone's black screen with rounded edges and a bezel, and the rows of colourful icons displayed.

Two utility patents also involved apply to "bounce-back" and "tap-to-zoom" functions.

The case had been sent back to the district court following a Supreme Court decision to revisit an earlier $400 million damage award.

The jury had been asked to determine whether the design features were worth all the profit made from Samsung smartphones that copied them — or whether those features were worth just a small fraction because they are components.

Apple was supported by big names in fashion and manufacturing, citing precedents such as Coca-Cola's iconic soda bottle.

But Samsung won the backing of major Silicon Valley and other IT sector giants, including Google, Facebook, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, claiming a strict ruling on design infringement could lead to a surge in litigation.

When contacted by AFP for comment about the Samsung settlement, Apple referred to a statement released last month after the jury announced the damages award.

"This case has always been about more than money," the statement read.

"It is important that we continue to protect the hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple."

Samsung declined to comment.

DUBAI — Bahrain's dinar recovered from 17-year lows and its bond prices rebounded on Wednesday after the country's allies in the Arab Gulf Council (GCC) pledged to prevent its ballooning public debt from triggering a financial crisis.

Bankers said the pledge of aid to Bahrain by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait eased fears that Manama might be unable to redeem a $750 million Islamic bond that will mature in November.

"It's time to buy Bahrain," Barclays said in an analyst report, predicting the aid pledge would ease international investors' worries about the country's solvency.

However, the cost of insuring Bahrain's debt against default remained high on Wednesday, suggesting many investors were still sceptical about the country's ability to stabilise its finances over the long term without repeated injections of aid.

The dinar bounced to 0.37850 against the US dollar in early spot market trade. On Tuesday, it had dropped as low as 0.38261, moving away from its official peg of 0.37608 as hedge funds dumped Bahraini bonds.

The currency also recovered in the forwards market, which reflects expectations for its value in coming months. One-year dollar/dinar forwards fell to 210 points from Tuesday's peak of 408 points, their highest since September 2016.

The rebounding dinar prompted investors to buy back Bahraini debt. The yield on its international bond maturing in August 2023 plunged to 7.58 percent from 8.95 per cent — though it stayed far above early 2018 levels of 5.22 per cent.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait said in a statement released shortly before midnight on Tuesday that they were in discussions on aid for Bahrain and would consider all options to support the country.

They promised "an integrated programme that will soon be announced to enable the kingdom of Bahrain to support its economic reforms and fiscal stability". No details were given.

Manama has projected a state budget gap of $3.5 billion in 2018, far less than the hundreds of billions of dollars which each of its neighbours hold in their sovereign wealth funds.

However, five-year Bahraini credit default swaps dropped only 16 basis points to 529 early on Wednesday, Markit said, remaining near record highs and implying a probability of around 30 per cent of a sovereign default in the next five years.

Bahrain's state finances are among the weakest in the region; the International Monetary Fund warned last month that Manama needed to reform its finances urgently, as public debt had jumped to 89 per cent of gross domestic product last year. 

Domestic political opposition has slowed austerity plans designed to cut the government's budget deficit. Many bankers think that unless authorities can ram through tax increases and spending cuts, its finances will remain shaky.

The statement by Bahrain's allies did not say whether they would demand policy commitments along with the aid, but their reference to economic reforms suggested there would be a link.

There are signs that Bahraini officials are mounting a fresh effort to break the political impasse over fiscal reform. Last week, the king asked the Cabinet to open a dialogue on pension reform with parliament, Bahraini members of parliament said.

The king wants an agreement that would protect retirees and also guarantee the durability of the kingdom's pension funds, parliament's President Ahmed Bin Ibrahim Al Mulla said in a statement late on Tuesday. "The joint committee will hold its first meeting in coming days," he said. 

Last month, officials said the Cabinet had launched a similar effort to reach a deal on reform of the subsidies which the government pays to keep down living costs for its citizens.

Harley-Davidson Inc. on Monday said it would move US production of motorcycles for European Union customers overseas to avoid retaliatory tariffs that could cost the company up to $100 million per year. Harley shares plunged as much as 7 per cent and analysts cut their profit forecasts on concerns about how quickly the company would be able to adapt to the 25 per cent import duties the European Union began charging on June 22.

US President Donald Trump has held up Harley as an example of a manufacturer that would benefit from his policies. But the proposed production shift appeared to mark an unintended consequence of US tariffs imposed on European steel and aluminum earlier this month.

"We think Harley's decision to protect EU demand is wise for the long-term health of the market," Baird Equity Research said in a note. "But we expect the near-term impact to weigh on estimates and sentiment until a clearer path to mitigation is outlined."

In a regulatory filing, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based company said the retaliatory duties would result in an incremental cost of about $2,200 per average motorcycle exported from the United States to the European Union, but did not provide more details on current motorcycle costs.

Harley's entry-level bike in France currently costs 7,490 euros ($8,766). The company said it would not raise retail or wholesale prices for its dealers, and expects the tariffs to result in incremental costs of $30 million to $45 million for the rest of 2018 and $80 million to $100 million on a full-year basis.

Trump vowed to make the iconic motorcycle maker great again when he took office last year. But since then the company has been counting the costs of his trade policies. 

In late April, Harley said Trump's metal tariffs would inflate its costs by $15 million to $20 million this year on top of already rising raw material prices that it expected at the start of the year.

White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro said on Monday the administration wants Harley to make more motorcycles in the United States. 

"Remember, they came to us, for example, pointing out that India had a 100 per cent tariff on Harley Davidsons. That's certainly not fair," Navarro told CNBC.

"We want Harleys made here, more made here, and that's going to happen under the president's trade policies."

In response to Navarro's comments, a Harley spokesman said the company made its position clear in Monday's filing.

European business 

Struggling to overcome a slump in US demand, Harley has been aiming to boost sales of its iconic motorcycles overseas to 50 per cent of total annual volume from about 43 per cent currently.

In January, the company announced the closure of a plant in Kansas City, Missouri as part of a consolidation plan after its motorcycle shipments fell to their lowest level in six years.

In 2017, Harley sold nearly 40,000 new motorcycles in Europe which accounted for more than 16 per cent of the company's sales last year. The revenues from EU countries were second only to the United States. 

Harley said ramping up production at overseas international plants could take at least nine to 18 months. It has three assembly plants outside the United States — one each in Brazil, India and Thailand.

The company decided to build the Thailand plant in response to Trump's decision to pull out from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have lowered import tariffs on its bikes in some of the fastest-growing motorcycle markets in Asia.

The company said it will provide more details of the financial implications of retaliatory EU tariffs and its plans to offset their impact on July 24 when its second-quarter earnings are due. 

Analysts at Baird Equity Research cut its 2018 profit estimates for Harley-Davidson to $3.7 per share from $3.9 and now expect 2019 profit of $3.85, down from $4.20.

CFRA Research lowered its 12-month price target for the stock to $47 from $49.

Harley-Davidson's shares fell as much as 7  per cent on Monday, before paring some losses in late trading. Its shares have lost about 9 per cent since early March when the trade skirmish between the United States and the EU started, and are down over 18 per cent since end-December 2017. 

Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler last week cut its 2018 profit forecast citing growing trade tensions. Its German rival BMW said it was considering "possible strategic options" in view of the rising trade tensions between China and the United States.

Trump has also threatened to crackdown on auto imports. Analysts at Moody's reckon a 25 per cent tariff on imported vehicles and parts would be negative for most of companies including Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.

WELLINGTON — The central banks of Australia and New Zealand ruled out on Tuesday the notion that they would issue official cryptocurrencies anytime soon, warning the potential damage to their banking systems could outweigh the benefits.

Tony Richards, head of the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) payments policy, said that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies had not proven their worth as reliable stores of value or means of payment because of their volatility and vulnerability to hacking. 

"Nine years after its launch and about five years since it entered the public consciousness, bitcoin continues to have structural flaws that make it unsuitable for many uses, many of which stem from its inefficient verification process," he said in the text of a speech given in Sydney.

Given their low usage in Australia, cryptocurrencies were unlikely to have any significant impact on the RBA's oversight of monetary policy and the banking system, he said.

The RBA had no plan for the time being to adopt any new electronic form of money for households, he added.

"Based on our interactions with our counterparts in other countries, it is also not front of mind for most other advanced economy central banks," Richards said.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) also said that while it was open to exploring new technology, it was unclear whether a central bank digital currency will bring conclusive benefits.

While digital currencies could make distribution of money safer and cheaper, they could increase the likelihood of bank runs during periods of financial instability, said RBNZ Deputy Governor Geoff Bascand.

That was because in times of financial stress, depositors could easily and remotely transfer large deposit holdings to a central bank digital currency, he said.

"A breakdown in the financial system can cause enormous economic and social harm. We could not issue a digital currency if it might undermine financial stability," Bascand said in the text of a speech at an Auckland conference.

"The payments industry is dynamic, which is good. But the Reserve Bank must be a considered prospector in the exploration for digital currency benefits — we have New Zealand's currency and financial system at stake."

Wild swings in the price of cryptocurrencies and fears they may be used for illicit activities such as tax evasion, have drawn the attention of global policymakers.

Finance leaders of the Group of 20 major economies agreed in March to open the door to regulating the booming industry, though they have only just started adopting individual rules due to the difficulty of agreeing on a multilateral approach.

Most central banks are wary of embracing cryptocurrencies and say they have no plans to issue their own digital money with the exception of Sweden, where the shift away from the use of cash is significantly more advanced than in other countries.

Bitcoin prices dropped their lowest in more than four months on Friday, continuing a downtrend driven by authorities' measures to impose tighter regulation on cryptocurrencies. 

AMMAN — The Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) has started providing technical mentoring and business coaching to local companies participating in "Accelerate with JEDCO" programme, according to a JEDCO statement.

JEDCO is making that possible through contracting local consultants and mentors to provide guidance and new leadership skills in several areas such as strategic planning, marketing, and financial analysis.

Accelerate with JEDCO,  financed by the MENA Transition Fund, is an important step towards supporting, reinforcing and transforming JEDCO from a grant-centred organisation to a leading quality business support service provider for SMEs and startups, JEDCO’s CEO Omar Qaryouti said in the statement.

Qaryouti said that more than 50 local companies will benefit from this service starting from diagnostic field visits 

He noted that this is an additional service by JEDCO which focuses on helping local companies to grow in the local market and to expand their access to new markets, by providing training, networking and studies of foreign markets.

Other new services will be provided to local companies that have large export readiness to help them increase their exports and enter new markets, he added.

Accelerate with JEDCO is an integrated and comprehensive programme, specialised in expediting the growth process and development of enterprises in a manner that conforms to the Jordanian business environment.

ANKARA — Turkey's embattled lira on Monday pared gains against the US dollar after a surge following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decisive election victory, as analysts warned the economy still faced troubled waters.

The lira was trading at 4.66 to the dollar, gaining only 0.1 per cent in value on the day. It was trading at 5.45 to the euro, a loss of 0.1 per cent in value after 12:00 GMT.

The Turkish currency, which had lost some 20 per cent in value against the dollar this year, had only hours before surged some 3 per cent in value against the greenback on Monday morning before the losses.

Erdogan won Sunday's presidential elections in the first round and saw his ruling party-led alliance win an overall majority in parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results.

His victory means he will lead the country under a new executive presidential system with boosted powers after constitutional changes were approved in April last year.

Analysts were now watching to see what kind of monetary policy Erdogan would push as well as who he chooses as his economic advisers and ministers.

Current Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek — a former Merrill Lynch economist trusted by markets — did not run to be an MP but the president could still choose him as a member of his executive team or presidential adviser.

Jason Tuvey, senior emerging markets economist at London-based Capital Economics, said if Erdogan decided against Simsek, it "would send a worrying signal to investors".

 'Vulnerable' lira 

The Turkish economy has in recent weeks been plagued by worries about its underlying health despite high growth, with inflation well into double digits and the current account deficit widening.

The polls outcome relieved investors who had feared a prolonged period of political uncertainty after the polls but some warned it would be short-lived amid fears over whether the newly reelected president would submit to continued monetary tightening.

Tuvey of Capital Economics said that investors would keep an eye on whether Erdogan uses his boosted presidential powers to push for looser monetary and fiscal policy after he railed against interest rates during the election campaign.

"If he pursues looser fiscal policy and puts renewed pressure on the central bank to lower interest rates... that will ultimately result in slower [and more volatile] growth, higher inflation and further falls in the lira," Tuvey wrote in a note.

Inan Demir, economist at Nomura, said in a note he expected the lira to remain vulnerable unless there was a "significant reorientation of macroeconomic policies towards rebalancing".

The next central bank meeting to decide on interest rates will be on July 24.

LONDON — The British government and business leaders clashed in a deepening row over Brexit on Sunday after a senior minister accused companies of issuing "completely inappropriate" threats and undermining the prime minister. 

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus last week issued its strongest warning over the impact of Britain's departure from the European Union, saying a withdrawal without a deal would force it to reconsider its long-term position and put thousands of British jobs at risk.

Other European companies with major operations in Britain have also started to speak out two years on from the Brexit vote, voicing concerns over a lack of clarity on the terms of trade when Britain leaves next March.

"It was completely inappropriate for businesses to be making these kinds of threats for one very simple reason — we are in an absolutely critical moment in the Brexit discussions and what that means is that we need to get behind [Prime Minister] Theresa May," the Health Minister Jeremy Hunt told the BBC.

"The more that we undermine Theresa May the more likely we to end up with a fudge which will be absolute disaster for everyone," he added.

German carmaker BMW has warned the company would have to make contingency plans within months if the government did not soon clarify its post-Brexit position and German industrial group Siemens said it urgently needs clarity on how its operations would have to be organised.

The leaders of five major business lobby groups also warned the prime minister over the weekend that the ongoing uncertainty about Brexit could cost the economy billions of pounds.

Hunt, a senior figure in the government who is viewed as a potential future prime minister, dismissed "siren voices" who say Brexit negotiations are not going well and said people should ignore them.

However, Paul Drechsler, the president of leading business lobby group the CBI, said Hunt's criticisms were the "perfect strategy" for discouraging investment and would make it harder to increase tax revenue to spend on matters such as healthcare.

"The perfect strategy for inhibiting businesses from investing in the UK," Drechsler said. "This country needs ministers to be enthusiastic champions of business as found in most other countries." 

Party of business? 

The ruling Conservatives have traditionally considered themselves the party of business, advocating free markets, lower taxes and political stability.

But as Britain's politics become more polarised because of Brexit, many business leaders are feeling alienated by a party that is pushing through policies on trade and immigration that they say will damage their companies.

With only nine months until Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, little is clear about how trade will flow as May, who is grappling with a divided party, is still trying to strike a deal with the bloc.

Business leaders are increasingly concerned that their concerns are being ignored and are stepping up their contingency plans in case Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal.

The health minister's comments were later echoed by International Trade Minister Liam Fox, who said Britain's negotiating position was being undermined by companies urging the government to rule out leaving without a deal.

"People who are making these comments need to understand that they may be actually putting the UK at a disadvantage by making these cases," he told Sky News.

The Foreign Minister Boris Johnson was quoted in the Telegraph newspaper by two sources over the weekend as dismissing business leaders' concerns about the impact of Brexit, using foul language in a meeting with EU diplomats.

A spokesperson for the foreign office disputed whether Johnson had used bad language and said he had been attacking business lobbyists.

Brexit remains the defining issue in British politics two years after Britons voted by 52-48 per cent to leave the bloc.

Around 100,000 supporters of the EU marched through central London on Saturday to demand that the government hold a final public vote on the terms of Brexit, organisers said.