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Thal Limited has unveiled plans to establish a state-of-the-art grain storage and milling facility in Muzaffargarh, Punjab.

The announcement was made following a Board of Directors meeting held on September 11, 2025.

The company will incorporate a wholly owned subsidiary under the Companies Act 2017 to spearhead this initiative. The facility will focus on the storage of major grains such as wheat and corn, while also integrating advanced milling solutions to enhance grain processing and quality, stated a notification to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

Thal Limited has committed an investment of up to $16 million (or its equivalent in Pakistani Rupees) for the project, which will be executed in phases. The project is expected to be completed within 20 months, marking a significant step toward bolstering Pakistan’s food security.

“This initiative reflects our commitment to addressing the critical need for high-quality grain storage and processing infrastructure in Pakistan,” stated the notification. “We believe this project will contribute to improving food security and adding value to the agricultural sector.”

Despite a recent wave of project delays and cancellations, low-emissions hydrogen production is still set to see robust growth to 2030 as the nascent sector continues to develop – though at a slower pace than the burst of announcements earlier this decade had previously signalled – according to the latest IEA analysis.

The 2025 edition of the IEA’s annual Global Hydrogen Review, published today, tracks developments across the hydrogen sector worldwide, with particular attention to the fast-moving developments in the emerging technologies around low-emissions hydrogen.

Worldwide hydrogen demand increased to almost 100 million tonnes in 2024, up 2% from 2023 and in line with overall energy demand growth, according to the report. The vast majority of this was met by hydrogen produced from fossil fuels without measures in place to capture associated emissions. Sectors that have traditionally used hydrogen, such as oil refining and industry, remained the biggest consumers. 

Globally, it remains much cheaper to produce hydrogen from fossil fuels. The gap has widened lately due to recent declines in natural gas prices and an increase in the price of electrolysers due to inflation and slower-than-expected deployment of the technology. However, the report sees the cost gap narrowing by 2030 due to declining technology costs – and, in some regions, strong renewables growth and the enactment of new regulations.

Low-emissions hydrogen uptake is not yet meeting expectations set by industry and governments in recent years. Growth is being restrained by high costs, demand and regulatory uncertainty, and slow infrastructure development. Production projects have been particularly exposed to these headwinds. New analysis of announced projects finds that low-emissions hydrogen production by 2030 now has the potential to reach up to 37 million tonnes per year. That is down from a potential 49 million tonnes per year, based on announced projects a year earlier.

Not all projects that are announced end up coming to fruition; as a result, actual capacity is likely to be much lower. Even so, low-emissions hydrogen production is expected to see a sizable expansion by the end of the decade compared with where it stands today, according to the new report. Projects that are operational, under construction or have reached a final investment decision by 2030 are set to increase more than fivefold from 2024 levels to more than 4 million tonnes per year. An additional 6 million tonnes per year also has strong potential to become operational by 2030 if effective policies to ensure demand are implemented.

“Investor interest in hydrogen jumped at the start of this decade thanks to its potential to help countries deliver on their energy goals,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. “The latest data indicates that the growth of new hydrogen technologies is under pressure due to economic headwinds and policy uncertainty, but we still see strong signs that their development is moving ahead globally. To help growth continue, policy makers should maintain support schemes, use the tools they have to foster demand, and expedite the development of necessary infrastructure.”

According to the report, China is the driving force today in the deployment of electrolysers to produce low-emissions hydrogen. The country accounts for 65% of global electrolyser capacity that has been installed or reached a final investment decision, and it is home to nearly 60% of the world’s electrolyser manufacturing capacity. Elsewhere, manufacturers have come under financial pressure due to rising costs and slower-than-expected uptake. Chinese manufacturers could also face challenges in the future, though, since existing manufacturing capacity of more than 20 gigawatts per year is significantly above current demand levels.

The report also includes an analysis of the cost of installing Chinese electrolysers outside China. It finds that the cost is not significantly lower than installing those made by other producers when all factors, including transport costs and tariffs, are considered.

Additionally, the report examines in detail what would be required for the shipping sector to adopt hydrogen-based fuels more widely. It finds that greater efforts would be needed to deploy compatible technologies and ensure ports are sufficiently equipped. In many cases, though, existing bunkering infrastructure used to fuel ships is proximate to low-emissions hydrogen production, revealing early opportunities. Nearly 80 ports have well-developed expertise in managing chemical products, indicating a strong readiness to also handle hydrogen-based fuels.

This year’s Global Hydrogen Review includes a special focus on Southeast Asia, which is emerging as a significant and growing hydrogen market. It finds that based on announced projects, low-emissions hydrogen production in the region could reach 430 000 tonnes per year by 2030, up from just 3 000 tonnes per year today. However, many projects remain at very early stages of development – requiring faster deployment of renewables to reduce production costs, targeted policies, and an expansion of expertise-building pilot projects in order to match this potential.

The report is complemented by an updated Hydrogen Production and Infrastructure Projects Database – plus the launch of a major new online tracker. This tracker allows users to explore announced projects for low-emissions hydrogen production and infrastructure deployment, hydrogen production costs by region and technology, and the more than 1 000 hydrogen policy measures that have been announced or implemented worldwide since 2020.

An influential group of MPs has sought assurances that Asda is not “squeezing staff” to drive profit after it emerged they are being offered high-interest loans by Wagestream, a company in which the retailer’s owner has a stake.

The business and trade select committee has written to Asda over its links to the “financial wellbeing app” that recently began offering the supermarket’s staff loans of up to £25,000. The default arrangements for Wagestream’s “workplace loans” involve debt repayments being directly deducted from workers’ pay packets.

A holding company controlled by Asda’s private equity owner TDR Capital is a shareholder in Wagestream, which has been offering Asda workers a range of other services, including savings pots and wage advances, since 2023.

Documents filed at Companies House show that the holding company – Bellis Financial Investments 2 –is one of a number of shareholders in Wagestream, alongside former Wonga payday loan investor Balderton Capital, and social impact investors including the Joseph Rowntree Foundation via the Fair by Design Fund.

However, the Guardian understands that the retailer did not flag its financial link to Wagestream to staff when it initially launched the service to workers two years ago. Wagestream started offering “workplace loans” to Asda staff earlier this year.

Liam Byrne, the chair of the business and trade committee, said he had written to Asda “to ask them to reassure us that frontline workers aren’t left facing sky-high interest rates, and that its workplace lending is compliant with Asda’s legal requirements under employment law”.

“Asda is one of Britain’s most important employers with over 150,000 workers and is at the heart of our grocery market,” he said.

“Our concern today is that instead of easing Asda’s debts, its parent company may be piling pressure on Asda’s people – squeezing staff to service liabilities and drive profit to its financial investments. If this is the case, it raises serious questions as to Asda’s responsible stewardship, and the long-term financial sustainability of the business as a whole.”

Asda’s finance director, Michael Gleeson, told the committee in 2023 that a £100m investment in Wagestream and two other financial services businesses, had been funded out of proceeds from the £1.7bn sale of Asda’s warehouses which the company now has to pay rent on under a leaseback deal. “We are part owners of each of those three companies,” he told MPs. Bellis is understood to hold a 4% stake in Wagestream.

Asda said it does not pay Wagestream for any services or receive any financial benefit if a member of staff chooses to use the app. However, as a shareholder, Asda’s parent group has a direct interest in itssuccess and would have the right to share of any future dividend payments or from the sale of the group.

Wagestream is yet to pay a dividend and remains loss-making, having last reported a £22.2m pre-tax loss in 2024.

That could change before long, however, with revenues having grown by more than two-thirds, 64%, to £36.9m last year, when it handed out 20.6m wage advances worth a total of £1.5bn.

The rollout of workplace loans could propel earnings, which have so far relied on fees linked to its wage advance product. Wagestream said a rise in revenues in the upcoming year would probably outpace costs and start “moving the business towards profitability in future periods”.

A spokesperson for Asda, which is the UK’s third largest supermarket, said: “Asda offers colleagues access to a range of established financial products through a partner regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). These include salary advances, workplace loans and savings products paying a competitive interest rate of 4.33%, which is currently used by more than 18,000 colleagues.

“Many other large employers, including all of Asda’s direct competitors in the grocery sector, offer similar products to their employees through the same, or competitor providers.”

Asda added that all applications for Wagestream’s workplace loans were subject to “robust affordability checks” before being approved. “At present fewer than 2% of Asda colleagues have taken out a loan. The representative APR on these loans is 13.9%.”

Wagestream began rolling out the loans to clients like Asda at the end of 2024. Those loans come with a representative APR of between 13.9% and 19.9%, meaning at least 51% of borrowers will get that rate.

But the ultimate cap is negotiated with each employer, topping out at 34.9% APR. Wagestream insists that its model still saves borrowers an average of £593 a loan, with customers having been charged an average APR of 62% by former lenders before turning to the app.

Nadine Houghton, a national officer at the GMB union, which represents Asda workers, said it was concerned about the financial links between Asda and Wagestream: “It leaves a sour taste in the mouth that TDR has a financial interest in the app that facilitates Asda workers taking these financial risks while also being the overall decision maker for how much these workers are paid and the hours they are able to work.”

“We now find out that Wagestream is offering dangerous loans at high interest rates and GMB members working in Asda tell us they have used the app to take advances on their pay which can contribute to a cycle of debt.

“The bottom line is that employers should pay workers enough to live on, to have savings and to not need to rely on dangerous high-interest loans or advances on their pay just to cover day to day living costs.”

Wagestream said in a statement that “as a regulated financial services provider, Wagestream has a conflicts of interest policy and has implemented processes to review and monitor conflicts of interest to comply with FCA rules.”

“TDR Capital’s holding in Wagestream does not create a conflict as it falls well below the thresholds set out by the FCA. As a minority shareholder, TDR Capital does not have operational or day-to-day control of any of Wagestream’s undertakings,” the statement added.

Wagestream said it considers potential conflicts when deciding on whether to partner with employers, which in turn sign its terms and conditions that require good consumer outcomes and transparency, including around fees.

TDR declined to comment.