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Exolgan Container Terminal, which handles over 40 percent of the total container volume at the Port of Buenos Aires, has implemented ABB’s Crane OCR with QuayPro module for all of its seven STS cranes. QuayPro automatically tracks the location of containers discharged from and loaded to a vessel, significantly increasing the accuracy of BAPLIE (bayplan/stowage plan occupied and empty locations message) files. The first solution of its kind to go live in the industry, ABB’s QuayPro application has already improved the container terminal’s cargo-handling processes since its implementation. “Exolgan is ...

South Korea’s crude imports and middle distillate exports will likely extend their upward momentum into June as refiners continue to maximize operating rates to fully capture lucrative product cracks, industry and market participants said over May 20-24. A recent explosion at the S-Oil Corp. refinery complex in Ulsan will have minimal impact on the country’s overall refining capacity and crude oil demand for May-June as the company has been maintaining normal operations at all of its CDUs, the industry sources said. South Korea’s crude oil imports in April rose 10.7% ...

Lithuania has received its first rail delivery of grain from Ukraine for onward shipment from Klaipeda port, state-owned railway company LTG said. With Ukraine’s ports blocked by Russia’s invasion, the major grain grower has been unable to export nearly 25 million tonnes of grains, causing global food prices to soar. The country has been forced to send shipments across its western border, relying on limited railway capacity and small Danube river ports. “We expect to scale up to receiving a train per day from Ukraine, each with up to 1,500 ...

Copper prices are likely to move lower before stabilising due to worries about a slowdown in top metals consumer China and other major economies. But analysts say the long-term outlook is still strong due to lack of investment in new mines and demand generated by the green energy transition. Many analysts have trimmed their price estimates as copper slid by nearly a fifth over about two months after touching a record high of $10,845 a tonne in early March. Much of the buying that lifted copper since hitting a seven-month ...

Indian steel firms could be forced to cancel European orders and suffer losses after an overnight decision to impose export taxes on steel products, V R Sharma, managing director at Jindal Steel and Power told Reuters. India imposed an export tax of 15% on eight steel products late on Saturday, at a time steelmakers are looking to make up for tepid local demand by increasing market share in Europe, whose supplies have been hit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “They should have given us at least 2-3 months of time, ...

Farmers in Ukraine currently engaged in spring crop planting amid the ongoing conflict may have switched some of their corn acres to soybeans in the current season, general director of Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, Roman Slaston told S&P Global Commodity Insights in an interview. Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, or UCAB, is a business association representing leading agriculture companies of Ukraine. Farmers switching from corn to soybeans implies there will be lesser corn available for global supplies that have been already projected to fall. Ukraine’s corn switch to other crops is happening also ...

U.S. corn futures extended losses in early trade on Wednesday, hovering near a six-week low, as planting picked up pace in the United States and top buyer China allowed corn imports from Brazil. * Soybeans edged higher on lower planting and strong export demand, while wheat edged lower as analyst APK-Inform raised its forecasts for Ukraine’s 2022/23 grain crop and exports because of a better-than-expected winter harvest. * The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) eased 0.42% to $7.68-1/2 a bushel as of 0158 GMT, after ...

The European Union’s crop monitoring service, MARS trimmed its yield forecasts for this year’s EU wheat, barley and rapeseed harvests due to dryness and said significant rain was needed to avoid further yield losses. Developing drought in parts of Europe, including in top EU grain producer France, has unsettled an international market already grappling with loss of Ukrainian supplies due to Russia’s invasion. In a monthly report, MARS lowered its forecast of the EU’s 2022 yield for soft wheat – the bloc’s biggest cereal crop – to 5.89 tonnes per ...

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, buoyed by tight supplies and the prospect of rising demand from the upcoming start of the summer driving season in the United States, the world’s biggest crude consumer. Brent crude futures for July rose 44 cents, or 0.4%, to $114.00 a barrel by 0619 GMT. Brent futures gained 0.1% on Tuesday and are up for a fifth day. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for July delivery rose 51 cents, or 0.5%, to $110.28 a barrel. The contract settled down 52 cents on Tuesday. ...

The world is facing a major oil supply crunch as most companies are afraid to invest in the sector as they face green energy pressures, the head of Saudi Aramco told Reuters, adding it cannot expand production capacity any faster than promised. Amin Nasser, head of the world’s largest oil producer, said on Monday he was sticking to the target of expanding capacity to 13 million barrels per day from the current 12 million by 2027, despite calls to do it faster. “The world is running with less than 2% ...

China’s State Council decided to take measures to improve logistics from tight movement control amid COVID-19 and boost infrastructure construction, which is expected to support jet fuel and gasoil demand recovery, according to a report by the government-backed Xinhua News agency on May 24. China’s dynamic zero-COVID control has slowed the country’s economic activities since early March and fuel consumption worsened in April amid a protracted lockdown in Shanghai. This led China’s industrial production in April to fall 2.9% year on year. Representing the contraction, the purchasing manager’s index, or ...

Indian refiners’ April crude oil throughput was 8.5% higher on an annual basis, government data showed on Tuesday, as refiners ramped up runs to lap up high returns with help of discounted Russian oil purchases. Crude oil throughput last month stood at 5.27 million barrels per day (21.58 million tonnes), the data showed. “Refiners are buying cheap Russian oil as far as it is possible and then exporting high-priced diesel especially to Europe, where diesel prices have risen to astronomically high levels,” said Ehsan Ul Haq, an analyst from Refinitiv. ...

Asia is expected to witness the highest crude distillation unit (CDU) capacity additions globally contributing about 47% of the total CDU capacity additions by 2026, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. GlobalData’s report, ‘Refining Industry Market Installed Capacity and Capital Expenditure (CapEx) Forecast by Region and Countries including details of All Active Plants, Planned and Announced Projects, 2022-2026’, reveals that Asia is likely to witness a total CDU capacity addition of 7.1 million barrels per day (mmbd) by 2026. Of this, new build capacity would be 4.3 ...

Stock markets and the dollar moved cautiously higher on Wednesday before the latest Federal Reserve meeting minutes, while New Zealand’s dollar soared as its central bank joined those now aggressively jacking up interest rates. Nerves about a global recession were jangled on Tuesday by weak U.S. housing market data, but European and Asian trading saw the mood gradually strengthen. Hints of more stimulus from China and a tick up in German consumer morale lifted Europe’s STOXX 600 0.6% early on after MSCI’s main Asian indexes rose around 0.5% overnight. Oil ...

Effective tax rates on labour rebounded in 2021 as the global economy recovered and many countries began withdrawing or scaling back measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new OECD report. Taxing Wages 2022 shows that rising household incomes in 2021 coupled with the reversal of many tax and benefit policies linked to the pandemic drove increases in effective taxes on wages across the OECD. This marks a turn-around from 2020, when the pandemic drove significant decreases in the labour tax wedge – defined as the ...