Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Tuesday state companies should pay at least 50 percent of their profits in dividends at a time when the government is not increasing taxes.

Speaking at an economic conference, Siluanov said his ministry would not increase the tax burden on businesses and households but would make up for a shortfall in budget revenues at the expense of state companies.

http://www.reuters.com/article/russia-budget-dividend-idUSS8N1HJ000

China's producer price inflation cooled for the first time in seven months in March as iron ore and coal prices tumbled, pressured by fears that Chinese steel production is outweighing demand and threatening a glut of the metal later this year.

A renaissance in China's steel industry has been a major driver of the world's second-largest economy in recent quarters, helping to generate the strongest profit growth in years and adding to a reflationary pulse being felt across the global manufacturing sector.

But after cranking out as much metal as possible in recent months, Chinese steel mills are now starting to cut prices, threatening to snuff out a bull market that had pushed prices of some steel construction products to their highest since 2014.

China's producer price index (PPI) rose 7.6 percent in March from a year earlier, still at an elevated pace but in line with analysts' expectations and easing from a gain of 7.8 percent in February, which was a 9-year high, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a softer reading as a torrid rally in China's commodity markets showed signs of correcting and on expectations that measures to cool the country's overheated housing market would eventually slow demand for steel and other building materials.

On a month-on-month basis, the PPI rose just 0.3 percent, the smallest increase since September 2016 and half the pace seen in February.

China's consumer price inflation edged up to 0.9 percent year-on-year, slightly softer than expected and compared with 0.8 percent in February.

Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted March consumer inflation would edge up to 1.0 percent, but remain well within the central bank's comfort zone.

Still-modest consumer inflation and moderating producer prices will give policymakers room to continue with a gradual pace of monetary policy tightening as they try to contain risks from years of debt-fueled stimulus without crimping economic growth.

Consumer inflation picked up in March as costs for health care services, housing, transportation and communication surged, suggesting stronger demand from an increasingly wealthy and rapidly aging population, and that stronger producer inflation in the past months may have started passing through to downstream consumers.

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Food prices, the biggest component of CPI, fell by 4.4 percent in March after a 4.3 percent drop in February.

China lowered gasoline and diesel retail prices late last month by most so far this year.

Similar to previous months, much of the year-on-year surge in producer inflation was largely driven by higher prices of raw materials for steelmaking products such as iron ore and coking coal.

Demand has been fueled by a housing boom and a government infrastructure spending spree, with Beijing's efforts to cut excess production in heavy industries giving an added boost to frenzied futures markets and imports of raw materials from big producers such as Australia's Rio Tinto  and BHP Billiton.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-inflation-idUSKBN17E05S

Under a cloudless blue sky at an outdoor waterfront rally of 30,000 people in Marseille on Sunday, Jean-Luc Melenchon showed why his rise in French polls is spooking markets.

Speaking without a teleprompter or notes and using his trademark mix of humor and anger, the Communist-backed far-left candidate of the France Unbowed party regaled the gathering with the evils of “extreme markets that are transforming suffering, misery and abandonment into gold and money.” He alluded to France as a country “with huge wealth that is badly distributed,” denounced the U.S. air strikes in Syria and called for France to leave NATO.

“A new enthusiasm is now stirring our fervor,” the firebrand orator, famed for his lyrical discourse, told the enthralled crowd. They cheered and egged him on, screaming “Resistance,” as he sprinkled his speech with references to ancient Greece, the Renaissance and revolution.

Speeches like those have catapulted the 65-year-old fan of former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro closer than he’s ever been to the French presidency. Polls show that Melenchon is among four candidates now within striking distance of the second round of the French election, with a chance to gain enough votes on April 23 to make the runoff. With his plan to spend his way out of France’s economic woes, he is roiling markets.

The premium that France pays over Germany to borrow for 10 years rose to 75 basis points on Tuesday from less than 60 points in late March. Melenchon’s surge in popularity “is bad news for French bonds,” Aline Schuiling and Kim Lui, analysts at ABN Amro, said in a note to clients.

A Kantar Sofres poll over the weekend had Melenchon in third place with 18 percent, a point ahead of one-time front-runner Francois Fillon. The poll showed nationalist Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron tied at 24 percent ahead of the first round of voting, with Macron easily winning the May 7 runoff. Other polls put Melenchon level or just behind Fillon, but even that’s a major rise in the past few weeks. The Ifop daily poll April 7 had Melenchon at 17 percent, up from 10.5 percent on March 17.

Rising Unpredictability

Melenchon’s steady rise has turned France’s already topsy-turvy election campaign into one of the most unpredictable contests in recent history. The far-left candidate has a loyal, passionate following not unlike that of the anti-immigration, anti-euro Le Pen. Although still remote, the possibility of a face-off between the two is no longer dismissed as impossible.

“The impressive breakthrough of Jean-Luc Melenchon has totally reshuffled the cards of this election,” said Gael Sliman, head of pollster Odoxa. “With two weeks to go, we have four candidates who can still win, which is unheard of.”

As he makes his second bid for the presidency, Melenchon’s followers are attracted by his uncompromising positions against globalism and Western militarism.

“He has the right ideas for the country,” said Tachefine Hocime, a 46-year-old maintenance worker and part-time musician, at a Melenchon rally in Le Havre on March 29.

Stimulus Plan

The candidate, who has been vocal against the European Union’s austerity push, says his platform calls for a 100 billion-euro stimulus program and the renegotiation of European treaties to give France more economic control -- with several conditions attached to staying in the euro.

He would make it harder for companies to fire, limit executive pay and pull out of free-trade deals. He wants to raise France’s minimum wage by 15 percent and lower the retirement age for some to 60 years with full pension.

“A Melenchon presidency would be unlikely to be followed by a parliamentary majority for the candidate, making it very difficult for the latter to implement his program,” said a note by Credit Suisse analysts to clients on Tuesday.

That has not halted the rise in his popularity, which took off after a March 20 debate between the top five candidates -- with Melenchon at the time firmly in fifth place. He far outshone Socialist Party nominee Benoit Hamon and post-debate polls credited him with the best performance after Macron. He was again voted the most convincing of all the 11 candidates present at the next debate April 4.

Debate Wins

Those performances -- where Melenchon mixed quips with angry denunciations of France’s economic situation -- came on top of the successful use of social media. Not unlike Senator Bernie Sanders during the U.S. campaign, Melenchon, the oldest of the main candidates, has the biggest presence on the Internet and is popular with young voters.

He has the most consulted French campaign site, and the most subscribers, commentators and viewers on YouTube, according to Dentsu Consulting. His campaign has included touches such as using holograms to be able to address rallies simultaneously, and he once showed up at a McDonald’s restaurant to join blockading workers seeking pay rises.

“He’s been the absolute star on social media,” said Odoxa’s Slimane.

According to Ifop, 71 percent of the French rate Melenchon’s campaign as “good” or “very good,” ahead of Macron at 61 percent. Among voters under 35, Ifop says 23 percent plan to vote for Melenchon, behind the 27 percent who say they’ll opt for 39-year-old Macron, but ahead of all the other candidates.

Political Journey

“He has exciting rallies, he gives excellent interviews, he offers a real hard opposition,” said Edouard Lecerf, head of political studies at pollsters Kantar TNS.

It has been a long, hard journey to this point for the son of a post office worker and a teacher, both descendants of Spaniards and Italians who emigrated to French Algeria at the turn of the century. Melenchon was born in Tangier, now Morocco, when it was an international zone.

He moved to France at the age of 11, studied philosophy, did various jobs including as a journalist and proofreader and got involved in Trotskyist politics. He joined the Socialist Party in 1976 at the age of 25, and has been elected to various regional, national and European legislative positions.

He was deputy head of the Essonne region, south of Paris, from 1998 to 2004, and a junior minister in the Ministry of Education from 2000 to 2002. He broke with the Socialist party in 2008, saying it was becoming too business-friendly, and founded the Party of the Left.

A sign of Melenchon’s success is that candidates who once ignored him have taken to attacking him. While Melenchon was speaking in Marseille, Fillon said at a rally in Paris that his spending policies would turn France into Greece.

‘Potemkin Captain’

“Melenchon dreams of being the captain of the Potemkin, but he’ll end up selling the scraps of the Titanic,” Fillon said, referring to the Tsarist warship taken over by a communist-led mutiny. Monday, Macron said he didn’t share Melenchon’s vision of peace if it’s the “peace of Vladimir Putin.”

The gains made by Melenchon, who won about 11 percent in the first round in the 2012 elections, have come almost entirely at the expense of Hamon. That, pollsters say, could limit any further rise. In Ifop’s latest poll, Hamon was at 9.5 percent, down from about 13.5 percent before the first debate. The Socialist candidate has been hurt by the unpopularity of President Francois Hollande.

“Melenchon has progressively grated away at Hamon, but there might not be that much more to grate away,” said Jerome Fourquet, director of opinion studies at Ifop. The combined polling scores of the two haven’t varied much over the past two months.

Jerome Jaffre, a researcher at Sciences Po’s Cevipof institute, said Melenchon will be held back if voters pay attention to his platform, rather than gravitate toward him because of his personality and Hamon’s poor campaign.

“He has to find 100 billion euros for his investments, he wants to raise taxes, he calls into question all European treaties, which in effect is calling Europe into question,” Jaffre said. “That’s not what most French want.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-12/melenchon-crashes-front-runners-party-as-french-vote-risks-rise

Boeing Co hired Norsk Titanium AS to print the first structural titanium parts for its 787 Dreamliner, a shift that the Norwegian 3-D printing company said would eventually shave $2 million to $3 million off the cost of each plane.

The contract announced on Monday is a major step in Boeing's effort to boost the profitability of the 787 and a sign of growing industrial acceptance of the durability of 3-D printed metal parts, allowing them to replace pieces made with more expensive traditional manufacturing in demanding aerospace applications.

Strong, lightweight titanium alloy is seven times more costly than aluminum, and accounts for about $17 million of the cost of a $265 million Dreamliner, industry sources say.

Boeing has been trying to reduce titanium costs on the 787, which requires more of the metal than other models because of its carbon-fiber fuselage and wings. Titanium also is used extensively on Airbus Group SE's rival A350 jet.

"This means $2 million to $3 million in savings for each Dreamliner, at least," starting in 2018 when many more parts are being printed, Chip Yates, Norsk Titanium's vice president of marketing, said in a telephone interview.

Boeing builds 144 Dreamliners in a typical year. The company declined to comment on the estimate but said Norsk's technology would help reduce costs.

The Dreamliner turned profitable last year after racking up nearly $29 billion in production-related losses.

Norsk worked with Boeing for more than a year to design four 787 parts and obtain Federal Aviation Administration certification for them, Yates said.

Norsk expects the U.S. regulatory agency will approve the material properties and production process for printed parts later this year. That will "open up the floodgates," Yates said, by allowing Norsk to print thousands of other parts for each Dreamliner, without each part requiring separate FAA approval, resulting in the millions in expecting savings per plane.

"You're talking about tons, literally," on the 787 that would be printed instead of made with traditional, expensive forging and machining, he said.

General Electric Co is already printing metal fuel nozzles for aircraft engines. But Norsk and Boeing said the titanium parts are the first printed structural components designed to bear the stress of an airframe in flight.

Norsk said it will print initially in Norway, but aims to have nine printers running by year-end at a 67,000-square-foot (6,220-square-meter) facility in Plattsburgh, New York.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-norsk-boeing-idUSKBN17C264

Indian metals and mining group Vedanta Limited said on Tuesday it had completed its buyout of oil and gas explorer Cairn India Ltd, consummating a deal that was delayed for months by investor opposition.

Cairn India said in a separate statement its board had made the merger effective as of Tuesday.

The deal gives Vedanta Limited, the Indian unit of diversified energy group Vedanta Resources PLC, access to Cairn's $3.5 billion cash pile, boosting its finances.

It was delayed due to opposition from some big minority shareholders, leading Vedanta to sweeten the offer last August.

"This merger will increase the appeal of Vedanta Ltd to global investors as it simplifies the structure and increases the size and free float of the company," Vedanta Limited's Chief Executive Tom Albanese said in a statement.

http://www.reuters.com/article/cairn-india-ma-vedanta-idUSL3N1HJ4H7

Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton on Wednesday dismissed a wide-ranging proposal by shareholder Elliott Advisors to overhaul its corporate strategy and sell off oil interests, saying the costs would far outweigh the benefits.

"The elements of the Elliott proposal as described to the board would not be in the long-term interest of shareholders," BHP Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie said on an analyst call. "I cannot overstate my strong belief that BHP Billiton is on the right track."

The comments came as BHP released a detailed response two days after U.S.-based Elliott made public a letter to its directors urging them to consider spinning off the U.S. oil arm, while returning more cash to investors.

The response offered no counterproposal and instead defended the miner's longstanding strategy.

"We have been in engagement with Elliott for eight months," Mackenzie said. "From our earliest engagements it was clear there were major flaws in Elliott's proposals."

Elliott, which said it holds a "long economic interest" of about 4.1 percent of London-listed BHP Billiton PLC, wants the miner to ditch its dual corporate structure and replace it with a single company domiciled in Britain.

"The (dual-listed structure) is not a restraint to our business," BHP Chief Financial Officer Peter Beaven told analysts. "It provides two important acquisition currencies in addition to cash."

Under the Elliott plan, BHP would have a primary share-market listing in London and a secondary listing in Sydney.

The Australian government on Tuesday said any significant changes to BHP's corporate structure would need to be consistent with a "national interest" test under the law.

Over the last decade, BHP has examined the prospect of changing its corporate structure and spinning off its oil business but has ultimately rejected the ideas.

"A standard petroleum business would lose access to BHP Billiton's balance sheet," Mackenzie said on Wednesday. "Were we to adopt this proposal our global partners would have to work with a Balkanised, broken up BHP Billiton."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-bhp-billiton-shareholders-idUSKBN17E0C0

India's top court ruled on Tuesday that Adani Power Ltd cannot charge its customers more to cover a surge in the cost of imported coal, overturning a decision by a power regulator in December.

The ruling sent Adani Power's shares down as much as 20 percent on Tuesday, its biggest intra-day loss since it went public in 2009.

The court did, however, allow the utility to claim relief for the higher costs, which resulted from a shortage in domestic supplies at state-run Coal India Ltd.

Both Adani Power and competitor Tata Power - which was also party to the ruling although it was not mentioned directly in it - struck long-term deals in the middle of the last decade with distribution companies to supply power from plants they each operate in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat.

The companies also struck deals with domestic and foreign miners in the latter part of the last decade to fuel their plants in Gujarat, which each have over 4,000 megawatt (MW) of capacity.

LENGTHY LEGAL BATTLE

In 2010, Indonesia adopted new benchmark coal prices leading to an increase in the price of coal imported from the country.

Adani and Tata appealed for relief, arguing that they had to be compensated for an unforeseen change in economic conditions which made the terms of the deal with distribution companies unviable.

Following a legal battle that stretched over half a decade, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) ruled in December last year that the companies could charge their customers more to compensate for higher costs.

The case, which was argued by former Indian minister and lawyer Kapil Sibal and renowned anti-corruption lawyer Prashant Bhushan among others, was then escalated to the country's top court by the state distribution companies.

The top court ruled in favour of the distribution companies, saying the agreements did not state that "coal is to be procured only from Indonesia at a particular price".

"The price payable for the supply of coal is entirely for the person who sets up the power plant to bear," the top court's judges said in Tuesday's ruling.

CERC will now look at the matter afresh and determine what relief should be granted to the companies to make up for the shortage in domestic coal supplies.

Companies will now be more cautious when entering into long-term power purchase agreements, a Mumbai-based analyst told Reuters.

Adani Power's shares recovered some losses on the day to close about 16 percent lower at 37.20 rupees. Shares in Tata Power closed down 1.8 percent at 85.45 rupees.

http://www.reuters.com/article/tata-power-adani-power-court-idUSL3N1HJ317