Booming soybean demand from China early this century drove extensive crop expansion across the Americas, but while production is set to swell even further in top exporter Brazil, growth in Chinese imports has cooled. That dynamic is seen lifting world soybean stocks to all-time highs by mid-2024, including above-average but not record stocks-to-use, which measures supply against demand. Global soybean prices have fallen significantly in the last few months and are well below the levels of the last two years. But if prices continue their fall, Brazilian farmers may be ...

Soybean supply in China, the world’s top importer of the oilseed, is expected to decline in the coming weeks as stricter customs inspections since April lead to longer-than-expected waiting times and demand disruption, several traders told S&P Global Commodity Insights. Since the first week of April, the average time to inspect a vessel by China’s customs leapt to over 20 days compared with the standard duration of 3-4 days, resulting in a decline in the import of the yellow oilseed last month. China’s soybean imports fell 10% on the year ...

The coronavirus pandemic may be officially over, but the longer-term impacts are lingering in the US refining sector, which has seen a spate of accidents over the past nine months. Some industry players put the onus of recent refining accidents and emissions events on plant maintenance delayed by the coronavirus in 2020, compounded by a return of demand in 2021 as lockdowns ended. As the US economy began to reopen in late 2021 from coronavirus-related lockdowns, rapidly rising demand in 2022 pushed refiners to operate at record high utilization rates ...

Global equity funds saw a seventh straight week of outflows in the seven days to May 31 on global economic slowdown concerns after weaker readings from China and major European countries. Investors disposed of a net $4.55 billion of global equity funds during the week, Refinitiv Lipper data showed, compared with a weekly withdrawal of about $3.54 billion a week ago. Data showing a recession in Germany in the first quarter and contracting factory activity in China in May hit appetite for risk assets. European shares were hit hard as ...

USD: RBA hike questions whether the Fed could do something similar The dollar opens Europe a little weaker and is about 0.5% off yesterday’s highs. The sharp drop from those highs came on the back of the softer May ISM services data, where both activity and price levels supported the US recessionary narrative and further questioned the quality of Friday’s strong NFP jobs report. However, the US data calendar is now pretty quiet for the rest of this week and the market may well hold positions into next week’s May ...

China’s services activity picked up in May, a private-sector survey showed on Monday, as a rise in new orders shored up a consumption-led economic recovery in the second quarter. The Caixin/S&P Global services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 57.1 in May from 56.4 in April. The 50-point mark separates expansion from contraction in activity. The survey, which was based on responses collected from May 12-22, contrasts with the official PMI released last week that showed a slower pace of expansion in the services sector. “After a sharp but unbalanced ...

ISM reports indicate a rapid softening in business activity Last week’s ISM manufacturing index dropped to 46.9, the seventh consecutive sub-50 reading with order books, aside from two months of pandemic stress, looking in their worst shape since the 2009. Today’s ISM services report for May, while not quite as grim, only adds to worries about the outlook for the economy. The headline balance fell to 50.3 from 51.9 (consensus 52.4). As with many of the manufacturing ISM components, the only time the service sector report has been weaker in ...

Euro zone business activity was shored up last month by the bloc’s dominant services industry offsetting a deepening decline in the manufacturing sector, according to a survey which also showed overall price pressures had abated. HCOB’s final Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) and seen as a good gauge of overall economic health, fell to a three-month low 52.8 in May from April’s 54.1. While still comfortably above the 50 mark separating growth from contraction it was below a preliminary estimate for 53.3. “Relatively resilient services ...

The European Central Bank still needs several more interest rate hikes to rein in inflation and it is not certain that rates could peak this summer, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said on Monday. The ECB has raised rates at the fastest pace on record in the past year after inflation hit double-digit territory last autumn. Many policymakers argue that monetary tightening is in its final phase with the terminal rate now in sight. Nagel’s comments are among the most hawkish on the 26-member Governing Council and cast doubt on market ...

Key highlights China’s Economic Rebound Remains Elusive China – Russia trade on the rise Intra-Asia trade continues to show resilience Labour layoffs Stronger focus on the Belt and Road Initiative Average container prices stabilise in China CAx (Container Availability Index) Update China’s Economic Rebound Remains Elusive, Impacting Market Outlook and Growth Prospects China’s exports to the EU and the US declined after central banks and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates in March. The demand for products from China in these markets was already low. Despite that, however, China’s exports ...

In their latest weekly insight for the shipping industry, Clarksons Research have previewed the upcoming Nor Shipping. Steve Gordon, Managing Director of Clarksons Research, commented: “Next week, the 35th Nor-Shipping trade exhibition returns to its traditional summer slot. Like most maritime gatherings today, there will be plenty of green focus including a first dedicated offshore wind seminar. In this week’s Analysis, we update some of our data points tracking shipping’s Green Transition, hopefully providing helpful context for discussions in Oslo. Green Technology… A key element in shipping’s vital decarbonisation pathway ...

Leaders from the global shipping industry are taking action to align their businesses with what is needed to limit the worst impacts of climate change, according to those present at an executive-level event convened on the margins of Nor Shipping. The event was convened ahead of July’s critical government negotiations at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) when its main decision-making body, the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) is expected to adopt the draft 2023 IMO Strategy on the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions ...

In the week ending Jun-2, Ningbo Containerized Freight Index (NCFI) issued by Ningbo Shipping Exchange

DNV’s latest white paper “Biofuels in shipping” finds that the flexibility of biofuels can enable the shipping industry to accelerate its journey towards decarbonization while maintaining operational efficiency. Current limitations in production capacity, however, may impact short-term supply and create stiff competition with other sectors. With the shipping industry getting ready to meet decarbonization requirements, the use of biofuels is on the rise. The current global production capacity of sustainable biofuels is around 11 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) per year. DNV predicts that a sustainable and economically viable ...

The UP World LNG Shipping Index (UPI), the world’s only stock index focused on LNG shipping companies, lost 0.12% last week. U.S. stocks represented by the S&P 500 (SPX) index gained 1.83%. Both indices are in the picture below. The range of volatility of the LNG shipping stocks is relatively high. Better, volatility is higher than the total result of UPI -0.1% would seem. The difference between the biggest gain and loss is over 18%. The second exciting thing is that the biggest gain marked one of the week-before biggest ...