Supply chain technology company CargoSmart and Hong Kong’s blockchain-based trade finance platform eTradeConnect have completed a proof-of-concept trial which combined their services

Spanish bank Santander has acquired a 50.1% stake in UK-based fintech company Ebury, a provider of trade finance solutions to SMEs

Australian miner MC Mining is set to sign a ZAR245 million loan with South Africa’s Industrial Development Corp for the first phase of its Makhado hard coking coal project located in Limpopo, South Africa

Export credit agency Japan Bank for International Cooperation has signed a loan of up to ¥2.5 billion for Toho Zinc, to support it as an investor in the Abra lead mine project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia

The Mexican subsidiary of renewables producer Alten has approached IDB Invest to help finance the design, construction, commissioning, operation and maintenance of the 250MW Puebla solar PV project

Foxx Haztec is understood to be in the market to raise financing for Brazil’s first waste-to-energy power plant, URE Barueri, located in the metropolitan region of São Paulo

The French Development Agency has invited bids from consultancy firms for several advisory contracts for two 40MW solar PV power plants in Mozambique

Russian solar developer Hevel has signed a memorandum of cooperation with Eurasian Development Bank to finance a portfolio of solar parks in Hungary

French development agency Agence Française de Développement will provide a loan to fully fund the EPC contract for Vietnamese state utility EVN’s 49MW Se San 4 solar power plant

The UK’s export credit agency UK Export Finance has appointed Carl Williamson as its new head of trade finance

Oil major Total has signed a deal to sell to another oil major Shell its operated, majority interest in an offshore Brunei block for $300 million

Indonesia’s Pertamina and Russia’s Rosneft have signed the basic engineering design and front-end engineering design contracts with Tecnicas Reunidas for the Tuban oil refinery and petrochemicals complex in Tuban in East Java, Indonesia

Petronas and Saudi Aramco are close to signing the last $2 billion tranche of the $10 billion financing package for the Refinery and Petrochemicals Integrated Development project, which will be within the wider Pengerang Integrated Complex in Malaysia

IEnova, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, has decided to delay its final investment decision on the expansion of the Energía Costa Azul (ECA) LNG project in Mexico until early 2020

Russian aluminium producer Rusal has closed on a new five-year $1.085 billion pre-export finance facility that has pricing determined by sustainability KPIs

Petrobras has started the non-binding phase for the sale of three additional refinery assets

Ahead of the World Trade Symposium, 6-7 November, in New York, Dr. Rebecca Harding CEO Coriolis Technologies and World Trade Board member, looks at why the importance of common standards in trade can’t be understated.

The African Export-Import Bank has said it is to delay it planned initial public offering due to “unfavourable market conditions”

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed with the Roads Authority of Malawi (RA) a €120 million ($133 million) loan for the €191 million rehabilitation of the 347km M1 road in the Southern African state