12/09/2016

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:00:15. > :00:23.To the rescue. Cash-strapped handling shipping gets help from its

:00:24. > :00:27.biggest shareholder. And in Indonesia, seaweed farmers are

:00:28. > :00:29.battling against an oil firm in a multimillion dollar lawsuit. --

:00:30. > :00:39.Hanjin Shipping. Hello and welcome to Asia Business

:00:40. > :00:44.Report, I'm Sharanjit Leyl. South Korea's Hanjin Shipping has been

:00:45. > :00:47.thrown a financial lifeline, its biggest shareholder Korean airlines

:00:48. > :00:51.has agreed to extend the firm more than $50 million and the money will

:00:52. > :00:56.help it an low billions of dollars of cargo currently stuck at seat.

:00:57. > :01:00.Ports, tugboat operators and cargo handling firms have refused to work

:01:01. > :01:06.for Hanjin over fears they would not be paid because of its bankruptcy.

:01:07. > :01:10.Earlier I spoke to an expert from a maritime research firm and asked if

:01:11. > :01:14.Hanjin's fortunes have turned a corner. It is more like emergency

:01:15. > :01:19.funding to unload the cargo stuck at seat. I don't see Hanjin coming back

:01:20. > :01:23.from the ashes in that sense, it is more like emergency help to get the

:01:24. > :01:29.cargo offloaded to the retainers. $14 billion worth of cargo we are

:01:30. > :01:32.told stuck at seat, potentially not getting to the vital American

:01:33. > :01:36.shopping season and it could potentially ruin Christmas people

:01:37. > :01:41.are saying, is it that bad? I think that is a bit far-fetched in that

:01:42. > :01:45.sense but it will impact global supply. Looking at the big shopping

:01:46. > :01:52.season, the Christmas season, lots of cargo, about $14 million, on 80

:01:53. > :01:58.ships, so every handbag or anything like that all electronics... Samsung

:01:59. > :02:02.has said that it will affect things and it has things on the Hanjin

:02:03. > :02:06.ships. It will affect the supply chain. But it is seamless and we

:02:07. > :02:10.have seen stress on one part of the supply chain and it is affecting

:02:11. > :02:14.retailers. We know the global economy is slowing down somewhat but

:02:15. > :02:19.did we see this coming? Did anybody anticipate this happening with

:02:20. > :02:23.Hanjin? There was some stress and this is company specific with Hanjin

:02:24. > :02:28.because of the debt it was carrying. But global trade has not helped and

:02:29. > :02:32.companies have continued to expand. The industry has been under pressure

:02:33. > :02:35.for some time and it was not unexpected in that sense but

:02:36. > :02:40.bankruptcy was the one extreme that happened here. The industry has been

:02:41. > :02:44.an pressure you say so could this affect other shipping lines as well?

:02:45. > :02:50.-- under pressure. Hanjin is unique because of the debt it was carrying.

:02:51. > :02:54.They are in, under financial stress but I wouldn't call anyone on the

:02:55. > :03:01.verge of bankruptcy at the moment. India's Tata Steel will report

:03:02. > :03:05.quarterly results later today and apart from the numbers, industry

:03:06. > :03:09.watchers are also waiting on an update regarding recent attempts to

:03:10. > :03:12.sell off UK operations, which have been talking up huge losses. Ahead

:03:13. > :03:14.of the financial results we have this preview.

:03:15. > :03:20.If you talk about Tata Steel there are two sides to the company, the

:03:21. > :03:24.struggling European operation at the centre of attention. It's estimated

:03:25. > :03:29.the company has been losing over ?1 million every day when it comes to

:03:30. > :03:33.its UK operations. It's also its largest market in Europe. But if you

:03:34. > :03:38.look at Tata Steel's performance in India, it's an entirely different

:03:39. > :03:42.story. The company has been consistently profitable. In fact, in

:03:43. > :03:53.the last financial year it made a profit of over $700 million. But the

:03:54. > :03:57.problems in the European market have been weighing the larger company

:03:58. > :04:00.down for some time now. Last year Tata Steel reported a loss of nearly

:04:01. > :04:04.$500 million. So what does that mean for Tata Steel? Analysts expect the

:04:05. > :04:07.company to keep making profits in India because demand for steel is

:04:08. > :04:11.rising over here on the back of fast economic growth. Tata Steel's plans

:04:12. > :04:16.of selling off its UK operations hit a roadblock after Brexit. Now the

:04:17. > :04:20.company is in talks with other steelmakers to merge its operations

:04:21. > :04:22.in the European market. Investors will be interested to know if those

:04:23. > :04:34.plans are making any progress. In other business news, Samsung is

:04:35. > :04:37.now asking users to stop using their Galaxy Node Seven smart phones

:04:38. > :04:41.immediately and to change them as soon as possible. The company is

:04:42. > :04:45.undertaking a global recall after reports of the phone catching fire.

:04:46. > :04:49.Multiple global airlines have either banned the phone from flights or ask

:04:50. > :04:55.users to keep them turned off or in checked baggage. Japanese machinery

:04:56. > :05:00.orders are key indicators of capital spending and they unexpectedly rose

:05:01. > :05:04.for a second straight month. Court orders rose by 7.9% in July compared

:05:05. > :05:12.to the previous month, better than market forecasts of a 3.5% decline.

:05:13. > :05:16.Like many sectors hit hard by the slowing global economy, beauty and

:05:17. > :05:20.personal care products appear to be recession proof. Sales in Asia are

:05:21. > :05:30.expected to top $150 billion by next year and Singapore based LuxAsia is

:05:31. > :05:32.branching out into online retailing. We asked Patrick Chung about the

:05:33. > :05:38.challenges. One of the most important challenges

:05:39. > :05:42.is having the right skills and the right people. In this respect we are

:05:43. > :05:46.already beginning our transformation to get the right people with the

:05:47. > :05:50.right skill sets and proven track record, because ultimately I see

:05:51. > :05:55.speed and execution to be the key for us to be successful in this

:05:56. > :06:00.market. Which markets are going to drive growth for LuxAsia? Currently

:06:01. > :06:08.we are in ASEAN and China, but in the next three to five years within

:06:09. > :06:11.the ASEAN sector we see Indonesia and Thailand and Vietnam as three of

:06:12. > :06:15.the strong emerging markets that we can really bring a lot of growth in.

:06:16. > :06:20.In the greater China platform, we see China as a market where with

:06:21. > :06:25.online capability we can put things in a synergy way and we can get a

:06:26. > :06:30.lot of growth. And also there's India. India is a market with huge

:06:31. > :06:34.potential but up until now there's been a lot of hidden potential that

:06:35. > :06:40.has not been tapped. In India, just like in China, there is a lot of

:06:41. > :06:44.smaller local players who provide cheaper products, so how will you

:06:45. > :06:49.compete against these? In all these markets, there are local brands that

:06:50. > :06:53.serve the local population for different income levels. As we said,

:06:54. > :06:58.there's a growing influence and the customers normally want to for that.

:06:59. > :07:04.Different brands to meet different needs. I think again that is the

:07:05. > :07:09.thing for us as Asia's beauty makeover, we will through online and

:07:10. > :07:11.off-line, use foreign brands and local brands and we can find a

:07:12. > :07:20.platform to meet the customer needs. LuxAsia's founder and chairman

:07:21. > :07:24.Patrick Chung. More than 13,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers have

:07:25. > :07:27.launched a massive class action in Australia, demanding compensation

:07:28. > :07:34.for the effects of Australia's worst oil spill in 2009. The company that

:07:35. > :07:38.operated the rig, a subsidiary of the state owned Thai oil firm,

:07:39. > :07:44.denies the oil reached Indonesian waters. Rebecca Henschke travelled

:07:45. > :07:47.the Araldo island in eastern Indonesia to make the farmers. --

:07:48. > :07:54.promote island. The farmers here say that in

:07:55. > :08:01.September 2009 something changed -- promote island. TRANSLATION: I had

:08:02. > :08:05.never seen anything like it. The colour of the water was like a

:08:06. > :08:10.rainbow. I didn't understand what was going on. When I got to my

:08:11. > :08:18.seaweed farm, the seaweed too had changed colour and we then saw dead

:08:19. > :08:23.fish, too many to count. 250 kilometres offshore there had

:08:24. > :08:28.been a huge explosion at the Montara oil rig. For more than ten weeks,

:08:29. > :08:35.and of oil to fill ten Olympic sized pools spewed out into the Timor Sea.

:08:36. > :08:41.Daniel and his wife Victoria save for the next four years the seaweed

:08:42. > :08:45.they planted died -- said. Lawyers are arguing on their behalf as they

:08:46. > :08:49.keep plaintiffs in this case they should be awarded 200 million US

:08:50. > :08:54.dollars or more for the damage done to their seaweed because of the oil

:08:55. > :08:58.blowout -- say. It is a lot of money but there's a lot of seaweed farmers

:08:59. > :09:05.and these seaweed farmers for the first time in their existence here,

:09:06. > :09:10.they had businesses which actually returned as much as $30,000 each for

:09:11. > :09:14.a big seaweed grower in a year. In the boom years before the spill,

:09:15. > :09:19.Victoria and Daniel saved enough to be able to send their children to

:09:20. > :09:24.university, something beyond their dreams and unthinkable a generation

:09:25. > :09:29.ago. Since the spill, Daniel has worked as a day labourer on a hotel

:09:30. > :09:34.construction site. The class action is being bankrolled by one of the

:09:35. > :09:37.largest litigation funders in the world in return for a share of the

:09:38. > :09:44.compensation if the case is successful. The company that managed

:09:45. > :09:49.the Montara oil rake declined the BBC request for an interview, but in

:09:50. > :09:53.a statement they said the Independent scientific research they

:09:54. > :09:57.have done shows that oil never reached the Indonesian coast or

:09:58. > :10:02.Indonesian waters and it says that it did no long-term damage to the

:10:03. > :10:07.sensitive and biodiverse environment here. The company PT TEP Australasia

:10:08. > :10:11.told the BBC that none of the research or testing they paid for

:10:12. > :10:15.was done in Indonesian waters or around rotator. They never reached

:10:16. > :10:19.an agreement with the Indonesian government for a permit. Rebecca

:10:20. > :10:24.Henschke, BBC News. A quick look at the markets and they

:10:25. > :10:28.have opened lower following along with Wall Street's queues,

:10:29. > :10:29.especially the Nikkei and the All Ordinaries. Thanks for watching.

:10:30. > :10:35.That's it for the programme. to stumble after the 9/11 memorial

:10:36. > :10:44.ceremony, her doctor says she's been diagnosed with pneumonia

:10:45. > :10:49.but is recovering well.