The Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority met Tuesday in its regular monthly meeting and received news of continued record-breaking activity across the public terminals. In his staff report, Executive Director Roger Guenther said business remains strong for the container and general cargo terminals, with 21.6 million tons handled through May. Container activity continues at record levels for the year and is 20% higher through May. “In fact, the 335,866 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) total represents the best month in Port Houston history,” Guenther said. “There are really ...

DP World and India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) have announced the broadening of their existing partnership, with NIIF Master Fund investing primary capital of INR 22.5 billion[1] (approximately US$300 million) for a shareholding of approximately 22.5% in Hindustan Ports Private Limited (HPPL), the wholly owned subsidiary of DP World. With this transaction, which is also the Master Fund’s single largest investment, NIIF’s investment under this partnership will reach around US$500 million. The transaction is subject to customary completion conditions and is expected to close by Q1 CY2023. HPPL ...

The first phase of China’s first sea-rail intermodal automated container terminal went into operation Tuesday in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. A ship loaded with goods from Indonesia became the first vessel to moor at the wharf in Qinzhou port. It left for Southeast Asia with China-made goods including auto parts, glass and chemicals on Tuesday. The first phase, including two 100,000-tonne container berths, was designed to handle 1.02 million standard containers per year. The second phase, including two 200,000-tonne container berths, is under construction. With a handling capacity ...

An Argentine truckers strike ended on Thursday, after some unions upset with diesel shortages reached a deal to lift the one-week protest around the major port of Rosario, which is expected to help the flow of grains for export going forward. The truck driver protest over high fuel prices has paralyzed corn and other grains exports just as the bulk of the harvest was headed to ports for shipment to foreign markets. Some protests, however, could continue since some smaller truckers groups were not involved in the deal. Argentina is ...

Indonesian coal exports in the January to May period rose 20.27%to 167 million tonnes from a year ago, an energy ministry official said, citing additional demand as the Ukraine crisis prompted more countries to switch to coal. India had asked for an additional 15 million tonnes of coal from Indonesia, while Germany was seeking 6 million tonnes, Tri Winarno said during a presentation. Indonesia’s coal output rose 3.17% in the first half to 249 mln tonnes, compared with 241.34 million tonnes in the same period a year ago, he said. ...

A U.S. pipeline safety regulator on Thursday said it found unsafe conditions at a Texas liquefied natural gas export facility and will not allow owner Freeport LNG to restart the plant until an outside analysis is complete. A June 8 blast and fire knocked out Freeport LNG’s Quintana plant, which exports about 15 million tonnes per year of the chilled fuel. The preliminary finding by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration indicates a partial restart could not happen before September. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Gary McWilliams)

The US Department of Agriculture estimated total US 2022 rice planted area at 2.3 acres, or 948,178 hectares, in its June 30 Acreage report, down 7.5% year on year. Long grain is estimated to account for 1.9 million acres, or 770,926 hectares, down 3.3% year on year, with Arkansas comprising 55% of the total crop and Louisiana comprising 20%. Medium grain planting is estimated to have declined 21% year on year to 417,000 acres, or 168,754 hectares. California is anticipated to represent 62%, with Arkansas comprising 24%. The total planted ...

Malaysian palm oil futures plummeted nearly 7% on Friday, on course for a fourth straight weekly loss, tracking a rout in crude and rival edible oils caused by recession fears. The benchmark palm oil contract FCPOc3 for September delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 337 ringgit, or 6.86%, to 4,573 ringgit ($1,037.43) a tonne by the midday break. For the week, palm has lost 1.95% and was set to post its longest losing streak since 2008. Weak palm fundamentals and a negative macro environment are weighing on palm ...

Algeria’s state oil and gas producer Sonatrach is negotiating ways to benefit from significant global gas price rises in its long-term contracts with European buyers, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Sonatrach is considering several options, including a partial link to spot price gas prices in contracts that have historically been linked to the price of Brent crude, the sources said. Concern over Russian gas supply to Europe has sent benchmark front month and day ahead Dutch TTF gas contracts up more than 80% and 110% respectively so ...

US natural gas working stocks increased by 82 Bcf during the week ended June 24, reducing the deficit to the five-year average to its lowest point yet this injection season and helping plunge natural gas futures to a three-month low. Now Storage inventories rose to 2.251 Tcf in the week ended June 24, the US Energy Information Administration reported on June 30. The weekly build outpaced even the highest estimate received in an S&P Global Commodity Insights’ survey of analysts, which called for a 72 Bcf weekly injection. Survey responses ...

USD: Still in demand The first six months of 2022 have been marked by the dominance of the dollar, with all G10 currencies scoring losses ranging from 2% (the Canadian dollar is the second best-performing currency) to 15% (Japanese yen). As we enter the second half of the year, we must ask ourselves in which way the drivers behind the dollar rally in 2022 – primarily the aggressive Fed tightening and an adverse risk environment – will play out in the remainder of the year. Our view remains that the ...

The U.S. dollar’s share of currency reserves reported to the International Monetary Fund was 58.8% in the first quarter, unchanged from that of the last three months of 2021, IMF data showed on Thursday. The greenback remains the largest-held currency reserve by global central banks. The euro’s share, however, slipped to 20% in the first quarter from 20.6% in the previous three months. In 2009, the euro hit its highest share at 28%. Global reserves, which are reported in U.S. dollars, are assets of central banks held in different currencies ...

Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday said global credit conditions have turned more negative amid rising borrowing costs, protracted Russia-Ukraine conflict and slower economic growth. It said the surge in energy and food costs spurred by the conflict in Ukraine is weakening the purchasing power of households, raising input costs for companies and dampening investor sentiment. Among sovereign debt issuers, debt sustainability will be especially challenging for many frontier market sovereigns as their borrowing costs climb, while their economies still have not fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, it said.”Global ...

European Central Bank policymakers put on a brave face at their annual gathering in the hills above the Portuguese capital and forecast further economic expansion despite looming gas shortages, but in private conversations recession fears were increasingly dominant. Growth has slowed sharply this year amid the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine, negating the economic rebound from pandemic lockdowns and raising the risk that any further escalation in the conflict could choke off whatever growth is still left. That would complicate life for the ECB, which is preparing for its ...

Inflation slows, but spending downturn warrants the headlines The May personal income and spending report offers some good news in that the Federal Reserve’s favoured measure of inflation – the core PCE deflator – slowed from 4.9% to 4.7% year-on-year versus the consensus forecast of 4.8%, but the activity front is not pleasant viewing. Real consumer spending fell -0.4% month-on-month rather than -0.3% as the consensus predicted, while April’s reading was revised down sharply from 0.7%MoM growth to 0.3%MoM. Following the large downward revisions to first-quarter consumer spending data yesterday, ...