Wed. AM TNT News Articles 8-17-22

TNT

Harambe:
Vietnam to make Apple Watch, MacBook for first time | Vietnam+  

(8/17/22)

Apple is in talks to make Apple Watches and MacBooks in Vietnam for the first time as the US tech giant looks to diversify production away from China, Nikkei Asia reported.

According to the newspaper, Apple suppliers Luxshare Precision Industry and Foxconn have started test production of the Apple Watch in northern Vietnam with the aim of producing the device outside of China.

Regarding the production of MacBook, Apple has asked suppliers to set up a test production line in Vietnam. However, progress in moving mass production to the country has been slow, partly due to pandemic-related disruptions.

Vietnam is already Apple’s most important production hub outside of China, producing a wide range of flagship products for the American company, including iPad tablets and AirPods earphones.

According to industry experts, the Apple Watch is even more sophisticated because many components in such a small case require a high degree of technological skill. Producing the device would be a win for Vietnam as the country attempts to further upgrade its tech manufacturing sector, they said.

Apple has also continued to shift iPad production to Vietnam in an effort to diversify its production. In addition, the group is also in talks with suppliers to build a trial production line for its HomePod smart speaker in Vietnam.

The number of Apple suppliers with facilities in the Southeast Asia country has increased to at least 22 from 14 in 2018, according to Nikkei Asia’s analysis of Apple’s latest available suppliers list. Many other major electronics manufacturers like Google, Dell and Amazon have also set up production in the country to diversify beyond China, the newspaper added.

https://en.vietnamplus.vn/vietnam-to-make-apple-watch-macbook-for-first-time/235760.vnp

Zimbabwe Offers Target-Beating Incentive for Biggest Gold Miners | Bloomberg

(8/16/22)

Zimbabwe extended an incentive for the country’s biggest gold miners to produce above state-set output targets.

Large producers that exceed their goals will receive 80% of the payment for the additional output in foreign currency, Deputy Mines Minister Polite Kambamura said in an interview. That compares with the existing 60-40 split between foreign and local currency payments for gold produced in the southern African country.

“Overall, it’s a good policy,” said Isaac Kwesu, chief executive officer of the Chamber of Mines. “But for those that are already operating at full throttle, they will not be able to benefit from it.”

Zimbabwe’s gold miners say they can only make the investments required to help reboot the country’s economy if they can retain a larger share of their foreign currency earnings. Gold exports are the No. 3 foreign currency earner, after platinum and remittances, in a nation that suffers from an acute shortage of dollars.

Kambamura said the government has identified two local lenders that could help provide the $1 billion of funding needed by the gold industry over the next five years.

Kuvimba Mining House Ltd., 65% owned by the state, plans a fivefold increase in production at its Shamva Gold operation by next year, the deputy minister said.

“Shamva is coming up with a massive expansion project which will see them doing open cast mining,” he said. Mothballed state-owned gold mines will be reopened, while those not fully operational will be recapitalized, Kambamura said.

Gold output in Zimbabwe climbed 47% in the first seven months of this year. The government wants the gold sector to account for a third of the targeted $12 billion the mining industry will generate next year, the deputy minister said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-16/zimbabwe-offers-target-beating-incentive-for-biggest-gold-miners

CandyKisses:
Mashaan al-Jubouri: Keep the Kadhimi government to manage the next elections

Baghdad – NAS   

Former MP Mashaan al-Jubouri on Wednesday called for the retention of the current Kadhimi government to manage the upcoming elections.

Al-Jubouri said in a blog post followed by “NAS”, (August 17, 2022), “If early elections become inevitable, fairness requires us to recognize that the government of President Mustafa al-Kadhimi managed the last elections in a professional and impartial manner and was not indicated during its conduct by any biased action of any alliance, bloc, party or group definitively
and its survival to administer the new elections enhances confidence in its integrity.”   

Tishwash:
International oil expert: “Corruption” prevents Iraq from benefiting from huge reserves and resources

A senior international economic expert monitored, on Wednesday, a number of reasons, including “corruption”, that prevent Iraq from benefiting from huge resources and huge oil reserves, noting that these capabilities “if exploited” would make it go a long way in mitigating international economic damage.  

Iraq has an estimated 145 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, and the country plans to increase crude oil production to 8 million barrels per day, up from about 4 million barrels at present.

Increased Iraqi production could add a significant amount of oil to a market hungry for this product, but a report written by Simon Watkins, a former major forex trader and economic journalist and author, for Oil Price said there were a number of factors, including corruption issues, and weak civil society. Insecurity and lack of resources prevented Iraq from implementing its oil exploration and production strategies.

And the report quoted Hamid Younis, the first vice president of the Iraqi National Oil Company, as saying last week that the country plans to increase crude oil production to 8 million barrels per day.

He also quoted the Director General of the Iraqi Oil Exploration Company, Ali Jassim, as saying that the next phase will witness “notable activity” in the exploration sector, including operations in the Western Desert and Nineveh Governorate.

Given the current delicate balance between supply and demand in the global oil pricing matrix, a large new supply would go some way to mitigating the economic damage to many countries by enduring higher oil and gas prices, if the ambitions are “realistic”, according to Watkins. .

Iraq owns about 18 percent of the total reserves of the Middle East, and about 9 percent of the world’s reserves, and is the fifth largest in the world. However, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its 2012 report on the country, the extent of Iraq’s viable oil resources For eventual extraction is subject to a great degree of “uncertainty”.

The writer says that the reserves may be much larger, as the 2012 International Energy Agency analysis put the level of ultimately recoverable crude oil liquids and natural gas resources in Iraq at about 232 billion barrels, but as of the end of 2011, only 35 billion barrels had been produced. Of that number, compared to 23 percent for the Middle East as a whole, according to the International Energy Agency.

However, it is one thing to have huge levels of reserves and recoverable resources, but to dig and export them is quite another.

During the period from the release of the IEA report in 2012 until now, crude oil production in Iraq has risen from just over 3 million barrels per day to just over 4 million barrels per day. y

In absolute terms, Watkins says, this increase ranks as a very poor return for Iraq’s crude oil resources, especially when considering how easy it is to extract its oil.

Crude oil in the country has the lowest extraction cost in the world of 1-2 dollars per barrel, equal to the extraction costs of crude oil for Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Also, the current production rates are much lower than the Iraqi national plans and international expectations, which indicated that Iraq would reach 9 million barrels per day by 2020, or at least 6 million barrels per day.

The International Energy Agency expected in 2012 that Iraq’s oil production would rise to 9 million barrels per day in 2020 and then rise to 10.5 million barrels per day in 2035.

Why is production delayed?

The writer says that the basis for Iraq to achieve these massive increases in crude oil production is there and quite solid, but the rampant corruption that has plagued the Iraqi oil sector, especially since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, and the failure to build the Common Sea Water Supply Project (CSSP) The reason was that production rates were so late.

The project involves taking sea water from the Gulf and then treating it before transporting it through pipelines to the oil fields to increase pressure and increase oil consumption. Initially, it was supposed to cost about $10 billion so that it could provide about 6 million barrels per day of water to five fields. At least oil in the southern Basra region and one in the Maysan region.

The writer says that the “culture of corruption in Iraq” is responsible, as Iraq usually appears among the 10 worst countries out of 180 countries for the size and scope of corruption.

The author quotes International Transparency Reports stating that “widespread embezzlement, procurement fraud, money laundering, oil smuggling, and widespread bribery have driven the country down international corruption ratings, fueled political violence and impeded effective state building and service delivery.”

This may be the main reason why the CSSP project is not going forward, says Watkins, but if Iraq can rid the project as much as possible of the rotten elements, it can begin to achieve the massive increases in crude production it envisions.    link

Source: Dinar Recaps

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