China’s crude oil imports are set to slow in the second quarter after Brent prices hit a 13-month high, cooling demand and capping refiners’ margins as they prepare to shut for planned maintenance, industry sources and analysts said. Expectations of a recovery in global fuel demand and tighter oil supplies from Saudi Arabia and the United States pushed front-month Brent futures to their highest since January 2020 this week, up around 30% from January. Chinese independent refiners, who account for a fifth of the country’s import demand, have become reluctant ...

U.S. liquefied natural gas company Venture Global LNG put out a tender seeking vessels that could pick up commissioning or test cargoes from its Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant, which is under construction, sources familiar with the tender said Friday. The tender seeks vessels as soon as October, but sources say they still do not expect the first train at Calcasieu to produce first liquefied natural gas (LNG) until December. That, however, is way ahead of the autumn 2022 commissioning date Venture Global has posted on its website. LNG plants ...

India’s sugar exports could fall by 12% to 5 million tonnes this year as a shortage of containers slows trade and threatens to drive up global prices that are already at four-year highs, industry officials told Reuters. The lower exports from the world’s second biggest sugar producer, especially during the first half of 2021, could also allow rival Brazil to increase shipments in the second half of the year when Brazil does the bulk of its exporting. “The container shortage is limiting our exports,” said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of ...

Ukraine’s grain exports have fallen almost 20% to 31.7 million tonnes so far this season, which runs from July 2020 to June 2021, economy ministry data showed. Traders sold 13.6 million tonnes of wheat, 13.6 million tonnes of corn and 3.96 million tonnes of barley, the data showed. Ukraine is among the largest global grain exporters, selling about 57 million tonnes to foreign buyers in the 2019/20 season. The government has said exports could decline to 45.4 million tonnes in 2020/21 because of a smaller harvest. Source: Reuters (Reporting by ...

Uganda’s coffee exports declined 4.9% in January from the same month last year on account of low arabica yields, the state-run regulator Uganda coffee development Authority (UCDA) said. The regulator said in a report, seen by Reuters on Thursday, that the east African country shipped 446,560 60-kilogram bags, compared with 469,951 bags exported during the same month in 2020. The slow down in shipments was attributed to lower yields from arabica trees, a result of the crop’s cyclical nature where a good crop is followed by a bad one. Uganda ...

As more buyers from South America, Eastern Africa and South East Asia start queuing up for the Indian rice, the exports of the cereal — both basmati and non-basmati — are seen scaling new highs this fiscal. Rice exports including both basmati and non-basmati types are expected to range between 16 and 17 million tonnes (mt) against previous fiscal’s 9.48 mt. South American buyers such as Peru and Argentina have recently granted market access to the Indian basmati rice. Similarly in Eastern Africa, countries such as Angola and Tanzania among ...

Indonesia is “ready to fight” the European Union’s challenge of the Southeast Asian country’s ban on nickel ore exports at the World Trade Organisation, arguing the bloc’s actions may hinder Indonesia’s development plans, the trade minister said. Once the world’s biggest exporter of nickel, Indonesia banned ore exports last year to incentivise foreign investors to help develop a full nickel supply chain in the country, starting from extraction, processing into metals and chemicals used in batteries, all the way to building electric vehicles. “The Indonesian government is ready to fight ...

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium has received bids for crude deliveries via its network in 2021 totaling 67.5 million mt, CPC General Director Nikolay Gorban told journalists Feb. 25. This is equivalent to around 1.44 million b/d, using a conversion rate of 7.8 barrels per metric ton. It would represent a 12.5% increase on deliveries of around 1.28 million b/d in 2020. “We don’t know if all of these bids will be fulfilled, everything depends on global market conditions, and the demand situation,” Gorban said, adding that CPC is prepared to ...

South Korea imported 76.874 million barrels, or 2.48 million b/d, of crude oil in January, down 17.1% from 92.712 million barrels a year earlier, as local refiners kept oil products output to a minimum amid tepid consumer transportation fuel demand, latest data from state-run Korea National Oil Corp. showed. This marks the fourth consecutive decline since October last year and the smallest monthly shipment since June 2020, when the country received 74.659 million barrels. However, a more in-depth breakdown of the import data showed that South Korea maintained strong demand ...

The gas market will progressively become more interconnected and less regionalised due to the projected extension of total gas exports; GECF said and noted the Asian LNG market, with 71% of global LNG imports, will remain the largest regional market. The share of traded LNG will increase to approximately 48% of all traded gas in 2030 and 56% in 2050, respectively, Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) said in its Global Gas Outlook 2050’s fifth edition. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification from existing, under construction, potential, proposed, stalled and speculative projects ...

With China’s foreign trade in steel steadily picking up after the Chinese New Year holiday lull while international steel prices keep soaring, speculation regarding possible cuts to Chinese export tax rebates on steel has become more intense both in and out of China. The speculation that China may revise tax rebates on China’s certain steel products first arose last December and was sparked by comments that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology wanted to see Chinese crude steel output decline this year – when steel consumption is forecast to ...

India became a net importer of steel for the first time in the current fiscal in January, bucking the trend of the first nine months. The net trade deficit, however, was marginal at 0.06 MT. “India was net exporter of finished steel during April-January 2020-21 with net trade surplus of 5.0 MT. However, the progressive unlocking of the economy and improving economic activities leading to better domestic demand have resulted in decline/moderation in export and increase in imports in recent months with import exceeding export for the first time during ...

Cheniere will give its LNG customers emissions data associated with each cargo it produces at its two US export terminals, in a bid to make its environmental footprint more transparent at a time of increasing pressure on buyers to reduce their shale consumption. As the biggest US LNG exporter, Cheniere is a major buyer of physical gas that it uses in the liquefaction process. Much of the gas is drilled in shale basins stretching from the US Gulf Coast to the Northeast to Western Canada. Amid the energy transition to ...

Jordan’s state grain buyer has issued a tender to buy 120,000 tonnes of milling wheat which can be sourced from optional origins, European traders said on Thursday. The deadline for submissions of price offers in the tender is March 3. Shipment in the new tender is sought in a series of possible combinations in 60,000-tonne consignments. Possible shipment combinations are between Oct. 1-15, Oct. 16-31, Nov. 1-15 and Nov. 16-30. A new tender had been anticipated after Jordan bought just 60,000 tonnes in its previous tender for 120,000 tonnes of ...

A subsidiary of Russia’s Novatek has entered into a long-term deal to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Chinese state-owned firm Shenergy Group Company, two industry sources told Reuters on Thursday. The deal is for Novatek Gas & Power Asia to supply about three million tonnes of LNG over a duration of 15 years, or about three LNG cargoes a year, one of the sources said. Novatek and Shenergy did not immediately reply to Reuters requests for comment. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Jacqueline ...