29/08/2017

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:00:00. > :00:00.Rishart Masierak is charged with causing death or serious injury

:00:00. > :00:00.by dangerous driving and causing death by drink driving.

:00:00. > :00:19.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.

:00:20. > :00:27.North Korea rattles the market after launching a missile over northern

:00:28. > :00:34.Japan. As tropical storm Harvey batters the production hub in the

:00:35. > :00:43.US, we will look at the impact on the industry. Bit's Tuesday, good

:00:44. > :00:54.morning, Asia. Hello, world. Glad you could join us. -- it's. A

:00:55. > :01:03.missile flew over northern Japan before catching into the sea. --

:01:04. > :01:07.landing in the sea. The Japanese government says this latest missile

:01:08. > :01:16.launch is a threat that Tokyo will respond to firmly. They call it a

:01:17. > :01:21.clear violation of UN resolutions. The Asian markets have opened, and

:01:22. > :01:33.for the reaction on how it will be trading, we are joined by my

:01:34. > :01:47.colleague. What's happening? Japan, Australia and China have opened

:01:48. > :01:53.lower, Japan and a four-month low. Similar conditions in South Korea.

:01:54. > :02:01.Not down by a huge amount. With the Japanese yen, it is rising to a high

:02:02. > :02:05.against many currencies including the US dollar, because it is seen as

:02:06. > :02:12.a safe haven for investors in times of crisis. It seems that this

:02:13. > :02:17.reaction, it does seem somewhat unusual and overblown. What we saw

:02:18. > :02:21.this time around was a missile going over Japan. This happens

:02:22. > :02:36.infrequently. It has only happened twice in the past. At the time that

:02:37. > :02:41.there were previous launchers over Japan, they were claimed to be

:02:42. > :02:45.satellite launches. People are waking up to alerts on television

:02:46. > :02:50.and sirens, it was quite a tense time before the all clear was given.

:02:51. > :02:57.That is part of the reason that markets would have been rattled. In

:02:58. > :03:03.the middle of August, we saw a war of words intensifying between

:03:04. > :03:09.Washington and Pyongyang. That was when Donald Trump used the words

:03:10. > :03:14.fire and furious. Pyongyang retaliated saying they would launch

:03:15. > :03:24.a missile to Guam. We saw then a huge impact on the Korean markets,

:03:25. > :03:29.they fell one and a half %. Experts suggest that this geopolitical

:03:30. > :03:37.uncertainty creates volatility in the markets but has no big long-term

:03:38. > :03:42.impact. This is seen as more provocative than the other missile

:03:43. > :03:51.launchers, we are waiting for a response from Donald Trump on this

:03:52. > :03:58.latest launch. Tropical storm Harvey has not let up, it has left very bad

:03:59. > :04:05.flooding and it is expected to stay around the coast of the Gulf of

:04:06. > :04:16.Texas for the next few days. Houston is the heart of the US energy

:04:17. > :04:25.industry. Here is how oil prices are faring in early Asian trading. They

:04:26. > :04:33.are both up. The markets are not responding the way they usually do,

:04:34. > :04:40.gas futures have hit a high while crude oil prices fell. I asked why.

:04:41. > :04:51.You have to think about oil as a value chain, crude oil goes in as

:04:52. > :05:00.fire and comes out as a distillate. The bottleneck is the 200 bottles

:05:01. > :05:07.capacity per day that has gone off-line in Texas. Gasoline prices

:05:08. > :05:14.are surging to a high of 7%, could this put more pressure on prices at

:05:15. > :05:25.the pump? This could have a knock-on through other parts of the world.

:05:26. > :05:30.Other parts of the world cannot move refined products from one part of

:05:31. > :05:35.the country to others when they need to, they may need to look overseas.

:05:36. > :05:39.Could we see higher gasoline prices in Asia because of refineries being

:05:40. > :05:48.shut down? That could last for a week? If we saw a long shot down in

:05:49. > :05:54.the Texas region, prices could go up slightly. Americans will need to go

:05:55. > :06:02.to overseas refineries, namely Asia, to source those products. Is there

:06:03. > :06:06.still enough global capacity with potentially US refineries being shut

:06:07. > :06:14.down? There is definitely enough capacity, but there is not enough in

:06:15. > :06:25.the right place. You can refined products, but it is not in optimal

:06:26. > :06:29.places around the world. In other business news headlines, Samsung is

:06:30. > :06:34.expected to invest $7 billion over the next three years to build a new

:06:35. > :06:43.memory chip production facility in China. Analysts say the tech giant

:06:44. > :06:49.accounted for almost 40% of flash memory chip revenue. China is trying

:06:50. > :06:55.to produce its own, but it is likely to be several years before they can

:06:56. > :07:09.compete with existing manufacturers like Samsung. Infosys shares rose

:07:10. > :07:13.after the CEO returned as chairman. It was seen as a victory for the

:07:14. > :07:18.company. They waged an acrimonious battle with the board for months

:07:19. > :07:26.over alleged corporate governance lapses. Indonesia is facing a

:07:27. > :07:32.shortage of salt. Many would assume that all of that seawater makes it a

:07:33. > :07:35.natural producer of salt, but the government has significantly

:07:36. > :07:40.increased imports this year, including 75,000 tons from

:07:41. > :07:45.Australia. Here is a look at what is causing a shortage.

:07:46. > :07:52.Indonesia uses around 4.1 million tons of salt per year. That is

:07:53. > :07:58.primarily used in households, the rest by industries. Production is

:07:59. > :08:04.not meeting demand. There is a shortage of 2.2 million tons. That

:08:05. > :08:17.is the weight of 550,000 Sumatran elephants. The weather last year was

:08:18. > :08:20.quite extreme. That had an impact on local production. The way we produce

:08:21. > :08:26.salt is still very traditional, which makes it hard to improve our

:08:27. > :08:33.quality. It is not just Mother Nature being blamed. Indonesia's

:08:34. > :08:37.minister of maritime affairs is suggesting cartels may be behind it.

:08:38. > :08:39.Authorities have uncovered cases where import is brought in more they

:08:40. > :08:48.could dump Mac than -- than they could use, and have

:08:49. > :09:09.sold it on to companies. It is not sufficient to meet their

:09:10. > :09:17.needs. This would only be a temporary solution. Over the

:09:18. > :09:32.long-term, the government have to regulate the industry. That could

:09:33. > :09:38.encourage more producers, allocating more land in eastern Indonesia to

:09:39. > :09:45.increase the land allocation for that salt, that could increase

:09:46. > :09:50.supply. If the government deregulates the industry, are we

:09:51. > :10:03.likely to see prices coming down from current levels? In China, they

:10:04. > :10:11.have deregulated the salt industry. That would mean that the government

:10:12. > :10:20.would not be controlling the quota all the retail price of salt. It

:10:21. > :10:24.would not decide the prices of salt based on transportation costs and

:10:25. > :10:33.the quality. There is a better way of ensuring supply of salt to

:10:34. > :10:34.people. Thank you for investing your time with us. Goodbye for