Amid the latest COVID-19 flare-ups in China, fallacies have emerged in the Western media, from hyping up China’s suffering from a loss in foreign investment and supposed economic stagnation to accusing China of exacerbating the global supply chain crisis and drawing smaller economies into “debt traps.” The ultimate goal of these bizarre claims is to discredit China’s economy and its dynamic zero-COVID policy. None have a leg to stand on. STILL IDEAL INVESTMENT DESTINATION First, all that is needed is a simple review of the hard data and interviews with ...

Euro zone finance ministers agreed they would gradually shift their fiscal policies from supportive this year to neutral in 2023, the chairman of the ministers Paschal Donohoe told a news conference. Euro zone countries have been supporting their economies with public money since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the 19 countries sharing the euro, and the global economy, into a deep recession. But with the return of growth and with inflation at record highs, blanket stimulation of the economy no longer made sense the ministers said, focusing more on ...

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Tuesday she saw the ECB’s deposit rate at zero or “slightly above” by the end of September, implying an increase of at least 50 basis points from its current level. Her comments sent the euro rising against the dollar EUR= as markets priced in the risk of bigger ECB rate hikes this summer to fight record-high inflation. “We’re moving very likely into positive territory at the end of the third quarter,” Lagarde said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. Asked to clarify ...

China’s central bank urged the nation’s lenders to step up support for the real economy and meet credit demand, as the world’s second largest economy faces increased downward pressure. In a meeting with 24 financial institutions, the People’s Bank of China and China’s banking regulator urged lenders to “go all out to stabilize the fundamentals of the economy,” the PBOC said in a statement Tuesday. The PBOC urged banks to fully utilize different policy tools and support “high-quality” economic growth by increasing credit “appropriately”. It also asked banks to keep ...

Star Bulk Carriers Corp., a global shipping company focusing on the transportation of dry bulk cargoes, today announced its unaudited financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2022. Unless otherwise indicated or unless the context requires otherwise, all references in this press release to “we,” “us,” “our,” or similar references, mean Star Bulk Carriers Corp. and, where applicable, its consolidated subsidiaries. Petros Pappas, Chief Executive Officer of Star Bulk, commented: “Star Bulk reported strong results for the first quarter of 2022, with Net Income of $170.4 million, EBITDA ...

Some 62 million barrels of Russia’s flagship Urals crude oil, a record amount, are sitting in vessels at sea, data from energy analytics firm Vortexa showed, as traders struggled to find buyers for the crude. The United States and other countries have banned imports of Russian crude and oil products over its invasion of Ukraine, and others have avoided acquiring cargoes out of fear of future sanctions. The European Commission is considering an embargo of Russian oil. The volume of Urals crude oil on the water is triple the pre-war ...

The Ship It Zero coalition sent an open letter to shipping companies, including CMA CGM Group, A.P. Moller-Maersk, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, Evergreen Marine, and Ocean Network Express. Executive Director Alex Levinson of Pacific Environment and Executive Director Todd Paglia of Stand.earth sent a letter to shipping companies urging the company to order book and invest only zero-emissions technologies and fuels for their future global fleet. Excerpts from the letter: “We agree with the words of UN Secretary Guterres: Continued and increased investments by your companies in brand new fossil ...

MABUX World Bunker Index (consists of a range of prices for 380 HSFO, VLSFO and MGO in the main world hubs) demonstrated slight irregular changes on May 24: 380 HSFO – USD/MT – 734.69 (-0.77) VLSFO – USD/MT – 977.29 (+4.21) MGO – USD/MT – 1223.51 (+2.34) As of May 24, a correlation of MABUX MBP Index (Market Bunker Prices) vs MABUX DBP Index (Digital Bunker Prices Benchmark) in four largest global hubs showed that 380 HSFO fuel grade was overvalued in two out of four selected ports: Rotterdam – ...

From January to April of 2022, the cargo volume of Chinese ports was 4905.0 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 0.2%; the container throughput of Chinese ports was 91.0 million TEU, a year-on-year increase of 1.7%. The chart below shows the cargo throughput and container throughput data of the twelve major ports in China. In terms of container freight rates, the average value of the Ningbo Container Freight index (NCFI)1 in May was quotes 3480.6 points, have an increase of 0.6% compare to last month. Freight rates was drop slightly ...

Exolgan Container Terminal, which handles over 40 percent of the total container volume at the Port of Buenos Aires, has implemented ABB’s Crane OCR with QuayPro module for all of its seven STS cranes. QuayPro automatically tracks the location of containers discharged from and loaded to a vessel, significantly increasing the accuracy of BAPLIE (bayplan/stowage plan occupied and empty locations message) files. The first solution of its kind to go live in the industry, ABB’s QuayPro application has already improved the container terminal’s cargo-handling processes since its implementation. “Exolgan is ...

South Korea’s crude imports and middle distillate exports will likely extend their upward momentum into June as refiners continue to maximize operating rates to fully capture lucrative product cracks, industry and market participants said over May 20-24. A recent explosion at the S-Oil Corp. refinery complex in Ulsan will have minimal impact on the country’s overall refining capacity and crude oil demand for May-June as the company has been maintaining normal operations at all of its CDUs, the industry sources said. South Korea’s crude oil imports in April rose 10.7% ...

Lithuania has received its first rail delivery of grain from Ukraine for onward shipment from Klaipeda port, state-owned railway company LTG said. With Ukraine’s ports blocked by Russia’s invasion, the major grain grower has been unable to export nearly 25 million tonnes of grains, causing global food prices to soar. The country has been forced to send shipments across its western border, relying on limited railway capacity and small Danube river ports. “We expect to scale up to receiving a train per day from Ukraine, each with up to 1,500 ...

Copper prices are likely to move lower before stabilising due to worries about a slowdown in top metals consumer China and other major economies. But analysts say the long-term outlook is still strong due to lack of investment in new mines and demand generated by the green energy transition. Many analysts have trimmed their price estimates as copper slid by nearly a fifth over about two months after touching a record high of $10,845 a tonne in early March. Much of the buying that lifted copper since hitting a seven-month ...

Indian steel firms could be forced to cancel European orders and suffer losses after an overnight decision to impose export taxes on steel products, V R Sharma, managing director at Jindal Steel and Power told Reuters. India imposed an export tax of 15% on eight steel products late on Saturday, at a time steelmakers are looking to make up for tepid local demand by increasing market share in Europe, whose supplies have been hit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “They should have given us at least 2-3 months of time, ...

Farmers in Ukraine currently engaged in spring crop planting amid the ongoing conflict may have switched some of their corn acres to soybeans in the current season, general director of Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, Roman Slaston told S&P Global Commodity Insights in an interview. Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, or UCAB, is a business association representing leading agriculture companies of Ukraine. Farmers switching from corn to soybeans implies there will be lesser corn available for global supplies that have been already projected to fall. Ukraine’s corn switch to other crops is happening also ...