04/04/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Ben Thompson

The UK Government vows to offer financial support

to find a buyer for Tata Steel's UK plants,

but stops short of offering a clear plan to save the industry.

Live from London, that's our top story on Monday 4th April.

As the future of Britain's steel businesses hangs in the balance,

Europe also warns of heavy job losses amid a flood of cheap

Exposing the offshore tax havens -

a massive leak of documents from a law firm in Panama lifts

the lid on where the rich and powerful are hiding their wealth.

And markets are looking like this in early trade in Europe.

In the wake of recent terror attacks in Europe,

what impact does it have on the travel and tourism industry?

The boss of luxury hotel group Rosewood will be here.

And as one magazine says it's raising its price but ditching

adverts, we want to know would you pay more for your

newspapers and magazines if they got rid of the adverts?

Let us know, use the hashtag #BBCBizLive.

The UK Government says it is willing to offer support to find a buyer

for the Port Talbot steel works in South Wales.

Last week Tata Steel announced it was selling

Reports say that Indian tycoon Sanjeev Gupta wants to hold talks

with the Government about a possible purchase.

But it's not just the UK steel industry that's struggling.

Across Europe 320,000 people work in the industry

and the European Steel Association says thousands of jobs have been

More than 166-million tonnes of steel were made

Germany is the biggest producer, followed by Italy, France,

But steel plants say not enough is being done to protect them

from cheaper Chinese imports and are now pushing for higher

tariffs to be levied on those imports.

Charles de Lusignan is a spokesperson from

You represent European steel production, how do you think the

situation in the UK differs to Europe right now, because there is

trouble everywhere, isn't there? Yes, it is mainly the case that the

UK is in the first line when it comes to difficulties being faced by

the EU steel industry, this is because of a combination of factors.

They have high environmental costs, high business rates, and the

strength of the pound, when compared to the URL, means that the UK is

particularly exposed, but the problems are generalised, the

challenges faced by the entire EU, so where we see seven or 8000 jobs

lost in the last nine months or so, a good couple of thousand of these

are also from places such as France, Spain and Scandinavia. Absolutely,

there is a lot of steel exported and made in Europe, and a lot of it

exported to China. How much do you think China is to blame for the

problems we are seeing in Europe right now? The Chinese dumping is

certainly the largest, Chinese imports into the EU represents the

largest share of imports from any country outside of the EU. Chinese

dumping is extreme, volumes have gone from 3 million in 2013 to 4.5

million in 2014 to 7 million last year, we expect that to rise. Prices

have collapsed by 40% in the last year, this is an extreme case of

dumping across a range of product categories, and the effect this is

having is to depress prices across the EU, and this is where Port

Talbot sees a particular issue, but it is a case that applies to all EU

steel, that, while the bobbins themselves are not the largest, we

still use 150 million tonnes of steel year so you are talking a

small fraction, the price pressure on

sales when you sell the steel means that you are potentially operating

at unsustainable economic levels. How can Europe hope to compete when

that cheaper Chinese still have such an effect on the

market? Is there a way to compete with China? It is important to be

clear that Europe is still competitive to other countries. The

steel from China is unsustainably low priced,

it is dumped, sold and sent over here at less

than the cost of production, classic dumping, so when we complain of

cases of dumping, which is on specific

product categories, we have evidence to show that it is being produced at

less than it costs them to make it, and that is the

issue at play, they are selling at less than it costs to make it in

order to bulk up their exports at a time of slowing growth and massive

overcapacity in their own sector. OK, thank you for joining us.

The leak of 11-million confidential documents from a Panamanian law

firm has revealed the extent to which the world's rich

and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth.

The documents, some seen by the BBC, show how clients were helped

to launder money, dodge sanctions, and evade tax.

The law firm at the centre of the revelations,

Mossack Fonseca, says it's operated beyond reproach for 40 years,

and has never been accused or charged with wrong-doing.

Here's our special correspondent Richard Bilton.

Panama's carnival attracts visitors from around the world.

But, away from the lights, this place is a thriving tax haven.

Investors come to Panama for secrecy.

You can go to Panama and you can get a foundation,

or a trust or a company, and you can use those complicated,

slightly strange structures to hide and disguise your ownership

An enormous leak of files from this company, Mossack Fonseca,

From outside, Mossack Fonseca looks like a perfectly respectable

company, but this is a business that's helped people from around

Suddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium

Panorama has been analysing the documents.

We found links to 72 current or former heads of state.

Like the Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson,

who had a secret stake in an offshore company.

The company held his wife's interests in Iceland's banks,

Nobody knew that when her husband was dealing with the Icelandic banks

after their collapse - including the British demands

for compensation, which he turned down.

He walked out when questioned by an Icelandic reporter.

Mr Gunnlaugsson is today facing calls for his resignation.

He says he has not broken any rules and his wife did not benefit

Mossack Fonseca say the services they provide are commonly used

worldwide and they are responsible members of the global financial

But some of the deals in the files are extraordinary.

We believe we have found a billion-dollar laundering

This man, cellist Sergei Roldugin - a close friend of President Putin -

was officially the owner of two secretive companies which benefited

For example, an offshore company borrows $6 million.

Three months later, the loan is written off for just $1.

Why would anyone want to give all this cash to a cellist?

There is nothing that I have seen that would make me do anything

other than say, "Stop, we need to investigate very closely

To you, does it look like money-laundering?

Yes, it does look like money-laundering to me, for sure.

Mr Roldugin hasn't answered our questions.

Mossack Fonseca say they have a strong compliance record.

Through the leak, the world can now see more clearly how the wealthy can

And if you're watching in the UK, you can see more on this story

Global viewers watching us right now on BBC World News,

check your local listings for when it's showing

The IMF's Christine Lagarde has warned that a new deal on Greece's

The comments were made in a letter to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Greece and its EU and IMF lenders are due to resume talks this week

to conclude a review of the country's bailout.

Iran says its oil exports have reached 2-million barrels a day,

following the lifting of sanctions in January.

The country says it won't take part in a meeting later this month

in Doha where freezing output will be discussed.

Iran has previously said it wants to increase production until it

than than 270,000 pre-orders for the new Model 3 electric vehicle.

The California-based firm unveiled the five-seater car on Thursday.

Potential owners need to put down $1000 deposits

And I'm sitting next to one of them. I wish!

You are not a card guy, really. Let's have a look at the stories

making the headlines on our website. Oil is very much on the minds of

investors today, if you can see the story here, or oil prices have

dropped yet again. The reason for this, Saudi Arabia, it said it will

only participate in global production freeze if Iran also takes

part, but Iran is not going to play ball.

As we heard in the round-up, some of the stories affecting Enron, after

sanctions were lifted on the country it is keen to get its oil and gas

exports back up so does not want to take part in a freeze that many

hoped would raise the price. Let's check in on

the market numbers. Jeremy Stretch is with us,

he's head of FX strategy at CIBC. Lots to talk about, let's start with

the US, all eyes on what the US will do. What is happening? It is the

case that it is the leader in terms of Monetary Policy Committee high in

first-rate direction. We saw the labour market data on Friday in the

US continued to show the US economy continues to generate good levels of

jobs growth, also signs of a pick-up in average earnings, said that has

implications for where markets will interpret US interest rates are

likely to move, and that has implications for other interest

rates markets but also for how equity markets will perform as well,

so all eyes will be on the US, particularly into the minutes from

the last meeting from the Federal Reserve this week, when they changed

their outlook, so that'll be something for investors to focus on.

What will investors want to see from the minutes? They will want some

degree of recognition as to why the Reserve changed its position so

markedly from December to March. We have seen global uncertainty through

that period, equity markets falling dramatically in January and

February, subsequently bouncing back, so investors will look to try

to determine where the Fed will be going and we have seen some

aggressive talk from Janet Yellen, the chair of the Federal Reserve,

last week, underlining the fact that the Federal Reserve, in her opinion,

have a lot of barriers to some degree of movement of interest rates

beyond what we saw in December. Let's talk about

oil, falling again as we touched on that. There is a danger that we get

too caught up on the oil market, that it actually has very little

bearing on reality. It is beer, expectation, dissipation, but there

is a correlation between oil prices and what everybody is thinking about

the state of the economy? That is true, and it has been elevated in

the first quarter of this year as investors have produced their

assumptions of global growth, which has played into negative demand and

expectations on the oil price site and when we see the supplied that

you have talked about in terms of Iran, it adds to that. It calls oil

markets to trade lower through the first part of this year and that had

negative feedback in equity markets and general sentiment. We need to

see some degree of stabilisation in terms of the demand and supply

balance, unfortunately that is why the upcoming meeting in Gauhar is

important, because of course as you correctly said Saudi Arabia do not

want to see their market share lost to Iran, and it undermines the

geopolitical tensions that impact on the oil price, which then comes back

to investor sentiment globally. OK, thank you, I know he will come back

and talk to us about the papers in a little while.

Still to come: Tourism in the face of terrorism.

How do international security fears change our willingness to travel,

and how is the industry weathering the storm?

The boss of global hotel chain Rosewood will be with us later

in the programme as it plans a rapid global expansion.

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

Homeowners living in areas at risk of flooding should be able

to save hundreds of pounds on their insurance premiums from today.

A new scheme called Flood Re has been designed to cut the cost

of insurance for those whose homes are at risk rather than having

to pay a large additional premium to make sure their homes

Let's speak to insurance specialist Louise Claro from Circle Insurance.

What has been announced? Basically, there will be 17 insurers who will

be offering this to start off with. The insurance industry, effectively,

is going to collect premiums off all householders, probably ?10.50 per

household that's insured and what's going to happen is that money is

going to be shunted into a special fund. It will be a levy and that

levy which is expected to raise about ?180 million will be used to

effectively fund flood risks that come to light as a result of claims.

They have They have been restricted and people had high premiums.

We think it will affect 350,000 households. 350,000, but not

everybody who sat risk risk will be able to get it? Businesses, they

were massively hit. We have got claims going through. Huge flood

damage and they won't be covered. It will be householders and tenants of

properties as well. Now, it means that the excesses in some cases I

have heard reports of people having to pay an excess of up to 10,000 or

?20,000, normal householders can't afford to write that cheque out if

they have an insurance claim, but we think that premiums could, they are

being reported come down to as little as ?250 which is more in line

with what you'd expect from a household insurance policy. Louise,

thank you very much. Interesting comparison between the

retail industry and the steel industry and what jobs are

considered important. Thousands of jobs have been lost in

the steel industry across Europe as a result of cheap Chinese imports.

We are staying across that story for you on the BBC.

The recent terrorist attacks in Brussels,

Paris and Istanbul have taken their toll on travel

Hotels, airlines and train companies have all reported a slowdown

in visitor numbers and a rise in cancellations.

And what can it do to reassure travellers?

Well, our next guest is the boss of global hotel giant Rosewood.

The firm was founded in 1979 and now operates 55 hotels in 18 countries.

The Hong-Kong based company has a strong US presence after a merger

in 2011 and runs more than 2,000 hotel rooms worldwide.

Radha Arora is the president of Rosewood.

Lovely to meet you. Thank you for coming to talk to us. Let's cover

the terrorism aspect because I'm sure it is playing on many hotel

companies minds across the world. How big an impact have the recent

terrorist attacks and events that we have seen worldwide had on business

and how does one deal with it? Well, in answer to your first question we

have not had a scale back. People are becoming more and more resilient

in the face of terrorism. It is unfortunate that it continues to

happen and I lived through the IRA bombings back in the 70s and the 80s

here and we found ourselves to be resilient. So what is happening is

that people are cautious. It is our obligation to work with the local

communities to mitigate that risk. And we adhere to the responses that

we have had from the companies and as I said, our obligation is to take

care of them and make it a safe haven. What can you do to reashire

to people that the country they are coming to, the hotel they are

staying at will be safe and that they need not change their travel

plans? Well, we continue to through our website we continue to mention

the fact that it is a safe haven. Some of the destination that is we

have our properties in are resort destinations. We are not in loads of

risk affected destinations. If you go to Mexico, the Caribbean,

Antigua, from London and we know London is a safe, is the safest

airport in the world to travel from. So that's always there. But again,

as I said, we work with the local communities and local governments to

mitigate that risk and when people ask us those questions we will

reassure them. Let's talk about Rosewood. You have

many luxury high end hotels across the world. You have a big presence

in America. You are well-known there, perhaps not so much in Europe

and in London. What are you doing to change that? What are your expansion

plans? Well, the company was founded in Dallas many years ago. There is a

whole sense of mantra that we use is very different, very deliberate and

hence the reason why we have taken a long time to evolve in Europe. We

have actually as you know, we opened Rosewood London two years ago. It

received so many awards. It is a typical sense of place des anyone

nation. What do you mean? It is in hold burn. We have created

destination... Poor hold burn? There wasn't a luxury operator in hold

burn and now it is seen as a mid-town destination for London, you

have got Covent Garden nearby and the theatre district nearby. So by

arriving in London, we have kind of put a flag in London. We have

announced a Rosewood hotel in Paris. And Rosewood which is an

800-year-old destination in Tuscany. City and resort destinations so we

are continuing to evolve and make a statement in Europe. During the

expansion, of course, you are doing so in an environment we keep hearing

the word uncertainty and uncertainty about the UK's membership of the EU,

uncertainty about a slowdown in China and debt deals in Europe. What

is the biggest risk to you? What's the thing that keeps you awake at

night amongst many? What's the one you are most worried about?

Certainly, the aspect of European Union. Our office is based in Los

Angeles, it is not something I have given thought to, but something that

does keep me up at night is other brand operators in our luxury... Who

are your big rivals? Can I mention them? Yes, of course. Four Seasons,

Peninsula. We deliberate over finding the unique destinations and

you see Rosewood London, in Paris, we want to create this auz thentic

experience so what does keep me up at night is the fact how do we

continue to different ate ourselves and finding ourselves separated from

our competition? Interesting stuff. Thank you for coming in. Nice to see

you. The Business Live page is where you

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Let s take a quick look at the stories making business

Falling rates for adverts because they are not able to charge as much?

What we have seen is the print media are finding themselves squeezed. It

is by lower ad revenue and lower levels of circulation. So they have

taken this solution so say well, we will cut ads and reduce the number

of pages and hope they can recoup and maintain a core residual

readership which will be enough to maintain readability. We have seen

in the Evening Standard where they have added advertising and removed

the purchase price. There are two models being followed by the print

media to maintain their sector in the market. This is a horrible

picture! It is about cockroaches. It is about the new word for companies

that are survivors and resilient because cockroaches are. They will

survive a nuclear hollow Cors. We talking about companies that will

survive. Well, we are talking about traditional means of building up a

company, starting small and starting slow and keeping costs low. And

what's what this article is implying. Jeremy, thank you.

There will be more business news throughout the day on the BBC Live

webpage and on World Business Report.

Hello. Yesterday temperatures hit 17 Celsius at Gravesend. The warmest

day of the year so far. You maybe wondering if we have got more of

that warm weather to come this