24/08/2016 World Business Report


24/08/2016

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If we get more major news from Italy we will have a right here on BBC

:00:00.:00:00.

World News. Now for the latest financial news

:00:07.:00:07.

with Sally and World Business Flying high - record profits

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for Australian airline Qantas. After a few lean years,

:00:11.:00:18.

the flying kangaroo An echo from a bygone

:00:19.:00:20.

era, cotton spinning - an industry where England

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was once world-leading, but the last mill closed

:00:30.:00:31.

some 30 years ago - Also in the programme:

:00:32.:00:34.

They are in your toothpaste, Now UK politicians want a global

:00:35.:00:51.

ban, to save ocean life. Australia's national

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carrier, Qantas, just The airline recorded profits

:00:56.:01:05.

of just over $US1 billion. That is nearly double last year's

:01:06.:01:14.

profit, and for the first time in seven years the airline will pay

:01:15.:01:17.

a dividend to shareholders. It is a huge turnaround

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from just a few years ago, Rico Hizon is in our

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Asia Business Hub in Singapore. Well, the flying kangaroo is now

:01:28.:01:45.

soaring. How did they do it? Carrier laid off thousands of staff, taking

:01:46.:01:49.

billions of dollars in write-downs, withholding dividends, cut flights

:01:50.:01:55.

to keep ticket prices up and locked in fuel hedging contracts which let

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it benefit from a slump in the price of oil. So these bold moves, Sally,

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were part of the overall strategy of Qantas CEO Alan Joyce to get the

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carrier back to the black. Analyst say the record result basically

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vindicates Mr Joyce's initiatives as he faced sometimes this criticism

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from shareholders, passengers and employees sent undertaking this

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costly shakeup two years ago. And in a sign of how much the airline is

:02:27.:02:30.

relying on cost-cutting to grow proper, sales grew 3% while fuel

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cost shrank by 17%. Let's have a look at the divisions. Each of the

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company's main operating divisions, its domestic, international and

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discount units and frequent-flier programmes all boasting record

:02:48.:02:52.

earnings. Alan Joyce expected to continue its strong financial

:02:53.:02:55.

performance in the first half of the new financial year, 2017, and will

:02:56.:03:01.

focus on producing higher operating margins. We will wait and see as

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there are difficult times ahead worldwide. For now I am sure the

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champagne is flowing in their headquarters. Absolutely. Good to

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see you, thanks a lot. For the first time in over 30 years,

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cotton is about to be produced English Fine Cottons will be

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the sole spinner in the UK, a stark contrast from the industry's

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peak in the 19th century, where Britain produced over 90%

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of the world's output. A few short months ago, tower mill

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in Dukinfield near Manchester was a relic of another era, derelict and

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empty. How things change. You have been a bit busy. How difficult has

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the job being? It has been easy for me but the group of guys who have

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had to build this, they have had challenges. Over the last six to

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eight weeks they have built all the space age technology you can see.

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Nearly $8 billion has been invested to turn it according to the company

:04:05.:04:09.

into one of the most effective spinning mills in the world. Our

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machine operators will be manning the machine as opposed to working on

:04:14.:04:18.

the machine, they will be studying machine as opposed to operating the

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machine. The UK's cotton spinning industry was finally extinguished

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after decades of lingering demise in the 1980s, a victim of cheap foreign

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competition. The machinery of the new cotton spinning era is many

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times more efficient, computerised, compacts. We had so many nuts and

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bolts, you know, it is difficult to count and remember what is going to

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go where. The future is I think very bright as after so many years the

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industry is coming back home. Cotton spinning on a test scale is now

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under way. The first time it has been spun in this buildings in the

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1950s. Full test production starts later. If test reduction goes well

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they will move almost immediately into full production and the key

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then will be to ensure there is a market for the product. And they

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have been working on that for months. The aim is to produce

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top-quality cotton for the UK fashion industry. Anybody who really

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values quality, heritage, Britishness, Providence, --

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provenance, social responsibility, they are looking to Tony Allen fine

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fabric. It really is a step in history, bringing back what really

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belongs to Manchester. If all goes to plan, English Fine Cottons will

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produce 500 tons of cotton in its first year, with plans to increase

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that in future years. MPs in the UK are calling

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for a complete international ban on the use of microbeads

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by cosmetics companies, because of the damage they are doing

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to the world's oceans. Microbeads are small pieces

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of plastic that are used in thousands of commonly

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used exfoliating scrubs, toothpastes and shaving

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gel products. The MPs' report says the tiny beads,

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which are a type of microplastic, are accumulating in the world's

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oceans and rivers, harming marine Many of the world's largest

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cosmetics companies have already committed to phasing out

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the use of microbeads, but the UK Environmental Audit

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Committee has called Several US states have already

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announced that they will ban the manufacture and sale of certain

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types of products containing With me is Rosie Rogers,

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senior political advisor Good morning, Rosie. I have read a

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bit of this report, it is quite thick and lengthy but it talks about

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the fact that actually the research is not all there yet, in terms of

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the actual impact of these microbeads, and there is still work

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to do. So how do they believe they could sort of progress to the point

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where you get an international ban? Absolutely, there is a lot more

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research needed and this report does call for more research, which we

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definitely support but there is enough scientific evidence out there

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to show that microbeads are having a very devastating affect on the

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marine environment. In fact there are over 8 million tons of plastic

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in our world's oceans pumped in there from our drains, and micro

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plastics are a part of that problem. There is enough research showing

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there are devastating effects on these tiny bits of plastic, and they

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can be banned, which is one positive thing about them. A large proportion

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of the cosmetics industry have committed to phasing out these

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products by 2020. Is that voluntary action not enough? We really applaud

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the companies who have said they will take this action, looking at

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Marks Spencer 's, Waitrose brand boots, but Greenpeace did a report

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auditing the top 30 cosmetic companies and we found there were

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massive inconsistencies from different actual ways that companies

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are labelling microbeads, from what they define as microbeads, the

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different phase out times, so it is difficult for consumers to know what

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is happening, when a band is going to happen and what products actually

:08:23.:08:27.

have microbeads in them, so the best way to deal is have an international

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ban as the report says -- when a ban is going to happen. The report does

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admit that because of Brexit, bringing about a band in the

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European Union is more difficult. Brexit has brought out a lot of

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uncertainties and in terms of environmental issues we are

:08:51.:08:52.

uncertain what will be the future but one thing is clear. Fish and the

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sea, micro plankton, they don't care about Brexit. They care that these

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pieces of plastic are coming into the area and going into their

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bellies, and sometimes ending up on our plates as well. There is a big

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human impact on this. So despite whatever is happening in terms of

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Brexit and the EU, one thing that can be done is that this government

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can do something today, nationally, for the UK consumers and UK wildlife

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to ban microbeads and hopefully influence the EU in the long-term.

:09:23.:09:27.

Thank you for your time this morning. Let's show you market is

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really quickly. It is all about the Federal Reserve annual meeting on

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Friday, markets are treading water and trying to guess what will Janet

:09:39.:09:44.

Yellen say, ahead of the US Federal Reserve, when she does her speech

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there at the end of the week? That is all from me for the time being. I

:09:49.:09:51.

will see you soon. The Labour leadership candidate

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Owen Smith has pledged

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