this is business live from bbc news with ben thompson and sally bundock. a test of their metal — tata steel and thyssenkrupp combine to create the second largest steel—maker in europe. live from london, that's our top story on wednesday, 20th september. the steel industry has been reeling from a drop in global prices. i asked the man in charge of thyssenkrup‘s finances about their plan to shed 4,000 jobs across europe. also in the programme, is it time to wind down? america's central bank could announce a reversal of the most ambitious stimulus program in history. traders across the globe are

treading water. we'll talk you through the movers and the shakers. and just how do you find your next customers in the digitaljungle? we'll be getting the inside track on the world of digital advertising later in the programme. we'll look at reports amazon is about to launch smart glasses using it's alexa ai. let us know what you think about this. are smart glasses a wearable device too far? just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. tata steel and thyssenkrupp have agreed to merge operations. it is a move that would create the second biggest steel—maker in europe. the two companies have been in negotiations since last year when

tata halted the sale of its uk business. talks had stalled over tata's huge pension liabilities. so what do we expect? the news business will employ a8,000 people and the combined group, it will operate across 31 different countries gci’oss will operate across 31 different countries across europe. just before we came on air i spoke to thyssenkrupp‘s chief financial 0fficer guido kerkhoff and asked him why they were doing this deal? the european steel industry has quite a number of challenges. the pricing situation overall, it's the wea ker pricing situation overall, it's the weaker demand and the over capacity. with thisjoint weaker demand and the over capacity. with this joint venture with tata and thyssenkrupp steel, we want to create here, we will create a very clear number two in this sector and we will be leader in innovation and technology in our steel sector and

with that, we think we are much stronger overall to cover all the challenges and cope with them going forward. this would put you at number two globally as a steel—maker. talk to me about the challenges that are coming up next. well, the challenges are definitely over capacity and we are definitely over capacity and we are creating the number two in europe. we will be above 20 million tonnes which is on a world scale not much, but for europe a clear number two. and we have seen that in flat steel in europe there is over capacities that don't go away from the market and that was, i think, one of the key reasons the number one of the key reasons the number one company achieved another company. it is much easier to address the issues of the over capacity if we take a look at other markets where this happened like in the us, like injapan, we have seen a positive movement and more technology and innovation coming out

of the companies that stay there and evenin of the companies that stay there and even in china, we see where the biggest over capacity worldwide is in the steel market. they are consolidating their assets to create bigger groups to react and address theissues bigger groups to react and address the issues of the over capacities there. that was the chief financial officer of thyssenkrupp. joining us now is our wales business correspondent brian meechan. brian, i don't know if you could hear that interview with the chief financial officer of thyssenkrupp. tell us what you have been hearing. port talbot is down the road and it isa port talbot is down the road and it is a big story for the workers there? that's right. there is about 3500 people work at the port talbot site. it is difficult to wander around the area and not bump into someone around the area and not bump into someone who is connected to port talbot either as a worker, a former

worker or who has a family member there. it is is a huge part of the community and offering very well paid jobs in that community. we hear from unions there is a cautious welcome to this. it delivers certainly in the short—term, some sort of stability to a site that has had a great deal of instability over the last 18 months or so. but there isa the last 18 months or so. but there is a concern about longer term about what this means. there is more steel being produced in the world than is needed and ultimately, there is a fear that perhaps the longer term commitment of thyssenkrupp tata will not be to port talbot. it was interesting when i spoke to the chief financial officer, talking about that over capacity in the industry. the fact that a lot of steel making coming from china, more cheaply that it can be made in europe or indeed anywhere else. that commitment to port talbot is so important, but you have to question this deal, what a year in the making, whether the market has changed now and actually the fundamentals that it was based on

are now entirely different? that's right. we have seen huge fluctuations in the market for steel over the last two years, we have seen prices drop. we have seen them rise again to some ex—at any time, we have to look at the value of the pound, the fact that the drop in the value of the pound has made it much easier and much cheaper for value of the pound has made it much easier and much cheaperfor port talbot to sell abroad if the value of the pound rises again, that com pletely of the pound rises again, that completely changes the market potentially. so there is a lot of fluctuation, a lot of potential difficulties still to come. brian, thank you very much indeed. that's oui’ thank you very much indeed. that's our correspondent based in cardiff. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. google has defended the efforts of technology companies to combat the spread of extremist content on the internet. a senior google executive has told the bbc that twitter alone had removed a million accounts and that companies including facebook and youtube were working hard to improve their policies and enforcement. several tech firms are due to discuss the problem with the leaders of britain, france and italy at the un general assembly later. ryanair is offering its pilots

bonuses of up to $14,000 if they forego some of their annual leave. the irish carrier is trying to avoid even more flight cancellations after it announced that thousands of flights were being cancelled because it had "messed up" pilot holiday rotas. japan has reported its strongest export growth in four years — higher than analysts had predicted. it's the ninth consecutive month that exports have risen. tim mcdonald is in our asia business hub. the news about japan has the news aboutjapan has been the news about japan has been very good? this is uncharacteristically good? this is uncharacteristically good news for japan good? this is uncharacteristically good news forjapan and the government and the central bank have been pouring money into the economy

for years, been pouring money into the economy for yea rs, really been pouring money into the economy for years, really with mixed results trying to jump start growth there. japan's exports increased at the fastest rate in four years. so maybe things are looking up. the 18.1% annual increase in exports was driven by cars and electronics with many experts expecting a robust global economy continue driving demand forjapanese goods. exports are important to the japanese economy and the stock market tends to fluctuate. the news has been good. the nikkei reached a high yesterday. we shouldn't get too carried away, japan's economic growth was revised down to 2.5% and that's an unusually good quarter for japan. things have been generally slower than that. little change across asia in stocks after again, tim mentioning there, it hit a two year high, certainly on the nikkei yesterday. nintendo shares are up. that's hopes

of strong sales for the new switch games console that are boosting shares in nintendo. president trump spoke at the un yesterday. this is what europe is doing right now. there has been a lot of anticipation about the federal reserve rate meeting. particularly since the fed now and we will discuss this in a moment looks likely to reduce its $4.5 trillion balance sheet. looks certain that will start to happen, but rates not expected to move any time soon or certainly for the next couple of months given that inflation still remains on the weak side. and also too the fed weighing up side. and also too the fed weighing up the cost, or the economic cost of hurricanes harvey and mayor. the pound, we should say, as well, managing to hold on to most of the

gains in the last few days in the wa ke gains in the last few days in the wake of the surprise bank of england u—turn last week on prospect for a rate rise in the uk. so the pound managing to shrug off any concerns about the government unrest too at the top of theresa may's government, all related to brexit of course. more on all that in a moment. let's head to the us. michelle has the details about what is happening on wall street. ahead of the conclusion of the federal reserve's two day policy meeting, the dow jones federal reserve's two day policy meeting, the dowjones average hit a high for the 41st time. will that momentum continue this wednesday? well, investors will be listening closely to the words of fed chair janet yelland who holds a press conference at the end of that meeting. although the dow continues to perform well, some market commentators have noted that the gains have been small suggesting that perhaps there is a lack of conviction. turning to the economic front, well, the us and national association of realitiors is

expected to report that existing home sales increased 0.3% in august. joining us is david buik from panmure. so let's talk fed. i'm assuming it is very much in the fore front of your thinking? the market closed down. it closed down for trump and theresa may and the general election and for the meeting today and tomorrow. as ben said, i think it would be a major surprise ifjanet yelland the chairman of the federal reserve was to say of this $4.5 trillion facility. we are £475 billion. so, it's tiny by comparison. what we want to know is to what degree they're going to taper it each month? is it going to be $200 million? that's key. i think she is a very, very conservative

chairman by nature and doesn't make decisions quickly which irritates donald trump, sorry. just to say her deputy chair, stanley fisher, he's going in the middle of next month. yes. that will be interesting because this is kind of like the last meeting with him, isn't it? because this is kind of like the last meeting with him, isn't mm is. we don't know whether her tenure is. we don't know whether her tenure is up because i think she frustrates donald trump because she is so incredibly conservative. we're going into the unknown with taking quantitative easing down, exactly what damage there is. the key thing sally is not so much unemployment coming down from a nine year high down to 4.1% last month, its wage inflation. 0rdinary inflation in the united states is 1.9% and i think she is comfortable with the fact that because it's 2.95%, wableg inflation is against ordinary inflation is against ordinary inflation that there is a bit of room to say, "not only do i think there is going to be a tapering off of quantitative easing, but i suspect one more hike of a 0.25% in interest rates between now and the

end of the year. the december hike. lots of money is being placed on that. will we be calling janet yelland the grinch with a december hike? david is coming back. we have got smart glasses to discuss. ai gadgets, the one i have got unplugged in the drawer. won't be able to talk to the smart glasses, but hey! still to come: mobile marketing! we'll hear from the founder of a company looking to capitalise on your smartphone habits. you're with business live from bbc news. kingfisher, which owns diy chains b&q and screwfix, says profits fall

this year as it continues its five year recovery plan. sales were up but overall profits were down amid what the companies calling "disruption". andrew walker is in our business newsroom. andrew, loads of different bits of information about kingfisher. it has got its foot within many realms within the diy world? ten different countries and 12 different stores. it is in the process of a five year transformation. despite this, this extensive coverage it has across a number of different european nations, it does not have the kind of integrated buying and it systems, back office staff, which it feels would enable it to first of all offer a more unified and better off to its customers, but also to generate more profits for its shareholders and there has been some

disruption associated with the transformation that the company is trying to go through under its chief executive. in particular, it seems to have affected sales in france which did decline significantly and the company remains quite cautious cautious in its assessment of the outlook for france and the uk. depending on how you look at things in the uk, but overall, uk and ireland sales were a touch down, but there was more of a disruption in there was more of a disruption in the french operation. in the uk one outlet screw fix had good growth. the fortunes of places like b&q are linked to the housing market. yes, and i guess the thought that what's happening to the housing market being linked to the wider

economy and the fact that so far this year the uk economy has grown significantly more slowly that is one of reasons why the company is expressing this cautious view about the outlook for the uk. in the france it is more about business transformation. thank you very much and ben there speaking from experience in the midst of a diy transformation of his home! you're watching business live. our top story — tata steel and germany's thyssenkrupp have agreed to merge their european operations. the two companies have been in negotiations since last year when tata halted the sale of its uk business. the move will create the second biggest steelmaker in europe and is expected to lead to 4,000 job cuts. the world of marketing has moved on—

in the past, your best options included tv advertising or clever product placement in the shops. but the way we shop and entertain ourselves has changed — and increasingly we do both through mobile devices — it's known as m—commerce. in the uk alone, so called "mcommerce" — that's the stuff we buy using our mobiles — rose from £20 billion in 2015 to £25 billion in 2016. that's about $34 billion. that accounts for nearly 8% of all retail spending. but it's a share that's growing. and with more and more data that shapes our spending habits coming from our smartphones, businesses are trying to use that to target their marketing. 0ne company that helps them is braze. one of it's co—founders bill magnuson has been telling our business editor simonjack how his company began. 0ur

our company story starts with a chance encounter. a former colleague of minejohn chance encounter. a former colleague of mine john hyman, chance encounter. a former colleague of minejohn hyman, he and i were in a programming competition in new york. we had won and we were heading pack to present our winning project and john was on the phone with his wife and there was someone on the street corner waiting to cross the street corner waiting to cross the street and i started talking to him, because i had no one to talk to and that person introduced me to our other co—founder who was living in houston. it was 2011 and mobile was new and we saw the potential and when we were put together we clicked and we decided to quit ourjobs,

move to new york and started everything up about a month later. at its heart, what does your business do? it creates a relationship between the customer and the business? we're a life cycle engagement platform. what does that mean? that over the course of a customer's interactions with a brand, they have a lot of different touch points and opportunities for the brand to listen and help understand more about that user and the context in which they interact with them. you land in a new city and you have been using it is in london and you can be told about it as soon as you london and you can be told about it as soon as you land so you know what is available and that delivers value to you, because you can get to where you're going more conveniently and efficiently and delivers value to the brand, because they can capture you as a customer. the world of marketing has changed. is that the

challenge? when we look at the challenge? when we look at the challenge for a brand of delivering on the expectation that a customer has for a mo bile device, it is challenging. part of that is the breadth and diversity of mobile audiences. when we look at smart phones, it is the most successful device of all time. and when you consider the challenge that that creates for companies that are delivering products on mobile platforms, you have usually a small team, managing customer relationships they have do with a high expectations from the customer and there is a lot of diversity among the expectations. we think that the only way to solve that is with sophisticated technology. you started as app boy, your now name is

braze, what is the story there. app boy we felt was trapped in time. as we look into the future and at new technology platforms and places that people are interacting, we wanted to be focussed on our goal. that is to bring people together and not be focussed on any technology. bring people together and not be focussed on any technologym bring people together and not be focussed on any technology. it was just too app specific? yes. entrepreneurs say they want to change the world and make it a better place and don't care about the money. sometimes i don't believe them. what is the truth? i thinklj think the goals go hand in hand and ina think the goals go hand in hand and in a technology field, it is a challenge and you can change the world and in a lot of cases that collects a lot of financial return

and people are motivated by that. but i think that for me the exciting bit is seeing technology changing the world. that is the boss of braze. co--founder can't say boss. let's reduce david buick to look at the stories. the financial times getting an insight into what amazon is planning next. it seems to be smart glasses. what the chief executive of amazon has achieved blows your brains out. this if it not the no! blows your brains out. this if it not the no 1 company in the world it is near. and now a new innovation. it will create some cocked eyebrows... it will create some cocked

eyebrows. . . that it will create some cocked eyebrows... that is one of putting it. this is the first. google had a p0p it. this is the first. google had a pop at this a few years ago and technology hadn't developed. pop at this a few years ago and technology hadn't developedm didn't take off. and you looked like an idiot with the glasses, but these look like regular glasses.|j an idiot with the glasses, but these look like regular glasses. i was horrified when you told me how fertile alexa is and what it can do and not do. in term of your life. that is the device in your office or home, and you can tell her what to orderfor you from amazon home, and you can tell her what to order for you from amazon and that is the point of alexa. it will team up is the point of alexa. it will team up with the glasses. and to explain we have established you're not a fan. no, my ai device and there are many out there is unplugged and in a

drawer, because it was too dangerous. it was answering my kids homework questions, ordering pizzas when i didn't want them and it was a disaster. are you fan? the problem with somebody like me, this is a technology way over my head. when i'm sitting in my bath chair dribbling from the corner of my mouth in a few years, great. but now i'm not ready. i think the world's ready for it. any innovation, development of technology is a must andl development of technology is a must and i think they will lap it up. this is what you are our viewers say, this is what you are our viewers pj this is what you are our viewers say, pj not impressed with everything amazon tries to do. troy didn't that trend die without with the google glasses. without voice recognition anyone can control alexa. who knows what you would 0rder alexa. who knows what you would order in

alexa. who knows what you would 0rder ina alexa. who knows what you would order in a crowd. and this story the wall street journal looks at order in a crowd. and this story the wall streetjournal looks at north sea oil and perhaps it might be more exciting and we have written it off in terms of the uk's access. if you go back 30 years, the north sea was responsible for as much oil as saudi arabia. then we saw the banking recession in 2009 and the oil price go through the floor and we saw many people out in places like aberdeen losing theirjobs. now, it is back in vogue. last week there was, or the week before last there was a huge deal of 3.8 billion of one company being acquired and there was the business of the norwegian wealth fund, a trillion dollars. we have got to say goodbye. we are out of time. hello, you may have noticed it is

not quite as cold first thing this morning compared to recent days. that is because we have low pressure and a warm front moving in. behind ita and a warm front moving in. behind it a cold front. within the two fronts this milder air coming up from the south. so things not feeling too bad as we go into this afternoon. for england and wales with some sunny spells that will continue into the afternoon. it will feel pleasant, but further north and waste the rain continuing —— west the rain continuing to move in. the far north—west staying drier. temperatures still about 15 or 16 degrees celsius. that rain affecting south—west of scotland and through much of northern ireland and the isle of man and by this stage in the afternoon, some of the rain pushing into west wales and towards cornwall. the breeze picking up here as well. but elsewhere, dry with

some bright weather and temperatures up some bright weather and temperatures up to 18 celsius. through this evening, that rain continues to move east ward, heavier rain comes back into western areas for the early hours. because of the milder air, it won't be as cold as recent nights. temperatures around 11 to 14 degrees. during thursday, we have got this weather front that is a waving front, a few kinks in it and those kinks produce more intense rain. south—west england, wales, scotla nd rain. south—west england, wales, scotland and north—west england will see some heavy rain during thursday morning. that will move east ward. but for the far east of england, it will remain mostly dry with sunshine. still warm here, temperatures 19 to 20 celsius. further north—west feeling fresher. i want to give you an update on

hurricane maria. it has passed the south of the us virgin isles. it is continuing to move north and west and will make land fall in puerto rico this morning. when gusts in excess of 160mph and on top of that of course there will be a flooding rain, risk of mud and landslides. that is it for me. hello. it's wednesday, it's 9am. i'm matthew price. welcome to the programme. there is one story developing. more than 200 people have died including over 20 children at one school after a devastating earthquake hits central mexico. the quake toppled buildings in the capital, mexico city trapping many under the rubble. witnesses have

been describing the moment that it struck. translation: we left and when we left the building started collapsing. i mean 30 seconds after we left, the building came down. hundreds of volunteers have joined emergency services in the search for survivors. we're going to have the latest for you throughout the programme. hurricane