Basic Materials/Resources

LEVERKUSEN, Germany— Bill Anderson, the American picked to head Bayer AG BAYRY 1.31% , treads softly as he begins a monthslong transition into his role as chief executive officer of the German owner of Monsanto, saying he will take his time before trying to fix the company’s most pressing problems.Mr. Anderson, a sprite, athletic 56-year-old hailing from the Gulf coast of Texas, this week joined the management board of Bayer, the…

Canadian miner Teck Resources Ltd. TECK 14.37% said it had rejected an unsolicited takeover bid from Glencore GLNCY -1.92% PLC, an offer that marks the Swiss-based company’s return to the sort of ambitious acquisition activity that turned it into a commodities giant. The offer, one of the largest mining takeover attempts in several years, would value Teck at around 31 billion Canadian…

Struggling Indian infrastructure heavyweight Adani 512599 0.48% Group hasn’t tipped over any other large dominoes yet. But another sprawling Indian conglomerate—miner Vedanta Resources—is looking wobbly. Market skittishness in the wake of the turmoil at Adani Group, which came under attack from short seller Hindenburg Research in late January, means that other indebted Indian companies—which otherwise might have muddled their way…

Large U.S. steelmakers are ramping up production of a hard-to-make, paper-thin steel to capture a fast-growing market for a material critical to powering electric vehicles. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. CLF 1.64% and U.S. Steel Corp. X 2.16% are jockeying with a small group of foreign-based steelmakers that produce electrical steel, used to convert electricity into mechanical power for motors in products that include washing…

Soon after a company decides to cut its head count, the debate begins: Who should go?In the current economic environment, a final decision can take weeks, according to executives and corporate advisers. Workers remain in short supply, raising the stakes of determining who is expendable and who is worth keeping. With layoffs that target corporate staff, department heads often take the lead and human resources troubleshoots their lists, which can lead to intense debate and multiple rewrites.  “There is no good way to do…

Recent train derailments, including one in a small Ohio town, have prompted officials to examine what is causing the accidents and whether they are happening more frequently.  Derailments rank as the most common type of accident involving major freight railroads, federal data shows. Equipment failures are increasingly responsible for derailments, and problems with equipment and train tracks accounted for nearly 60% of derailments nationwide last year.  To…

TORONTO—Multinational companies are pumping billions of dollars into Canada’s electric-vehicle manufacturing sector, lured by government incentives, access to raw materials and cheap renewable energy.In the latest sign of interest in the country, German auto maker Volkswagen Group announced last week that it had chosen a site in the province of Ontario to build its first battery-cell plant outside Europe. A company spokesman declined to provide specifics about the investment, but Canada’s…

LONDON—U. K. billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has built one of the world’s most unconventional conglomerates, a sprawling collection of assets that includes a global chemicals business and baubles like a centuries-old London pub and a luxury British fashion brand.Now the 70-year-old tycoon, who was knighted in his home country but isn’t as well known outside of Europe, is making a deeper push into the U.S. market. Mr. Ratcliffe, majority owner of the privately held London-based chemicals giant…

INSHEIM, Germany—Near the Rhine river in this part of western Germany, little indicates that beneath the picturesque villages, vineyards and rolling hills there lies enough lithium to make millions of batteries for electric vehicles. Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd. , an Australian-German mining company, recently began extracting lithium from a mix of scalding water, minerals and metals almost 2 miles underground. The same hot brine has for years powered a geothermal electricity station, which…

The EPA is proposing maximum allowable levels for two compounds in a class of chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Known as forever chemicals because they take a long time to break down, they were used for decades in carpeting, clothing, food packaging, firefighting foam and other consumer and industrial products. Once prized as innovative substances that could resist stains, water, grease and heat, PFAS are increasingly viewed as a threat because they persist in the environment and…