With a rapidly increasing contribution of the maritime sector to Dubai’s economy and with continuing success in becoming one of the most competitive maritime centers in the world, Dubai Maritime City Authority (DMCA) is cruising full speed ahead to another dynamic presence at Posidonia 2018, the world’s most prestigious shipping event, taking place from June 4 to 8 at the Athens Metropolitan Expo. The maritime industry significantly improved its contributions to the Emirate of Dubai’s GDP, reflecting the increasing contribution of the sector to the local economy, which grew at ...

China has issued an additional 3.67 million tonnes of refined fuel export quotas to some state-run firms, two traders with direct knowledge of the matter said, taking the total export quota for 2018 to 43 million tonnes, level with 2017. The quotas, awarded under a so-called tolling scheme, were granted to top state refiners China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Sinochem Corp, the traders said. Earlier this month, the country issued 19.33 million tonnes of fuel export quotas under the general trade category to ...

India’s import duty on wheat was raised to 30% from 20% earlier, according to a customs notice posted on the Central Board of Excise and Customs’ website. The moves comes on the back of a record domestic wheat production forecast of 98.61 million mt for the 2017-18 marketing year, up 100,000 mt from the year before, in the government’s latest estimate released May 16. The world’s second-largest wheat producer had already raised the import duty to 20% from 10% in November 2017 on expectations of higher local output. Sources said ...

Dubai-based trader AOS, a leading supplier of wheat to Egypt, has failed to deliver two of its cargoes, Supply Minister Ali Moselhy told Reuters. Moselhy, who is also chairman of Egypt’s state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), said AOS had been offered two extensions for the delayed cargoes of about 120,000 tons of wheat but still failed to supply them. AOS declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. “They (AOS) have failed to deliver two cargoes, there were delays and we arranged new timings for them ...

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture bought a total of 96,870 tonnes of food-quality wheat from the United States and Canada in a regular tender that closed late on Thursday. Japan, the world’s sixth-biggest wheat importer, keeps a tight grip on imports of the country’s second most important staple after rice and buys the majority of the grain for milling via tenders typically issued three times a month. Details are as follows (in tonnes): COUNTRY TYPE QUANTITY U.S. Western White 15,925 * U.S. Dark Northern Spring(protein minimum 14.0 pct) 16,835 * U.S. ...

Iraq exported 3.339 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from its central and southern oilfields in April, the oil ministry said on Wednesday. Iraq’s exports from the ports, managed by the central government in Baghdad, averaged 3.453 million bpd in March, up from 3.426 million bpd in February. There were no exports in April from the Kirkuk fields, located in northern Iraq and under the control of Baghdad, the oil ministry said. Kirkuk oil exports stopped in October, when Iraqi government troops backed by Shi’ite paramilitary forces dislodged ...

Russia’s Gazprom exports to countries outside the ex-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) may rise to 199 billion cubic meters in 2018, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday citing Gazprom’s Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller. Gazprom exports to non-CIS countries totalled 194.4 billion cubic meters in 2017. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin Writing by Maria Tsvetkova)

Korea Southern Power Co Ltd (KOSPO) is seeking to purchase 320,000 tonnes of coal via a spot tender and bought 640,000 tonnes of coal via a three-year term tender, the state-run utility said on its website. www.kospo.co.kr The utility purchased coal products for the term tender from Indonesia, a source from the utility said, without giving price details. Details of the tenders including the purchase are as follows: -- Spot tender to close on May 25 TONNES(M/T) SPECIFICATION(NCV) LOADING SCHEDULE 320,000 min. 4,500 kcal/kg Aug-Sept, 2018 -- Term tender closed ...

The European Commission has opened an investigation into hot-rolled steel sheet piles imported from China to determine whether they are being dumped in Europe, according to a notice in the EU Official Journal on Thursday. The investigation into a form of steel used in construction was launched following a complaint by EU steelmaker group Eurofer and could bring fresh measures against Chinese steel, increasing tensions between Beijing and Brussels. The European Union already has 17 sets of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures in place on various grades of steel. The Journal ...

More than half of all U.S. motor gasoline exports went to Mexico in 2017. Changes to Mexico’s retail gasoline and diesel fuel markets, combined with low utilization of Mexico’s petroleum refineries, resulted in increased gasoline imports from the United States. Although Mexico is a relatively large crude oil producer, Mexico relies on imports of gasoline from the United States to meet domestic demand. U.S. motor gasoline gross exports increased to 821,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 2017, despite rising domestic consumption. In 2017, U.S. consumption of gasoline, measured as product ...

Canadian National Railway Co plans to use some additional capacity expected at the end of 2018 for its crude business, which it plans to “lock in for some time” at “very favorable pricing,” the company’s Chief Financial Officer said. “We’ve taken the opportunity…as capacity will come in in the second half of the year to actually lock in crude business at very favorable pricing and to lock it in for some time with some volume commitments,” CN CFO Ghislain Houle said at the Wolfe Research transportation conference. Canadian railway executives ...

China’s April scrap aluminium imports fell by 27.8 percent from March to 130,000 tonnes, after the country slapped a 25 percent import tariff on aluminium scrap from the United States, its biggest supplier of the material, with effect from Apr. 2. April scrap aluminium imports also fell 23.1 percent year on year, data from the General Administrations of Customs showed on Wednesday. China Jan-April scrap aluminium imports were down 11.4 percent year on year at 620,000 tonnes. China this year introduced new impurity thresholds on imported waste, including metals, as ...

Iraq exported more than 100 million barrels of oil during the month of April, the oil ministry said on Wednesday, noting that revenues exceeded USD6.5 billion. Ministry spokesman, Assem Jihad, quoting a final statistic by the state-run oil marketing company, SOMO, said exports stood at 100.197.197 barrels during the month of April, yielding revenues of USD6.501.695.000. That was a rate of USD64.889 per barrel, Jihad noted. The monthly statistic still did not record exports from Kirkuk oil fields, where production has been halted since the standoff between Iraqi forces and ...

China’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports rose 4.3 percent in April from a month earlier to 3.39 million tonnes, Chinese customs data showed. LNG imports for the first four months were 15.75 million tonnes, the data showed, an increase of 58 percent from the same period a year ago as state refiners stepped up purchases to cover expected strong growth in demand. China exported 1.82 million tonnes of diesel in April, compared with 2.37 million tonnes recorded for March. April kerosene exports were at 1.2 million tonnes, versus 1.34 million ...

China’s Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday published the names of 11 private refineries with a plan to allow them to directly import crude oil. The ministry said it has examined the firms’ applications and found them in accordance with requirements. The refineries are located in the provinces of Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Henan and Hubei. China is one of the world’s largest oil buyers. Over 60 percent of its oil comes from imports. Crude imports are dominated by state-run giants Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corporation and China National Offshore Oil Corporation. ...