China's industrial profits rise 3% in April after output beat estimates despite U.S. tariffs
China's industrial profits rose in April from a year earlier, official data showed Tuesday, despite prohibitive U.S. tariffs and persistent deflationary pressures.
Cumulative profits at major industrial firms climbed 3% in April after returning to growth in the first quarter of this year, rising 0.8% from a year earlier, reversing the trend of declines since the third quarter of last year.
In the first four months this year, industrial profits rose 1.4%, the data showed.
U.S. President Donald Trump slapped eye-watering tariffs of 145% on imports from China last month, drawing Beijing to retaliate, effectively amounting to a mutual trade embargo between the world's two largest economies.
Both sides agreed to lower most of those levies earlier this month, following a trade truce struck during a meeting between the Trump administration and Chinese leadership in Geneva, Switzerland.
U.S. tariffs on goods imported from China have fallen to 51.1% while China's levies on U.S. imports stand at 32.6%, according to think tank Peterson Institute for International Economics.
China's manufacturing activity fell more than expected to a 16-month low in April, with the official purchasing managers' index coming in at 49.0, sliding into contractionary territory for the first time this year.
Retail sales growth slowed to 5.1% from a year earlier while industrial output expanded 6.1% on year, underscoring the persisting supply-demand imbalance in the economy.
Exports to the U.S. plunged over 21% from a year earlier as the triple-digit tariffs kicked in, while overall exports surged 8.1% on the back of a jump in shipments to Southeast Asian nations.
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Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump admin cuts $3.7B for industrial decarbonization and carbon capture
The Department of Energy announced Friday that it is canceling over $3.7 billion in funding for projects that would cut carbon emissions and toxic air pollution from power plants and industrial sites, ranging from cement kilns to ketchup-processing plants. The DOE shared a list of the projects to be cut with Canary Media on Friday, which showed that more than half of the awards under the ambitious Industrial Demonstrations Program, housed under the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, will be terminated. OCED funding focused on carbon capture at gas-fired power plants is also impacted. DOE claimed the projects 'failed to advance the energy needs of the American people, were not economically viable, and would not generate a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.' But advocates disagree. Not only would the projects kickstart efforts to clean up industries that are notoriously tricky to decarbonize — they would have generated serious economic benefits, too. Analyses from groups including the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy have found that federal spending from OCED would have created hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide and helped position U.S. industries to compete in international markets that are increasingly demanding cleaner materials and products. Stakeholders have for months expected the Trump administration to cut the OCED awards, which were authorized under the Biden administration by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. In March and April, reports surfaced of plans by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate the office's $6 billion Industrial Demonstrations Program, cut carbon capture and sequestration projects, and cancel billions of dollars of funding for clean-hydrogen hubs based in Democratic-leaning states. Today's announcement doesn't include any hydrogen-hub funding cuts. But the feared elimination of money for carbon capture and industrial decarbonization has become a reality. The Trump administration is getting rid of funding for several efforts to decarbonize the production of cement, one of the most carbon-intensive industries in the world. That includes $189 million for Brimstone and $87 million for Sublime Systems, two startups pioneering new low-carbon cement production methods. Global cement giant Heidelberg Materials will lose its $500 million award to capture carbon emissions at a massive existing cement plant in Indiana. And the National Cement Company of California won't receive its $500 million grant to take a multi-technology approach to cutting emissions from its plant in Lebec, California. The DOE is also pulling funding for projects to replace fossil-fueled industrial heating equipment with heat pumps, electric boilers, and thermal energy storage systems. Kraft Heinz will lose its $170 million award to install clean heat technologies at 10 of its food production facilities. Beverage giant Diageo North America will no longer receive the $75 million it was promised to help install thermal energy storage systems from startup Rondo Energy at production facilities in Kentucky and Illinois. And Texas-based industrial heat pump manufacturer Skyven Technologies, which had been awarded a $145 million grant to install its technology at a New York state ethanol plant, was listed on DOE's spreadsheet as having a $15 million grant rescinded. (DOE did not immediately respond to inquiries to determine whether Skyven was set to lose only part of its $145 million grant or if DOE's spreadsheet was in error.) Projects to cut pollution from factories that make metals are also on the chopping block. 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What remains unclear is the extent to which Friday's cancellations have disrupted ongoing construction, hiring of workers, or other unrecoverable commitments from companies impacted. Firms have been tight-lipped about plans to navigate the consequences of federal funding clawbacks. All of the awards required participating companies to invest at least as much as they were set to receive in federal grants. A representative of Sublime Systems told Canary Media that the company was 'surprised and disappointed' by DOE's decision to cut its grant. Sublime this week announced a deal with Microsoft, which said it would buy 600,000 tons of the low-carbon cement to be produced from the startup's first commercial-scale plant in Holyoke, Massachusetts — a plant backed by DOE's grant. 'It is our hope to continue to partner with the DOE to show a success story of American innovation and ingenuity at its finest,' Sublime's representative said in a Friday email. 'Nevertheless, we have prepared for the possibility of this disappointing outcome and are evaluating various scenarios that leave our scale-up unimpeded.' The projects are without a doubt now on far shakier financial footing, and advocates do not expect that they'll be able to move forward without the federal funding. Should they fail, the effects would be profound, according to Evan Gillespie, a partner at advocacy group Industrious Labs. '[The projects] would have helped catapult the U.S. into a leadership position in the technologies that will bring down emissions and pace the next generation of industrial evolution,' he said. 'Killing these projects means more emissions, more pollution, and more people getting sick.' Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former oil and gas industry executive who insists that climate change is not a crisis, said in Friday's announcement that the decision would benefit U.S. taxpayers. 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Yahoo
33 minutes ago
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Trump sends Musk out of White House with gold key as they talk Diddy pardon, Macron slap and Tesla chief's black eye
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Wall Street Journal
33 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
PBS Sues Trump Administration Over Plan to Pull Funding
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