Dalian iron ore futures declined on Tuesday on lingering fears of China’s supervision of the markets to ensure price stability, though analysts cautioned that the downward trend may be short-lived. The most-traded January iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.4% to 966 yuan ($135.12) per metric ton at closing. On the Singapore Exchange, the benchmark January iron ore rose 0.4% to $128.88 a metric ton. State-backed Dalian Exchange announced on Nov. 30 its commitment to enhance supervision of the iron ore market for the safe and stable ...

Executive summary 2023 was meant to be a year of strength for the commodities complex. Commodities were the best-performing asset class in 2021 and 2022, and coming into this year, it was a potential contender to be the top performer again, particularly with fears around gas supply over the 2022/23 European winter, and heightened geopolitical tensions. However this has not been the case, with the complex down on the year. Europe had an unusually mild 2022/23 winter, which left the gas market very comfortable. Markets also underestimated the ability of ...

Iraq’s strategic wheat reserves are sufficient till the end of April 2024, the Iraqi ministry of commerce spokesperson Muthanna Jabbar told Reuters on Monday. “We expect the volume of wheat production to be higher than the previous season, and the volume of production in 2024 will be approximately 6 million tons, which ensures food security of the country,” he added. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Moayed Kenany, Writing by Clauda Tanios; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Copper prices fell to one-week lows on Tuesday after Moody’s cut its outlook on China’s credit ratings to negative from stable, inventories in London Metal Exchange warehouses rose and the dollar firmed. Benchmark copper CMCU3 was 1.1% lower at $8,348 a metric ton in open outcry trading, the lowest since Nov. 28. Moody’s cited mounting global concern over the impact of surging local Chinese government debt and a deepening property crisis in the world’s second-largest economy. “A slump in China’s property market has been a major headwind to copper demand ...

Malaysian palm oil futures fell for the third straight session on Tuesday, weighed down by weakness in rival vegetable oils in the Dalian and Chicago futures markets. The benchmark palm oil contract FCPOc3 for February delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange slid 44 ringgit, or 1.15%,to 3,780 ringgit ($810.98) at close. “Emergence of bargain buyers brought prices to cover opening gap and surged to high, although failed to sustain amid continuing weakness in rival oils,” a Kuala Lumpur-based trader said. Dalian’s most-active soyoil contract DBYcv1 declined 0.42%,while its palm ...

The agreement with Outokumpu, one of Alfa Laval’s main stainless-steel suppliers, will enable a shift from regular stainless steel to steel with half the original carbon footprint. The steel (Circle green®), made from high-quality recycled material, will be used in Alfa Laval’s heat exchanger production. The shift is a vital part of Alfa Laval’s work towards a net-zero future. Most of the Alfa Laval steel purchased from Outokumpu, a global steel manufacturer, will now be the low carbon stainless steel variety. This change applies to heat exchangers used in the ...

Indonesia is targeting ten million metric tons of rice output during peak harvest in March to April next year, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday. Rice harvested in March is projected at around 5.56 million tons, with harvest in April seen at 4.51 million tons, the ministry said on a statement. “National rice production has been affected by the El Nino phenomenon,” said Arnen Sri Gemala, an official from the agricultural ministry. The ministry plans to plant rice on 10.54 million hectare areas, with output expected to reach 32 million ...

The following are analysts’ estimates ahead of the December crop supply/demand report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which will estimate 2023-24 global ending stocks for wheat, corn and soybeans. The USDA is scheduled to release the report on Friday, Dec. 8, at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT). Reuters surveys analysts for their expectations of what the USDA will report as well as for the analysts’ own estimates. Reuters publishes these sets of numbers separately. The marketing year for wheat begins June 1 and ends on May 31. For ...

Afghanistan has harvested 4.3 million tons of wheat in the current year, up 13 percent from last year, spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock Mawlawi Musbahudin Mustain said on Tuesday. “In the current year, 2.2 million hectares of land had been cultivated with wheat in Afghanistan which yielded 4.3 million tons and indicated a 13-percent increase in comparison with previous year,” the private media outlet Tolonews quoted Mustain as saying. The spokesman added that the ministry would do its best to further increase the wheat product in ...

Exceptionally hot and dry weather in Brazil’s leading soybean region persisted for a second consecutive month through November, maintaining yield concerns. The crop-heavy northern section of Brazil’s top soy and corn state Mato Grosso experienced the driest October-November period in at least a quarter century. Two-month rainfall of about 163 mm (6.4 inches) is 47% below the period’s recent decade average. Mato Grosso grows about 27% of Brazil’s soybeans and accounts for almost 30% of the country’s soybean export program, the world’s largest. Dryness is not Mato Grosso’s only problem, ...

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) has raised its forecasts for the country’s 2023/24 wheat, barley and canola crops, though output would be well below last season’s bumper levels, it said in a report. Drier conditions this year, linked to the onset of an El Nino weather pattern, have affected yield potential for Australia’s main winter grain crops. Winter crop yields were still anticipated to be below average due to persistent dry conditions in key northern cropping regions, but early October rainfall boosted harvest prospects ...

Canadian farmers will harvest more wheat and canola than was expected several months ago, as crops rallied from dry conditions that threatened yields, a government report showed on Monday. Statistics Canada’s crop estimates tend to increase in the annual December report, but the agency’s raised estimate for all-wheat production surpassed industry expectations. Global wheat ending stocks have fallen four years in a row, with Canada’s drought and heavy rain in Australia tightening this year’s supplies, offset somewhat by a big Russian harvest. Canada is the world’s fourth-largest wheat exporter and ...

Malaysian palm oil inventories at the end of November were seen falling for the first month since April, as a seasonal output decline was expected to start while exports continued to rise, a Reuters survey showed on Monday. Palm oil stocks were estimated at 2.44 million metric tons, down 0.48% from October, snapping six consecutive months of increases,according to the median estimate of ten traders and analysts polled by Reuters. Meanwhile, crude palm oil (CPO) output at the world’s second-largest producer was estimated at 1.81 million tons, a 6.64% drop ...

India plans to tweak a formula to fix the average domestic sale price of iron ore, a key steelmaking raw material, according to a government note reviewed by Reuters and a source with direct knowledge of the matter. After the Ministry of Mines pointed out that some iron ore miners tried to keep the average sale price artificially lower to pay lower royalties to the government, the federal government formed a panel to work out an “alternative mechanism” to determine domestic iron ore prices. “Any reduction in the ASP (average ...

Major Chinese smelters settled the annual treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) for 2024 term supply contracts at $80/mt and 8.0 cents/lb, respectively, with the miner Freeport-McMoRan Dec. 1, smelters told S&P Global Commodity Insights Dec. 4. Freeport-McMoRan was not immediately available for comment Dec. 4. Major producer Anglo American followed suit and settled with smelters at $80/mt and 8.0 cents/lb for 2024 term contracts, according to a company source. These are the same levels agreed upon by Chinese smelters and Chilean miner Antofagasta, which represented a fall of $8/mt and ...