China’s steel and iron ore futures rose on Monday after last week recording their worst weekly performance in several months, buoyed after Beijing said it would maintain policy support for the economy. A top decision-making body of the Communist Party on Friday said that support would come as China’s economy still faces “downward pressure” and difficulties despite better-than-expected first quarter growth. The world’s second-largest economy last week reported first quarter growth at 6.4 percent as industrial production jumped sharply and consumer demand showed signs of improvement. More economic stimulus policies ...

The World Steel Association expects global steel demand growth to stabilize over the long-term at a compound annual growth rate of around 1%, now that Chinese steel demand has peaked, worldsteel Director General Edwin Basson said. “Overall we see positive growth, shifting more to developing nations,” Basson told reporters in London. “Structurally steel is a very robust market … we don’t see much to shift it from [current demand levels of] 1.7 billion mt/year,” he said. Slow and steady growth will bring overall steel usage levels up to around 2 ...

The American Petroleum Institute’s latest monthly statistical report showed that the U.S. sustained its position as the world’s leading oil producer, continuing a pace of 12.1 million barrels a day (mb/d), matching February 2019. In addition, petroleum demand in March was the strongest for that month in more than a decade at 20.7 mb/d. “Robust and record levels of U.S. natural gas and oil production continue to lead the world and have played a predominant role in meeting increased global demand for gasoline, distillate and jet fuel,” said API Chief ...

The International Maritime Organization’s 2020 marine fuel regulation is likely to be net bullish for Asian light distillates, as attempts to maximize middle distillate yields will tighten gasoline production, which in turn will ripple through naphtha markets. On the surface, maximizing utilization rates is the simplest option for refiners to boost production of middle distillates and low sulfur bunker fuels. This would flood the market with light distillates, and pressure naphtha and gasoline cracks. Additional supply to a global gasoline market that has barely recovered from last year’s slump would ...

Much has been made of U.S. President Donald Trump’s crackdown on Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela, U.S. recognition of opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the country’s ‘Interim President’, and sanctions on Caracas’ rapidly crumbling oil industry. In summer of 2018, with Venezuela’s production heading for near certain terminal decline of sub 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of production, much was made by commentators about Colombia overtaking its neighbor in export volumes to the U.S.; a trend that has since continued. In fact, over one week in March (2019), the U.S. imported ...

Qatar Petroleum, for and on behalf of Qatar Petroleum for the Sale of Petroleum Products Company (QPSPP), has concluded a 10-year sales agreement to supply Thailand’s SCG Chemicals with a total of 3 million metric tons of Light Naphtha starting from April 2019. This long-term supply agreement is the first QPSPP naphtha feedstock sale to an end-user in Thailand, highlighting QPSPP’s push for more direct sales with established end-users. Marking this achievement, His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of ...

China published a report on April 22 elaborating on the progress, contributions and prospects of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The document, prepared by the office of the leading group for promoting the BRI, was released ahead of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation to be held from April 25 to 27 in Beijing. The Belt and Road Initiative is an initiative for peaceful development and economic cooperation, rather than a geopolitical or military alliance, said the report. ‘It is a process of open, inclusive and ...

Manufacturers in China facing trade barriers are deploying an array of moves to try to keep foreign customers – giving discounts, tapping tax breaks, trimming workforces and, occasionally, shifting production overseas to skirt tariffs. Tit-for-tat tariffs from the China-United States trade war have been costly for many. Adding to the strain on Chinese manufacturers have been European Union duties on Chinese products ranging from electric bikes to solar panels. March brought some encouraging news for manufacturers. Industrial output rose at its fastest rate since mid-2014 and exports rebounded more than ...

China’s economy, a drag on global growth last year because of a domestic slowdown, is expected to grow more quickly in the second quarter to become the key economic driver for the world, research by BlackRock shows. More expansive fiscal and monetary policies by Beijing have started to show results that may help to reverse a slowdown that has hit Europe and emerging markets particularly hard, researchers at BlackRock Investment Institute, the research unit for BlackRock Inc, said in Thursday’s report. That slowdown, they said, was driven by a tighter ...

Breakfast with EMAC in April welcomed Richard Strub, Partner at Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW), who delivered a presentation about understanding enforcement of arbitral awards in the Far East, Middle East and beyond. The seminar sought to consider the importance of dealing with Chinese counterparties in the contest of increased trade and the impact this has on enforcing against assets in China as well as considerations to be made when arbitrating with Asian counterparties. In exploring enforcement closer to home, with DIFC awards, Mr. Strub explained the relationship between the DIFC ...

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., a Group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) based in Yokohama, held a christening ceremony on April 19 for the next-generation LNG (liquefied natural gas) carrier, currently under construction for Mitsubishi Corporation and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line).The new ship, named “Diamond Gas Sakura”, is the third “Sayaringo STaGE” type vessel for the two companies, the newest model of LNG carrier featuring significantly improved carrying capacity and fuel performance due to the adoption of a more efficient hull structure and hybrid propulsion system. After ...

Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co. said that it has clinched a deal to supply container cranes for a major port construction project in Singapore. The South Korean shipbuilder, an affiliate of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, said it recently signed a contract with Singpore’s PSA to deliver four container cranes for the Tuas Mega Port project. Hyundai Samho did not reveal the value of the deal, which includes an option to supply four additional cranes, saying only that it expects to complete the work by 2022. Hyundai Samho said its cranes ...

As we near the cut off date of the Bangladeshi budget on June 5th and the upcoming monsoon season across the subcontinent markets, deals

CSCL Mercury, a Chinese container ship with a capacity of 14,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), on Saturday became the first visitor to the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal of Khalifa Port in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal, built and operated by China’s COSCO Shipping Ports Limited (CSP) and Abu Dhabi Ports, has a design capacity of 2.5 million TEU and begins with a handling capacity of 1.5 million TEU. “We are honored to be the first ship to visit the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal,” said Liu ...

NEW BUILDING: Whilst understood to have been signed last month, it came to light this week that ICBC Leasing have ordered four firm