Search Results for: Russia

BY JAMES FULLER, IN LONDON; AND EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG

TIME was that automakers looking to expand electric car production worried about the price and scarcity of lithium – a key metal for many battery models. But no more: new production is being brought online and prices have softened dramatically over the past three years, with the recession knocking demand for other lithium-hungry products such as laptop computers and mobiles.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV, IN ST PETERSBURG

RUSSIAN authorities have defended their decision to temporarily restrict imports of cattle from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France from February 1 over the Schmallenberg virus and warn a meat ban may follow.

Alexei Alexeyenko spokesman for the Russian federal service for veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) told the Meat Trades Journal: "The risk of human infection has not yet been identified.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI

THE INDIAN government is considering lifting its 25 year ban on issuing new asbestos mine licences, Industrial Minerals can reveal. A senior government mining official said in an exclusive interview that "the matter is under consideration"

BP Sinha, deputy director general of the Indian Bureau of Mines, based in Nagpur, Maharashtra, told Industrial Minerals that the central Ministry of Mines is exploring the possibility of reopening the asbestos mines, now mining companies have access to better technology for ensuring the health and safety of the workers.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

DESPITE recent rumours in Russian media that 7-Eleven, the US-based international chain of convenience stores, would be expanding into Russia, the company has denied the claims.

"There is no basis of foundation about 7-Eleven developing in Russia," a spokesperson for the company told just-food from its Texas, USA, headquarters.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

WHILE the Iraqi government has implemented regulations that are both anti-money laundering (AML) and for combating the financing of terrorism (CTF), it has had lacklustre results in enforcement due to ongoing instability in the country. Corruption and endemic smuggling are also major problems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PHARMACEUTICAL major Bristol-Myers Squibb is among 85 mainly health-centred organisations requesting changes to the latest European Commission planned reforms to European Union (EU) pharmaceutical good distribution practice guidance. Commenting on proposals that medicinal products not intended for EU markets should be kept in segregated areas, BMS comments that "for supply chain efficiency, many companies ship their goods together.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

CANADA’S diamond industry is blossoming into a world leader as the third largest producer of rough diamonds, after Botswana and Russia. But ready profits from valuable natural resources can encourage crime, specifically money laundering. Leah Germain investigates the country’s current legislation and precautions taken by the industry to prevent the laundering of assets through the purchase of diamonds.…

BY JAMES FULLER

AUTOMOBILE manufacturers are preparing to make the most of an increasing supply of lithium-based batteries, as they look to ramp up their production of electric cars.

They have commented following the December launch of the USD430 million joint Russo-Chinese plant, Liotech, outside Russia’s third-largest city Novosibirsk, in Siberia.…

BY MARK ROWE

ALTHOUGH it has been likened to a 21st century Silk Road, the southern gas corridor is currently making painstaking and troubled progress; inching its way through the political and economic strife that stands between the Caspian Sea and Western Europe.…

BY MARK ROWE, IN LONDON; ZLATKO CONKAS, IN NOVI SAD, SERBIA; MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE; AND BLAKE BERRY, IN WARSAW

DURING the spring of 2011, the prevailing view throughout eastern Europe’s personal care and toiletries market was that while business was not exactly buoyant, the worst of the recession was over – then came the credit crises and the faltering Euro.…