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Negotiations with China for the construction of a “multipurpose” commercial port in São Tomé and Príncipe “are at a very advanced stage,” São Tomé’s Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Osvaldo d’Abreu said. “It is a project that is being analysed with Chinese cooperation and with some Chinese companies,” said the minister, adding that the negotiations also involve some multilateral partners, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). D’Abreu also said that the future “multipurpose” port, which will have fishing and commercial facilities, is an “infrastructure ...

South Korea imported 4.7 mt of LNG in December 2018, an increase of 13% year on year. This was the largest volume of imports ever recorded for a single month, exceeding the previous high of 4.6 mt recorded in February 2012. Maintenance at the country’s nuclear power plants saw nuclear generation fall by 12% in the first 11 months of 2018 compared with the same period in 2017. Source: Interfax Energy

Nearly a year after the U.S. imposed tariffs on imported steel, the higher prices have been a godsend for Byer Steel Co. The family-owned Ohio company last year posted its first profit in four years and surprised workers with year-end bonuses. The tariffs “are giving us the ability to get off our knees for a minute, ” said Burke Byer, whose great-grandfather founded the Cincinnati company a century ago. “We’re not so hand-to-mouth.” The same tariffs have pinched another small family business: Laclede Chain Manufacturing Co. The St. Louis-based maker ...

Some of the world’s major palm oil users, including Nestle, Unilever, and Mondelez, are trying out new satellite technology to track deforestation, as pressure grows on them to source the ingredient responsibly. They say the monitoring systems allow them to target people felling trees in producing countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, where forests are shrinking, more efficiently than policing supply chains on the ground. “They say you’re Big Brother,” said Benjamin Ware, global head of responsible sourcing at Nestle. “It’s not Big Brother – it’s today’s reality…there is nothing secret ...

Good European wheat stocks are expected to limit any upside in Russian and global wheat market prices around Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to sources. The cost of European wheat earlier in the marketing year, starting July 1, 2018, pushed most buyers to look at other wheat origins, effectively preserving European stocks, sources said. However, with the Russian 12.5% protein wheat at a four-year high and Argentine wheat all exported, buyers are returning to Europe, among other destinations. To date, the EU has exported just over 8 million ...

U.S. soybean futures gained on Tuesday, rebounding from a three-week low touched in the previous session, as concerns over dry weather curbing yields in top exporter Brazil supported the market. Wheat rose for a third consecutive session as the market underpinned expectations of strong demand for U.S. supplies. The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade was up 0.3 percent at $9.08 a bushel, as of 0349 GMT. In the previous session, it lost 1 percent when prices hit $9.03-1/2 a bushel, their lowest since Jan. 22. Wheat ...

As winter keeps its grip on the northern hemisphere it is the oil bulls, not the bears, who have gone into hibernation. The price rally that greeted the new year has fizzled out as renewed concerns about demand growth outweigh the tightening of oil supply through OPEC cuts and U.S. sanctions. Saudi Arabia had already started to deliver on its promised output reductions in December and went beyond what was pledged in January. U.S. production growth has stalled — for now — and President Donald Trump’s sanctions on oil flows ...

Crisis in Venezuela, sanctions against Iran, outages in Libya, output cuts by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), Russia, and, yet, no sign of panic in the crude markets. Market response to all these has been lukewarm, to say the least. Prices remained stable, and tumbled as the week passed by. The tepid price movements over the last two weeks are rather surprising, given the tightening of supply, underlines Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com. The Opec+ cuts are taking effect and US data is starting to reflect these changing market ...

U.S. oil may break a support at $51.86 per barrel, and fall more to the next support at $50.76, as its uptrend from the Dec. 24, 2018 low of $42.36 may have reversed. These supports are identified respectively as the 161.8 percent and the 138.2 percent projection levels of an uptrend from $44.35. The reversal of the trend is suggested by its five-wave structure and a head-and-shoulders forming around the Feb. 4 high of $55.75. The pattern points at a target of $50.76. A retracement analysis on the uptrend from ...

The sweeping energy reforms pursued by India in recent years have gained broad acceptance and are here to stay irrespective of which political party or alliance comes to power after the federal elections which will take place later this year. That was the common view among delegates, policymakers, chief executive officers and analysts attending the three-day Petrotech conference in New Delhi to discuss the outlook for energy markets in a fast-changing landscape. At the same time, industry officials urged the Indiangovernment to take further steps to boost investment in order ...

A stubbornly strong dollar is looming over a rebound in U.S. stocks, weighing on companies’ profits and stoking worries of slowing U.S. growth. The dollar is up more than 7.5% since last February, buoyed recently by a seven-session rally that has wiped out this year’s decline in the WSJ Dollar Index. The dollar’s durability has run counter to Wall Street’s expectations: many investors believed the U.S. currency would weaken amid an expected pickup in European growth and a recent cautious shift from the Federal Reserve. Instead, growth has slowed around ...

Investors sitting on a mountain of cash built up since late last year may be paying a price for playing it too safe in the first weeks of 2019. Individuals and institutions have poured tens of billions of dollars into money market funds amid the aftershock of last year’s punishing losses from stocks and next-to-nothing from bonds. Ongoing turmoil from trade tensions between China and the United States, political infighting in Washington and interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve have also inspired the rush into cash. Despite those concerns, ...

The U.S. dollar slipped into negative territory early Tuesday, looking to snap a eight-day winning streak as investors turned their attention to details in the U.S.-China trade spat. “Now that the FX space has undergone multiple days of dollar strength, investors will be waiting for the headlines out of this week’s ministerial-level trade talks in Beijing,” said Stephen Gallo, European head of FX strategy at BMO. “We think the broad dollar is close to being priced for neutrality on U.S./China trade issues. In simple terms, this means neither an escalation ...

Recent volatility in the market for overnight cash loans is raising concerns about a new benchmark that could set interest rates for trillions of dollars in mortgages and corporate debt. The cost to borrow cash overnight spiked late last year in part of the market for repurchase agreements, where lenders such as money-market funds make short-term loans to bond brokers, often using government debt as collateral. The “repo” rate topped out above 6% in intraday trading on Dec. 31 before settling at an all-time high of 5.149%, according to JPMorgan. ...

The South Korean government may lower tariffs on commodities including crude oil to help manufacturers grappling with higher cost on top of sluggish demand. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held a meeting chaired by Trade Minister Kim Hyun-jong with representatives from manufacturers of various types amid contracting exports. Oil refiners and petrochemical firms asked the government to lower the current 3 percent tariff on oil imports, according to the ministry. Secondary battery manufacturers called for a temporary cut in import levy on raw materials such as cathodes, anodes ...