29/08/2017 BBC Business Live

Hello, welcome to Business Life from the BBC.

New figures show the most qualified EU workers are turning their backs

on the UK. Live from London it is our top story.

As the EU's chief negotiator talks of slow progress in the Brexit

negotiations, UK manufacturers are warning of a looming skills shortage

and recruitment crisis if they cannot hire EU workers after Brexit.

Also, keeping the lights on. A giant merger in China creates the world's

largest power supply are worth $280 billion. And with Trump, North

Korea, gold and oil on the minds of investors, there is a lot to think

about. We will explain what is happening and why. Also, as more and

more cars turn green, we will get the inside tracks on the company who

wants companies to ditch fossil fuel. As pet ownership is on the

rise, we wants to know what is the most extravagant thing you have

bought for your pet. Use the hash tag business live.

Good morning. We are going to start with the EU because Britain needs to

start negotiating seriously. That is the warning from Michel Barnier, as

talks resume in Brussels. He said he is frustrated that the UK

Government's ambiguity and the failure to tackle potential

financial liabilities. This on the same day a major body representing

UK manufacturers of one Britain is facing a brain drain. They warned

skilled workers from across Europe are already turning their backs on

the UK. A survey released this morning found a quarter of

manufacturers have seen a decrease in applications from EU nationals.

At the same time, 16% have seen a number of EU nationals leaving their

business going up. KPMG released a report and predicts 1 million EU

nationals that currently work here in the UK are now considering

leaving. The vast majority of EU nationals in the country at the

moment to consider the UK as very or quite an attractive place to work.

The UK exports $336 billion worth of goods and services to the EU. The EU

sends back 376 billion. In economic terms at least, it is going to be

beneficial for both sides to get the issue of workers' rights resolved

sooner, rather than later. Let's talk to the head of education

and skills policy at EEF. Thanks for being on the programme. Explain

which types of manufacturers are feeling this pain most of the moment

75% of manufacturers say they are struggling to recruit. There is huge

concerned this alarming figure will only increase as EU nationals leave

the UK and manufacturing businesses, as we saw with last week's migration

figures. It is the unknown of what a post-Brexit migration system will

look like. There is a big question to what extent manufacturers will be

able to recruit EU nationals after Brexit. What are you looking for in

terms of help for manufacturers? It is a long-winded process and one in

which manufacturers, employers may not have much visibility about what

the outcome will be? That is what they want to see, visibility and

certainty, to know they can recruit those people now and in the future.

The average manufacturer has around 11% EU nationals within their

workforce and they work across the manufacturing company from machine

operatives to skilled engineers and professional engineers. This is

something that -- perception EU nationals take low skilled roles,

they take the high skills and mid skilled roles which are more

difficult for employers to recruit four. In terms of how manufacturers

are handling the situation, what are they doing to hold onto those

skilled workers who are working for them at the moment? They are trying

to give them as much certainty as they can but it depends on the

government and the Brexit negotiations. Some have tried to

offer more financial support. So if they are applying for indefinite

leave to remain. They are trying to future proof their workforce so we

see increased investment in apprenticeships, more graduate

programmes and Bob Skilling and Rhys killing their present staff. Those

solutions are long-term and at in the short term employers are

concerned where they will fulfil those job roles. Thank you for your

time from EEF. There is a debate on this issue, more details on our

website. Let's bring you up today with the

headlines: Many refineries have shot in the Gulf of Mexico. It is the

larger storm to hit the United States in more than a decade. The

closures are expected to cause a temporary spike in US gas prices.

Analysts say the impact of the storm will pass $40 billion. It says

direct losses could reach $20 billion.

There is a joint-venture to build electric vehicles in China. It aims

to help the car-makers to expose themselves to the clean air market.

They will be owned 25% each by Nissan and Renault.

Amazon took over Whole Foods yesterday. It wasted no time in

cutting costs. Because on popular items like avocados and apples by a

third. It has bid to shake off its reputation high prices. It didn't

cut things like bread and milk, but avocados and apples.

Avocados are expensive. Lots of stories on our Business Live page.

UK companies mutts published pay ratios under new law. They will have

to reveal how much more of their chief executives are paid compared

with the average employee. This is part of government reform in the UK.

The Business Secretary is saying the plans will make a difference but

unions attack them as watered down. However, these ratios will have to

be revealed under the new law. Let's turn our attention to China

because the country is set to create the largest power company.

The deal that will create the world's power utility worth $280

billion, let's get more from Christine in our bureau in Asia.

Tell us more. The new entity is going to be called China energy

investors News Corp. This is going to be the world's Bigas power

company by Starc capacity. They have assets of $280 billion. There are

two reasons, China wants to streamline its state owned

enterprises sector and cut overcapacity in the country. And

China is moving towards clean energy and it needs companies that can make

the transition smoothly. These are the country's biggest companies. It

is the top coalminer. If you put the two together, you get a giant which

is able to stabilise prices and costs with access to coal and coal

transport networks. It is also able to scale up renewables over time. It

will account for 13% of China's power generating and coal mining

capacity, both of them. 23% of the power will be renewables. There is

still a few state-owned power companies in China, so I do expect

more to come in this space. We will keep an eye on that one.

Confirmation of what the numbers are doing.

Tokyo stocks fell Tuesday after North Korea launched a missile

over Japan that sent regional tensions soaring,

with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe slamming it as an "unprecedented,

Donald Trump has also vowed to ramp-up pressure on North Korea

That's sent gold to a new nine month high.

But oil went lower last night after Hurricane Harvey

It's left destruction in its wake, but - and this is purely

in a financial sense - not as severe as they'd feared.

More on that in a moment, but first Michelle has the rest

of the details about the day ahead on Wall Street.

President Trump is visiting Texas. He said he would try to fund what

will be an expensive recovery from tropicals to all Harvey. It is not

clear how the hurricane relief will impact budget talks in Washington.

Investors are keeping an eye on the energy sector. Houston and the Texas

coast is one of the leading centres for the energy even justly. Many of

crude oil production and refineries have shut down because of the storm

and it's not clear when they will be open. The storm is putting pressure

on the dollar which felt more than two and a half year low against the

euro on Monday. On an unrelated note, Apple Store is one to watch

after they scheduled a product launch for September the 12th which

is thought to include the new iPhone eight.

Joining us is Alpesh Patel, Chief Executive of Praefinium Partners.

Michelle talking about stuff to watch in the US, we just looked up

the wall, all red. No surprise with the situation with North Korea? In

the short term you would have thought the market would have come

off more. You have the hurricane, you have the missile launch. I was

giving a two-hour market broadcast and all I could see was an upward

trend. It is your fault! It is my fault. I said everything would go

up, so obviously it has gone down today! The reports we are seeing

from the big banks, all the analysts in terms of equities. They

appreciate we are getting into an overvaluation state, but despite

what you are seeing out of the US politically and economically. We are

seeing these trends, saying to people not a problem getting into

equities and we're not even seen a fall of in the Yen despite the

missile launch. It was rising. It is a safe haven. You would think if

there are missiles being shot at thy country, people would want to get

out of it. You might think, don't want to go to The States, but you

have got the euro at least. I wanted to talk about... Gold and oil are

doing opposite things. You would have expected oil to shoot up given

what is happening in Texas. The issue is it isn't as bad as the

market had feared? You would expect some fundamental capacity constraint

and the price would go up. The market is doing the opposite of what

is rational. What we are doing at the moment, we are following

momentum, not looking at fundamentals all rationality. When

you say we? The fund and advice to our followers, don't try and

rationalise this because you will not make sense of it as things stand

at the moment. All right. Not particularly a good thing to say on

the news channel. That is really, really helpful. He is coming back

with thoughts on pets. No promises any of it will make sense. We will

give him ten minutes to get his head around pet purchases.

Could heavy machinery and global travel soon be

As more and more vehicles turn green, we meet the firm looking

at new ways to keep buses, ferries, trucks and lorries moving -

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

Levels of uninsured driving may be rising for the first time in more

than a decade according to new research.

BBC reporter Matt Precey joins us now from the BBC Norwich newsroom.

Good morning. Just talk us through these things. What do they show us?

They come from the motor insurers bureau, an industry body which

compensates victims of an insured and hit-and-run drivers. They work

to reduce the level of uninsured driving in the UK. This year they

expect to pay out ?256 million and in the past 12 months they've seen a

10% increase in the cases they handle. That is the first time it

has increased since 2004. They handle 12,000 cases every year. The

pool of money they used to compensate is roughly ?15 on every

premium. What do we expect from this data? It suggests the numbers are

increasing and they are investigating the reason for the

rise. But the MIB point to other factors, the rise in the number of

vehicles on the road, the driver licences being issued. They are

looking into claims management companies but they say levels of

uninsured driving remains unacceptably high despite

effectively halving over the last ten years. What is being done to

tackle it? The police are routinely seizing vehicles using a number

plate recognition system. These cameras scan hundreds of number

plates every hour. They are on a database operated by the MIB. If a

car comes up as showing that it is being driven with no insurance, the

police. It, double-check the status, and sees the vehicle -- the police.

-- the police will halt the vehicle. If they don't do this then the

vehicle is auctioned or crushed. 40% of vehicles seized last year ended

up in the crusher. That is a thousand cars a week.

You're watching Business Live - our top story - Manufacturers have

warned of a recruitment crunch if they are unable to keep hiring EU

Trade body the EEF says the government must clarify

the rights of EU workers "as a matter of urgency".

A quick look at how markets are faring...

All the main markets in Europe are down 1%. We have safe havens like

gold doing well. That is them. We've talked a lot about the growing

market for electric vehicles - and whether they can help cut

greenhouse gas emissions But what about other

modes of transport - that, on the whole, rely

on fossil fuels? The US Environmental

Protection Agency found that heavy-duty vehicles like trucks,

rail, ferries, boats and aircraft make up 40% of greenhouse emissions

from the transportation sector. One company that's trying

to revolutionize the heavy transport The company said that its electric

propulsion technology enables better efficiency with less fuel

consumption, less noise and cleaner air - and results in 50% less

emissions in heavy-duty vehicles. The Finnish company

was founded by Kimmo Rauma, and his company has delivered Asia's

first hybrid ferry, Finland's first all electric ferry,

and other electric bus fleets. Let's talk about how it works. We

are so used to talking about electric cars. This is about scaling

up to industrial applications. Buses, I see as a logical. Can you

really para a ferry with electricity? It is quite

straightforward. 90% of the time, it is standing still, a car. When you

think about fairies, they are working every day. The total life of

a car is 6000 hours, this kind of heavy duty can do it in a year. When

do you charge it? I can understand you do it overnight, but ferries

will travel overnight. This is what they think about the cars, the

battery is not ready. It is operating 17 hours without any

charging. The first full electric fairy in Taiwan, it can charge when

people are coming in. So the six minutes is enough for the charging.

Six minutes, you can charge the ferry. You have a little battery

that is bigger than needed, so during night time you can charge it

a little more. It is quite easy to understand it does not change this

anywhere else. It cleans the pollution. You see yourself as a

disrupter in this industry, an industry you believe does not want

to change. You have very much focused on Asia where there is a

cultural difference. They are open to what you're offering them and

willing to invest but not so in Europe? Yes. If you think about the

truck business, the whole business is based on the maintenance fee. The

truck race has been the same for the last decade, exactly the same. At

the same time, the maintenance cost is 12 times higher. When we

electrify that one or make it a hybrid it destroys the maintenance

part of the industry. Of course they do not want to change. This

combination does not exist in Asia. The biggest ones are not from Asia,

when they want to take over the world and become the big ones they

will do it in full electric in a minute. We talked earlier about

heavy plant machinery, Rock crushers, JCBs. Given those

refuseniks, how do you get them to embrace them? Actually, I need to

find the medium players who want to take on the bigger ones and show the

world this is doable. When we got the first ones to say, they are

earning much more money than they used to but everyone loves it

because there is no air-pollution. It is gone now. It is a win- win

situation. It is fascinating to hear what you have to say. I want that

battery on my smartphone! In a moment we'll take a look

through the Business Pages but first here's a quick reminder of how

to get in touch with us. The business live page is where you

can stay ahead with all the breaking news. We will keep you up-to-date

with the latest details. We want to hear from you as well. Get involved

on the web page. You can find us on Facebook.

You have not held back with the tweets today. Let's bring back a

reporter. Pets on the rise. Apparently rich people like animals

more than people who cannot afford. Here is an opportunity for viewers

to get rich. I looked up high-end fashion websites and none of those

websites had anything about pets. They had menswear, childrenswear,

womenswear, yet the sheer prices of all those companies are at an

all-time high. They are missing a trick. I am going to buy shares in

those three. I think they will start doing a pet range. By the way the

champagne for pets is called Pawsecco. I think the RSPCA might

come knocking. One person said, she bought a bag so she could be slung

over my shoulder. She loved it. Gucci, that is the way to go. You

haven't got any pets. I'm a vegetarian that doesn't like

animals. This person says, ?48,000 BMW estate for the pet. We have

someone with a stroller that holds five dogs. An elevator with voice

activated controls and mood lighting. Who are you? Thanks for

coming in. Appreciated. Good morning. Yesterday we got to 28

degrees across the