Premiums for high grade fines with low alumina content have weakened towards the end of the year, but market participants expect demand to pick up once steel margins have recovered next spring. Stay up to date with the latest commodity content. Sign up for our free daily Commodities Bulletin. Sign Up Despite the current tepid demand for high grade fines with end-users looking to lower production costs, market participants have pointed to strong underlying fundamentals that will support a recovery of high grade premiums in the spring. The shifting of ...

Oil prices were under pressure on Tuesday amid worries over global stock markets and doubts that planned output cuts led by producer club OPEC will be enough to rein in oversupply. But traders said crude prices received some support after Libya’s National Oil Company (NOC) declared force majeure on exports from the El Sharara oilfield, the country’s biggest, which was seized last weekend by a militia group. NOC said the shutdown would result in a production loss of 315,000 barrels per day (bpd), and an additional loss of 73,000 bpd ...

An unrealistic window for Chinese importers to ramp up purchases of US oil and gas, and unstable relations between the US and China have elevated the risks of US-China trades, according to market participants in China and Singapore. Commodity traders said boosting purchases of US crude oil for a 90-day period is inconsistent with the normal trading cycle for physical barrels, and for natural gas the prevailing conditions in the Asian LNG market make an immediate increase in spot procurement very difficult. In most cases, Chinese oil and gas companies ...

The weakening outlook for oil consumption coupled with rising output from U.S. shale and softer than expected U.S. sanctions on Iran have convinced most traders the market is moving into a period of oversupply. In the run up to last week’s OPEC meeting in Vienna, hedge fund managers had little confidence in the organisation’s ability to cut production by enough to avoid an oversupplied market next year. Fund managers sold another 32 million barrels of Brent futures and options in the week to Dec. 4, bringing total sales over the ...

Global oil markets can have a small celebration. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) has agreed to cut oil output by 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) starting January. Simultaneously, non-Opec friends will cut production by 400,000 bpd. Together, the output cut amounts to 1.2 million bpd and is broadly on expected lines. On Friday, Brent crude prices increased by 2.7% to $61.67 a barrel. According to an analyst who did not want to be named, the current deal would support Brent crude prices in the range of $60-65 ...

Oil prices are likely to remain priced around $60 per barrel for the best part of the next decade before increased use of renewable energies starts pushing prices down consistently, a leading UK economic think-tank has said. “A year ago we made an aggressive forecast for oil prices that had them falling to $40 by 2032. In retrospect, that was probably too aggressive and it now seems likely that growth of demand in non-OECD countries will be more robust than had been assumed when we made the forecast,” the London-based ...

Qatar’s decision to leave the OPEC may work in favor of major Asian oil consumers as the Persian Gulf producer could focus on increasing its condensate output, while ensuring stable supply of its light and medium sour crude oil in the Middle Eastern spot market, industry sources and analysts said this week. Many Asian refiners and petrochemical companies have been struggling to access Iranian South Pars condensate amidst the re-imposition of US sanctions on Tehran that took effect November 5 and left Qatar as the only supplier capable of exporting ...

Qatar’s exit from OPEC “won’t affect production moving forward,” the UAE’s energy minister said in Abu Dhabi. Suhail al-Mazrouei said the UAE did not understand Qatar’s decision to remove itself from OPEC, which the Qatari minister of state for energy affairs said last week was a strategic one. Qatar, one of OPEC’s smallest oil producers but one of the biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporters, is embroiled in a row with OPEC members Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It has an oil output of 600,000 barrels of oil ...

Global stocks wavered Tuesday, as investors awaited developments in trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing that kicked off with a phone call between key negotiators from both sides. The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.9% in early trading, clawing back some of the heavy early-week losses that dragged the index to a fresh two-year low Monday after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May postponed a crucial vote on her government’s Brexit bill. The British pound had last recovered 0.1% versus the U.S. dollar, but remained close to the 18-month low it ...

Foreigners were net buyers of Asian equities in November, data from seven regional stock exchanges showed, as investors were optimistic that Sino-U.S. trade tensions would ease and the U.S. Federal Reserve would hike interest rates fewer times next year. Foreigners net bought stocks worth $2.4 billion in November, the highest since a $7.1 billion inflow in January, stock exchange figures from South Korea, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam showed. During November, investors had expected a breakthrough in high-profile talks between U.S. and Chinese leaders, seen as key to ...

The yuan firmed on Tuesday on news that Beijing and Washington were discussing the next steps in their trade talks, easing fears that a fresh flare-up in Sino-U.S. tensions may derail the negotiations. A firmer dollar prompted the People’s Bank of China to set the midpoint rate <CNY=PBOC> at 6.8996 per dollar, its weakest level in one week and softer than the previous fix 6.8693.. The dollar’s strength was driven by the UK government postponing a key vote on Brexit, which battered the pound. But the yuan was supported by ...

During a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina last Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump agreed to a truce in the trade war escalation between their two countries. The chances for a comprehensive agreement with the United States were remote, and China’s charm offensive to rally support in Europe in the lead-up to the multilateral gathering in Buenos Aires was a sign of its desire to hedge against Trump’s anti-free-trade instincts. In his keynote speech at the “China meets Europe” summit ...

Silverstream Technologies, the leading air lubrication manufacturer for the shipping industry, has welcomed a changing mindset from ship owners and operators that is stimulating an increase in the uptake of proven clean technologies, and, in particular, enthusiasm for air lubrication technology as a fuel and emissions reduction solution. Silverstream recently announced a major deal with Grimaldi Group to install the Silverstream® System on 12 new ro-ro carriers. This follows the news that Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise vacation company, has also successfully retrofitted the technology onto the Diamond Princess ...

Freight rates to carry a 60,000 mt clean product cargo from the UK Continent to West Africa on a Long-Range tanker vessel strengthened to a three-year high of w170 Friday as demand for clean cargoes, mostly gasoline, drove rates up amid a very tight positioning list, meaning low tonnage. Since hitting an all time-low of w55 on October 4, 2016, rates increased steadily, reaching w170 on Friday, close to its all-time high of w175 of July 21, 2015, S&P Global Platts data shows. Similarly, rates to carry a 37,000 mt ...

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, said Monday it has received an order to build a liquefied natural gas ship for a Greek company. Daewoo Shipbuilding will build an LNG carrier for Maran Gas Maritime Inc., the gas shipping unit of Angelicoussis Shipping Group, by the first half of 2021, the company said in a statement. The shipping group has placed a total of 101 ship orders with Daewoo since 1994, with 85 of them delivered and 16 under construction in South ...