Bunge beats quarterly profit estimates on processing margin recovery
Earlier this month, the company officially closed a long-delayed deal to merge with Glencore-backed (GLEN.L), opens new tab Viterra, two years after announcing the $34 billion mega-deal.
It also completed the sale of its U.S. corn milling business, which further streamlined its operations and simplified its portfolio.
However, net sales from Bunge's core agribusiness segment, its largest by revenue and volume, fell 5.1% to $9.17 billion in the reported quarter from a year earlier.
The company posted an adjusted profit of $1.31 per share for the three months ended June 30, compared with analysts' average estimate of $1.14, according to data compiled by LSEG.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Michigan's governor replaces clean energy advocate on utilities board with ‘industry ally'
Michigan's governor, Gretchen Whitmer, has effectively ousted a clean energy advocate from serving on a board that regulates the state's energy utilities monopoly, and replaced her with someone who environmental groups charge is an 'industry ally', campaigners say. The groups allege the move was made at utility giant DTE Energy's behest because it was unhappy with Michigan public services commission (MPSC) board member Alessandra Carreon's position on clean energy and opposition to rate increases, among other issues. Each MPSC board vote is important because the commission is made up of three gubernatorial appointees, and Whitmer's decision amid a debate over rate increases could slow the state's ambitious clean energy transition and lead to higher energy bills, opponents warn. The decision marks the latest in a series of environmental controversies for Whitmer, a Democrat whose name has been discussed as a potential leading candidate for the party's nominee for president in 2028, but now faces increasing scrutiny over her record. Appointing someone with industry ties to a board that is supposed to protect the public from utility wrongdoing 'reflects incredibly poorly on Governor Whitmer', said Chris Gilmer-Hill, policy associate with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition non-profit. 'This is part of this pattern of this administration being very quick to give utilities what they want and not giving Michiganders what they need,' Gilmer-Hill added. Whitmer appointed Carreon to the MPSC board in July 2023 to fill a partial term. Among other causes, Carreon was an advocate for greater public involvement in and transparency around the arcane regulatory process for utilities at a time when public frustration over DTE's poor service and high rates has steadily mounted. In a highly unusual move, the governor announced in June that she would not renew Carreon's appointment. Environmental groups in June lambasted the decision, which they alleged came amid pressure from DTE and Consumers Energy, Michigan's second largest utility monopoly. 'My understanding is that DTE and Consumers were very unhappy with recent decisions the commission has made around the utilities' profit margin,' Charlotte Jameson, chief policy officer of the Michigan Environmental Council, told the Detroit News at the time. Many of the state's top environmental groups signed an 18 June letter to Whitmer that stated they were 'deeply concerned' with the decision not to renew Carreon's appointment and potentially replace her with someone who has 'clear conflicts of interest or strong industry allegiances'. They urged the governor to reconsider. Whitmer did not. In mid-July, she appointed Shaquila Myers, who, during the 2023-2024 legislative session, was chief of staff for former Michigan House speaker Joe Tate, a pro-business Democrat. He faced a stunning revolt from his own party in December because he generally refused to allow votes on legislation opposed by big business, and was seen by many as hostile towards environmental causes. Despite a chorus of calls for change, Tate did not allow multiple utility reform bills to move through the legislature. 'There was a quiet, steady refusal to do anything but ignore [utility] bills,' said Rachel Hood, a former Democratic state representative who served with Tate last session, and has worked on energy policy in Michigan for nearly 20 years. Hood characterized Myers as 'not just an industry ally', but also 'deeply enmeshed in the governor's policy agenda'. 'And it's clear that the governor is pushing DTE's agenda to the best of her ability,' Hood said. DTE and Consumers are among the state's powerful political forces. The former, either via the company, its employees or its affiliated dark money non-profit, has given millions of dollars in campaign donations to Whitmer or the state Democratic party over her two terms. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Meanwhile, a 2022 analysis found DTE had donated to all but 10 of 148 state legislators the previous session. Amid furor over prolonged power outages that left hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan without power for days in late 2023, DTE's affiliated dark money non-profit gave Tate $100,000. Tate would not let a 2023 reform bill aimed at improving accountability and affordability be introduced in committee. 'This is Michigan's powerful political entities acting to maintain their way of life and their balance sheets,' said Hood. Meanwhile, Tate and Whitmer ushered through a datacenter bill that may derail Michigan's climate goals. Whitmer's office did not comment, but a Whitmer spokesperson sent statements on behalf of DTE and Consumers. The utilities separately sent their own statements in which they both denied involvement in the process. In its statement, a DTE spokesperson said: 'Our team at DTE works collaboratively with the MPSC commissioners and staff to ensure we're providing safe, reliable, cleaner and affordable energy to our customers and the state of Michigan.' The move comes at a particularly critical juncture. The MPSC is weighing over $1bn in proposed rate increases between the two companies, and each are slated to deliver to the MPSC formal long-term plans for delivering power. Commissioners have the power to shape those proposals with decisions about billions of dollars in infrastructure. The MPSC has not allowed a DTE proposal to build a methane plant, and advocates fear that decision could be reversed with Myers on the board, Gilmer-Hill said. Meanwhile, the utilities are negotiating datacenter deals that could result in dramatic cost increases to customers and take a toll on the environment if they are not checked by the MPSC, Gilmer-Hill added. 'We need an MPSC that's willing to say no to the utilities, otherwise we mess things up for decades,' Gilmer-Hill said.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
What will the AI revolution mean for the global south?
I come from Trinidad and Tobago. As a country that was once colonized by the British, I am wary of the ways that inequalities between the global north and global south risk being perpetuated in the digital age. When we consider the lack of inclusion of the global south in discussions about artificial intelligence (AI), I think about how this translates to an eventual lack of economic leverage and geopolitical engagement in this technology that has captivated academics within the industrialised country I reside, the United States. As a scientist, I experienced an early rite of passage into the world of Silicon Valley, the land of techno-utopianism, and the promise of AI as a net positive for all. But, as an academic attending my first academic AI conference in 2019, I began to notice inconsistencies in the audience to whom the promise of AI was directed. AI researchers can often identify consistent choices for locations where such conferences are hosted, and where they are not. NeurIPS, one of the top AI conferences, has highlighted annual issues for obtaining visas for academic attendees and citizens from the African continent. Attending such a prestigious conference in the field grants one the opportunity to gain access to peers in the field, new collaborations and feedback on one's work. I often hear the word 'democratisation' within the AI community, an implication of equity in access, opportunity and merit for contribution regardless of one's country of origin. Associate professor of economics Fadhel Kaboub talks about how 'a lack of vision for oneself results in being a part of someone else's vision', reflecting on how systematically lacking an access to infrastructure results in local trade deficits in economies. As in the time of Nafta's promise of 'free trade', promises of 'AI democratisation' today still exist and benefit mainly countries with access to tech hubs not located in the global south. While the United States and other industrialized countries dominate in access to computational power and research activity, much of the low-paid manual labour involved in labelling data and the global underclass in artificial intelligence still exists in the global south. Much like coffee, cocoa, bauxite and sugar cane are produced in the global south, exported cheaply and sold at a premium in more industrialized countries, over the past few years we have seen influence in AI inextricably tied to energy consumption. Countries that can afford to consume more energy have more leverage in reinforcing power to shape the future direction of AI and what is considered valuable within the AI academic community. In 2019, Mary L Gray and Siddharth Suri published Ghost Work, which exposed the invisible labour of technology today, and at the beginning of my tenure at graduate school, the heavily cited paper Decolonial AI: Decolonial Theory as Sociotechnical Foresight in Artificial Intelligence was published. It has been five years since these seminal works. What would an AI community inspired by the Brics organisation, which united major emerging economies to advocate for themselves in a system dominated by western countries, look like for the global south? I often ask myself how AI has contributed to our legacy, and whose stories it won't tell. Has AI mitigated issues of mistrust and corruption in less-resourced countries? Has it benefited our civic communities or narrowed educational gaps between less-resourced regions? How will it make society better, and whose society will it make better? Who will be included in that future? A historical mistrust can impede adoption by developing countries. Furthermore, many developing countries have weak institutional infrastructures, poor or nonexistent laws and regulatory frameworks for data projection and cybersecurity. Therefore, even with an improved information infrastructure, they are likely to function at a disadvantage in the global information marketplace. A currency is only as good as its perceived global trust. When thinking about the democratization in AI and a vision of what it could be in years to come, AI's survival requires including more perspectives from regions such as the global south. Countries from the global south should work together to build their own markets and have a model of sovereignty for their data and data labour. Economic models often consider a definition of development that includes a measure of improvement in the quality of life of the most marginalized of its people. It is my hope that in the future that will extend to our evaluation of AI. Krystal Maughan is a PhD student at the University of Vermont studying differential privacy and machine learning
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Despite Trump, the US economy remains surprisingly resilient. But for how long?
Chaotic and unpredictable, keeping up with Donald Trump's volatile trade war – never mind his presidency – can be tough. Back in April after his 'Liberation Day' tariff announcement, the talk was of the president crashing the global economy. Then, after a Wall Street backlash, the world learned the acronym 'Taco', which stands for 'Trump Always Chickens Out'. Now, things are heating up again. The president's decision to hit US trading partners with new tariffs – including Canada, Brazil, India and Taiwan – after his self-imposed 1 August deadline certainly reignites a threat to the world economy. Dozens of countries have been left reeling, and US consumers are expected to pay a heavy price. However, there is a sense that things could have been worse. Nowhere more clearly is this reflected than on Wall Street: despite the chaos of the president's trade war, the stock market remains close to record levels. After the latest escalation on Friday, and some worrying US jobs numbers, share prices took a hit, sliding by about 1%. But this is a setback, rather than a rout. A further slide could be ignited by this capricious president. Trump's decision to fire the official in charge of labour market data and his war on the independence of the US Federal Reserve will make matters worse. But despite the warnings of untold economic damage from the US tariff war earlier this year, the American economy has proven surprisingly resilient in recent months. Last week, the president seized on US growth figures showing the economy had expanded at an annualised rate of 3% in the second quarter – far in excess of the 2.4% rate predicted on Wall Street. Could the 'fake news' media have it wrong? Are tariff wars 'good, and easy to win,' as Trump claims? While inflation has ticked up, from 2.4% in May to 2.7% in June, it is well below the peak which followed the height of the pandemic disruption and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and is far from hitting the levels feared. Back in April, in a country wrought with division, Democrat voters reckoned inflation was on track to hit 7.9% within a year, while Republicans said it would collapse to 0.9%. Butthere is good reason why the US economy has so far defied the prophecies of Armageddon. For starters, the hot-cold nature of Trump's tariff war means investors still anticipate further deals will be done to avoid the worst threats from ever materialising. The toughest tariffs introduced on Friday are only just arriving, too, meaning any impact has yet to emerge. Most countries have not hit back with retaliatory measures, which would have dramatically worsened things by putting international trade into a deeper tailspin. Meanwhile, knowing full well the dangers of this erratic president, businesses have been planning for months to avoid the worst-case scenarios. US companies rushed to stockpile goods before the trade war, helping them to keep prices down for now. Some firms have taken a hit to profits, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank, reckoning this is better than testing struggling American consumers – worn out by years of high inflation – with further price increases. The tariff costs are also being spread by multinationals, by increasing prices across the markets they operate in. In one high-profile example, Sony has put up the price of its PlayStation 5 by as much as 25% in some markets; including the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. But not in the US. Still, there are signs that consequences are coming. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion When US businesses exhaust their pre-tariff stockpiles, it is likely that prices will creep higher. Meanwhile, the uncertainty of an erratic president is hitting jobs and investment. Last week's US jobs market data has reignited fears over the resilience of the American economy. Tariffs are weighing on business confidence and steadily creeping into consumer prices. GDP growth of 3% might appear robust on the face of things, but this figure was heavily influenced by the 0.5% fall in output in the first quarter, when the surge in US firms rushing to beat Trump's tariffs distorted activity. Growth in the first half averaged 1.25%, markedly slower than the 2.8% rate for 2024 as a whole. Part of the reason Wall Street remains sanguine about this is the continued belief that things could have turned out worse. Deals are still expected, with the pause in tariffs for key US trade partners Mexico and China, suggesting this most clearly. The investor view is that, rather than tariffs, the president would prefer a string of box office moments in front of the TV cameras with trade partners paying tribute to the court of Trump. However, it would be wrong to underestimate the self-described 'tariff man's' love of border taxes. And even though his most extreme threats will be negotiated down, the final destination will still be much worse than before. An economic hurricane might be avoided, but a storm is still the last thing businesses and consumers need. Britain's US trade deal is a case in point. A 10% US tariff on British goods has been welcomed as a big victory for Keir Starmer given the alternative, but it is still far worse than before. British cars will face a tariff rate four times higher than previously; costing jobs and growth in Britain while hitting American consumers in the pocket. For the US consumer, the average tariff had been close to 2% before Trump's return to the White House. After his 1 August escalation, that figure leaps to about 15% – the highest level since the 1930s. Almost a century ago a similar wrong-headed protectionist approach in Washington made the Great Depression far worse: the Smoot-Hawley tariffs hit the US and triggered a domino effect among the main industrialised nations; ultimately leading to the second world war. In the unpredictability of Trump's trade war, hope remains that similar mistakes can be avoided. But significant damage is still being done.
