India’s sugar production is expected to improve due to good rains in September, the country’s food secretary said on Thursday, adding the government would ask mills to sell extra stocks of sugar in local markets to cool prices. “There’s no shortage of sugar because production will be higher than our own consumption,” Sanjeev Chopra, the food secretary, said. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj, Writing by Shivam Patel,Editing by Mark Potter)

Prices of iron ore, steel and steelmaking ingredients in China slumped on Thursday, as risk sentiment was hit after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled another rate hike by year-end and tighter monetary policy through 2024. Traders at the same time opted to wait for details of China’s pledge to expedite the rollout of more policies to consolidate its economic recovery, while the country’s troubled property sector kept them guarded. The most-traded January iron ore on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange ended daytime trade 1.9% lower at 854 yuan ($116.93) per metric ...

India’s soybean production is expected to drop as patchy monsoon rains in August stunted the crop in some key growing areas, industry officials and farmers said on Thursday. India uses soybeans to manufacture soyoil, which helps the country cut its hefty edible oil imports, while the by-product soymeal is used for animal feed and exported mainly to Southeast Asia. Farmers grow soybeans once a year during the monsoon season in June and July and harvest the main summer oilseed crop from October. Indian farmers planted 12.5 million hectares of soybean ...

Slovakia and Ukraine’s farm ministers have agreed to establish a licensing system for trading in grains, allowing a ban on imports of four Ukrainian commodities to Slovakia to be lifted once the system is set up, the Slovak Agriculture Ministry said on Thursday. Slovakia, Poland and Hungary announced national restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports last week after the European Commission decided not to extend its ban on imports into five EU eastern European member states. The row escalated as Ukraine, which has used land routes to the west to make ...

When Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing 0388.HK splashed $2.2 billion to acquire the London Metal Exchange in 2012, the Asian bourse pledged to support the British trading venue by connecting it with China, the world’s biggest commodity importer. More than a decade later, however, the LME has made little progress on that promise and is instead faced with the risk that Beijing uses a new nickel contract to wrestle key benchmarking power from its control. But replicating LME’s global network of warehouses looks tricky. China has long been trying to ...

BHP has officially celebrated the shipment of three billion tonnes of high-quality iron ore to China, hosting key customer representatives on a tour of BHP’s Pilbara and Port Hedland operations in Western Australia, and at a gala event in Perth. BHP Chief Commercial Officer Vandita Pant and Asset President WA Iron Ore Brandon Craig were joined by China Iron and Steel Association Vice Chairman Luo Tiejun and key customer representatives at the Mining Area C and South Flank mine sites in the Pilbara, and at the Port Hedland export facility ...

Chicago corn lost ground on Thursday, trading around a near three-year low hit earlier this week, as the advancing U.S. harvest is adding to ample supplies from rival exporter Brazil. Wheat fell as plentiful supplies from the Black Sea region outweighed signs of renewed demand from large importers. “We have made a further downward revision to our forecast for the average price of CBOT-listed second-month corn futures in 2023, following our earlier downward revision of June 15,” BMI Research, a unit of Fitch Group, said in a note. “It is ...

During the past Iranian calendar week (ended on Friday), Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) witnessed trade of 3,004,222 tons of commodities with a total trading value of more than $620 million on its physical market. As reported by the IME’s Public Relations and International Affairs Department, the exchange saw on its metals and minerals trading floor trade of 2,415,833 tons of commodities valued at nearly $349 million. On this floor the IME sold 1,238,641 tons of cement, 707,000 tons of iron ore, 303,467 tons of steel, 163,100 tons of sponge iron, ...

Iron ore futures edged higher on Wednesday after trading in a tight range, as signs of economic stabilisation in China helped offset worries over the struggling property sector in the world’s top steel producer. The most-traded January iron ore on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange DCIOcv1 ended daytime trade 0.5% higher at 873.50 yuan ($119.69) per metric ton. On the Singapore Exchange, the benchmark October iron ore SZZFV3 was up 1.4% at $121.85 per ton, as of 0705 GMT, following two straight sessions of losses. The iron ore market was consolidating ...

Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Wednesday to their lowest closing in one week, weighed by weaker rival edible oils, although losses were capped by better exports. The benchmark palm oil contract for December delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 31 ringgit, or 0.83% to 3,718 ringgit ($793.94) per metric ton at the close, its lowest closing since Sept. 12. Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Sept. 1-20 rose 2.4% to 847,890 metric tons from 827,975 metric tons shipped during Aug. 1-20, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services ...

A guideline to improve workplace safety in mines aims to eradicate hidden loopholes that lead to accidents by shifting the focus of the country’s mine safety management to prevention, Chinese authorities said on Monday at a press conference elaborating on the newly released guidelines. The guideline is the first framework document for mine safety with the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which means they have great practical significance and far-reaching historical ...

As the energy transition accelerates over the next decade, oil demand growth is expected to falter. In a more competitive, less profitable refining market, refiners need to high grade their portfolios to enhance both their margins and their overall carbon competitiveness. This will inevitably involve exiting assets that are competitively weak, high emissions or both. Our analysis indicates that Shell’s Pulau Bukom refinery-petrochemical site in Singapore is a prime candidate for such a strategic review. In our report Shell to exit Pulau Bukom? We explore the likely fate of the facility, ...

Yield potential for Crop Watch corn and soybeans ticked up slightly this week after declining for multiple weeks due to a historic dry stretch across the U.S. Corn Belt. As of early August, the Crop Watch fields had been set to outperform the past two years, especially for soybeans, but yields are now seen below final 2021 levels and close to the year-ago ones. Most of the 11 Crop Watch locations last week received less than an inch of rain and some received none, though Kansas tallied 1 inch, eastern ...

China is building two-thirds of the coal-fired electricity generation capacity currently under construction globally, and this may not be as disastrous for the climate as it sounds. The world’s largest producer and importer of coal has 136.24 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired generation under construction, according to data released in July by the Global Energy Monitor. This represents 66.7% of the global total of 204.15 GW, and China is streets ahead of second-placed India, with 31.6 GW being built and third-placed Indonesia with 14.5 GW. These three countries represent 89% of ...

Going by power minister RK Singh’s announcement that India will add another 25-30 giga watt (GW) thermal power on top of 49 GW coal-based units under construction, the country is set to burn 292 million tonne (MT) more coal annually on completion of these projects. About 3.5-4 MT of coal is used to generate 1,000 mega watt (MW) power at 65%-75% plant load factor (PLF), which is the Indian average. Considering 3.7 MT coal consumption for each GW, the new plan will mean that total coal usage will increase by ...