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US LNG export terminals were operating near capacity Jan. 11 as the spot price for deliveries to Northeast Asia approached a staggering $30/MMBtu amid ongoing supply constraints and strong winter demand. The benchmark S&P Global Platts JKM has soared to a record high from a record low in less than nine months. The current trend suggests that Asia will remain the top destination for US LNG for months to come, following robust deliveries to the continent in 2020. Three of the top five destinations last year for US LNG, including ...

China sold 2,099,199 tonnes of wheat, or 52.16 % of the total offer at an auction of state reserves last week, the National Grain Trade Center said in a statement on Monday. The average selling price was 2,365 yuan ($358.35) a tonne, the trade centre said. Sales volumes at the auctions, which had declined earlier on falling corn prices and higher grains imports, have picked up again as feed producers kept stocking up on the grain amid soaring corn prices. The table below shows the volume of wheat sold at ...

Chinese domestic rebar margins have almost disappeared since the start of January, affected by soaring raw materials prices and slowing construction activity. With China experiencing a particularly cold winter, and migrant workers starting to drift back to their home towns ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday rush, rebar prices look set to come under more pressure. This could see some resistance to increasing iron ore prices as long steel producers will be unable to pass on the higher costs at a time when construction activity in northern China has ...

Towards the end of last year, as the year of challenges that was 2020 finally began to draw to a close, multiple provinces across China were hit with unexpected blackouts, amid an unseasonably cold winter. Rather than being caused by power infrastructure failure or a storm, this blackout was arguably mostly avoidable. Which begs the question, how did China, a nation that prides itself on fastidious planning and a forward-looking viewpoint end up with millions of its citizens sitting around in the dark during the cold of winter, in some ...

Brazilian soybean harvest for 2020-21 marketing year (February 2021-January 2022) began at a muted pace in some parts of the country, agricultural consultancy AgRural said Jan. 11, although the overall crop conditions look good. The Brazilian soybean crop has benefited from rains and mild temperatures in December and early January, AgRural said. Only Rio Grande do Sul and some parts in Bahia and Piauí lack moisture, which could affect the crop development, the consultancy said. However, the deficit is not significant to impact the productivity. HARVEST DELAY Soybean harvest was ...

Bullish markets characterized many commodities in the first week of 2021, not least LNG, which opens this week’s bumper selection of trends. There is also upside for EU carbon prices, container rates and European steel mill margins, while US economic data suggests there is room for more oil-based hedging against inflation. 1. Japan winter freeze adds support to LNG spot pricesWhat’s happening? Colder weather has been supporting powerdemand and heating needs in Japan, with recent daily power demand about 15% above year ago levels, while lower nuclear generation is creating ...

Oil hit an 11-month high towards $57 a barrel on Tuesday as tighter supply and expectations of a drop in U.S. inventories offset concerns over climbing coronavirus cases globally. Saudi Arabia plans to cut output by an extra 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in February and March to stop inventories from building up. The latest U.S. supply reports are expected to show crude stocks fell for a fifth straight week. [EIA/S] Brent crude was 75 cents, or 1.4%, higher at $56.41 a barrel by 1022 GMT and earlier hit ...

The decision by OPEC+ to continue shielding the global oil market by curtailing its output, even with generous self-imposed cuts like Saudi Arabia’s 1 million barrels per day “gift”, has helped WTI crude prices exceed the $50 mark. The positive effect on oil prices is set to create a chain reaction in the US, where shale operators will see cash from operations (CFO) boosted by 32% in 2021, allowing them to increase their activity spending this year. The price recovery has helped oil producers’ cash flow improve significantly since the ...

The surge to record highs for the price of spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) is being largely attributed to severe cold weather over much of northern Asia, but miscalculations by buyers of the fuel are probably a larger factor. The weekly spot price assessment settled at $21.45 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) on Jan. 8, eclipsing the prior record of $20.50 from February 2014. Prices have rallied an astonishing 1,060% since they hit an all-time low of $1.85 in May. There are also media reports of at least one ...

The Asian gasoil market will see further demand growth in 2021, with participants expecting an upswing in consumption especially in the second half of the year, but industry sources S&P Global Platts spoke to cautioned that a slower than expected rollout of mass vaccination programs, complications arising from the emergence of new strains of the virus, as well as the possibility of continued low product margins, could lead to a bumpy road to recovery. The prompt quarterly Q1/Q2 2021 Singapore gasoil spread — an indication of near-term sentiment — averaged ...

The average utilization rate of China’s independent refineries in the Shandong province stood at around 70.4% in 2020, up by about six percentage points from the 64.2% in 2019, according to S&P Global Platts calculations based on JLC data Jan. 11. The substantial increase was attributed to the strong rebound after average runs hit a multi-month low of 43.8% in February, when most of the country was under lockdown to prevent the widespread of COVID-19. After which, run rates leaped to a record high 79% in June amid good refining ...

Asia’s light ends markets opened Jan.11 higher as sentiment was boosted by cold weather demand and hopes pinned on the COVID-19 vaccine, even as crude futures were dampened by the strengthening US dollar. Gasoline sentiment was seen mixed, with the vaccine roll out firming the US RBOB/Brent crack spread for the fourth-straight session, while concerns over a new lockdown in Malaysia could limit auto gas demand. Firm naphtha prices prompted end-users to seek volumes at the lower end of the operational tolerance. Front month March ICE Brent crude futures gained ...

European stocks steadied on Tuesday after declining in the last session, as investors looked to the upcoming earnings season and focused on the prospect of larger U.S. stimulus under incoming president Joe Biden. The pan regional STOXX 600 index rose 0.4% by 0811 GMT, with the oil & gas and travel & leisure sectors climbing more than 1% each to lead the gains. Investors booked profits on Monday following last week’s rally after a Democrat sweep in the U.S. Senate elections raised expectations of larger U.S. fiscal stimulus. Oil majors ...

The U.S. dollar held its recent gains on Tuesday after a spike in U.S. Treasury yields lifted demand for the U.S. currency. The dollar has been one of the biggest losers in the past 10 months as ultra-dovish policy from the Federal Reserve encouraged investors to dump the currency for alternative currencies. It hit more than two-and-a-half-year lows versus the euro earlier this month. But expectations for a wave of spending under an incoming Joe Biden administration have pushed Treasury yields higher, with the 10-year yield reaching a 10-month high ...

China’s exports likely grew solidly in December but at a slower pace than in the previous month, as demand from its coronavirus-hit trading partners cooled, while imports held steady, a Reuters poll showed. Exports likely rose 15% from a year earlier, according to a median forecast in a Reuters poll of 25 economists, cooling from a 21.1% jump in November. Buoyant exports helped drive an impressive rebound in China’s manufacturing sector last year, which aided the country’s economic recovery from a coronavirus slump in early 2020. “We think the recovery ...