:00:00. > :00:15.Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:16. > :00:24.More evidence of slowing global growth, aluminium giants reporting a
:00:25. > :00:38.big drop in earnings. And concerns arise over Singaporethe date of
:00:39. > :00:51.workers in Singapore. Good morning, hello world! Glad you could join us.
:00:52. > :01:06.We kick off with the aluminium giant that has unveiled its results. Alcoa
:01:07. > :01:11.posted a first-quarter net profit of 16 billion US dollars, down 92%
:01:12. > :01:17.compared to one year ago. The company has also considered sharing
:01:18. > :01:25.another 1000 jobs. Earlier I spoke with a resource analyst who says
:01:26. > :01:31.earnings beat expectations. If you have a look at the consensus for the
:01:32. > :01:35.period, it was done at 2 cents. So the company certainly beat its
:01:36. > :01:42.consensus estimate. That is why we saw the stock roll up quite strongly
:01:43. > :01:47.overnight. If you are inside that result, they reported $232 million
:01:48. > :01:50.of productivity gains, and we certainly think the market was not
:01:51. > :01:56.prepared to see that sort of number. There were certainly some good
:01:57. > :02:00.positives. There were some positives, and of late we have seen
:02:01. > :02:09.rising prices for commodities and a softening dollar. Will this help
:02:10. > :02:17.earnings this quarter? Certainly when we have a look at the corner we
:02:18. > :02:21.are now win, if you have a look at the first quarter of 2016,
:02:22. > :02:27.sequentially the aluminium price for the last quarter of 2015 in the
:02:28. > :02:29.first quarter of this year, the prices are actually fairly stable
:02:30. > :02:34.between the two quarters. We do think that when we have a look at
:02:35. > :02:39.the next quarter, that we will see those priced variances starting to
:02:40. > :02:45.reduce or in fact disappearing altogether. That would be a very big
:02:46. > :02:48.positive. Especially given those productivity gains we are seeing
:02:49. > :02:55.inside the company. With rising prices of commodities, this turns
:02:56. > :03:00.into rising demand for commodities? We certainly think that at this
:03:01. > :03:05.point, commodity prices are very low in terms of the cycle of pricing. It
:03:06. > :03:09.is not going to detract too much from the rising demand. We do need
:03:10. > :03:13.that rising demand to see those prices increase, so we would suspect
:03:14. > :03:19.that at this point we may get a little bit of a sweet spot, although
:03:20. > :03:23.it will only be small we will see rising demand and start to see
:03:24. > :03:30.rising product delivery inside companies. David Lennox, a
:03:31. > :03:34.commodities analyst. One country that has been hit by falling
:03:35. > :03:39.commodity prices is Australia, are still views its relationship with
:03:40. > :03:48.its biggest customer, China, as the key to its future economic success.
:03:49. > :03:53.Australia's economic Trade Minister is in China, and speaking to our
:03:54. > :03:59.correspondence. A massive Australian business delegation is in China this
:04:00. > :04:03.week. We are talking 1000 people in ten cities, it is apparently the
:04:04. > :04:07.largest ever of such a delegation to have left Australia's shores. Even
:04:08. > :04:14.in hard times in China, they are hoping to boost China-Australian
:04:15. > :04:20.trade. I am the Australian Embassy in Beijing with Australia's Trade
:04:21. > :04:23.Minister. Could you tell us what your take on the Chinese economy is
:04:24. > :04:27.at the moment? We are obviously hoping that China will come to the
:04:28. > :04:34.rest you for many countries, including Australia. Is that a
:04:35. > :04:38.realistic? Are you worried about China's economy? We take China as it
:04:39. > :04:42.is. There has clearly been a slowdown in growth, from being plus
:04:43. > :04:47.seven to below 7%, but the fact remains that China is still growing.
:04:48. > :04:54.When you consider the gross between six and 7% today on the size of the
:04:55. > :04:58.Chinese economy, it's probably the equivalent of up to 13% one decade
:04:59. > :05:02.ago. We are still talking about a lot of growth from China. Plus we
:05:03. > :05:07.are seeing the rebalancing and transition in the Chinese economy
:05:08. > :05:11.towards consumption, which aligns very nicely with Australia's
:05:12. > :05:17.interest. Is it possible that the state owned enterprises are being
:05:18. > :05:24.loaded up with debt, so many deals are coming out this week and this
:05:25. > :05:28.could be short lived if it comes back to haunt these companies? We
:05:29. > :05:32.think that the Chinese Government will be able to manage the Chinese
:05:33. > :05:37.economy and that China will be able to continue to expand and grow.
:05:38. > :05:43.Talking about the deals with Australia, how would you measure a
:05:44. > :05:49.successful China-Australia week? What could this week bring in terms
:05:50. > :05:53.of investment? In 2014, when we did something similar, we saw from
:05:54. > :05:58.delegates that they attributed about 1 billion extra dollars of export
:05:59. > :06:05.sales to Australia and about $3 billion of extra investment. I would
:06:06. > :06:11.expect to see similar numbers. We want to create the right environment
:06:12. > :06:15.that businesses and people need to be able to thrive. Thank you very
:06:16. > :06:19.much. High hopes for the China- Australia week. We will be covering
:06:20. > :06:23.that in its various stages, culminating in two very large
:06:24. > :06:26.banquets on Thursday and Friday when Australia's Prime Minister will be
:06:27. > :06:35.meeting with China's top two leaders.
:06:36. > :06:41.The World Bank says the demand for loans is increasing. International
:06:42. > :06:45.lenders say that loans are attracting about 43 billion US
:06:46. > :06:50.dollars in the current financial year, bringing the total for the
:06:51. > :06:54.last four years to more than 150 billion US dollars. The
:06:55. > :06:58.International bank for Reconstruction and redevelopment
:06:59. > :07:04.will exceed more than $25 billion in loans in 2016. Rice is a staple for
:07:05. > :07:12.millions of people around the world, but for some, the race itself is
:07:13. > :07:18.virtually their only food, leaving them lacking essential nutrients. It
:07:19. > :07:21.is acute in many countries. It is being highlighted as a problem among
:07:22. > :07:28.many migrant construction workers in Singapore.
:07:29. > :07:32.Singapore's migrant construction workers are building one of the most
:07:33. > :07:39.advanced cities in the world. This is what keeps them going. According
:07:40. > :07:48.to the social enterprise, a typical migrant worker consumes over one and
:07:49. > :07:51.a half kilos of cooked rice one day, but little else. A little bit of
:07:52. > :07:57.curry and chicken, normally this large amount of rice doesn't have
:07:58. > :08:02.other nutritional food around it. It is a carb diet, meaning they do get
:08:03. > :08:06.the nutrition they need, especially for workers doing their daily
:08:07. > :08:21.business. They work from 7am to 8pm, and this is arduous work. Workers
:08:22. > :08:30.pay around one US dollar a meal. It fills them up, but lacks essential
:08:31. > :08:35.items and minerals, which nutrition experts say leads to a form of
:08:36. > :08:38.malnutrition called hiding hunger. So they are fortifying rice with all
:08:39. > :08:47.the ingredients that needs to make it a more balanced meal. Very often
:08:48. > :08:52.when you have rice at the start of your diet, you might feel less
:08:53. > :08:56.productive or energetic, you might even feel sick. You would feel less
:08:57. > :09:01.healthy in general. It would be great if they could eat more food
:09:02. > :09:05.and have a more balanced diet, however that is not likely. It is
:09:06. > :09:11.very simple and cost-effective to add vitamin C this rice. The race is
:09:12. > :09:17.being trialled on a small group of migrant workers. Can you taste the
:09:18. > :09:29.difference? Yes. It is nicer to taste. By the middle of this year,
:09:30. > :09:36.fortified Rice said they would like to be providing this special rice to
:09:37. > :09:40.as many as 30,000 construction workers. Within a few years, they
:09:41. > :09:42.are hoping to be able to feed the entire foreign construction worker
:09:43. > :09:49.population of more than 300,000 people. While enriched rice is more
:09:50. > :09:53.expensive, they say they would not be passing on the extra cost to
:09:54. > :10:01.workers. They will be arranging their own delivery. Before we go,
:10:02. > :10:07.let's take a look at Asian market action in early trade. You can see
:10:08. > :10:14.right now, they are marginally higher. That is due to the rise in
:10:15. > :10:16.oil prices and commodities. That is despite Wall Street stocks finishing
:10:17. > :10:30.modestly lower overnight. Thank you for investing your time
:10:31. > :10:31.with