Science & Environment
Chinese EV company Zeekr deliveries rise in October to a record high
ZEEKR EV cars are displayed at the 45th Bangkok International Motor Show in Bangkok, Thailand, March 25, 2024.
Chalinee Thirasupa | Reuters
Chinese electric carmaker Zeekr said Thursday its deliveries surged by 92% in October from a year ago, helping the company clock its best month at 25,049 vehicles.
That beat the prior record of 21,333 deliveries in September, bringing Zeekr’s total for the year to nearly 168,000.
The company has reportedly said that it hopes to deliver 230,000 cars in 2024. With only two months left in the calendar year, that means Zeekr needs to deliver more than 31,000 cars in November and December each.
The Geely-backed automaker began deliveries of its new five-seat SUV Zeekr Mix on Oct. 23
Xpeng also beat its personal best for a second straight month, delivering 23,917 vehicles in October.
Li Auto delivered 51,443 cars, slightly lower than its record month in September.
BYD, Aito, and Nio had not yet released their October deliveries as of Friday afternoon.
Earlier in the week, Chinese smartphone and home appliance company Xiaomi said it delivered more than 20,000 electric vehicles in October.
The company only launched its first car — the SU7 — in late March.
Xiaomi aims to deliver 100,000 electric cars by the end of November. The company has delivered more than 75,000 cars as of October.
An Exxon gas station is seen in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on Oct. 6, 2023.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Exxon Mobil beat third-quarter earnings expectations, as the oil major reached its highest production level in more than four decades.
Here is what Exxon reported for the third quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.92 adjusted, vs. $1.88 per share expected.
- Revenues: $90 billion, vs. $93.94 billion expected
The oil major booked net income of $8.61 billion in the quarter, or $1.92 per share, down about 5% compared to $9.1 billion, or $2.25 per share, in the year-ago period. Exxon’s profits have declined as refining margins and natural gas prices have pulled back from from historically high levels in 2023.
The company returned $9.8 billion to shareholders in the quarter and increased its fourth-quarter dividend to $0.99 per share.
Exxon said it has reached its high production level in more than 40 years at 3.2 million barrels per day.
The oil major’s stock rose about 1% in pre-market trading.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
A new material can bend light
University of Glasgow
Scientists have discovered a technique whereby light can be bent around corners, inspired by the way clouds scatter sunlight. This type of light-bending could lead to advances in medical imaging, electronics cooling and even nuclear reactor design.
Daniele Faccio at the University of Glasgow, UK, and his colleagues say they are shocked this type of light scattering wasn’t noticed before. It works on the same basis as clouds, snow and other white materials that absorb light: once photons hit the surface of such a material, they are scattered in all directions, barely penetrating at all and getting reflected out the way they came. For instance, when sunlight hits a tall cumulonimbus cloud, it bounces off the top, making this part of the cloud appear bright white. But so little light reaches the bottom of the cloud that this part appears grey – despite being made up of the same water droplets.
“The light bounces around and sort of tries to get in, and it’s bouncing off all the molecules and the defects,” says Faccio. “And eventually what happens is it just gets reflected back because it can’t get in. This is this scattering.”
To replicate this process, the team 3D printed objects from opaque white material while leaving thin tunnels of clear resin within. When light is shone at the material, it travels into these tunnels and is scattered – just as light is on snow or clouds. However, instead of scattering randomly in every direction until they are evenly dispersed, the photons are directed to return to the resin tunnel by the opaque material. The team put this to use, creating a range of objects that steer light in an organised way.
3D-printed white blocks with curved channels guide scattering light
University of Glasgow
These 3D-printed objects are functionally similar to fibre optic cables, which route light along their length, but they operate on fundamentally different principles. Fibre optic cables steer light by infinitely reflecting internally. When photons attempt to leave a cable’s inner core of plastic or glass, they hit another material with a lower refractive index and are reflected back inside. In this way, light can be carried for kilometres at a time, even around bends.
The researchers say their material boosts light transmission by more than two orders of magnitude compared with solid blocks without the same clear tunnels, and also allows it to be directed around curves. This is much less efficient than fibre optic, and will therefore struggle to achieve the great distances that it does, but it is also very simple and cheap.
This method of light-bending could make use of existing tunnels of translucent material, such as tendons and fluid in the spinal column, to provide new ways to carry out medical imaging. Faccio says the exact same principle also works to direct heat and neutrons, and could therefore also find use in a range of engineering applications such as cooling systems and nuclear reactors.
“It wasn’t obvious that this would work at all. We were shocked,” says Faccio, who believes the phenomenon could easily have been discovered decades or even centuries ago. “It’s not like we’ve created or found some really niche, weird equation with some weird properties.”
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Jaap Arriens | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Chevron beat third-quarter earnings and revenue expectations, returning a record amount of cash to shareholders.
Shares were up 2.6% in the premarket following the report’s release.
The oil major’s quarterly profit, however, declined substantially compared to the year-ago period due to lower margins on refined product sales, lower prices and the absence of favorable tax times.
Chevron is aiming to streamline its portfolio, with asset sales in Canada, Congo and Alaska expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024. The company is also target $2 billion to $3 billion in cost reductions from 2024 through the end of 2026.
Here is what Chevron reported for the third quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $2.51 adjusted, vs. $2.43 expected
- Revenue: $50.67 billion, vs. $48.99 billion expected
Chevron’s net income came in at $4.49 billion, or $2.48 per share, down 31% from $6.53 billion, or $3.48 per share, in the third quarter of 2023. When adjusted for foreign currency impacts, the company reported earnings of $2.51 per share, solidly topping Wall Street’s expectations for the quarter.
Chevron booked revenues of $50.67 billion, also beating Street expectations but declining 6% from the $54.1 billion reported in the third quarter last year.
The oil major returned a record $7.7 billion to shareholders in the quarter, including $4.7 billion in share buybacks and $2.9 billion in dividends.
Chevron produced 3.36 million oil-equivalent barrels per day in the quarter, a 7% increase over the third quarter of 2023, driven by record output in the Permian Basin.
Chevron’s stock is largely flat for the year, underperforming the S&P 500 energy sector which has gained more than 6%. Shares have struggled to gain ground as uncertainty looms over the company’s pending $53 billion acquisition of Hess.
The Federal Trade Commission has cleared the deal, though it prohibited John Hess from joining Chevron’s board.
Chevron remains locked in a dispute with Exxon Mobil, which is claiming a right of first refusal over Hess Corp.’s lucrative oil assets in Guyana. If an arbitration court rules in Exxon’s favor, Chevron’s acquisition of Hess would fail to close.
Simulations suggest that when a quantum battery shares a quantum state with the device it is powering, the device can gain more charge than was stored in the battery to begin with
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Getty ImagesEnvironmental groups have warned that work to boost biodiversity across the UK countryside will be put at risk by the government’s decision to freeze the level of payments to farms in England.
Farmers – already angry at changes to inheritance tax rules announced in the Budget – have been told payments from the public purse will be frozen next year.
The Wildlife Trusts say the decision leaves a “monumental gap” between current environmental land management scheme (Elms) funding and what is needed to help farmers protect and boost wildlife and its habitats, while still producing food.
The government said it would maintain the £2.4bn current level of farm payments in England for 2025/26, and that its commitment to farming was “steadfast”.
James GrindalOne farmer told the BBC he no longer believed the government understood the pressures of producing the nation’s food and protecting the countryside.
James Grindal, a mixed arable and livestock farmer in Leicestershire, said: “I wouldn’t think the government has any idea.
“I think they ought to come and see the reality – the coalface of putting food on people’s plates.”
In Wednesday’s Budget, the Chancellor announced that, while there would continue to be no inheritance tax due on combined business and agricultural assets worth less than £1m, above that there would be a 50% relief, at an effective rate of 20%, from April 2026.
While some maintain the new policy is designed in part to cover large-scale landowners who may have invested in farmland for the tax benefit, many in farming say the £1m limit will hit small family farms hardest.
Mr Grindal, who has two sons, aged 17 and 19, said he could be hit twice by the changes – on handing down the family farm, and if landowners sell off the land he rents.
CLA“I explained to my youngest son, who asked what the implications were, that if you take 20% off something every time someone dies, it’s not long before you get to nought,” he said.
“The Chancellor said she wants to protect small farms, but she is protecting the person who made a lot of money somewhere, bought a nice house with 20, 30, 50 acres to have a few horses on.”
Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Tim Farron said of the changes to agricultural property inheritance tax relief: “This is a family farm tax which risks ringing the death knell for local farmers and the small businesses who rely on them.”
Conservationists and environmental groups have spoken out on the government’s plans to maintain the farming payments budget at its current annual level of £2.4bn, the majority of which goes on environmental land management schemes.
The Wildlife Trusts said around £3.1bn was needed for environmental farming schemes in England, and that maintaining the budget at current levels was a real-terms cut.
‘Largest ever budget’
Elliot Chapman-Jones, the Trusts’ head of public affairs, said: “Ultimately, there is a monumental gap between current funding and what is needed to reverse wildlife declines, clean up rivers and significantly reduce the use of chemicals on farms.”
Tom Lancaster, land, food and farming analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank, said all the budget did was “maintain the status quo, just about keeping the show on the road for now”.
The Country Land and Business Association’s (CLA) president Victoria Vyvyan said the decision to freeze the budget at the same level would hit hard-pressed farmers.
She added: “It could hit sustainable food production and undermine improvements to wildlife habitats, flood management and access to nature.”
The government said the £2.4bn farming budget for England in 2025/26 would still be the “largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery”.
Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs Daniel Zeichner said: “Our commitment to farmers and the vital role they play to feed our nation remains steadfast.
“That is why this government will commit to the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history, enabling us to keep momentum on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector.”
The Shell logo is displayed outside a petrol station in Radstock in Somerset, England, on Feb. 17, 2024.
Matt Cardy | Getty Images News | Getty Images
British oil giant Shell on Thursday posted a small year-on-year drop to a stronger-than-expected third-quarter profit, partly owing to a sharp drop in crude prices and to lower refining margins.
The energy company reported adjusted earnings of $6 billion for the July-September period, beating analyst expectations of $5.3 billion, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.
Shell posted adjusted earnings of $6.3 billion in the second quarter and $6.2 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
Shell said it will buy back a further $3.5 billion of its shares over the next three months, while holding its dividend unchanged at 34 cents per share.
Net debt came in at $35.2 billion at the end of the third quarter, down from $40.5 billion when compared to the same period last year.
Shares of the London-listed firm have fallen around 3% year-to-date.
Ahead of the firm’s third-quarter earnings, Shell warned that refining profit margins had dropped by more than 28% on a quarterly basis, while trading results for its chemicals and oil products division were expected to be lower.
British rival BP on Tuesday posted its weakest quarterly earnings in nearly four years, weighed down by lower refining margins.
BP reported underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, of $2.3 billion for the third quarter. That beat analyst expectations — but reflected a steep drop when compared to the same period a year earlier.
Oil prices tumbled over 17% in the third quarter amid concerns over the outlook for global oil demand.
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