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Russian refineries have had little April maintenance in central regions, with larger scale maintenance scheduled in the Far East spanning into May. Separately, Belarus refineries have reduced runs following contamination along the Druzhba pipeline which ships Russian crude. Belarus refiner Belneftekhim said it expected clean crude from Russia to reach its Mozyr refinery on Saturday at the earliest. NEAR-TERM NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES –Belarus’s Mozyr and Naftan refineries have reduced throughput due a deterioration in the quality of Urals crude running along the Druzhba pipeline, according to the country’s news ...

World stocks were battling to avoid their first weekly fall in six weeks on Friday, as investors waited to see whether key U.S. jobs data would give the Federal Reserve another reason to dismiss rate cut calls. Traders were pinning hopes on Wall Street regaining its record highs later in the session if MSCI’s 47-country world index is to avoid ending its weekly winning streak. Europe was doing its bit too, with earnings from HSBC and Societe Generale and a 7 percent leap to a record high for German sportswear ...

U.S. job growth surged in April and the unemployment rate dropped to a more than 49-year low of 3.6 percent, pointing to solid economic growth. STORY: TABLE: KEY POINTS: * Total payrolls rose 263,000 vs 185,000 estimate and downwardly revised 189,000 prior (original 196,000)* Private payrolls rose 236,000 vs 180,000 estimate and downwardly revised 179,000 prior (original 182,000) * Unemployment rate drops to 3.6 pct vs 3.8 pct estimate and 3.8 pct prior * Average hourly earnings rise 0.2 pct month-to-month vs 0.3 pct estimate and upwardly revised 0.2 pct ...

The EU’s strategy for connecting Europe and Asia is greener and more sustainable than China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”, but there remains scope for the two sides to work together, a senior European official said. Speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic said the European Union would be happy to increase its cooperation with Beijing as long as it could improve the transparency of its grand plan for boosting trade and infrastructure. “For us, connectivity is ...

Beijing offered in the last week a nod to criticism about its Belt and Road Initiative saddling other countries with debt while also gaining a partner in one of the world’s financial centers. Swiss President Ueli Maurer met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday and signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation on trade, investment and finance for projects in third countries along the routes of Xi’s signature foreign investment program. The central European country has a reputation of being an international leader in banking. “I think it is ...

A vast majority of companies in China are being forced to reconsider their supply chain and production functions due to the trade war with the United States, a new survey has found. In a poll conducted by the law firm Baker McKenzie, 93 per cent of Chinese companies were considering making some change to their supply chains to mitigate the effects of trade tariffs. Of these, 18 per cent were considering a complete supply chain and production transformation, with 58 per cent making major changes. A further 17 per cent ...

Market operators expecting a strong and sustained boost to equity prices from a trade deal with China are unlikely to even get a flash of a trading event. That’s what one should expect from a widely discussed negotiating process, misleading announcements of an imminent American win, and Beijing’s puzzling silence or cryptic comments. The disappointment will be complete when markets take a closer look at the outcome of an apparently intensive trade engagement with China over the last two years. Large U.S. deficits on China trades will still be there, ...

Facing criticism from Washington over its global trade and infrastructure plan, Beijing has identified a number of star projects it says can produce fast results and show the benefits of its “Belt and Road Initiative”. They appeared in a joint statement signed by China and 37 other countries at the end of the three-day Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Saturday. And they also featured in a report issued by the Office of the Leading Group for Promoting the Belt and Road Initiative – the top body coordinating the ...

The composite index increased 2.7% this week but, 2.6% down as compared with same period of 2018. The average composite index of the WCI, assessed by Drewry for year-to-date, is US $1517/40ft container, which is $42 higher than the five-year average of $1475/40ft container. Drewry’s composite World Container Index (WCI) increased 2.7% or $37 to reach $1,378.99 per 40ft container. Freight rates on Shanghai-Rotterdam increased $146 and stood at $1464 for a 40ft container. Rates on Rotterdam-New York grew $37 to $2,339 per feu. Similarly, freight rates from Shanghai to ...

MABUX World Bunker Index (consists of a range of prices for 380 HSFO, 180 HSFO and MGO (Gasoil) in the main world hubs) changed irregular on May 02: 380 HSFO – USD/MT – 431.86(-1.35) 180 HSFO – USD/MT – 479.57(+3.00) MGO – USD/MT – 656.00(+2.86) Meantime, world oil indexes dropped on May 02 as the market grappled with oversupply fears as increased U.S. sanctions on Iran had more gradual impact than expected and U.S. crude oil inventories rose sharply. Brent for July settlement decreased by $1.43 to $70.75 a barrel ...

At the urging of US lawmakers from oil- and natural gas-producing states, the Trump administration has reportedly halted consideration of a 10-year waiver of the Jones Act shipping rule that prevents LNG tankers from carrying domestic supplies between US cities. Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican-Louisiana, said Trump told six Republican lawmakers that he would oppose any long-term waivers to the Jones Act during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday. “That’s what we went there hoping to get, and that’s what we did get. So of course we’re all very ...

Shareholders of two German refineries are arranging crude tanker shipments via the Baltic Sea in response to the halt of import flows on the Russian Druzhba pipeline, a spokesman for industry group MWV said. He said that one tanker had been discharged in the Polish port of Gdansk to ship oil to the Leuna refinery while the German port of Rostock was preparing to receive a shipment to feed to the nearby Schwedt refinery. Both refineries had sufficient on-site inventories to keep operating for the time being, he said. He ...

AXSMarine has concluded an agreement with exactEarth for a highly improved satellite AIS coverage with the addition of exactView™ RT powered by Harris. This is adding a high volume of Real Time AIS data collected via 60+ payloads aboard the Iridium NEXT satellites constellation. Representing a brand-new capability for the global maritime industry, exactView RT delivers ALL vessel and voyage updates with latency of less than one minute. This translates into the fastest, most comprehensive and most accurate GLOBAL vessel tracking data commercially available. With this latest improvement, AXSMarine delivers ...

VSTEP is proud to announce the release of Response Simulator, the world’s most advanced virtual training platform. The new system will provide even more benefits to users by further expanding the safety training capabilities. New innovative safety training solutions Response Simulator (RS) is a new virtual training platform developed by VSTEP Simulation. Response Simulator builds upon the reputation of VSTEP’s previous Incident Command simulator RescueSim. It further expands on the foundation that RescueSim set and enables a much wider range of training options. The new virtual platform will not only ...

India's east coast refineries, ports brace for severe Cyclone Fani Author Ratnajyoti Dutta Sambit Mohanty Editor Geetha Narayanasamy Commodity Oil New Delhi — A severe cyclone is close to making landfall Friday in India's eastern state of Odisha, home to Indian Oil Corporation's Paradip refinery, as well as the ports of Dhamra, Gopalpur and Paradip. Not registered? Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. Register Now "We are closely monitoring the situation, but operations at the Paradip refinery have not been suspended yet. All precautions have been taken," an IOC official told S&P Global Platts. Cyclone Fani is expected to generate wind speeds of up to 170-180 km/hour, the state-run India Meteorological Department said, adding that it would make landfall on Friday. Early Friday, the cyclone lay centered about 65 km southeast of Gopalpur. Paradip is the largest refinery in state-run IOC's portfolio of 11 refineries. It can process 100% high sulfur crude oil to produce products such as LPG, propylene, Euro IV and V-compliant gasoline, diesel, kerosene, aviation fuel and petroleum coke. "So far, there are no reports of the refinery being taken offline. Paradip was reported to be operating normally. However, it is reasonable to assume that run rates at the refinery along the path may be reduced as a precautionary measure," said Lim Jit Yang, advisor, oil markets, at S&P Global Platts Analytics. In March, the capacity utilization level at Paradip refinery, which was commissioned in early 2016, stood at 112%. Its utilization stood at 97% in fiscal 2018-2019 (April-March). Authorities have evacuated close to a million people from coastal areas to safer places. India's Vizag refinery, situated 6-8 km from the coast, is also on high alert although regular operations have not been suspended. "Refinery operations are normal," an official said late Thursday. In March, the refinery recorded 121.5% capacity utilization. In fiscal 2018-2019 (April-March), utilization stood at 118%. "Some operations at ports in Odisha have been temporarily suspended. But we are waiting for more details," one source said.