Japan's ruling party aims for 1,000 trillion yen nominal GDP in 2040, PM Ishiba says
TOKYO, June 9 (Reuters) - Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday he had instructed ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) executives to include the goal of achieving 1,000 trillion yen ($6.94 trillion) nominal GDP in 2040 in a party election pledge.
Ishiba also said the goal of achieving a more than 50% increase in the average income should be included as a top agenda item in the LDP's campaign for the upper house election slated for July.
($1 = 144.0200 yen)
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Japan's JERA agrees to buy US LNG to rebalance supply portfolio
TOKYO, June 12 (Reuters) - JERA, Japan's biggest power generator, has agreed to new supply deals for U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) from four projects to diversify its global portfolio away from its reliance on Australia, it said on Thursday. JERA plans to buy up to 5.5 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) of U.S. LNG under 20-year contracts, with deliveries starting around 2030. That total includes some previously reported deals as well as newly announced agreements. The move illustrates Japan's efforts to seek stable and flexible LNG supply to strengthen energy security and meet growing electricity demand driven by expanding data centres. The country is the world's second-largest LNG importer after China. JERA, Japan's biggest LNG buyer, has signed a heads of agreement with Sempra Infrastructure for 1.5 mtpa from its Port Arthur LNG phase 2 project and a HOA with Cheniere Marketing for up to 1 mtpa from Corpus Christi LNG and Sabine Pass LNG. The Japanese utility also signed a 20-year sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with U.S. LNG developer Commonwealth LNG for 1 mtpa from its Louisiana project. On Tuesday, sources familiar with the negotiations told Reuters about the deal though both companies declined to comment at the time. The 5.5 mtpa figure also includes its deal announced on May 29 with NextDecade (NEXT.O), opens new tab to buy 2 mtpa from its Rio Grande LNG project. All four are 20-year, free-on-board contracts with no destination restrictions, although the Cheniere deal could go beyond 20 years, JERA said. "We made these decisions because cost-competitive and flexible LNG is essential as we look towards the 2030s," JERA's Global CEO and Chair Yukio Kani told Reuters. He added that LNG has become increasingly important amid rising power demand from data centres and the soaring costs of cleaner alternatives like hydrogen and ammonia. "We were also aiming to secure contracts with the projects already under development and tied to the EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) agreements before the recent surge in LNG project costs and interest rates," he said. The announcement comes amid ongoing trade talks between Japan and the United States, though Kani stressed there was no government pressure behind the deals which he said were purely private sector decisions. "We are rebalancing towards the global supply mix," he said, to reduce its weighting toward Australia. After the new deals, the U.S. will supply nearly 30% of JERA's LNG mix, up from 10% now. Oceania and Asia, including Australia, currently account for more than half. JERA, jointly owned by Tokyo Electric Power (9501.T), opens new tab and Chubu Electric Power (9502.T), opens new tab, already buys U.S. supply from Freeport LNG and Cameron LNG. In 2023, it signed a 20-year contract to buy 1 mtpa from Venture Global's (VG.N), opens new tab CP2 project.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Trump trade deal shows how vital China's rare-earth metals are to US defense firms
The draft trade agreement with China announced by Donald Trump on Wednesday would ease concerns from top US military suppliers about rare-earth metals and magnets that, if cut off permanently, could hobble production of everything from smart bombs to fighter jets to submarines and other weapons in the US arsenal. While the deal has not yet been finalised, it may reassure major defense companies such as Lockheed Martin, the largest US user of samarium – a rare-earth metal used in military-grade magnets – whose supply is entirely controlled by China. The issue of China's export restrictions on the metals and magnets was so important that Trump specifically mentioned them as part of his announcement of a broader trade agreement with China that would reduce US tariffs to 55% and Chinese tariffs to 10%. 'Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,' Trump wrote. 'Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China.' Rare earths are crucial to the production of F-35 fighter jets, Virginia- and Columbia-class nuclear-powered submarines, Tomahawk missiles, radar systems, unmanned aerial vehicles and smart bombs, according to Gracelin Baskaran of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a thinktank. China in April imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements during the tough negotiations over Trump's new tariffs. China also targeted the aerospace and defense industries by limiting 15 US entities with ties to the industry from receiving dual-use goods. 'The United States is already on the back foot when it comes to manufacturing these defense technologies,' Baskaran said in an interview published by CSIS. 'China is rapidly expanding its munitions production and acquiring advanced weapons systems and equipment at a pace five to six times faster than the United States. While China is preparing with a wartime mindset, the United States continues to operate under peacetime conditions.' Trump has amassed a team of foreign policy China hawks, including a number who have warned that the US should focus more on the pacing threat posed by China over the coming decades instead of current conflicts in Ukraine or the Middle East. 'Even before the latest restrictions, the US defense industrial base struggled with limited capacity and lacked the ability to scale up production to meet defense technology demands,' she continued. 'Further bans on critical minerals inputs will only widen the gap, enabling China to strengthen its military capabilities more quickly than the United States.' China and the United States had agreed last month in Geneva to pause the implementation of sky-high tariffs that would have delivered a severe economic blow to manufacturers and consumers in the US, as well as exporters in China. But China maintained export licenses on rare-earth metals used by both defense producers and carmakers that threatened to upend global supply chains and imperil production in the United States. In particular, China has a stranglehold on the production and export of samarium, a magnet used in combination with cobalt to provide highly durable magnets used to withstand the intense temperatures in military-grade tech. China produces the entire world's supply of the rare-earth metal. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In particular, the magnets are important for the production of guided missiles, satellite-guided 'smart bombs', and aircrafts, including fighter jets, according to Apex Magnets, a supplier. Those supplies of weapons have been depleted through deliveries of missiles and other ordnance to Ukraine and to the Israeli military. Pentagon planners and other officials in the administration of Joe Biden, regularly squared off over whether foreign weapons deliveries expose a US vulnerability in case it faced off with a major military power. In order to break the deadlock, secretary of state Marco Rubio also abruptly announced plans to cancel hundreds of thousands of visas for Chinese students in the United States. While publicly that was said as a plan to root out Chinese spies in US higher education, Axios reported that the visa ban was also motivated by China's obstinance on resuming rare earths exports. The breakthrough comes as Trump is planning to display US military prowess at a parade in Washington DC this weekend that has been seen as an attempt to flex American muscle and reinforce the US president's bonafides as a supporter of the military. Trump in 2019 ordered the Pentagon to find new sources of procuring rare earth minerals, in particular samarium, because the US did not have the capacity to produce them domestically. The initiative was 'essential to the national defense', he said then.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Trump is receptive to contacts with North Korean leader, White House says
WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump would welcome communications with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after having had friendly relations with Kim during his first term, the White House said on Wednesday. "The president remains receptive to correspondence with Kim Jong Un," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. Trump and Kim held three summits during Trump's 2017-2021 first term and exchanged a number of what Trump called "beautiful" letters. In June 2019, Trump briefly stepped into North Korea from the demilitarized zone with South Korea. Little progress was made, however, at reining in North Korea's nuclear program, and Trump acknowledged in March that Pyongyang is a "nuclear power." The attempts at rapprochement come after the election in South Korea of a new president, Lee Jae-myung, who has pledged to reopen dialogue with North Korea. Analysts say, however, that engaging North Korea will likely be more difficult for both Lee and Trump than it was in the U.S. president's first term. Since then North Korea has significantly expanded its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, and developed close ties with Russia through direct support for Moscow's war in Ukraine, to which Pyongyang has provided both troops and weaponry. Since Trump's first-term summitry with Kim Jong Un ended, North Korea has shown no interest in returning to talks.
