Ontario education workers will be off the job Monday no matter what labour board rules: CUPE

Sun, November 6, 2022 

Ned Sharp, a teacher at the York Region District School Board, joined hundreds of supporters who took over Toronto's downtown core Saturday in solidarity with striking CUPE workers. (Alexis Raymon/CBC - image credit)

Ontario education workers will be off the job on Monday and in the days following even if an Ontario labour board determines their strike is illegal, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) confirmed to CBC News.

Members of the union are off the job and political protests will continue into next week, a CUPE spokesperson said in an email to CBC Sunday night.

Thousands of education workers, including education assistants, custodians and librarians, walked off the job on Friday to protest the provincial government passing legislation that banned strikes and imposed a four-year contract, using the notwithstanding clause to avoid constitutional challenges.

A hearing at the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) to determine the legality of the strike concluded Sunday after three days of arguments between lawyers for the provincial government and CUPE.

CUPE's intention to continue their job action regardless of what the board rules was first reported by The Globe and Mail.

OLRB chair Brian O'Byrne said he hopes to render a decision before the school week begins, but he's not sure it can be done.

"I honestly cannot tell you when I will get you a bottom line," O'Byrne said. "I'm going to try and do it by today. Hopefully I'll succeed."

A government lawyer argued before the board that it doesn't matter whether the contract that now binds 55,000 employees was negotiated with their input or imposed upon them.

Ferina Murji said strikes are prohibited in the midst of any contract, not just one that was ratified by union membership.

"A collective agreement is a collective agreement is a collective agreement," she said.

WATCH | CUPE to continue job action this week, regardless of ruling:

The government is seeking a ruling that their walkout is illegal, while CUPE — which represents education workers — contends the job action is a form of legitimate political protest.

The strike closed numerous schools across the province Friday, with even more set to shut on Monday.

"With 55,000 people not attending schools across the province, that means millions of students and their parents are left with nowhere to go, are left not learning, not getting the education that the Education Act ensures they will get," Murji said, stressing the importance of the board's intervention.

Several Ontario school boards said they will move to remote learning next week indefinitely if the education workers' strike continues. Some boards, including the Toronto District School Board, said they will move online as soon as Monday. In-person classes at northern Ontario's largest school board will resume Monday after they were cancelled Friday, the Rainbow District School Board confirmed in a letter to parents.

'Frenzied and sleep-deprived'

O'Byrne heard arguments over the course of 16 hours on Saturday, with the hearing stretching into early Sunday morning, before resuming just hours later, at 7 a.m.

As Day 3 of the hearing got underway, O'Byrne noted the "frenzied and sleep-deprived context of the hearings."

Earlier in the proceedings, CUPE's lawyer argued that an imposed contract should not be treated the same way as one that was negotiated through collective bargaining.

"I do accept that Bill 28 is in writing. But it is not a voluntarily negotiated agreement," Steven Barrett said on Saturday.

"It is deemed to be a collective agreement under Section 5 ... but to call this a mid-contract withdrawal of services, as if this was a collective agreement freely negotiated, is a fundamental absurdity."

Barrett told O'Byrne that should he deem the strike legal, the job action could continue until the government repeals its new legislation or until the union and government negotiate its end.

The province's new law has set fines for violating the ban on strikes of up to $4,000 per employee per day — which could amount to $220 million for all 55,000 workers — and up to $500,000 per day for the union.

CUPE has said it will fight the fines, but will also pay them if it has to.

Poll finds majority blame Ford government

Meanwhile, Ontario residents appear to be placing blame on Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government for the contract dispute, according to a new public opinion poll released Sunday.

The online poll from Abacus Data found that 62 per cent of respondents blame the provincial government for schools closing after education workers walked off the job Friday. Thirty-eight per cent point the finger at the workers.

Sixty-eight per cent of parents of school-aged children believe the Ford government bears the most responsibility, the survey found, while 71 per cent of respondents want the province to negotiate a "fair deal" with education workers, rather than continue with its current strategy.

The poll, conducted on Nov. 4 and 5, surveyed 1,000 adults and comes with a margin of error of 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20, according to Abacus Data.

WATCH | Education Minister Stephen Lecce says province will continue to use every tool to open schools:

The union had been seeking annual salary increases of 11.7 per cent for its workers, who make on average $39,000 a year, but the imposed contract would give 2.5 per cent annual raises to workers making less than $43,000 and 1.5 per cent raises for all others.

Laura Walton, president of CUPE's Ontario School Boards' Council of Unions, said the results of the poll show Ontarians support the education workers in their job action.

"This poll confirms what we already knew: that the majority of people support education workers, that they see through the Ford government's lies about working for workers and students, that they know $39,000 isn't enough, and that they believe workers' rights to freely bargain and strike if necessary must always be protected," Walton said in a statement.

"Seven out of 10 Ontarians want the government to negotiate a fair deal. That starts with repealing Bill 28, an unjust law which Ontarians know is like giving a schoolyard bully a sledgehammer."

CBC News has reached out to the office of the premier and the education minister for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

UK

Cost of living: Millions have no savings as prices soar

Sun, November 6, 2022 

A family dealing with money problems

A quarter of UK adults have less than £100 set aside in savings, a survey suggests, leaving them vulnerable to rising and unexpected bills.

The lack of a financial safety net means many have to borrow money to cover any extra costs, creating greater anxiety about their plight.

One mother told the BBC she was scared of being judged so did not seek help.

The Money and Pensions Service, which conducted the research, said such fears could be overcome with family help.

Debt advisors are expecting a sharp increase in enquiries over the winter as people struggle to fund higher food and energy bills, with little to fall back on.
'I wish I'd asked for help earlier'

This latest survey of 3,000 people found that 17% - or one in six - of those asked held nothing in savings. Another 5% had less than £50 and a further 4% had between £50 and £100 set aside.

If those figures reflect the UK as a whole, then millions of people will have little or nothing as a savings buffer.

Among them is Kylie, a mother-of-six who faced difficulties that left her failing to pay critical, and priority, bills. She just about managed to pay her rent, to keep a roof over her family's head, but was behind on many other payments.

The 31-year-old said some of the more aggressive debt collection left her children frightened, and her finances were in a mess.

Her energy provider told her to seek help from a debt charity, but she said she was scared to do so.

"I felt like I would be judged and looked down on," she said.

When she did eventually seek help, the advisors were kind and helpful, she said, and crucially told her about the various hardships funds and grants that were available to her.

"But I would have been in a better position if I had done it earlier," she said.

She came to an arrangement with her creditors, so she pays back a more affordable amount each month. She recently managed to save £40 - for the first time in years.

The idea of saving money will be alien to many people struggling with the rising cost of living. A recent survey by the Building Societies Association (BSA) found 35% of those questioned had stopped saving as a result of the rising cost of living.

Meanwhile, 36% of those asked said they were relying on their savings to get through a period of rising bills and prices. Some credit unions are offering ways to help families save for expensive times of year, such as Christmas.
Talking to loved ones

The Money and Pensions Service runs the Moneyhelper website, which includes a free debt advice locator.

It is running a week-long Talk Money campaign urging people to open up about their finances and is encouraging people to plan for their financial future and take free debt advice as soon as they realise they could be facing difficulties.

"Millions of people find it a challenge to save, and this leaves them vulnerable when sudden expenditure items arise. When you add in the anxiety that they feel with their credit commitments, the weight of that worry can quickly become overwhelming," said Caroline Siarkiewicz, chief executive of the government-backed organisation.

"We want everyone to start the conversation with family or friends and share the burden of any money worries. By dealing with the problem head on, people can discover just how helpful free debt advice can be and see the importance of talking to their creditors early. They can also begin to find a way forward, no matter how difficult their situation might feel."

Kylie, meanwhile, is looking forward to Christmas, but with some trepidation. She said her food bill shot up when her children were on school holidays.

"I am trying to do my best, and save for Christmas," she said. "At the moment, we are just living week by week."

Union says about 2,200 GO Transit workers to strike Monday morning after failing to reach a deal

Sun, November 6, 2022 

The union representing 2,200 GO Transit workers will be on strike as of 12:01 a.m. on Monday, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1587 announced Sunday. 

(Evan Mitsui/CBC - image credit)

Commuters across much of southern Ontario may find themselves scrambling for alternative means of transport after the union representing 2,200 GO Transit employees announced members would be walking off the job as of Monday morning.

The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1587 issued a statement on Sunday saying it was unable to secure a new contract with Metrolinx, the operator of the regional transport service covering much of the Greater Toronto and Golden Horseshoe areas.

The strike, which will involve bus operators, station attendants and other employees, is set to get underway at 12:01 a.m. on Monday. Metrolinx has previously indicated that bus service will be suspended if a strike takes place, though trains will remain in service.

ATU Local 1587 president Rob Cormier said bargaining talks broke down over safety concerns related to hiring contract workers from outside companies.

"Negotiations have failed because Metrolinx failed to come to the table with a reasonable offer to address any of our key issues," he said in the union statement.

"Protections against contracting out are imperative to ensure that experienced workers are on the job running GO Transit safely and efficiently. Without these protections, Metrolinx can contract to outside companies which will hire inexperienced workers in precarious, non-union positions."

Cormier confirmed to CBC News that the union had walked away from the bargaining table on Sunday.

Commuters urged to plan ahead, prepare for longer trips

Metrolinx issued a statement saying the union walked away from weekend negotiations and declined a request to return to the table on Monday.

Anne Marie Aikins, the company's head of media and public relations, said the transit operator had been optimistic it could ink a new deal after proposing dozens of "enhancements" to the collective bargaining agreement.

Aikins acknowledged ATU's concerns about contracting outside workers, but maintained the company has measures in place to ensure safety for all.

"For 22 years, we have had language in the agreement that protects the employment security of our ATU employees," she said in a statement.

"This long-standing protection will continue to protect existing staff as well as new hires joining Metrolinx."

Aikins encouraged customers to plan ahead, prepare extra time for commutes and stay informed on strike developments through GO Transit's website and social media accounts.

ATU has said negotiations with Metrolinx began in April and members have been working without a contract since June 1.

It said 81 per cent of members voted against a contract offer put forward by Metrolinx, a move Aikins has previously described as disappointing. She said Sunday the company remained "open to discussing ways forward" with the union.

The GO Transit strike comes three days after thousands of Ontario education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees walked off the job indefinitely. ATU has said it supports those workers.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
US busts catalytic converter theft ring that extracted metals

Bloomberg News | November 2, 2022 

Credit: Adobe Stock

US authorities said they arrested 21 individuals in five states for allegedly participating in a national network that stole thousands of catalytic converters from cars and then sold them to processors to extract precious metals from the devices valued at tens of millions of dollars.


Law enforcement officials also executed 32 search warrants and seized millions of dollars in assets including homes, bank accounts, cash and luxury vehicles, the Department of Justice said Wednesday in a news release. The government is seeking forfeiture of more than $545 million in connection with the case.

“This national network of criminals hurt victims across the country,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in the statement. “They made hundreds of millions of dollars in the process — on the backs of thousands of innocent car owners.”

Metal thieves in search of platinum, rhodium and palladium have been stealing catalytic converters in ever-greater numbers, sending auto-insurance claims soaring across the country, State Farm said earlier this year. The insurer said it paid $62.6 million for 32,265 catalytic converter theft claims nationally — a 1,173% increase from 2019.

A catalytic converter is an emissions-control device that’s in the exhaust system under many gas-powered vehicles.

The defendants in the theft ring were charged in two separate indictments in California and Oklahoma federal courts.

California has higher emissions standards than the rest of US, so catalytic converters on vehicles registered in the state contain higher concentrations of precious metals, the US said in a court filing in Sacramento federal court.

“Last year approximately 1,600 catalytic converters were reportedly stolen in California each month, and California accounts for 37% of all catalytic converter theft claims nationwide,” said US Attorney Phillip Talbert for the Eastern District of California.

The thieves know which vehicle makes and models contain the most precious metals in the catalytic converters, the government said in the court filing.

“The design of the Toyota Prius and other hybrid vehicles employ a very high concentration of palladium,” the US said. “Therefore, they are targeted by thieves for their high value, specifically the 2004-2009 model years.”

The nine people charged in Sacramento were involved in a conspiracy to ship the stolen catalytic converters from California to DG Auto facilities in New Jersey, where the precious metal powders were extracted and sold for profit, the US said.

DG Auto employees created a pricing application for both Apple and Android platforms that provided real-time pricing information for catalytic converter thieves and their customers, according to the indictment.

A call to DG Auto was forwarded to an answering machine, which said the mailbox was full and couldn’t accept any more messages.

The cases are US v. Khanna, 22-cr-0213, US District Court, Eastern District of California (Sacramento) and US v. Khanna, 22-cr-348, US District Court, Northern District of Oklahoma.

(By Joe Schneider)

Space photovoltaics closer to shining some light on earth
Staff Writer | November 3, 2022 |

An array of small solar panels that are part of the Space Solar Power Project integrate photovoltaics, power transfer circuitry, and incorporate beam steering. 

(Image courtesy of Caltech).

A team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology is working to deploy a constellation of modular spacecraft that collect sunlight, transform it into electricity, then wirelessly transmit that electricity wherever it is needed—including to places that currently have no access to reliable power.


According to the scientists, harnessing solar power in space relies on breakthrough advances in three main areas:


The first key aspect involves the design of ultralight high-efficiency photovoltaics that are optimized for space conditions and compatible with an integrated modular power conversion and transmission system.

The second area refers to the development of the low-cost and lightweight technology needed to convert direct current power to radio frequency power and send it to earth as microwaves. Despite how it sounds, the process is safe as non-ionizing radiation at the surface is significantly less harmful than standing in the sun. In addition, the system could be quickly shut down in the event of damage or malfunction.

Finally, the third area involves inventing foldable, ultrathin, and ultralight space structures to support the photovoltaics as well as the components needed to convert, transmit, and steer radio frequency power to where it is needed.

The basic unit of the system the researchers envision is a 4-inch-by-4-inch tile that weighs less than a tenth of an ounce. Hundreds of thousands of these tiles would combine into a system of flying carpet-like satellites that, once unfurled, would create a sunlight-gathering surface that measures 3.5 square miles.

“This concept was, in the past, truly science fiction. What made it possible for us to consider taking it from the realm of science fiction to the realm of reality was the combination of developments happening in photovoltaics in Harry Atwater’s lab, in structures in Sergio Pellegrino’s lab, and in wireless power transfer, which is happening in my lab,” Ali Hajimiri, one of the researchers leading the project, said in a media statement.

“We realized that we can now pursue space solar power in a way that is becoming both practical and economical.”

Hajimiri noted that one of the first questions that anyone asks is, “Why do you want to put photovoltaics in space?” To what he replies that in space, where there is no day and night or clouds, it is possible to get about eight times more energy than on earth.

“The vision of this program is to be able to provide as much power as you need, where you need it, and when you need it,” he said.
Progress

In terms of progress toward making this project a reality, the researcher explained that over a period of two years, the group built and demonstrated a prototype tile. This is the key modular element that captures the sunlight and transmits the power.

Through that process, they learned how to design highly integrated and ultralight systems of this sort. They then developed a second prototype, 33% lighter than the first.

A series of tiles are to be mounted on a very flexible structure that can be folded to fit in a launch vehicle. Once deployed, the structure expands, and the tile works in concert and in synchronization to generate energy, convert it, and transfer it exactly where it is needed.

Speaking about the next steps, Hajimiri and his colleagues said that soon, the time to test things outside the lab will come.

“Most spacecraft today have solar arrays—photovoltaic cells bonded to a carrier structure—but not with this type of material and not folded to the dimensions we’ve achieved,” Pellegrino said. “By using novel folding techniques, inspired by origami, we are able to significantly reduce the dimensions of a giant spacecraft for launch. The packaging is so tight as to be essentially free of any voids.”

Five dead after methane leak at ArcelorMittal coal mine in Kazakhstan
Reuters | November 3, 2022 

Credit: ArcelorMittal

Five people died and four others were hospitalized after a methane gas leak at an ArcelorMittal coal mine in Kazakhstan on Thursday, the company said.


The company said it was continuing rescue work at the mine in the Qaraghandy region in central Kazakhstan where ArcelorMittal operates the country’s biggest steel mill.

Kazakh news website Zakon.kz quoted regional governor Zhenis Kasymbek as saying that all eight ArcelorMittal mines had halted work for a day.

Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov said a government commission would investigate the incident.

(By Tamara Vaal and Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Peter Graff)

Column: Miners are embracing renewables both for cost and image
Reuters | November 3, 2022 | 

Chichester Hub, located in the heart of the iron ore-rich Pilbara region. 

(Image courtesy of Fortescue Metals Group.)

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, Clyde Russell, a columnist for Reuters.)


One of the unintended side effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is it’s helping drive an accelerated transition to renewable energy solutions in Australia’s vast resources sector.


Diesel prices are close to record highs in Australian dollar terms, and unlikely to ease soon given shortages of the transport fuel created by Europe’s decision to move away from Russian supplies as part of efforts to punish Moscow for its Feb. 24 attack on its neighbour.

Diesel has been the dominant source of power for Australia’s mines, which are often located in remote areas and not connected to major power grids.

Australia is the world’s largest exporter of iron ore, lithium, gold and coking coal, ranks second in thermal coal, fifth in copper and is also a major shipper of nickel and alumina, the base material for aluminium.

It used to be that switching mine sites from diesel to renewable energy solutions was a process largely driven by the increasing need to be seen to be doing something to reach the goal of net-zero carbon emissions, with many mining companies having a target of achieving this by 2050.

But at the IMARC conference in Sydney this week, it was increasingly clear that one of the main drivers for switching to clean energy solutions was their relative cost effectiveness when compared to fossil fuels such as diesel or natural gas.

What mining companies are realising is that there is a rare opportunity to score wins on multiple fronts by moving to renewable energy solutions, such as solar, wind and battery back up.

Firstly is the cost advantage, with renewable power solutions cheaper over the longer term than fossil fuels.

Renewable energy also provides a more fixed cost than fossil fuels, which can suffer from periods of high and sustained volatility, such as the world is currently experiencing.

Secondly, there is the reduction in carbon emissions from mining, which does help companies reach net-zero goals.

It’s worth noting that switching to renewable energy on mine sites really only helps with what are termed Scope 1 emissions, which are those associated with primary production.

Scope 2 emissions involve the supply chain and Scope 3 are those created by end users, such as power plants and steel mills.

Scope 3 emissions are the biggest contributor to most mining companies’ emissions profile, but even reducing Scope 1 emissions will help them in their net-zero goals.
More than image boost

There are also other benefits in embracing renewable technologies.

One example is the reduced need for ventilation in underground mines if the vehicles used to extract ore are battery powered, rather than using diesel engines.

The other benefits include an ability to argue that the industry is moving beyond greenwashing and is actually achieving emission reductions.

This may not be enough to sway mining’s most ardent critics, but it may be enough to help convince skilled young graduates and technicians that there is a future in mining, which is currently battling labour shortages in Australia.

Several participants at IMARC said they were struggling to attract young workers, who cite mining’s poor reputation as something that puts them off joining the industry.

Improving the image of mining as the champion of the energy transition is vital to attracting new entrants to the industry, making a genuine change of attitude and action among mining companies all the more important.

There are some caveats to the Australian experience in powering new mines, and switching older operations, over to renewable power solutions.

The first is that it’s currently extremely hard to go 100% renewable, given the cost in building enough renewable capacity and battery storage to overcome the small number of days when there is insufficient solar, wind and battery back up to keep a 24-hour mining operation going.

James Harman, chief executive officer of renewable energy solutions company EDL, told the conference that the industry needs to “recognise that 100% renewable doesn’t work currently,” but that achieving 80% is both feasible and cost effective.

In practice, this means many mines will operate mainly on renewables, but still maintain diesel generators as back up.

It’s possible to take the figure to 100% renewable if the mine sources sustainable diesel fuels, such as biodiesel, or uses carbon offsets to mitigate any fossil fuel consumption.

Harman also said that his company’s experience is that the pace of switching to renewables is accelerating, and it’s possible that most mines in Australia could be using mainly renewable power within five years, well ahead of those 2050 targets.

(Editing by Kim Coghill)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Alcoa sent three letters to the LME requesting action on Russian metal
Reuters | November 3, 2022 | 

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

United States-based aluminum producer Alcoa wrote to the London Metal Exchange (LME) three times in September and October, asking for a boycott of Russian metal and greater disclosure on how much was in the LME system, the company said.


In the letters, seen by Reuters, Alcoa expressed concerns that large amounts of Russian aluminum flowing into LME-registered warehouses could distort the exchange’s aluminum contract by making it reflect the price of unwanted material.

While Russia has escaped official sanctions on its aluminum, copper, and nickel of the kind imposed on other sectors following its invasion of Ukraine, some Western companies have stopped accepting Russian metal.

These include Alcoa and most of its customers, according to a letter the company sent to the LME dated Sept. 29 and signed by chief commercial officer Kelly Thomas.

The letter said that without buyers, more metal made by Russian aluminum producer Rusal could be deposited on the exchange, which functions as a market of last resort, leaving the LME with stocks that Alcoa said many companies and banks may not want to deal with.

“As we move into 2023 … it is easy to see a scenario where well over one million metric tons per year of Rusal metal could be put on warrant,” it said. “The LME aluminum contract will be distorted because it will disproportionately reflect the discounted value of the Rusal brand.”

Rusal said efforts by its competitor to ban it from the exchange were “clearly for their own benefit”.

“There are no plans to deliver aluminum to the exchange, by virtue of a strong sales and order book moving in to 2023,” it said in an emailed statement. “The data and evidence to support this has been provided directly to the LME.”

The exchange declined to comment on the letters.

The LME, the world’s biggest metals trade venue, asked its users on Oct. 6 if they thought the exchange should ban Russian metal, setting an Oct. 28 deadline for responses. It said last week it could take action on Russian metal if it became a problem, without saying what it would do.

Alcoa is one of several US and European metals producers that have lobbied for the LME and Western governments to restrict trade in Russian metal. Some metals consumers have argued against this, saying restrictions would harm them while benefiting non-Russian producers.

Letters sent by Alcoa to the LME dated Oct. 18 and Oct. 27 said around 250,000 tonnes of aluminum that entered LME-registered warehouses in October could be Russian, and asked the LME to publish daily disclosures showing how much Russian metal was in its system.

Rusal said it was confident that most of the metal delivered to the exchange in October was not Russian. “Suggestions by competitors to the contrary are quite simply false, and damaging to market order,” it said.

Alcoa said in its Oct. 27 letter, which was a response to the LME’s request for opinions from the market, that it urged the exchange “to immediately delist all Russian brands, regardless of the production date”.

The company has also lobbied the US government to impose restrictions on Russian aluminum, something sources have said the government is considering.

(By Peter Hobson; Editing by Jan Harvey)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
UK court fines Glencore $308 million for bribing its way across Africa
Bloomberg News | November 3, 2022 



Less than four weeks after South Sudan became an independent country in 2011, a delegation of Glencore Plc traders arrived by private jet in search of oil. They were carrying with them $800,000 in cash to pay bribes.


The revelation was among several detailed in a London courtroom this week that showed how, decades after Glencore founder Marc Rich created the popular image of commodity traders criss-crossing the globe to dispense bribes in exchange for lucrative contracts, remarkably little had changed in the way some traders at the company were doing business.

The UK Serious Fraud Office showed how Glencore paid more than $28 million in bribes across five African countries over five years to 2016, using methods that were in some cases carbon copies of deals that Rich had put in place in the 1970s and 1980s. On Thursday, a judge handed down a penalty of £276 million ($308 million) for Glencore’s conduct, on top of around $1.1 billion the company has already paid in related cases in the US and Brazil.

Glencore traders hand delivered large quantities of cash to government officials, they sought to profit from political turmoil, and they inserted themselves into government-to-government deals that had been negotiated at preferential rates.

In South Sudan, Glencore wasted little time. The east African country became independent on July 9, 2011. By July 21 a Glencore executive — identified by the SFO only as “GE7” and as the company’s Business Ethics Committee member for the London office — was on a plane “to persuade the President of South Sudan and others in government” to give Glencore’s joint venture there a contract to sell its oil.

Two other employees arrived in the capital Juba with $800,000 in cash a few days later. They said it was for “opening office in South Sudan, cash for office infrastructure, salaries, cars etc.,” but Glencore’s local agent in fact used some of it to pay bribes, the SFO said.

A few months later, the assistant to the President of South Sudan visited Glencore executives in Zurich and London. A Glencore executive withdrew a further $275,000 from the company’s “cash desk” at its Swiss headquarters, and the next day Glencore’s South Sudanese unit was offered an oil deal.

Commodity traders have spent years trying to distance themselves from the image of their industry forged in the days of characters like Marc Rich, instead presenting themselves as logistics businesses, moving oil, metals and grain from A to B in response to market signals.

But the revelations about Glencore’s trading in Africa come just six months after the London-listed company pleaded guilty in related US cases, while top oil trader Vitol Group admitted to paying bribes in three Latin American countries, and Brazilian prosecutors accused Trafigura Group of involvement in a kickback scheme, in a civil case. Trafigura has denied the allegations.

“The extremely sizeable cash sums that were permitted to be withdrawn from the offices in Switzerland, using such spurious descriptions as office expenses, demonstrates the most blatant of conduct,” Judge Peter Fraser said at the Southwark Crown Court on Thursday. “It demonstrates the number of people at Glencore who must have been complicit in this behavior.” An SFO prosecutor said Oct. 24 that as many as 11 former staff were under investigation for criminal wrongdoing.

“The corruption described is so brazen. This was less than 10 years ago,” said Alexandra Gillies, author of Crude Intentions, a book about corruption in the oil industry. “It’s critical that the executives and employees involved are held legally accountable. Bribery was clearly an embedded part of the company’s approach to maximizing profits in some of the poorest countries in the world.”

At the hearing attended by Glencore’s chair, Kalidas Madhavpeddi, the company’s lawyer said the company “unreservedly regrets the harm caused by these offenses.” Madhavpeddi declined to comment on the proceedings when approached by Bloomberg outside the court.

The SFO case outlined how in Nigeria, Glencore paid millions of dollars to an intermediary that were used to bribe officials at the state oil company, using sham contracts to disguise the true purpose of the payments. The Nigerian agent also transported cash by private jet to Cameroon. There a Glencore trader used it to bribe officials at the state oil and gas company and the state refinery.

In Malawi, Glencore used a playbook that Rich had pioneered 40 years earlier. In the 1980s, thanks to an enterprising employee who went by the pseudonym Monsieur Ndolo, the trading house inserted itself in a deal between the government of Iran and the government of Burundi, profiting from the interest-free payment terms that Tehran was willing to offer its poorer African ally.

In its case summary, the SFO detailed how Glencore had done something similar in a government-to-government oil deal between Nigeria and Malawi. Glencore traders and executives sanctioned bribes to officials at the Nigerian state oil company in order to take “take advantage of the ‘free credit’ benefit inherent in the joint venture agreement,” according to the SFO.

The SFO noted that Glencore had anti-corruption policies in place at the time of the wrongdoing, but said “these were largely ignored because corruption was condoned at a very senior level within the company.”

(By Jack Farchy and Jonathan Browning, with assistance from Thomas Biesheuvel)

Column: Unloved lead gets to join the Bloomberg commodity A-list

Reuters | November 3, 2022 | 

Stock image.

Lead will become the 24th commodity to be included in the Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM), joining its London Metal Exchange (LME) peers aluminum, copper, nickel, and zinc.


The London three-month lead price jumped almost 10% to $2,019.50 per tonne on Friday’s news, although it’s since pared its gains to a current $1,965.




The reaction is understandable if a little premature. Although lead will have only a 0.936% weighting in the index, the lowest of any of the base metals, it will still translate into fund buying at the start of next year as asset managers adjust to the new weightings.

Perhaps equally important is what inclusion says about a metal widely assumed to be heading for obsolescence as lead-acid batteries succumb to the relentless march of lithium-powered electric vehicles (EV).

The frequent reports of lead’s death, however, continue to be much exaggerated.
Lead’s not dead

It’s not easy being a lead market analyst.

“One of the frustrations (…) is people telling you constantly that lead is dead,” lamented Andrew Thomas, director for zinc and lead at Wood Mackenzie.

However, as he explained at the research house’s LME Week Seminar, what everyone forgets is that of the 80 million passenger vehicles produced last year “just about every single one had a lead-acid battery in them”.

And that includes the eight million electric vehicles produced. In the excitement around new battery metals such as lithium and cobalt, it’s easy to overlook the fact that EVs have a back-up lead battery for safety systems and to power in-car entertainment systems.

Lead-acid batteries need replacing every few years. Given an average vehicle life of 13-14 years, last year’s 80 million vehicles will still be requiring replacement batteries in the early part of the next decade.

Lead’s usage profile is one of unexciting but steady growth, driven by the need to meet demand for replacement batteries in an ever-growing global passenger fleet.
Economic significance

Supply has grown to match demand, global production of refined lead creeping up from under 10 million tonnes in 2010 to 12.38 million tonnes last year, according to the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG).

The BCOM looks at five-year averages of exchange liquidity and production data to determine which commodities are included and at what weighting.

The idea is that selected commodities should be both important to the global economy and reflect the value placed on that role by financial markets.

Global lead production has grown sufficiently over the last five years to merit inclusion even though trading liquidity has decreased, according to a statement from Bloomberg.

BCOM determines base metals liquidity with reference to the LME lead contract, which saw volumes fall by 3.8% last year with a further 7.7% decline over the first nine months of this year.

Lead’s performance should be seen in the context of a 4.7% slide in total LME volumes last year and the broader drop in activity following the exchange’s nickel blow-out in March this year.

However, weak trading activity also reflects lead’s unloved status relative to sister metal zinc. LME zinc volumes are more than double those of lead, even though global production of refined zinc was only slightly higher at 13.85 million tonnes last year.
Bumpy ride

With replacement battery demand accounting for around half of global lead usage each year and recycled metal for around 60% of supply, lead’s market dynamics are quite different from the other industrial metals.

Batteries fail in boom times and bad, meaning lead is partly insulated from the economic cycle and has a history of shallower troughs but lower peaks than other LME metals.

The lead market, in other words, can be a bit boring.

But not right now. It’s ironically going through a bout of turbulence just as it’s about to be elevated to commodity A-list status.

An unusual sequence of smelter disruption will cause global refined output to slide by 0.3% in 2022, according to ILZSG, which was expecting a 1.3% rise as recently as April.

European supply has been hit by the year-long outage due to flooding of Germany’s Stolberg plant, the loss of Russian imports due to sanctions and, most recently, the shuttering of secondary capacity in Italy.

ILZSG also noted falling production in North America, Turkey, South Korea and Australia, where planned maintenance works at Nyrstar’s Port Pirie smelter will halt production for two months in the fourth quarter.

The Group is now forecasting a global supply deficit of 83,000 tonnes this year and another 42,000 tonnes in 2023 before smelters catch up with demand.

LME stocks are super low at 27,625 tonnes, equivalent to less than a day’s worth of global consumption. That’s feeding time-spread tension, the cash premium to three-month metal CMPB0-3 flexing out to $48.50 per tonne last month, the widest it’s been this year.

Physical premiums are at record highs, Fastmarkets assessing that for U.S. Midwest delivery at 22.5 cents per lb (US$496 per tonne) over the LME cash price.

Western shortfall is being met by Chinese exports. China was a consistent net importer over the 2017-2020 period but flipped to net exporter last year to the tune of 93,000 tonnes. Net exports in the first nine months of this year have already almost exceeded that figure at 92,000 tonnes.

The flow of Chinese metal is expected to continue until supply and demand rebalance in Western markets.

These are turbulent times for normally sleepy lead and set an interesting backdrop to the fund buying that will follow the January reweighting.

That buying will also coincide with the northern hemisphere winter, a peak demand season for lead as cold weather makes batteries more prone to failure.

It’s just another distinctive quirk of the metal that refuses to go away.

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.)

(Editing by Jane Merriman)