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Brazil’s corn exports were at 1.2 million mt over the first 10 working days of the month, at an average daily rate of 124,320 mt, exceeding the 95,781.3 mt/day registered over January 2020, taking the country a step closer to the official export forecast for 2019-20, data released by the Foreign Trade Secretariat showed Jan. 18. Brazil has already exported 32.5 million mt of corn since the beginning of the marketing year in February up to December, customs data showed. Brazil’s national agricultural agency Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento or Conab ...

Palm oil production in the world’s top two producing countries is expected to recover and drive volatility in prices this year, which are likely rise to nine-year highs, a Reuters poll showed. Malaysia’s benchmark palm oil contract kicked off the year at near decade-high levels of 3,800 ringgit ($940.13) due to a supply crunch in global edible oils. Prices are, however, forecast to average at 2,800 ringgit ($694.96) a tonne this year, its highest since 2012, compared with 2,685 ringgit last year, according to the median estimate from a poll ...

North America’s primary aluminum production reached an estimated 3.98 million mt in 2020, rising about 4.4% from 2019 levels, according to International Aluminium Institute data released Jan. 20. Earlier in the decade, aluminum capacity in North America had steadily declined each year from 4.92 million mt in 2013 to 3.77 million mt in 2018, IAI data showed. The region’s aluminum output in 2020 represents the second straight year of growth for the industry after production in 2019 changed course, climbing to 3.81 million mt from 2018. North America’s aluminum industry ...

Chicago soybean futures slid more than 1% on Friday, with the market poised for its first weekly decline in more than a month, as rains in South American key growing areas eased worries about global supply. Corn and wheat prices were also set for weekly drop. FUNDAMENTALS The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) most-active soybean contract fell 4.5% this week, after closing firmer for the last five weeks. The market was down 1.2% at $13.52-1/4 a bushel, as of 0134 GMT. Corn dropped 2.5% so far this week, its first ...

Morgan Stanley and Evercore were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers in the global oil and gas sector for 2020 by value and volume, respectively. Morgan Stanley advised on 18 deals worth US$82.9bn, which was the highest value among all the advisers. Meanwhile, Evercore led in volume terms having advised on 19 deals worth US$32.9bn. A total 1,680 M&A deals were announced in the sector during 2020, marking a 15.5% decrease over the 1,987 deals announced in 2019, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. According ...

Saudi Arabia’s crude exports rose to a seven-month high in November and, with production capped by the OPEC+ agreement, domestic stockpiles ended the month at a 17-year low, according to data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative. Shipments from the OPEC kingpin ticked up to 6.35 million b/d from 6.16 million b/d in October, the data released Jan. 20 showed. With production holding at 8.97 million b/d — just below its OPEC+ quota — Saudi Arabia’s domestic crude stockpiles fell by 1.2 million barrels in November to 143.43 million barrels, ...

After a devastating 2020, Rystad Energy projected demand for oil products in the US to grow by 1.08 million bpd in 2021 to 19.1 million bpd. This projection left politics aside but if President Joe Biden lives up to his promises after his inauguration, we see an upside to US products demand of about 350,000 bpd, as a result of the planned short-term economic stimulus and his infrastructure plan. The expected stimulus package includes financial aid to low-income American families, extended unemployment insurance payments, and billions of dollars in support ...

Gas sales volume growth accelerated for rated Chinese city-gas operators in 4Q20 and 2021 year to date due to a post-pandemic industrial production recovery and strong heating needs amid one of the coldest winters in decades, Fitch Ratings says. This partly offset the pressure on dollar margins, which were probably lower in 2H20 from 1H20, supporting the sector’s steady profitability. The Chongqing Petroleum and Gas Exchange said the apparent natural gas consumption growth accelerated from 5.9% in October 2020 to a low-teen percentage in November 2020 to January 2021. The ...

Global shares slipped off record highs on Friday as gloomy data reminded investors of the struggles facing the economic recovery, curbing a rally fuelled by hopes of U.S. stimulus by newly inaugurated President Joe Biden. Sentiment in Europe was already more cautious after Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting, in which the bank’s message was perceived as more hawkish than expected. The yield on Italian 10-year benchmark bonds touched its highest since early November on reports that Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte may be tempted by the prospect of a snap election. ...

With every new administration there are hopes on the part of roughly a half of the population and dread on the other. It flips like a coin. A random walk, for the probability fans out there, that doesn’t deliver lasting results for the overall improvement of society. Economists cement the back and forth into solid walls that delivery ping-pong policy. Too much faith in “laws” that are crude approximations of periodic observations. Not enough questioning of presumptive infallibility. I had two recent run-ins with economists. One claimed that the employment ...

One of the world’s most important bilateral relations is at a critical crossroads, with the decision likely to shape the global political and economic landscape in the coming years. After the end of the four-year Trump administration, during which Sino-U.S. relations ran into the most difficult period since their establishment of diplomatic relations in the 1970s, a window of opportunities now arises to bring rationality back to bilateral relations. Could the United States tolerate and cooperate with an expanding economy nearing its size? China sent a clear message at the ...

Billionaire Jack Ma’s 50-second video reappearance has done little to resolve Alibaba Group’s troubled relationship with regulators that is making some investors hesitate about owning the Chinese e-commerce giant’s stock. Relief at Ma’s first public appearance added $58 billion in market value on Wednesday as Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed stock soared, though doubts crept in a day later and the stock fell more than 3% as the broader market steadied near two-year highs. Ma had not appeared in public since Oct. 24, when he blasted China’s regulatory system. That set him ...

World trade has to flow – we get that. Charterers have contractual obligations under short term spot charters that sometimes leave little room for delays – we get that too. Owners are responsible for managing and relieving their crews – that’s not in doubt either. But what we don’t accept is that a minority of charterers may simply be looking the other way when they are presented with a ship that also happens to be in need of a crew change. We don’t expect charterers to foot the bill and ...

ZE PowerGroup Inc. (ZE) and Baltic Exchange have entered into a new strategic partnership that will allow the two organizations to collaborate and share data on the global maritime market. The partnership will allow ZE PowerGroup to broaden global shipping data offerings and deliver further vital data sets to clients in the energy and commodities sectors. The partnership is in line with ZE’s growth strategy to continue expanding the availability of data sources to its existing data ecosystem. ZE, the leader in end-to-end data management and analytics solutions for energy ...

MABUX World Bunker Index (consists of a range of prices for 380 HSFO, VLSFO and MGO in the main world hubs) turned into slight downward movement on Jan.21: 380 HSFO – USD/MT – 365.63 (-0.72) VLSFO – USD/MT – 460.00 (-2.00) MGO – USD/MT – 515.42 (-3.32)  As of January 21, a correlation of the MBP Index (Market Bunker Prices) vs the DBP Index (digital benchmark MABUX (Digital Bunker Prices) in the four global largest hubs showed that already in three selected ports: Rotterdam (minus $ 16), Singapore (minus $ ...