World EV Sales Report — Top Selling Auto Brands & Groups
We published our report on the world’s top selling EV models yesterday. Now, let’s look at which auto brands and auto groups sold the most plugin vehicles and the most BEVs in September.
Top Selling Brands
In September, #1 BYD, now deep into pricing out the competition (fossil fueled and electric…) didn’t disappoint. It scored some 399,000 registrations, which is, of course, a new record. With sales at this level already, one starts to wonder how high the Shenzhen make’s sales could go. Would 900,000 units per month be possible?
As for Tesla, it continues randomly switching between black and red, between growth and dropping sales. After an 11% drop in August, the company returned to black, jumping by 24% in September. As of 2024, there were four growth months (January, May, July, and September) and five months in the red (February, March, April, June, and August). As it is, the jury is still out on whether 2024 could be the first year of dropping sales for the US make.
Regardless of what happens in 2024, expect 2025 to be a year of growth, with the Model Y refresh, the Cybertruck ramp-up, and (maybe) a new, cheaper model in the second half of the year — with the question now being: “By how much?”
Below the top two, we have three Chinese brands in record setting mode, with Wuling winning the last position on the podium with close to 68,000 registrations, beating #4 Li Auto’s score of 55,000 registrations.
The third Chinese make to score a record performance was the #5 Geely, which got 53,000 registrations, and this performance is the most important of the three, as Geely has a number of models ramping up (Geely Galaxy E5) or in the pipeline (Geely Galaxy Starship 7). Expect it to continue rising in the table, probably ending the year in 3rd.
Despite ending the month in 6th, Volkswagen actually had a good month, with the 44,000 units of September representing its best score this year. The new VW ID.7 (a record 5,600 units) helped along the ID.3 and ID.4 in keeping the German make afloat.
In the second half of the table, highlights also came from China, with four brands scoring record results. The #11 Leap Motor scored 33,000 registrations, its second record performance in a row, #13 Chery had a record 29,000 registrations, much thanks to the Fengyun T9 PHEV, in #17 we have Zeekr hitting 22,000 units, with the new 7X SUV landing with over 4,000 registrations, and finally, at #19, XPeng had a record 20,609 registrations, with the new Mona M03 representing half of XPeng’s deliveries.
In the YTD table, there wasn’t much to report regarding the podium. BYD has double the sales of Tesla, and the US brand has three times as many registrations as #3 BMW. But while BYD continues to grow by double digits, Tesla’s sales are stagnant in 2024.
Far below these two, which are really in a league of their own, BMW, the #1 premium brand in the ranking, stayed in its podium position, but with a rising #4 Wuling only 17,000 units behind, and #5 Li Auto shortening the distances from 39,000 units in August to 26,000 units now, BMW should end the year in 5th, thus losing the bronze medal it won in 2023.
The 6th position of Volkswagen is also in danger, as rising Geely, which was up to 7th in September, could surpass it by the end of the year.
In the second half of the table, Toyota benefitted from a bad month from Audi and climbed to 13th. The Ingolstadt-based make needs to be less dependent on the Audi Q4 e-tron, so the ramp-up of the new Q6 e-tron and A6 e-tron need to happen sooner than later.
Leap Motor profited from a record streak of performances to continue climbing in the table, rising one position to 17th.
Top Selling OEMs for EV Sales
Looking at registrations by OEM, #1 BYD again gained share, thanks to its recent price cuts and new model launches, going from 23.2% to its current 23.4% (it had 21.9% a year ago), while Tesla ended September with 11 % share (it had 14% in the same period of 2023).
3rd place is in the hands of Geely–Volvo, with the OEM growing by 0.1%, to 7.9% share. The Chinese OEM is the one that most progressed in the top 5, going from 6.1% in September 2023 to its current 7.9%.
Considering Tesla’s recent share drop and Geely’s significant growth, will we see the Chinese juggernaut threaten Tesla’s silver medal in the near future? This year is unlikely, but in the second half of next year … it could very well happen.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen Group (5.9%) stayed in 4th, but lost distance over #5 SAIC (5.3%, up from 5.2%). Thanks to Wuling’s positive month, the Shanghai-based OEM managed to compensate for the slow month from the rest of the lineup.
Below SAIC, #6 BMW Group (3.6%, down from 3.7% in August) lost ground over the competition, with #7 Changan (also down to 3.6%) now just 4,000 units behind the German OEM.
Looking just at BEVs, Tesla remained in the lead with 17.5% share, but it has lost 2.6% share compared to the same period last year. In second is BYD (16.2%, up from 15.9% in August). With Tesla losing share, we might see BYD surpass it in the first half of 2025. It is not doing so sooner, because the Shenzhen OEM is now focusing on PHEVs, so expect only significant growth on its BEV side next year.
Geely–Volvo (7.8%, up from 7.6%) was up thanks to good results across its long lineup of brands. Comparing the OEM’s performance to where it was 12 months ago, the progress is visible, jumping from 5.6% share in September 2023 to its current 7.6%!
But with SAIC (7.9%, up from 7.6% in August) also on the rise, much thanks to Wuling, the Shanghai OEM surpassed Geely and is now in 3rd place.
The Volkswagen Group (6.8%) is stable in 5th, and should remain there until the end of the year.
Below the top 5, BMW Group (4.2%, down from 4.3% in August) is steady in 6th, followed by #7 Hyundai–Kia (4.1%).
Opening speeches rarely contain such frank and unsparing political attacks, nor such open fossil fuel defenses.
BAKU, Azerbaijan — The petrostate autocrat and host of this year’s COP29 climate talks, Ilham Aliyev, used his opening address to gripe at hypocritical Western governments who buy his gas and lecture him about torching the planet.
“Unfortunately double standards, a habit to lecture other countries and political hypocrisy became kind of modus operandi for some politicians, state-controlled NGOs and fake news media in some Western countries,” Aliyev said.
Opening speeches at the annual COP climate conferences rarely contain such frank and unsparing political attacks, nor such open fossil fuel defenses — especially not by the host nation.
Oil and gas, Aliyev said, are “a gift of the God” — just the same as any other natural resource.
“Countries should not be blamed for having them and should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market because the market needs them," he proclaimed. "The people need them.”
It’s the second straight year that a fossil fuel-dependent nation has hosted COP. Last year, the United Arab Emirates played host but mounted a less belligerent case for fossil fuels, saying only that they would remain essential to the global economy for some time.
Aliyev took particular aim at European countries that have readily signed deals to expand their purchasing of Azerbaijani gas in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“It was not our idea,” he said. “It was a proposal of the European Commission.” He described his meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in July 2022, when the EU signed a deal with Azerbaijan to double gas supplies from the country.
“They needed our gas due to the changed geopolitical situation and they asked us to help,” the president said.
A Commission spokesperson did not comment on Aliyev's speech. The European Union has been pushing hard for the Baku talks to reiterate and strengthen a deal struck last year to phase out fossil fuels.
Azerbaijan’s economy is heavily reliant on oil and gas production. In 2022, it accounted for almost half of the country’s GDP and 92.5 percent of export revenue, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration.
“As president of COP29, of course, we will be a strong advocate for green transition and we are doing it,” said Aliyev. “But at the same time, we must be realistic.”
Aliyev also slammed U.S. media for calling Azerbaijan a “petrostate” when their country is the number one oil and gas producer on Earth.
He finished with a swipe at civil society groups who called for a boycott of COP29 due to Azerbaijan's repressive government and fossil fuel footprint.
“I have bad news for them,” the mustachioed president said, to rising applause in the room. “We have 72,000 registered participants from 196 countries. Among them 80 presidents, vice presidents and prime ministers. So the world gathered in Baku, and we say to the world: Welcome to Azerbaijan.”
Nearly every technology company touts its artificial intelligence credentials these days. I don't blame them, considering AI is a valuable addition to many software and services.
But just because tons of companies are quickly integrating AI into their offerings, it doesn't mean they're top AI stocks. Instead, you should look for leaders who are knee-deep in this segment and setting the pace in the AI race. Here are three top AI stocks leading the pack that are worth buying right now.
Start Your Mornings Smarter! Wake up with Breakfast news in your inbox every market day. Sign Up For Free »
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Palantir
Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) was in the business of helping organizations sort data before AI became commonplace. For years, it focused on using artificial intelligence to help the government parse through gobs of data, but it has since expanded into the commercial market.
Its early lead in this space is paying off. The company just reported its third-quarter results (which ended Sept. 30), in which revenue rose 30% from the year-ago quarter to $726 million and adjusted earnings per share spiked 43% to $0.10.
U.S. commercial revenue, a fast-growing part of Palantir's business, increased sales by 54% to $179 million and accounted for about one-quarter of the company's total revenue in the quarter. Part of that growth comes from Palantir's impressive customer growth, which was up 39% in the quarter amid 104 customer deals that were worth $1 million or more.
If I have one hesitation with Palantir, it's the company's sky-high valuation. Palantir's shares have forward price-to-earnings of 101 right now. That's expensive by any measure.
However, the company is clearly making the right moves in the AI race and is also profitable, not to mention having $4.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents. With its customers knocking down its doors for its tech, and sales and earnings growing at a healthy clip, Palantir likely still has more room to run.
2. Nvidia
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is one of the obvious choices when it comes to top AI stocks. For years, the company has dominated the graphics processing unit (GPU) market when they were mainly used for gaming, but now its GPUs are far and away the leading choice to power AI data centers as well.
The most recent estimates give Nvidia's chips between 70% to 95% of the AI chip market, and its latest product lineup -- including its popular H200 processor -- will likely keep the company ahead of the competition for some time.
You might be wondering if demand for AI chips could be high enough to fuel sustained growth for Nvidia, and to that, I'd say that both Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang and Goldman Sachs think $1 trillion in AI spending will occur over the next few years, most of which will be funneled into data centers.
Story Continues
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-top-artificial-intelligence-stocks-113000753.html
After a holiday-truncated week, the market is expected to consolidate further with stock-specific action due to the last lot of the September quarter results, US inflation, Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech, India’s CPI inflation, and FII activity. The markets will remain shut on the 15th of this month for Guru Nanak Jayanti.
Next week, more than 2,500 companies will declare their September quarter results, including ONGC, Britannia, Hindalco, Eicher Motors, Grasim, Hyundai Motor Hero MotoCorp, etc. Apart from earnings, there will be a focus on the CPI inflation for October, which will be announced on Tuesday, followed by the announcement of WPI Inflation for October on the 14th of this month. Globally, investors will keep an eye on US inflation and retail sales in October. Furthermore, global markets will monitor speeches by several Fed officials during the week, including Powell’s on the 15th of this month. The Euro zone’s GDP numbers as well as preliminary estimates for the UK and Japan’s Q3 GDP figures are also due next week, while China will release its retail sales, industrial production, house price index, and unemployment numbers for October.
State Administration Council Chairman Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing pledged to increase trade and investment between Myanmar and China at the gathering of China-Myanmar business leaders at Hualuxe Kunming Hotel in Kunming, People’s Republic of China, on 5 November on his visit to China to attend the 8th Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Summit.
At the gathering, the Senior General said that advanced technolo¬gies and biotechnology are widely used in China’s agricultural sector, and the country invites enhanced cooperation with partner business people to transfer technology through investments, pro¬duce suitable agricultural products, and ensure value-added food safety that can also sustain the ecosystem.
Utilizing agricultural and livestock sound foundations, Myanmar is striving to become one of the countries manufacturing foods worldwide. However, it cannot meet the visions due to the requirements to utilize agricultural techniques and farmlands fully. Up to now, Myanmar still requires agricultural techniques, such as the production of fertilizers, plant drugs and pesticides to boost agrarian produce.
At present, the government is ready to assist in the creation of opportunities for an increasing amount of investments in the agricultural sector. Hence, investors are invited to operate farming and agricultural tasks and distribute modern machinery and farm equipment and warehouses in order to leverage up the agrarian mechanization sector as Myanmar possesses favourable weather and adequate land plots for the agricultural tasks.
Myanmar has more than 65 million hectares of farmlands among Southeast Asian countries. However, some 20 per cent of these land plots have been placed under crops. Fertile farmlands without chemical residues in Myanmar are good opportunities for investors. Moreover, investors can seek opportunities to operate agro-based livestock breeding farms in a broader scale.
The government anticipates operating livestock farms using modern techniques and producing frozen meats. Likewise, the government is keen to upgrade agricultural sector to the mechanized farming in order to deliver value-added agricultural and livestock products, as the country has a large food market due to its location close to populous neighbouring countries. Hence, the government provides aid for foreign investors to ease work process in agriculture and livestock sectors.
The Myanmar Investment Commission has decided to prioritize partner businesspersons in manufacturing fertilizers, electric vehicles, cement, steel, agricultural and livestock value-added products, medicines and medications and cooking oil. As such, clarifications from the Head of State on his tour of China to Chinese businesspersons can contribute to boosting the State economy in the future.
https://www.gnlm.com.mm/enhance-partnership-businesses-to-boost-value-added-product-production/
U.S. container imports are projected to rise through the end of the year as retailers prepare for a possible East Coast and Gulf Coast port strike and anticipated tariff hikes under President-elect Donald Trump. According to the National Retail Federation’s latest Global Port Tracker report, uncertainty over labor negotiations and proposed tariffs is prompting retailers to expedite shipments and redirect cargo to West Coast ports to avoid disruptions.
In October, a brief strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) led to a temporary agreement extending the contract until January 15, with wage increases on the table. Jonathan Gold, NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy, warned that a prolonged strike could occur if negotiations stall, sparking contingency measures among shippers. Ben Hackett, founder of Hackett Associates, added that recent import spikes are largely driven by these preemptive actions rather than organic demand.
Amid this, President-elect Trump’s proposed tariffs—up to 20% on all imports and even steeper tariffs on goods from China—are adding further pressure on importers to move goods quickly. In September, U.S. ports handled 2.29 million TEUs, a 12.8% year-over-year increase, with continued growth expected in November and December. Total TEUs for 2024 are forecasted to reach 25.3 million, a 13.6% rise over 2023.
Looking into 2025, January’s imports are forecast at 2.01 million TEU, up 2.5% year-over-year, with a dip expected in February due to Lunar New Year factory closures in Asia.
Britain’s hubristic plans for green energy may soon face a reckoning
The country is in the grip of anticyclonic gloom. No, not a metaphor for the post-budget national mood, but the meteorologists’ term for the weather here over the past week — forecast to last throughout this one, too. It is characterised by very low wind speeds and pervasive low cloud, blotting out all sight of the sun.
Identical conditions are prevailing in Germany: they call it Dunkelflaute (which, characteristically, sounds even gloomier). In both countries, it has had the same effect: a near complete collapse in energy from “renewables” — wind and solar power. At 4pm on November 5 in the UK, only 4 per cent of our energy needs were met by those sources. Fortunately hydrocarbons were at hand to keep the lights on, with gas ramped up to supply 63 per cent of requirements.
By unhappy coincidence, that same day, Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, published a piece in The Guardian headlined “A rebuke to those who said clean power by 2030 was unachievable: they were wrong, we were right.” His tin-eared triumphalism was based on a report, also made public on November 5, by the National Energy System Operator (NESO). This “independent” body (listed in Companies House as having only one person with “significant control” — the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero) had approved Labour’s plan to make the UK’s electricity supply fossil-fuel free by 2030 while declaring it “at the limit of what is feasible .. requiring Herculean effort”.
Hercules, alas, is a figure of myth, which aptly describes both Miliband’s conception of energy security and his claim that the colossal investment in going carbon free — not least in fantastically expensive “battery storage” when the wind doesn’t blow — will pay for itself. Also much of the NESO document that he judges to be an endorsement is a work of imagination. That report assumes not just that the UK can over the next few years increase its delivery of offshore wind fourfold and of solar by sevenfold compared with the last five years, but that “demand flexibility” will more than quadruple over the same period.
Demand flexibility is a useful euphemism. What it means is that NESO expects “incentivised” consumers to cut electricity use during periods of low wind or when energy supply is otherwise constrained by the policy of the government in action. Or else: blackouts. And, indeed, not being able to charge the electric cars that we have been urged and incentivised to buy, and which are only increasing the burden on the National Grid.
If you think that’s worrying, try talking to the engineers charged with realising Ed’s impossible dream. Or rather — because it’s dangerous for employees to speak out — those who used to run the system. An acquaintance, now retired from the National Grid, emailed me: “I fear we are heading into a world of incredible costs and at the same time putting the security of supply to our country in peril.”
Still, this “Herculean effort”, along with Labour’s decision to stop all new exploration for oil and gas in the North Sea, will enable Ed Miliband to stake a claim to “Britain’s climate leadership”, or whatever, when he flies (obviously) to the UN’s Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan this week. It’s anyway absurd that a country responsible for no more than 1 per cent of the world’s manmade carbon emissions should, three quarters of a century after we scuttled from empire, posture as a big player in the “great game” of global energy.
This pretence has been savagely exposed by the election last week of Donald J Trump as the 47th president of the US. The Labour Party liked to suggest that its own policies were somehow aligned with “Bidenomics”— the Democratic strategy of massive subsidies for “green energy” and (relative) restraint of the oil and gas industry. But far from being immensely popular in the US, whatever its ecological virtues, it has just been comprehensively rejected at the ballot box.
Trump promised to “unleash” the oil and gas industry, and “free up the vast stores of liquid gold on America’s public land for energy development”, while ending the subsidies of “renewables”. In the wake of the election result, US oil company shares took off while those of companies in the renewable sector plummeted.
And Trump will almost certainly use his executive power to withdraw the US from the 2015 Paris climate accord. In a way, this is preferable to the behaviour of so many other countries, which preach piety in this matter, but act to maximise their oil and gas output. For example, the actual host of Cop29: the Azeri president, Ilham Aliyev, described his country’s oil and gas resources as “a gift from God” and is, one might say, religiously dedicated to increasing production.
Brazil will be hosting next year’s UN climate summit, and at his inauguration last year the left-wing president, Lula da Silva, declared that his country would be “a leader in tackling the climate crisis”. But he also wants to alleviate poverty in Brazil: so he has declared the goal of making his country the world’s fourth largest oil producer (it’s currently in eighth place). This includes a plan to drill for the black stuff in waters at the mouth of the Amazon. Or as Lula put it: “Why can the US and Saudi Arabia continue being oil suppliers and not Brazil?”
Then there is our own North Sea neighbour, Norway. It is acclaimed for its take- up of electric vehicles: in August almost 95 per cent of new car registrations in Norway were EVs. But what’s this? According to the Norwegian Shelf Directorate, this country with a population of just 5.5 million plans over the coming years to boost its exploration and production in the North Sea “to the highest level since 2010”. While on our side of the North Sea median line, the talk is all about the exorbitant costs of decommissioning oilfields. Meanwhile in Oslo, plans are in train to develop a new Norwegian “Arctic petroleum province” in the waters of the far north.
The question, then: is it the governments of Norway and Brazil that have lost their senses? Is Ed Miliband the sanest man in the room? And, with the US gaining vast amounts of industrial investment at Europe’s expense, because of its much lower energy costs (the benefits of its gas “fracking” boom), will the rest of the world look at the UK and Germany, and say: “Those guys really knew what they were doing, when they put all their money on wind and solar”?
That’s before any blackouts. Such an outcome did for Edward Heath’s government 50 years ago, but that lot could at least try to blame it on the coalminers. If something similar happens under Labour towards the end of its first term, there will be no one to blame but itself. The public mood, then, will make anticyclonic gloom look like a ray of sunshine.
Stocks notched their best week of the year as investors cheered President-elect Donald Trump’s economic agenda.
“Tax cuts are behind the rally … and in general, there is the perception that markets like Republican administrations, although certainly the performance for the past few years of the Democratic administration has not exactly been shabby,” Interactive Brokers' Steve Sosnick explained to me on Yahoo Finance's special election coverage.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) skyrocketed more than 1,700 points from Wednesday through Friday, closing the week up 4.6%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) surged to a record, while the Russell 2000 (^RUT) hit its highest level since November 2021.
But the market should be careful what it wishes for. Experts tell me as clarity emerges, a resurgence in inflation from trade tariffs and additional government spending could pose a risk to the market’s momentum and temper rate cuts from the Fed.
“The sharp spike [in the markets] is, to some extent, a reaction to the expectation of solid growth, deregulation, tax cuts … But the other part of that, of course, is that it can lead to greater inflation and wider fiscal deficits,” Sonal Desai, Franklin Templeton Fixed Income chief investment officer, told me on Catalysts.
Stifel’s Barry Bannister, who sees a downside risk of 5,250 for the S&P 500 a year from now, is keeping a close watch for a resurgence in inflation. S&P closed out the week above 6,000.
"If inflation proves resurgent … we suspect Chairman Powell's last 12 months in office (May 2025 to May 2026) are a significant investor risk, magnified by the repercussions of the approaching 2026 US midterm elections," Bannister wrote in a note to clients.
Truist co-chief investment officer Keith Lerner echoed the point on a new episode of the Opening Bid podcast (listen in below).
This option is unavailable due to your privacy preferences. Please update your privacy settings to enable it.
Deutsche Bank anticipates Trump’s fiscal, trade, and immigration policies could result in an upward adjustment to its inflation forecast. The team, led by Matthew Luzzetti, projects inflation could rise by roughly 0.5% in 2026 to about 2.5%, primarily due to the inflationary impact of tariffs.
Reports Friday that Trump asked Robert Lighthizer to return to his administration as US trade Representative could signal a more aggressive approach to tariffs. During Trump’s first term, Lighthizer played a key role in his escalating trade war with China, implemented tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, and helped renegotiate the US's trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.
For investors, hardware stocks are among the tech stocks that are "most at-risk" given smartphones, PCs, tablets, wearables, and servers are still primarily assembled in China, according to Morgan Stanley.
“We estimate that if President-elect Trump were to use executive orders to reinstitute Section 301 tariffs on goods imported from China, our coverage would face, on average, 4-7% downside to FY25 EPS,” Erik Woodring wrote in a note to clients this week, warning that Dell (DELL), HPQ (HPQ), and Logitech (LOGI) would face the “greatest headwinds.”
The prospect of tariffs, coupled with an extension of the 2017 tax cuts, are a “highly dangerous” mix for the economy and the market and could lead to higher prices, according to veteran economist Nouriel Roubini.
“If you take at face value what he wants to do on trade, on currency, on monetary and fiscal policy, [the policies would] be highly dangerous," Roubini warned on Morning Brief earlier this year.
Other tax-related ideas floated by Trump, including lowering the corporate tax rate to 15% and a pledge to end taxing on tips, overtime pay, and social security benefits, point to additional risks of a ballooning deficit.
“For the first time in my lifetime, I'm actually becoming very concerned,” Dennis Gartman, former editor of the Gartman Letter, told me. "I'm worried about the economy and the country fiscally going forward for the younger generation.”
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the policies outlined by Trump through his campaign could add $7.75 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, driven in part by plans to extend tax cuts, further cut taxes for corporations and small businesses, and expand deportations.
Seana Smith is an anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Smith on Twitter @SeanaNSmith. Tips on deals, mergers, activist situations, or anything else? Email seanasmith@yahooinc.com.
(Bloomberg) -- The world’s biggest asset manager is leaning into the stock market’s post-election rally after shying away from risk exposure in the run-up to the vote.
More than $1.9 billion flooded into the $13 billion iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (ticker MTUM) on Friday, the biggest one-day flow since the fund’s 2013 launch, data compiled by Bloomberg show. At the same time, a record $1 billion exited from the $32.5 billion iShares Core Total USD Bond Market ETF (IUSB). A BlackRock spokesperson confirmed that the firm adjusted its model portfolio allocations last week.
The influx of funds into MTUM reflects BlackRock’s conviction that US equities — fresh off their best weekly performance of 2024 — will continue to climb as a “coiled spring” of pent-up business activity unwinds. With election uncertainty resolved, decisions on corporate capital allocations that were formerly on hold will resume. As such, the firm’s model portfolio team, which oversees about $131 billion in assets, is increasing its overweight on stocks from 3% to 4% heading into year-end.
“Rather than attempting to thread the needle with tactical sector or industry bets tied to specific electoral outcomes, we’re positioning for a broader relief rally that we believe will transcend partisan results,” Michael Gates, lead portfolio manager for BlackRock’s Target Allocation ETF model portfolio suite wrote in investment commentary dated Nov. 8. “This ‘uncertainty discount’ embedded in market prices should begin to thaw as businesses and investors regain their footing and seek to execute on delayed strategic initiatives.”
Model portfolios — which package together funds into ready-made strategies to sell to advisers — have ballooned in size in recent years. Broadridge Financial Solutions estimates that model assets likely reached $5.1 trillion at the end of 2023, and could reach $11 trillion by 2028. As a result, even small adjustments can cause big shifts in ETF flows.
In addition to post-vote clarity, Gates wrote that recent economic data — showing that the labor market is cooling while growth remains resilient — should support the Federal Reserve’s rate-cutting campaign, adding to the firm’s bullish conviction.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blackrock-plows-2-billion-momentum-143200650.html
China has warned President-elect Donald Trump to handle issues related to Taiwan "prudently" to avoid "severely damaging" relations between Beijing and Washington.
Beijing, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province, pledged to take "all necessary measures" to uphold its "One China" principle. Under the first Trump administration, Washington and Beijing went toe-to-toe on trade, tariffs and tech.
In response to a question about Trump and Taiwan, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S., told Newsweek: "The Taiwan question is the most important and most sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations.
"The U.S. government needs to earnestly abide by the One China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiqués and prudently handle Taiwan-related issues so as to avoid severe damage to China-U.S. relations and cross-Strait peace and stability."
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are seen during the plenary session at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017. China has warned President-elect Trump to handle issues related to... More MIKHAIL SVETLOV/GETTY
Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign for comment via email.
This comes after the U.S. announced it will be providing Taiwan with a surface-to-air missile defense system as part of a $2 billion arms package in response to escalating tensions with China.
The arms package, which was approved in October, includes three National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and related equipment valued at up to $1.16 billion, according to the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. It also features radar systems estimated to be worth $828 million.
In response, the Chinese Embassy said: "The sales seriously undermine China's sovereignty and security interests, harm China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and send a gravely wrong message to 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces. China strongly condemns and firmly opposes this and has lodged serious protests with the U.S."
The U.S., Taiwan's closest ally, maintains strong ties with the island, which is crucial to Western foreign policy and influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
U.S. relations with China and Taiwan are complex, and the "One China" policy, established in the 1970s, is central to this relationship. Under this, the U.S. acknowledges Beijing's stance that there is only one China, including Taiwan, while not explicitly endorsing China's sovereignty over Taiwan. This ambiguous stance allows the U.S. to maintain unofficial relations with Taiwan, supporting it in various ways without officially recognizing it as an independent state.
Meanwhile, Beijing cautioned Trump that raising tariffs on Chinese goods could harm the American economy.
During his campaign, Trump pledged to impose 60 percent tariffs on all Chinese exports, a move that would significantly impact China's economy. Tariffs are central to Trump's "America First" economic strategy, designed to protect U.S. industries and stimulate domestic growth.
Dean of the School of Business and Management at Notre Dame de Namur University John M. Veitch told Newsweek, "there will be significant losses to the economy" if a trade war is reignited.
"China is not in a particularly strong economic situation right now. They have seen weakening in important sectors like construction and real estate," he said. "Their central bank has recently implemented new monetary policies and tools to try to stimulate capital markets and the economy broadly.
"Trade wars always have very asymmetric impacts on an economy—overall consumers will lose as they pay higher prices for imported goods and likely higher prices for U.S. goods whose prices were previously held in check by possible imports. This will be a large loss to the economy as a whole and probably a loss that consumers themselves will feel, especially given U.S. consumer sensitivity to past inflation."
In response to Trump's comments suggesting he would impose "massive tariffs" on China if it "went into Taiwan" and that Taiwan might have to pay for U.S. protection, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office said the people of Taiwan had a clear understanding of U.S. policy.
"Whether the United States is trying to protect or harm Taiwan, I believe most of our Taiwan compatriots have already made a rational judgment and know very clearly that what the United States pursues is always America first," Zhu Fenglian told a regular news briefing.
"Taiwan at any time may turn from a pawn to a discarded child," Fenglian said, without referring to Trump by name.
https://www.newsweek.com/china-issues-donald-trump-warning-taiwan-1983824
TSMC reportedly halts advanced chip shipments to Chinese companies
After a chip manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was found inside a Huawei processor, the US Department of Commerce has ordered the company to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, according to a report in Reuters.
Huawei faces significant trade restrictions from the US, so the pause on shipments is supposed to allow the government to determine whether other companies are diverting chips to Huawei.
TSMC reportedly notified affected customers that it will be halting shipments starting Monday. The advanced chips being targeted are often used for artificial intelligence applications — an area where the US has already been restricting chip exports from companies like Nvidia.
In a statement provided to Reuters and other publications, TSMC said it is “committed to complying with all applicable rules and regulations, including applicable export controls.”
Indian equities continued their downward trend for the fifth consecutive session on Wednesday, with major indices closing significantly lower as concerns over macroeconomic challenges and foreign fund outflows weighed on sentiment. The BSE Sensex dropped 984 points, or 1.25 percent, to close at 77,690, while the NSE Nifty declined by 324 points, or 1.36 percent, to end at 23,559, both touching multi-month lows.
This week alone, the Sensex has lost 1,795 points, or 2.26 percent, while the Nifty has shed 589 points, or 2.44 percent. Among the biggest losers on the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Eicher Motors. Gainers included NTPC, Britannia Industries, Hindustan Unilever, and Tata Motors.
Sectoral indices all ended in the red, with auto, capital goods, metals, realty, PSU banks, power, and media sectors dropping between 2 to 3 percent. The BSE Midcap index declined by 2.5 percent, while the Smallcap index fell 3 percent.
With the U.S. elections concluded, Indian market focus has shifted back to domestic factors such as foreign fund inflows, the final phase of the Q2 earnings season, and inflationary trends. India’s retail inflation climbed to 6.21 percent in October, surpassing the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance threshold of 6 percent.
Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have continued to withdraw from Indian markets. November alone has seen net sales of Rs 23,911 crore in equities, following a record Rs 94,017 crore in October, the highest monthly outflow ever, as per National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) data.
The Trump victory has added an element of high volatility to markets, said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.
“Investors should be cautious in investing in sectors like cement, metals and petroleum refining which are facing growth slowdown. Safety is sectors like banking, new age digital companies, hotels, pharma and IT where growth prospects are good,” said Vijayakumar.
“The correction reflects investors’ growing caution amid rich valuations and macroeconomic uncertainties, with both Nifty and Sensex falling to their respective five-month lows today,” said Vikram Kasat, Head – Advisory, PL Capital – Prabhudas Lilladher.
https://ddnews.gov.in/en/indian-stocks-slide-to-multi-month-lows-amid-persistent-sell-off/
SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korean shares fell to their lowest level in a year Wednesday, extending their losing streak to a fourth day, as investors' concerns grew over policy uncertainties under the incoming U.S. Trump administration.
The local currency also dropped against the U.S. dollar to a two-year low, breaching 1,400 won for the second straight session as of 3:30 p.m.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index sank 65.49 points, or 2.64 percent, to close at 2,417.08, marking the lowest since Nov. 13, 2023, when the index closed at 2,403.76.
Trade volume was moderate at 605 million shares worth 10.8 trillion won (US$7.6 billion), with losers far outpacing winners 801 to 104.
Foreigners sold a net 711 billion won worth of local stocks, and individuals bought a net 650 billion won. Institutions bought a net 18.7 billion won.
Investors' sentiment was dampened, with exporters, such as Samsung Electronics and POSCO, coming under heavy sell-offs.
The weak Korean won also added downward pressure to the market, which investors fear would accelerate foreign capital flight.
"The domestic market is in a slump due to the strong U.S. dollar and a rise in government bond yields," Kim Ji-won, a researcher at KB Securities, said.
Top market cap Samsung Electronics plunged 4.53 percent to 50,600 won, the lowest closing in more than four years amid lingering concerns over its business competitiveness in the chip market.
Carmakers also finished bearish, with industry leader Hyundai Motor falling 3.43 percent and its sister Kia losing 1.2 percent.
Steelmakers closed lower as well, with POSCO Holdings sinking 5.25 percent and Korea Zinc sliding 14.1 percent.
The local currency was trading at 1,406.6 won against the greenback at 3:30 p.m., down 3.1 won from the previous session's close.
The Korean won has been hovering around the psychologically significant 1,400 against the U.S. dollar, following Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election last week.
The Korean financial market, meanwhile, will open at 10 a.m., one hour later than usual, on Thursday due to the national college entrance exam.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys added 3.9 basis points to 2.939 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds added 4.5 basis point to 2.984 percent.
colin@yna.co.kr
(END)
Negotiations for the UK’s Small Modular Reactor (SMR) program have officially begun. The four finalists in the running are GE Hitachi, Holtec, Rolls-Royce SMR, and Westinghouse. These discussions mark a decisive step in selecting a technology to strengthen the UK’s energy capacity while meeting safety and sustainability requirements.
Great British Nuclear (GBN), the organization overseeing this program, announced that each proposed project has undergone a thorough analysis. This evaluation considered criteria such as safety, feasibility, and rapid deployment potential. Simon Bowen, chairman of GBN, stated: “Our technical experts have reviewed each design in detail and are confident that these SMRs could play a key role in the UK’s future energy mix.”
The Competing Technologies
The proposed designs include:
– BWRX-300 from GE Hitachi: A boiling water reactor based on proven technologies.
– SMR-300 from Holtec: A 300 MWe pressurized water reactor designed for modular production.
– Rolls-Royce SMR: A 470 MWe pressurized water reactor offering higher energy capacity.
– AP300 from Westinghouse: A 300 MWe/900 MWth pressurized water reactor.
Each design emphasizes pre-existing technologies and modularity to reduce construction times and costs.
A Strategic Timeline
Initially scheduled for the end of 2024, the technology selection has been postponed to spring 2025. GBN plans to sign contracts with one to three suppliers to co-finance the projects through regulatory, environmental, and site-specific authorizations. Final investments are expected to be decided by 2029, enabling a swift rollout of the selected SMRs.
Although there has been a change in government, current leaders have committed to continuing the program, underscoring its strategic importance in addressing long-term energy and climate challenges.
A Key Project for the UK’s Energy Mix
This program aligns with the UK’s transition to low-carbon energy, where SMRs could provide a complementary energy source to wind and solar. With sites capable of hosting multiple units, these reactors could bolster the UK’s energy resilience, reduce dependency on fossil fuels, and support its net-zero carbon goals.
GBN affirmed that each competing technology is considered viable and could be integrated into the national nuclear program, provided that negotiations lead to favorable terms for the country.
https://energynews.pro/en/smr-the-uk-enters-crucial-negotiations-with-four-key-players/
Mosaic and Nutrien Stocks Surge with Belarus Potash Production Cut Proposal
Fertilizer giants Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) and Nutrien (NYSE:NTR) witnessed significant gains in their stock prices, surging by 7.8% and 5.1% respectively, following news of a potential coordinated potash production cut in Belarus. This surge positions them prominently on the S&P 500 leaderboard. Seeking Alpha reports that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has proposed a 10% reduction in potash production in collaboration with Russian fertilizer producers, aiming to raise the market price and emphasize the commodity's value.
Lukashenko's proposal comes amidst a global landscape where Russia and Belarus collectively control 40% of the world's potash exports. However, tensions are heightened as Belaruskali, a key Belarusian producer, faces sanctions from the U.S. and the European Union, while Russia's leading producer, Uralkali, evades these restrictions. The sanctions have rerouted trades and elevated expansion costs for Eastern European producers, inadvertently increasing the availability of cheap potash supplies.
U.S. Potash Market Analysis
The latest data from the IndexBox platform highlights trends in the U.S. potash market, specifically Potassium Chloride (MOP). In August 2024, the import value of MOP in the United States stood at $251.1 million, reflecting fluctuations from previous months, which saw values of $272.1 million in July 2024, and peaking at $377.7 million in March. This volatility is echoed in the import prices, with August's price at $0.276 per kg, consistent with January's $0.277 per kg, but notably higher than May's $0.234 per kg.
Leading Import Origins
Canada remains the most significant exporter of MOP to the United States, contributing $215.4 million in August 2024 alone. Other key suppliers include Germany, Israel, Russia, and Chile. Germany's export value fluctuated between $1.2 million in July 2024 and $4.4 million in January. Israel's exports were highest in July at $11.7 million, while Russia's exports peaked in March at $93.5 million. Chile's contributions, while smaller, also varied, with the last recorded import value in July 2024 at $2 million.
The proposed production cut by Belarus, if implemented, could potentially impact these trade dynamics and further alter the pricing and availability landscape of potash globally.
Source: IndexBox Market Intelligence Platform
By Tsvetana Paraskova - Nov 09, 2024, 6:00 PM CST
Every time tensions in the Middle East escalate, oil market analysts are back to speculating whether Iran will dare attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most vital oil chokepoint, which sees 20% of global daily oil consumption pass through.
The October attack from Iran on Israel and the limited Israeli response have revived speculation on the possible impact of an Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Despite on-and-off threats for years, Iran has never attempted such a blockade. And analysts and geopolitical experts believe it will not do it this time, either.
The closure of the shipping route, where more than 20% of daily oil consumption passes, is a very low-probability event. It would harm both oil exporters from the region, including Iran itself, and all consumers, especially China, the world's largest crude oil importer, which relies on cheap Iranian oil supply.
Related: Bank of England Cuts Interest Rates
However, a large U.S. and European naval fleet presence in the Persian Gulf and the U.S. Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain could move quickly to prevent an attempted Iranian blockade.
China, Iran's main oil customer, will not be happy with a blockade and traffic disruption, either, as shipping rates and oil prices will jump. The world's top crude importer depends on the Strait of Hormuz for its vast supply of oil from other Middle Eastern producers, too.
Moreover, Iran's crude oil going to China these days is reportedly priced at its narrowest discount to Brent in five years as Iranian cargo loadings slumped last month amid fears that Israel would target Tehran's energy facilities in response to the Iranian missile attack on Israel on October 1.
An Iranian blockade, or an attempt at such, of the narrow strait between Oman and Iran connecting the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea could easily send oil prices soaring above $100 per barrel and reaching all-time highs, analysts say.
However, these same analysts see a Strait of Hormuz disruption as a low-probability event-for now.
Chances of traffic chaos in the strait are low, but if the worst comes to the worst, the impact will be high-not only on oil prices, but on natural gas markets, too, because Qatar's LNG is passing through the lane.
The Strait of Hormuz, which sees oil flow averaging about 21 million barrels per day (bpd), is rightfully described as the world's most important oil transit chokepoint. It is the main export route of Middle Eastern oil to Asia and the key artery of exports of all major producers in the region, including Iran itself.
However, only Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have operating pipelines that can circumvent the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says.
In the event of a supply disruption, the EIA estimates that around 3.5 million bpd of effective unused capacity from these pipelines could be available to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran inaugurated the Goreh-Jask pipeline and the Jask export terminal on the Gulf of Oman with a single export cargo in July 2021. The pipeline's capacity was 300,000 bpd at that time, although Iran has not used the pipeline since then, the EIA notes.
Recent satellite imagery revealed last month that Iran has partially filled the facility with crude oil in what is being construed as a significant development in Tehran's oil export strategy.
Jask could enable Iran to reduce its reliance on this narrow waterway, freeing up options for the country.
Yet, a large part of Iran's oil could soon find itself with nowhere to go via any channel because President Donald Trump is widely expected to re-impose the "maximum pressure policy" on Iran as soon as he begins his term in office early next year.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
HOUSTON: Oil prices fell by more than $2 a barrel on Monday after China’s stimulus plan disappointed investors seeking fuel demand growth in the world’s second-biggest oil consumer and as the U.S. dollar edged higher.
Brent crude futures were down $2.00, or 2.71%, to $71.87 a barrel by 9:46 a.m. CST (1546 GMT) while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $68.25 a barrel, down $2.12, or 3.01%.
Both benchmarks fell more than 2% on Friday.
Donald Trump’s U.S. election victory may continue to be affecting the market, said Phil Flynn, senior analyst for the Price Futures Group.
“The election with Trump’s promise to “drill baby, drill” has taken away some incentive to go long,” Flynn said.
Fewer traders were in the market on Monday, which is the federal Veterans Day holiday, Flynn said, contributing to the decline in prices as markets eye demand threats.
The U.S. dollar index, a measure of its value relative to a basket of foreign currencies, slightly overshot the highs seen right after the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, with markets still waiting for clarity about future U.S. policy.
India says oil prices would have rocketed without its Russian imports
A stronger dollar makes commodities denominated in the U.S. currency, such as oil, more expensive for holders of other currencies and tends to weigh on prices.
In China, consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in four months in October while producer price deflation deepened, data showed on Saturday, even as Beijing doubled down on stimulus to support the sputtering economy.
“Chinese inflation figures were again weak, with the market fearing deflation, particularly as the yearly change in the producer price index fell further into negative territory … Chinese economic momentum remains negative,” said Achilleas Georgolopoulos, a market analyst at brokerage XM.
The latest support measures will not revive China’s oil demand growth or crude oil imports, said Tamas Varga, an analyst at oil broker PVM.
“After last week’s U.S. presidential election, attention is slowly drifting back to the underlying fundamentals,” Varga said.
Oil prices also eased after concerns about potential supply disruptions from storm Rafael in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico subsided.
More than a quarter of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and 16% of natural gas output remained offline on Sunday, according to the offshore energy regulator.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited has claimed to have achieved 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) crude oil production and 7.4 standard cubic feet per day (scfd) gas production in November.
The disclosure was made available by NNPC’s spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, on Thursday, following a press briefing in Abuja.
The national oil company said it is also targeting about 2 million bpd by the end of the year.
What NNPC is Saying
Speaking at the press briefing, the Group CEO of NNPC, Mele Kyari, congratulated the Production War Room Team that anchored the production recovery process.
“The team has done a great job in driving this project of not just production recovery but also escalating production to expected levels that are in the short and long terms, acceptable to our shareholders based on the mandates that we have from the President, the Honourable Minister, and the Board,” Kyari said.
On his part, the Senior Business Adviser to the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Lawal Musa, disclosed that the feat was achieved through the collaborative efforts of Joint Venture and Production Sharing Contract partners, the Office of the National Security Adviser, as well as government and private security agencies.
He said the interventions that led to the recovery of production cut across every segment of the production chain with security agencies closely monitoring the pipelines.
“We are confident that with this same momentum and with the active collaboration of all stakeholders, especially on the security front, we can see the possibility of getting to 2mbpd by the end of the year,” he stated.
What You Should Know
NNPC’s claim of the production of 1.8 million bpd of crude oil comes a few days after OPEC released its monthly data, showing Nigeria’s crude output for October only grew to 1.43 million bpd.
NNPC did not specify in its press briefing whether the crude output figure was inclusive of blended condensate and unblended condensate.
While the November data from OPEC and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) is yet to be released, there is no independent data currently supporting NNPC’s claim that Nigeria is producing as high as 1.8 million bpd of crude oil.
It is important to note that an increase in crude oil production would also mean an increase in foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria, which could help stabilize the local currency, the naira, which is yet to find its balance in the foreign exchange market.
- Agency forecasts global oil demand to reach 102.8 million bpd in 2024, 103.8 million bpd in 2025
World oil production rises by 0.3%, or around 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), to nearly 102.97 million bpd in October, according to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) latest report on Thursday.
According to the Oil Market Report, crude oil production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) increased to 26.97 million bpd in October, a rise of 210,000 bpd compared to the previous month.
The group's total oil production reached approximately 32.6 million bpd over the same period.
Meanwhile, daily oil production in non-OPEC countries increased by 80,000 bpd in October to 70.37 million bpd.
Global oil supply rose mainly due to Libya’s return to the market, OPEC+’s delayed production cuts unwind, and non-OPEC+ producers’ decision to boost supply by roughly 1.5 mb/d in both 2024 and 2025, the report said.
- Global supply forecast
The IEA forecasts global oil output growth to average 640,000 barrels per day in 2024, reaching a record high of 102.91 million bpd.
Non-OPEC+ output, led by the Americas, is expected to expand by 1.47 million bpd while the OPEC+ alliance will see production contract by 810,000 bpd, the report said.
Global growth for next year is forecast to reach around 2.05 million bpd to 104.96 million bpd.
- Global demand growth
According to the report, global oil demand is set to rise by 920,000 bpd this year to around 102.8 million bpd. In IEA's previous report, the agency had estimated an increase of 862,000 barrels per day for global oil demand.
Demand in OECD countries is expected to reach 45.65 million bpd, while non-OECD demand is anticipated to become 57.17 million bpd.
In 2025, global oil demand is projected to reach 103.8 million bpd, with a yearly growth of around 1 million bpd.
Reporting by Duygu Alhan
Writing by Handan Kazanci
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/energy/oil/global-oil-production-up-by-03-in-october-iea-reports/44680
Middle East crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban were little changed on Thursday as traders waited for the results of QatarEnergy tenders.
The producer has offered five al-Shaheen crude cargoes for January loading, along with Marine and Land crude in its monthly tenders.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Cash Dubai's premium to swaps rose 2 cents to 56 cents a barrel.
PRICES ($/BBL)
CURRENT PREV SESSION GME OMAN 71.42 71.17 GME OMAN DIFF TO DUBAI 0.56 0.56 CASH DUBAI 71.42 71.15
NEWS
The world's demand for oil will fall short of supply by more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2025 even if OPEC+ cuts remain in place, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly oil market report on Thursday.
Net income at Japanese oil refiners fell in the first half of their fiscal year, but they maintained profitability and outperformed their South Korean rivals as strong domestic margins shielded them from a weak overseas market.
President-elect Donald Trump's pick of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state could signal stricter enforcement of oil sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, but concerns about retaliation by China could temper any efforts, analysts said on Wednesday.
U.S. refiner margins for gasoline and diesel will be relatively unchanged next year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, signaling relief for fuel producers who saw profits slump sharply since 2022 on slowing demand growth.
French oil major TotalEnergies TTE has awarded engineering contracts worth at least $3 billion as part of its fast-track development of Suriname's first offshore project.
Middle East crude benchmark Dubai edged up on Wednesday, halting a three-day decline, supported by firm demand from Total and PetroChina.
A flurry of bids from the two companies led to the delivery of four January-loading Upper Zakum crude cargoes, bringing the total number of the Abu Dhabi parcels delivered so far this month to 10.
Total is the largest buyer so far with six cargoes followed by PetroChina.
IFAD Murban’s premium to Dubai swaps recovered to 78 cents a barrel on Wednesday, but is still hovering near five-month low levels.
Meanwhile, Brent’s premium to Dubai swaps fell to $1.37 a barrel, the lowest in more than a month, making Atlantic Basin grades more attractive than Middle East supply.
QatarEnergy will close its tenders to sell al-Shaheen, Marine and Land crude grades on Wednesday and award them by the end of Thursday.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps rose 2 cents to 54 cents a barrel.
Total will receive one Upper Zakum crude cargo each from ExxonMobil and Unipec. ExxonMobil and Trafigura will deliver one Upper Zakum crude cargo each to PetroChina.
REFINERY
Glencore and Chandra Asri, gearing up to complete their takeover of Shell’s landmark Singapore refinery, have set up a new operating company and will earmark roughly 20% of output for the plant’s outgoing owner, sources familiar with the matter said.
The venture has lined up long-term crude supply from Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) and is in talks with other producers for more, one of the sources said.
Glencore is expected to start supplying crude oil to Aster’s refinery from February, two of the sources said. One of them said the trading firm is already looking for cargoes arriving that month.
The Dangote Oil Refinery has capacity to produce winter diesel for the European market, an executive said on Tuesday, a further indication of its potential to disrupt the global refining market.
NEWS
Iran has made plans to sustain its oil production and export and is ready for possible oil restrictions from the U.S., Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said on Wednesday, according to the oil ministry’s news website Shana.
Japan Petroleum Exploration (Japex) 1662.T is looking to invest in the U.S. tight oil and gas sector, with the aim of becoming an operator, an executive said on Wednesday.
Kazakhstan’s biggest oil field Tengiz, operated by U.S. major Chevron CVX.N, has reduced oil output by around 21% on average since Oct. 26 to 62,600 metric tons per day, or 496,200 barrels per day, three industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Florence Tan and Siyi Liu; Editing by Tasim Zahid
Caspian Pipeline Consortium cuts oil exports by 1% in Jan – Oct, sources say
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which exports Kazakhstan’s oil via the Black Sea, reduced oil supplies in January – October by around 1.2% year on year to 1.378 million barrels per day, two industry sources said on Wednesday.
In October alone, CPC exports declined to 4.632 million metric tons from 4.682 million tons in September amid maintenance at the Kashagan oilfield, according to the sources.
The consortium does not comment on its operational activities. It plans to boost CPC Blend oil exports in November to 5.4 million tons.
CPC said in May it expected its oil exports to fall 7% short of a preliminary target this year owing to lower loadings from Tengiz oilfield.
The main CPC shareholders are Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft TRNF_p.MM (24%), Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas KMGZ.KZ (19%), Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium Company CVX.N (15%), Lukarco B.V LKOH.MM (12.5%), Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company XOM.N (7.5%), CPC Company (7%) and Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures Limited ROSN.MM, SHEL.L (7.5%).
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Louise Heavens)
(Nov 9): Russian officials and business executives have held talks about merging the country’s biggest oil companies into a single producer, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
Under one potential plan, state-backed Rosneft PJSC would take over Gazprom Neft and Lukoil PJSC, the newspaper said, citing unidentified people familiar with the discussions. The talks, which have taken place over the past few months, aren’t guaranteed to result in a deal, and plans could change, the people said.
Lukoil and Gazprom Neft did not immediately respond to emails sent outside of regular business hours. Rosneft’s press service doesn’t accept requests over the weekend.
A Rosneft spokesman told the WSJ that the reporting was false according to the information available to him, and said in an email to the paper that the article “may be aimed at creating competitive market advantages in the interests of other market participants”.
A Lukoil spokesman said neither the company nor its shareholders were engaged in merger negotiations, while spokesmen for Gazprom Neft and Gazprom PJSC didn’t respond to requests for comment, according to the WSJ.
A Kremlin spokesperson told the paper he had no knowledge of a deal.
If such a deal was reached, the company would be the world’s largest crude producer after Saudi Aramco, according to the report.
Posted by John Donovan: 10 Nov 2024
Shell, the darling of the so-called “energy transition,” has done it again. In a remarkable twist, the company managed to lose its European Fortune 500 crown to Volkswagen—a feat considering Shell’s ruthless, profit-hungry operations that are so very committed to the world’s “low-carbon” future. After a windfall in 2022 thanks to the Ukraine crisis (and by windfall, we mean billions rolled in), Shell’s revenues dipped a bit in 2023. But no one could say they didn’t give their beloved shareholders something to cheer about: a cool $28 billion in profits and a 20% bump in dividends. Bravo, Shell! It’s truly a testament to, well, unyielding ambition.
Oh, and what’s Shell’s latest pivot under new CEO Wael Sawan? Simple: more gas, more oil, and a lot less “clean” energy. “Performance, discipline, and simplification,” Sawan preached at the 2023 annual general meeting. Translation: goodbye renewable projects, hello billions in gas profits. But don’t take our word for it—Bank of America’s European energy analyst Christopher Kuplent lauded Shell’s gas dominance, claiming, “LNG is clearly one of [Shell’s strengths].” Because, of course, there’s nothing that says “clean future” like doubling down on LNG while climate concerns burn.
In case you thought Shell had any sincere commitment to carbon reduction, guess again. Last year, it slashed investments in renewables by 23% and quietly watered down its 2030 carbon reduction target. But not to worry, their 2050 net-zero goal is “intact.” And that gives Shell investors, including major players like Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street, some “assurance”—if assurance means “business as usual” for the next quarter-century.
As for those “sustainable” green efforts, Shell’s approach to carbon cuts? Sell off a few outdated fossil fuel assets like Singapore’s Bukom refinery, while framing it as “strategic frugality” to shareholders. And Sawan’s mantra of “no sacred cows” gets nods of approval from analysts like Isabelle Zhang at AlphaValue. Because what’s better for shareholders than a CEO who knows how to cut anything that doesn’t “earn a living,” especially if it’s anything remotely green?
Shell’s resurgence back to the top of the Fortune list is only a matter of time, especially as companies like BP follow Shell’s lead by pivoting away from climate goals while keeping those oil profits sky-high. One can only hope that by the time Shell reaches its sacred 2050 “net-zero” target, there’s still a planet left to celebrate.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com johndonovan.website , and shellnews.net ,are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment
Hurricane Rafael Shuts 28% of US Gulf Crude Oil Production, 17% of Natural Gas
The US Gulf of Mexico has experienced losses of 490,241 barrel of oil per day and 313 million cubic feet of gas per day of natural gas caused by the Rafeal Hurricane, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) reported on Saturday.
BSEE reported a shutdown of approximately 28% of daily crude oil production and nearly 17% of daily natural gas production in the US Gulf of Mexico.
Notably, US Gulf of Mexico federal offshore oil production accounts for 15% of total US crude oil production and 2% of dry natural gas production.
The late season storm, Hurricane Rafael, entered the Gulf of Mexico as a powerful category three hurricane on Wednesday and moved into the central Gulf, prompting oil firms including BP, Shell, Chevron, Mobil, and many others to evacuate dozens of production and drilling facilities.
Oil and gas workers have been evacuated from 41 of the 371 manned production platforms, and seven drilling vessels have been moved out of the storm’s path, BSEE reported.
As of Saturday, Rafael had weakened into a tropical storm, but it is expected to remain in the central Gulf of Mexico for at least the next two days, moving slowly and causing ongoing impacts such as heavy rainfall, potential flooding, and strong winds.
BP (LSE: BP) shares have tumbled from their 12 April 12-month traded high of £5.40.
The drop reflects a similar decline in the global oil price, largely due to falling demand from China. This is due to an uncertain economic recovery following three years of Covid.
The other part of the oil price fall comes from rising global supply. Although oil cartel OPEC+ has rolling production cuts in place, these have been offset by increases in other countries.
The oil market outlook
Short term, the bearish outlook for oil might continue for a while on the same factors, in my view. It could change if the conflict between Israel and Iran (and its proxies) spirals into a wider Middle East war.
However, I believe this is likely to change over the long term. The key reason is that the transition to greener energy is likely to take longer than many envisage. Even the UN Climate Change Conference said in December 2023 that its 2050 net zero target needed to be done “in keeping with the science”.
Despite this, oil and gas investment has declined since 2014 in line with this transition timeline, leaving potential production gaps for the future. A supply and demand mismatch like this would support oil price gains for however long it lasted.
How does the core business look?
Since Murray Auchincloss took over as CEO in January, BP has modified its previously rigid energy transition stance.
It ditched its target to cut oil and gas output by 2030 in October and has scaled back its low-carbon hydrogen investments. It also plans to sell its US onshore wind operations.
On the other hand, it is developing its Gulf of Mexico assets and plans to develop four fields in Iraq. The former contains around 10bn barrels of oil and the latter around 9bn barrels.
Its Q3 results saw underlying replacement cost profit at $2.27bn (£1.76bn), exceeding forecasts of $2.05bn.
A key risk for BP in my view is government pressure for it to resume its previous energy transition programme. This would cause it to lose market share to competitors and damage its profitability.
However, as it stands, consensus analysts’ estimates are that BP’s earnings will grow at 26.6% a year to end-2026.
What about the share price and yield?
Earnings growth is what powers a firm’s share price and dividends over time.
Using other analysts’ figures and my own that factor this growth into a discounted cash flow analysis, BP shares are 49% undervalued.
Given the current price of £3.72, the fair value for the shares is £7.29. They may go lower or higher than that, of course, given the vagaries of the market.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/6-1-yield-down-31-080928085.html
Hefty hikes in pump prices today
In separate advisories, Shell, Caltex and Seaoil announced that prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene would climb by P1.50, P2.10 and P1.20 per liter, respectively.
MANILA, Philippines — Fuel prices are poised to increase by as much as P2.10 per liter today, marking three straight weeks of hikes for diesel and kerosene.
In separate advisories, Shell, Caltex and Seaoil announced that prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene would climb by P1.50, P2.10 and P1.20 per liter, respectively.
PetroGazz, Cleanfuel, PTT Philippines and Jetti would implement the same price movements, except for kerosene, which they do not offer.
Oil prices increased amid US production cuts in the Gulf of Mexico due to a hurricane, aggravated by the delayed plans of OPEC+ to boost output by yearend, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).
The US Federal Reserve also lowered the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points during its policy meeting last week, which in turn could stimulate more economic activity and higher oil demand.
The weakening of the local currency, the DOE added, also exerted upward pressure in domestic pumps.
With these adjustments, the year-to-date total adjustment for gasoline and diesel stands at a net increase of P10.15 and P9.40 per liter, respectively.
Kerosene prices, on the other hand, have declined by P1.40 per liter since the start of the year.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/11/12/2399494/hefty-hikes-pump-prices-today
US Refiners Hold Output at High Levels as Fuel Inventories Sag
11.11.2024 By Tank Terminals - NEWS
November 11, 2024 [Reuters]- U.S. oil refiners this quarter expect to run their plants at above 90% of their crude processing capacity on low inventories and improving demand for gasoline and diesel, executives and industry experts said.
Run rates in the year’s final quarter tend to cool after the end of the U.S. summer driving season. But weaker than usual fuel inventories are encouraging high run rates even amid weaker profit margins, analysts said.
Top refiners laid out plans to run their networks at between 90% and 94% of capacity through the end of the year, executives said during earnings calls in recent weeks. That range is slightly above the year-ago level.
“This is a little bit less of a seasonal decline than we have seen in previous years,” said Matthew Blair, chief refining analyst at financial firm Tudor Pickering Holt. “Despite lower gasoline margins, U.S. refineries are generally still cash-positive. In addition, product inventories are relatively low.”
Refiners’ operating margins fell this year as new refineries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East came online, boosting global supplies as demand growth weakened.
Top U.S. refiner Marathon Petroleum , which operates 16% of the nation’s 18.4 million-barrel-per-day processing capacity, plans to operate its 13 refineries at 90% of their combined capacity, similar to a year ago.
“The global macro environment continues to exhibit refined product demand growth,” said Marathon CEO Maryann Mannen.
High Runs, Less Maintenance
The second largest independent refiner, Valero Energy, expects to run at up to 94%, executives said, after its refining profit tumbled in the third quarter. CVR Energy also will increase its run rate despite sharply lower third-quarter earnings.
Phillips 66 plans on running at a combined operating rate in the low-to-mid 90s percentage range, executives said. Smaller refiners Par Pacific and HF Sinclair both plan to reduce their run rates this quarter.
But for all U.S. refiners, “the upper end of the range is very strong,” said Kpler lead Americas oil analyst Matt Smith. “It continues the trend we saw in the second half of this year with high runs and shallow maintenance” levels.
“If you’re still making money on the incremental barrel, if the margin is still above the operating cost, you’re going to do it,” said analyst John Auers, managing director of consultancy Refined Fuels Analytics.
13,300 tank storage and production facilities as per the date of this article. Click on the button and register to get instant access to actionable tank storage industry data
https://tankterminals.com/news/us-refiners-hold-output-at-high-levels-as-fuel-inventories-sag/
Russian gas flows to Europe via Ukraine at the Sudzha interconnection point were set to continue as normal on Nov. 11, with the latest nomination data from grid operator GTSOU showing expected flows at 42.2 million cu m.
Supplies have been running at around 42 million cu m/d for most of 2024 despite the ongoing war and the incursion by Ukrainian troops in August into Russia's Kursk region -- from where Russian gas passes into Ukraine.
The latest nomination data comes amid reports that Russia is planning a new counteroffensive in Kursk in the coming days.
Citing US and Ukrainian officials, the New York Times on Nov. 10 reported that 50,000 Russian and North Korean soldiers were preparing the counteroffensive.
The European gas market has been jittery since the initial August incursion into Kursk by Ukrainian troops given the potential for disruption to the remaining Russian gas flows to Europe that pass through Sudzha.
European gas prices are back close to 2024 highs, with Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessing the Dutch TTF month-ahead price on Nov. 8 at Eur42.06/MWh. The contract hit a 2024 high on Oct. 25 of Eur43.47/MWh.
The TTF month-ahead price rose above Eur43/MWh in early trade on Nov. 11, according to ICE data.
Contract expiry
The concerns over the conflict in Russia's Kursk region close to key gas infrastructure comes with the five-year transit deal between Kyiv and Moscow also set to expire anyway at the end of 2024.
It still remains to be seen whether any new arrangements could be put in place for gas to continue to flow via Ukraine to Europe from 2025, with Azerbaijan in talks to facilitate continued transit.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said Kyiv would, however, not extend the current agreement with Moscow.
Russian gas transit via Ukraine was as high as 117 Bcm in 2008 but fell to just 14.65 Bcm last year.
Gazprom is contracted to send 110 million cu m/d of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine in 2024 -- or a total of 40 Bcm -- before the contract expires.
But since May 2022 Gazprom has been flowing less gas than agreed in the contract and paying less than the agreement provides.
It came after Ukraine declared force majeure on its ability to transit Russian gas entering at an alternative entry point at Sokhranivka, saying it no longer had operational control of infrastructure in parts of eastern Ukraine.
In response, Gazprom said it would only pay for services rendered despite the ship-or-pay provision in the transit contract.
Naftogaz offered Gazprom the option of transferring transit to Sudzha but it was not taken up.
Up to 33 million cu m/d of Russian gas could flow into Ukraine at Sokhranivka before the force majeure.
By Simon Watkins - Nov 11, 2024, 12:00 PM CST
Crucially for President-Elect Donald Trump’s second term in office, he will have considerable personal influence over the Senate (in which his Republican Party now holds a majority) and over the Supreme Court (where conservatives hold a six-to-three majority). His Party – and few can argue that it is now truly that – may also secure a majority in the second of the two institutions of Congress, the House of Representatives (at the time of writing, the Republicans had secured 213 of 218 seats needed for a majority in the House, with counting still ongoing). Even without this, though, the re-elected President will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to push through whatever legislation he wants, especially in the traditional honeymoon period of the first 100 days in office. Three areas that he is likely to address in this period will have enormous ramifications for the global energy sector and the key countries that constitute its core.
One of these areas will be moves to increase the U.S.’s oil and gas production, as stated in several of Trump’s campaign speeches and documented in his ‘Trump Agenda47’. Broadly, he will, “…set a national goal of ensuring that America has the No. 1 lowest cost of energy of any industrial country anywhere on Earth”. He added that to “keep pace with the world economy that depends on fossil fuels for more than 80 percent of its energy, President Trump will DRILL, BABY, DRILL”. He also highlights that he will, “end Biden’s delays in federal drilling permits and leases that are needed to unleash American oil and natural gas production”. This is likely to include the removal of much of the previous Presidential Administration’s pausing of key liquefied natural gas export permits. The likely net effect of this on oil and gas prices will clearly be bearish.
Another move Trump is likely to make in the first 100 days will be pushing for a negotiated settlement in the Russia-Ukraine War. During his campaigning, the President-Elect repeatedly stated that he could end the war “in 24 hours” based on two key dealmaking tactics delineated in an interview with Fox News in July 2023. First, he would tell Russian President Vladimir Putin that if he did not make a deal with Ukraine then the U.S. would dramatically increase the scale and scope of its aid to the war-torn country. As a senior global security source who worked closely with Trump’s first Presidential Administration exclusively told OilPrice.com last week, this would include long-range sophisticated missiles being given to Kyiv and the permission to use them deep inside Russian territory that was ‘active’ in its war against Ukraine. Second, he would tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that the U.S. would withhold all aid to it unless Kyiv negotiated a deal with Moscow. The starting point for the deal itself that Trump has in mind, according to the source, is one in which Russia retains the original disputed territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, in addition to keeping Crimea which was annexed during the 2014 invasion. The other major territories in the southeast – Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – plus other areas in the northeast occupied by Russian forces, would form part of a demilitarised zone between the two nations.
Crude oil WTI futures saw a slight uptick following a significant phone call between President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
What Happened: At the time of writing, Crude Oil WTI Futures was up 0.18% at $70.25 per barrel on Monday during pre-market hours.
President-elect Trump reportedly had a phone discussion with President Putin on Thursday, marking their first interaction since Trump’s election win, The Washington Post reported on Sunday. Trump urged Putin to refrain from escalating the Ukraine conflict, highlighting the substantial U.S. military presence in Europe. The dialogue also included discussions on achieving peace across Europe, with Trump expressing interest in further talks to hasten a resolution to the Ukraine issue.
These developments could have contributed to a rise in Crude Oil WTI Futures. The market often responds to potential de-escalation in geopolitical tensions, which can ease supply concerns and potentially lower prices.
Why It Matters: The phone call between Trump and Putin comes amid heightened scrutiny of Russian oil trade. The U.S. Justice Department has been intensifying efforts to enforce sanctions on Russia’s energy exports. This includes investigating Murtaza Lakhani and his ties to Rosneft Oil, a Russian state-backed energy giant in 2023.
Additionally, Russian oil has found its way to U.S. shores through a sanction-busting loophole, despite a ban on its import following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Oil prices have been volatile lately, with OPEC+ recently delaying production increases ahead of the U.S. elections, causing a spike in prices.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-reportedly-urges-russian-president-150510092.html
(Reuters) - India, the world's No.3 oil importer and consumer, is expected to rely on fossil fuels until at least 2040 and is positioning itself as a refining hub, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told Reuters on Tuesday.
While global refining centers are downsizing as energy transition progresses at an unpredictable pace, India's rising daily crude utilization means it will rely on fossil fuels until at least 2040, Puri said at the sidelines of a refining conference in Bengaluru.
"Our existing refineries will increase in terms of capacity and they will also become regional hubs in terms of providing to other countries," Puri said.
India, the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has pledged to achieve a net zero carbon emission target by 2070. It has a target of 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by 2030.
Puri reiterated that India is looking to scale its refining capacity by 81% to as much as 450 metric tonne per annum (mtpa), from about 249 mtpa, or about 5 million barrels per day (bpd), currently. He did not provide a timeline.
The minister said there are "robust discussions" among state-owned and private refiners to scale beyond 310 mtpa, which might be achieved even before the targeted 2028.
Smaller refineries will no longer be economically viable, Puri said.
Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) is exploring building a new 180,000-300,000 bpd oil refinery in southern Andhra Pradesh state or northern Uttar Pradesh state.
Meanwhile, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) is expected to start operations at its 180,000 bpd Barmer refinery in the desert state of Rajasthan late this year or early next year.
(Reporting by Sethuraman NR and writing by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
By Sethuraman N R
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has once again revised its oil demand growth forecasts for 2024, marking the fourth consecutive month of downward adjustments. This move reflects the ongoing economic slowdown in China, a key player in the global oil market.
What Happened: OPEC now projects global oil consumption to increase by 1.8 million barrels per day in 2024, a reduction of 107,000 barrels from its previous estimate. This adjustment follows disappointing data from major Asian markets, including China and India, as well as African countries, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Since July, OPEC has cut its demand growth forecasts by nearly 20%, mirroring a notable decline in crude oil prices. Despite these reductions, OPEC’s outlook remains more optimistic compared to other forecasts, such as those from Wall Street banks and Saudi Aramco.
OPEC members, led by Saudi Arabia, have twice delayed the resumption of production that was halted since 2022. They plan to implement modest monthly production increases starting early next year, with a review set for December 1.
Meanwhile, international crude futures have fallen approximately 18% since early July, with prices hovering around $72 per barrel. Traders are closely monitoring China’s economic challenges, which have resulted in consecutive months of demand contraction.
Why It Matters: The reduction in OPEC’s oil demand growth forecasts comes amid a broader context of cautious market sentiment. Brent crude oil prices have continued to decline, reaching $71.74 per barrel. This downturn is attributed to China’s lackluster stimulus measures and weak inflation, which have dampened energy demand.
Additionally, the strength of the U.S. dollar has made commodity investments less appealing, further impacting oil prices. The geopolitical landscape, which often influences oil price volatility, remains stable, with reduced tensions in the Middle East alleviating some risk premiums previously embedded in Brent prices.
Furthermore, OPEC’s decision to delay production increases, as reported earlier this month, has contributed to fluctuations in oil prices. The oil cartel and its allies, including Russia, postponed plans to ramp up output, citing ongoing market weakness and sluggish demand.
Price Action: On Tuesday, ahead of pre-market hours, the United States Oil Fund LP USO which tracks the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up by 0.51% at $71.30 per barrel, as per Benzinga Pro.
Rosneft has denied reports that there were plans to consolidate the country’s biggest oil companies into one entity, the company said in a statement.
Rosneft cited an “unprecedented amount of coverage in foreign media alleging imminent consolidation of assets in the Russian oil industry with a direct hint on Rosneft's intention to take over the main players in the domestic oil domain”, and went on to refer sarcastically to Igor Sechin’s “insidious intentions” of absorbing assets that Rosneft does not need.
The statement said those intentions, as originally reported by the Wall Street Journal, had nothing to do with reality or “any reasonable business logic” but were rather more likely a diversion tactic “to a false flag subject”.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Russia may be considering the creation of a massive state oil company by combining current state assets Rosneft and Gazprom Neft, and private Lukoil. The WSJ cited unnamed individuals as sources of the information.
The report cited a Rosneft official as dismissing the information from the sources as false, saying that the report “may be aimed at creating competitive market advantages in the interests of other market participants.” A Lukoil spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that the company was not on merger negotiations “with any parties as this would not be in the interest of the company.”
Rosneft is Russia’s biggest oil company and one of the biggest globally. Before Aramco went public, Rosneft was the world’s biggest listed oil producer in terms of volumes, Reuters noted in a report on the latest news. The company’s output represents about 4% of the total global market.
Rosneft’s financial report for the first half of the year showed a 27% increase in profits to some $8.40 billion. The company also reported liquid hydrocarbon production of 92.8 million tons for the period.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
US President-Elect Donald Trump's enthusiasm for more oil drilling in the US is causing increasing volatility in oil prices, as investors worry about the possibility of oversupply.
The vocal support of President-Elect Donald Trump for more drilling in the US has contributed to volatile oil prices, with crude oil prices falling 4.83% this week to $68.4 per barrel at the time of writing.
Brent crude oil prices dropped 4.32% over the past week, trading at $72.2 per barrel on Tuesday morning. Both oil prices slightly recovered later.
Trump's focus on more drilling has led to increased expectations of higher oil production by the US in the coming months, which in turn, has led to lower oil prices.
China's recently released stimulus package of 10 trillion yuan (€1.30tn) has also been disappointing, with analysts concerned that it may not be enough to encourage economic growth. This in turn, has increased concerns about slumping oil demand from China in the near future.
OPEC+ has also warned that non-OPEC+ countries are likely to increase their oil production in 2025, which could also cause further oversupply.
According to OPEC+ forecasts, these countries are expected to hike production by 1.3 million barrels per day. The US Energy Information Administration (IEA) also expects non-OPEC+ countries to raise their oil production by 1.4 million barrels per day next year.
OPEC+ is also expected to release its monthly report for November later on Tuesday.
Trump promises to make drilling easier in the US
Trump has already made his strong support for oil and gas clear, by promising to make it easier for companies to get drilling leases, as well as build the required energy infrastructure.
Other policies include potentially allowing companies to export more natural gas abroad, as well as increase drilling on federal land.
In contrast, the Biden administration has implemented higher bond requirements and royalty payments for drilling on federal land, while also decreasing the number of federal land leases sold.
Trump has also said that energy bills would be slashed by at least half within 12 months of him being re-elected, however, details on how exactly this would be done have not yet been revealed.
Although these promises have been welcomed by oil and energy companies, there have also been increased warnings about profits and oil prices suffering in the short-term, mainly because of possible oversupply if drilling rules are eased.
Trump is also likely to reverse President Biden's halt on export approvals for liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is expected to significantly help reduce uncertainties about the long-term supply of LNG.
11.12.2024 By Tank Terminals - NEWS
November 12, 2024 [Oil Price]- Weak demand in China will lead to lower supply from the world’s top crude exporter, Saudi Arabia, to the world’s largest crude importer in December, trading sources told Reuters on Monday.
The drop in Saudi supply would come despite the fact that the Kingdom has reduced its official selling prices (OSPs) for crude loading in December for Asia.
December will see a second consecutive month of lower Saudi deliveries to China, estimated at a total of 36.5 million barrels. This would be down from 37.5 million barrels expected this month, and 46 million barrels in October, according to trade data compiled by Reuters.
The Saudi crude oil supply to China next month would also be the lowest monthly volume since July, as Chinese state-owned giants PetroChina, Sinopec, and Sinochem are expected to lift fewer cargoes from the Kingdom.
Aramco, the Saudi state giant, last week reduced the price of its crude that will be loading for Asia in December.
Saudi Arabia’s flagship crude grade, Arab Light, saw its OSP cut by $0.50 per barrel, to $1.70 a barrel above the Dubai/Oman benchmarks, from which Middle Eastern exporters price their crude for the Asian markets.
The Kingdom also slashed the OSPs of all its grades loading for Asia—Arab Extra Light, Super Light, Arab Medium, and Arab Heavy, although the reductions in the heavier grades were lower than those for the lighter crudes.
Chinese crude oil imports have been underwhelming this year, with October marking the sixth consecutive month in which cargo arrivals have lagged behind the imports in the same months of 2023, official Chinese data showed last week.
Reduced capacity at a PetroChina refinery and continued weak demand from China’s independent refiners, the so-called teapots, weighed on the imports into the world’s top crude importer in October.
Weaker-than-expected Chinese demand may have been the reason why the OPEC+ group delayed the beginning of the easing of its production cuts to January 2025, from December 2024, although the cartel and its allies did not give a specific reason for the decision.
13,300 tank storage and production facilities as per the date of this article. Click on the button and register to get instant access to actionable tank storage industry data
https://tankterminals.com/news/saudi-arabia-to-cut-oil-supply-to-china-amid-weak-demand/
British oil giant Shell won a major court victory on Tuesday when a Dutch appeals court overturned a landmark 2021 case brought by green groups that found the company partially responsible for climate change and ordered it to aggressively slash carbon emissions.
The appeals court in The Hague, where Shell was headquartered until it moved to London in 2022, dismissed the 2021 ruling that ordered Shell to cut its absolute carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels – including those caused by the use of its products.
"We are pleased with the court’s decision, which we believe is the right one for the global energy transition, the Netherlands and our company," Shell CEO Wael Sawan said in a statement following the ruling.
Friends of the Earth Netherlands, which brought the Dutch case in 2019, said it would continue its fight against large polluters, but did not say whether it would launch a further appeal at the Netherlands' Supreme Court.
"Today’s judgment is a setback for us, for the climate movement and for millions the world around who worry about their futures. All our hopes were set on this moment," the group, known as Milieudefensie, wrote on X after the ruling.
"We are feeling the effects of climate change more harshly each day," the group added. "So we won’t stop until all polluters go green. We are confident the victory will be ours in the end."
GREEN ENERGY STOCKS DOWN FOLLOWING TRUMP ELECTION WIN
Shell said it is still committed to achieving net-zero emissions in its business by 2050, and the company is working to halve emissions from its operations by 2030.
In appeal hearings earlier this year, Shell said demands for companies to reduce emissions could not be made by courts, but only by states.
The court agreed with Shell that an absolute order to reduce emissions from its products could have an adverse effect worldwide, as it could lead customers to switch from using Shell's gas to more polluting coal.
Exports of Russian refined oil products by sea fell by 7% in October compared to September, due to an increase in idled refining capacity because of maintenance, Reuters estimates based on data from industry sources showed on Wednesday.
Russia’s oil product shipments dropped to 8.861 million metric tons last month, with exports from the country’s Baltic Sea ports down by 4.5% compared to September and shipments from the Black Sea ports down by 12.6%. Shipments from the Arctic ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk plummeted by 41.5% in October from the previous month, according to the data collated by Reuters.
Russia had a lot of its refining capacity offline in September, due to regular and unscheduled maintenance. This led to lower refined products output and consequently, to lower shipments from the key export terminals.
Moreover, the Tuapse oil refinery on Russia’s Black Sea coast, owned by oil giant Rosneft, suspended fuel production at the 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) plant in October due to low refining margins. The export-oriented refinery halted crude processing on October 1. It reportedly resumed output earlier in November.
The Tuapse refinery mostly exports its production of naphtha, high-sulfur diesel, fuel oil, and vacuum gasoil to Turkey, China, Malaysia, and Singapore. It doesn’t contribute to Russia’s domestic supply of gasoline or diesel.
The halt of the refinery, due to low margins, helped raise the idled refining capacity across Russia in October.
The Tuapse refinery has also been a target of Ukrainian drone attacks this year, which have caused damage at the site.
As a result of the lower volumes of exports, Russia’s revenues from seaborne oil product exports slumped by 14% in October from September, according to the monthly analysis of Russian fossil fuel exports published by Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
Russia earned $187 million (176 million euros) per day in October from seaborne oil product exports, CREA has estimated.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
(Montel) The anticipated end of Russian gas flows through Ukraine in January will not disrupt Europe’s energy security, said Ukraine’s deputy prime minister on Wednesday as she left the door open to a last-minute deal.
Russia’s piped gas exports to the EU have dwindled from around 45% of total gas imports before its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine to less than 20%, although some transit flows continue via Ukraine under an agreement set to expire at the end of December.
“The termination of the gas contract would not have any significant effect on the European energy security,” Olha Stefanishyna, also minister of justice, said in response to a question from Montel during a webinar on EU and Nato integration during wartime.
“This is a confirmed fact, and this is the understanding of the situation from our side,” she added, reiterating a long-held view from Kyiv.
“Still some decisions”
Earlier this year, Ukraine said it would not negotiate a deal with Russia to extend gas supply to Europe when the current five-year deal with Gazprom expired.
However, Stefanishyna added that there were still “still some decisions to come out of this… some proposals or issues that may be raised… but I think it’s too early to speak about some development before the new European Commission is in a full position”.
The COP29 meeting in Baku, which kicked off on Monday, may see clandestine meetings to forge last-minute deals on maintaining the gas flow, market participants said last week.
Europe was prepared for winter due to increased LNG supply and robust gas stocks, Italian TSO Snam said last week.
Exxon to sell older Permian assets to Hilcorp in US$1 billion deal, sources say
NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Top U.S. oil producer Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), has agreed to sell conventional oil drilling assets in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico to privately-owned Hilcorp Energy for around US$1 billion, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The deal follows a trend of U.S. oil and gas companies culling older properties following a record-breaking wave of acquisitions. Private operators like Hilcorp have been among the most active buyers of such assets.
Exxon confirmed the sale of the assets but declined to name the buyer or valuation, using terms that signify the properties were conventional vertical wells, not the horizontal wells used to pump shale.
“The sale is consistent with our strategy to focus investments on advantaged assets in our industry-leading portfolio,” the Exxon spokesperson said, adding the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025.
Reuters reported in June that Exxon was auctioning the assets to focus on higher growth shale drilling properties, following the completion of its $60 billion takeover of Pioneer Natural Resources in May.
Hilcorp, which specializes in buying mature oilfields, emerged as the winner of this auction, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the auction was confidential.
Hilcorp did not respond to requests for comment.
Like other companies which took advantage of sharply elevated commodity prices to pursue recent megamergers, Exxon has been reviewing its portfolio to focus on its most profitable assets while raising cash from selling so-called non-core assets to shore up its balance sheet.
The Exxon assets which Hilcorp is buying are estimated to have net production of about 26,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, one of the sources said. The sale does not include assets acquired from Pioneer, they added.
Hilcorp, founded by billionaire Jeffery Hildebrand, has been among the most active buyers of assets being divested by public rivals. The company this month finalized a $1 billion takeover of Italian group Eni’s offshore Alaska assets.
It was also the undisclosed buyer in APA Corp’s $950 million sale of conventional Permian properties agreed in September, sources told Reuters.
APA Corp did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The US dollar index rose to a six-month high on Tuesday, fueled by expectations for rising inflation risk during a second Donald Trump presidency. The reasoning is related to the possibility that the Federal Reserve may curtail or perhaps reverse rate-cutting plans if inflation rebounds due to potentially reflationary policies driven by higher tariffs and other policy plans outlined by the president-elect. Higher interest rates tend to support a higher dollar relative to other currencies. The Fed would “continue to take a cautious tone going forward, especially in light of what we view as heightened inflation risks in a second Trump term,” predicts Win Thin, global head of markets strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman.
Mexico suggests it plans to respond to any trade restrictions imposed by President-elect Donald Trump on Mexican exports to the US. “If you put 25 percents tariffs on me, I have to react with tariffs,” Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s economy minister, warns in a radio interview on Monday. “Structurally, we have the conditions to play in Mexico’s favor.”
Global levels of planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels are expected to reach another record high this year, predicts the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists who track emissions. Fossil fuel pollution is set to rise to 37.4 billion metric tons this year, up 0.8% from 2023. Global emissions from coal, oil and gas are all projected to increase.
US oil production is unlikely to surge after Donald Trump becomes president, predicts energy analyst via Rigzone.com. “There is a recent media narrative that the second Trump administration will lead to a surge in U.S. oil production, with producers eager to drill and produce more when unincumbered by perceived Biden-era bureaucracy,” writes Standard Chartered Bank Energy Analyst Emily Ashford in a report. “This is a flawed narrative, in our view. US oil production, and particularly unconventional (or shale oil) production has changed significantly since Trump first took office in 2017, and there are substantial barriers to rapid production increases within the timeframe of a presidential term.” US crude oil output was 13.401 million barrels per day in August, reports the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). “This is a new all-time high, exceeding the previous record of 13.308 million barrels per day set in December 2023.”
US consumers’ expectations ticked down in October, according to survey data published by the New York Fed. “Median inflation expectations fell at all three horizons in October,” the bank reports. “One-year-ahead inflation expectations declined by 0.1 percentage point to 2.9%, three-year-ahead inflation expectations declined by 0.2 percentage point to 2.5%, and five-year-ahead inflation expectations declined by 0.1 percentage point to 2.8%.”
https://www.capitalspectator.com/macro-briefing-13-november-2024/
Texas oil and natural gas producer Coterra Energy Inc. has reached agreements with two closely-held companies to buy assets in the Permian Basin for $3.95 billion.
Coterra will pay for the assets from Franklin Mountain Energy and Avant Natural Resources with $2.95 billion in cash and $1 billion in stock, according to a statement Wednesday.
The deals expand Coterra’s reach on the fast-growing New Mexico side of the top US shale basin and come as US oil producers jockey to buy up rivals in order to line up future drilling sites. The sales are expected to close during the first quarter of 2025.
Coterra shares rose as much as 1.2% before the start of regular trading in New York.
Franklin Mountain Energy, run by refining billionaire Paul Foster, is one of the last large closely held oil producers in the Permian.
Closely held Permian producers have become much sought after in recent years. Larger operators are seeking to expand future well inventories as production in the basin approaches its peak, expected to come sometime in the early 2030s.
Avant Natural Resources is based in Denver. It was founded by Jacob Nagy, a former managing director at the energy investment bank Petrie Partners, and Skyler Gary, who previously worked for Denver-based Hat Creek Energy LLC.
The deal will give Coterra access to 49,000 additional acres in the Permian, with potential to produce an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 barrels per day in 2025, according to the company.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., PNC Capital Markets LLC and TD Securities are financing the deal.
Jefferies LLC and Kirkland & Ellis LLP advised Franklin Mountain. Perella Weinberg Partners, Petrie Partners and Kirkland & Ellis advised Avant Natural Resources.
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Shares of petrochemical companies in Asia extended losses on Wednesday, tracking weakness in regional bourses, amid a strong US dollar and uncertainty over trade policies of US President-elect Donald Trump which could fuel inflation.
At 04:00 GMT, LG Chem fell by 4.75% in Seoul, while Mitsui Chemicals and Asahi Kasei were down by 2.90% and 0.88%, respectively, in Tokyo.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC) was down 1.79% in Taipei, while Sinopec Corp slipped 0.47% in Hong Kong.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Index was down by 1.01% at 38,978.11; South Korea’s KOSPI Composite fell by 1.91% to 2,435.04; and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped by 0.63% to 19,721.58.
Sentiment toward Asian equities has shifted to caution following Trump’s re-election on concerns that his policies will drive up inflation and prevent the US Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates further.
The broad dollar index (DXY) rose further on 12 November to its highest since November 2022, according to Singapore-based UOB Global Economics & Markets Research.
The DXY, which measures the greenback against six peers, inched up 0.05% on Thursday to 105.97.
A stronger US dollar makes imports more expensive for Asia, fueling inflation, and higher borrowing costs for the region.
Japan and China rely heavily on imports for their energy and raw material needs.
The South Korean won continued to slide against the greenback on Thursday, hovering above the psychologically important level of won (W) 1,400 at W1,406.57 to the US dollar.
The Japanese yen (Y) also touched a fresh low since 30 July on Thursday and was trading at around Y154.8 to the US dollar.
By Yongchang Chin
November 12, 2024 at 6:30PM ESTJames Demmert, chief investment officer of Main Street Research, talks about Occidental Petroleum's performance in the market.
(Bloomberg) -- Oil edged higher after swinging between gains and losses for much of the session as traders weighed mixed signals about the risks to flows from the Middle East against the prospect of an impending supply glut.
West Texas Intermediate added 0.5% to settle above $68 a barrel, while Brent settled around $72. WTI had gained as much as 1.1% and slid as much as 1.7% during the session.
Crude fell earlier in the day on unconfirmed reports that Iran may hold off on retaliating against Israel, said Dan Ghali, a commodity strategist at TD Securities. Prices rebounded later after Israel said some projectiles had been launched from Lebanon.
Still, crude is down more than 20% from its highs of the year on expectations that weak demand in China and rising production from outside of the OPEC+ alliance — as well as the group’s plan to return some output to the market — will combine to create a surplus of oil next year. More recently, oil prices have remained rangebound, trading in a band of a little more than $6 for almost a month and relegating some risk-hungry investors to the sidelines.
Meanwhile, the US dollar climbed for the fourth straight session, making commodities traded in the currency less appealing.
OPEC shaved its demand-growth forecasts for a fourth consecutive month on Tuesday, while outlooks from the US and the International Energy Agency are still to come this week.
Even as prices remain stuck for now, Morgan Stanley cut its oil price forecast, citing the likelihood of a “sizeable surplus” next year. The bank reduced its expectations for consumption this year and next and said that while the second Trump presidency could affect prices considerably, it would be hard to call the direction for a while.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
Chevron (NYSE: CVX) stock has rallied 5.5% since the company reported third-quarter 2024 earnings on Nov. 1. The integrated oil and gas major continues to deliver solid results and return capital to shareholders through a combination of buybacks and dividends.
Chevron is projected to pay around $11.8 billion in dividends in 2024, which is even more than well-known passive income powerhouse Coca-Cola, which should end up paying around $8 billion in dividends this year.
Start Your Mornings Smarter! Wake up with Breakfast news in your inbox every market day. Sign Up For Free »
Here's why Chevron is an excellent dividend stock to consider buying now.
Managing through the cycle
International energy giants can't control oil and gas prices, but they can improve their production portfolios to ensure they can achieve good profit margins even at lower prices. Chevron has been doing just that.
On its third-quarter earnings call, Chevron said that around 75% of its locations can break even below $50 per barrel. For context, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices, the U.S. benchmark, averaged $77.58 per barrel in 2023. And even during the collapse in 2020, WTI still averaged $39.16. So, building a portfolio around $50 oil provides a nice margin for error to do well even in a lower oil price environment.
In its earnings release, Chevron said that asset sales in Canada, Congo, and Alaska are part of its plan to divest $10 billion to $15 billion by 2026, with further structural changes expected to reduce costs by $2 billion to $3 billion from 2024 to the end of 2026. So Chevron's breakeven could fall even more in the coming years.
For the recent quarter, Chevron grew worldwide net oil equivalent production by 7% thanks to higher U.S. and Permian Basin production. The higher production helped offset lower oil and gas prices. All told, Chevron's upstream earnings only fell 20% compared to third-quarter 2023. But overall earnings came in at just $2.48 per share compared to $3.48 per share in the same quarter last year -- mainly due to a substantial slowdown in Chevron's downstream business.
Still, Chevron's free cash flow (FCF) for the first three quarters of 2024 was $10.7 billion compared to $11.7 billion for the same period last year. The company's ability to generate substantial earnings and FCF even in a mid-cycle price environment showcases why Chevron has an elite upstream portfolio.
Returning capital to shareholders
Like most oil and gas companies, Chevron's profits evaporated during the COVID-19-induced downturn. In fact, it reported a net loss of $5.54 billion in 2020. Despite the loss, Chevron not only kept paying a dividend, but also raised the payout as it has done for 37 consecutive years.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coca-cola-passive-income-powerhouse-092300161.html
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has reported that US production of associated-dissolved natural gas, or associated natural gas, increased 7.9% in 2023 compared with 2022, averaging 17.1 billion f3/d last year, according to data from Enverus Drillinginfo. Associated natural gas production, which is natural gas produced by wells that predominantly produce oil, comes mainly from five major oil-producing regions in the United States – the Permian, Bakken, Eagle Ford, Anadarko, and Niobrara.
Record US crude oil production in 2023 generated large volumes of associated natural gas. The Permian Basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico accounted for 46% of U.S. crude oil production in 2023 and was the largest source of US associated gas production last year at 11.5 billion f3/d. In 2023, around two-thirds of total US associated natural gas production came from the Permian region, similar to 2022.
In 2023, 2.3 billion f3/d of associated gas was produced in North Dakota’s Bakken region, which accounted for 70% of the region’s total natural gas production – the largest share among the five oil-producing regions. The Eagle Ford region in southern Texas was the source of 1.8 billion f3/f of associated gas, while a combined 1.5 billion f3/d of associated gas was produced in the Niobrara and Anadarko regions in the midcontinent in 2023.
Associated natural gas accounted for 36.7% of U.S. natural gas production in 2023, compared with 37.4% in 2022. Non-associated natural gas is natural gas produced from wells that predominantly produce natural gas. EIA defines oil wells as those with a gas-to-oil ratio (GOR) of less than or equal to 6.0 thousand f3 of natural gas per bbl of oil produced. EIA classifies wells with a GOR of more than 6.0 thousand f3/bbl as natural gas wells. Associated natural gas production has grown at a rate commensurate with dry natural gas production.
Associated gas contains natural gas plant liquids (NGPLs) such as ethane, butane, and propane. Associated gas is sometimes characterised as wet gas because it must be treated at gas processing plants to remove impurities and liquids before being marketed. The increase in associated gas has led to record ethane production, which is used as a feedstock to produce plastics, fibres, and other products.
European gas futures jumped to their highest level in a year. This was due to fears that Gazprom may cut off supplies to Austria, Bloomberg reports.
Futures on the TTF hub in the Netherlands rose by 3.7% to 45.3 euros per megawatt-hour (about $510 per thousand cubic meters).
Austria's OMV warned that Russian gas supplies could be disrupted as the company intends to stop paying for imports from Gazprom to collect the money it won in arbitration.
OMV does not expect Gazprom to pay 230 million euros, which could prompt the Kremlin-controlled company to stop supplying.
Much of Europe has abandoned Moscow's flows in recent years, and Austria and Slovakia remain the main importers of the remaining gas supplied through Ukraine.
Payments for the supplies are likely to be made by the 20th of each month. “Given that OMV has said it will immediately seek to recoup the award, it’s possible it will withhold its payment to Gazprom for the deliveries it received in October,” said Tom Marzek-Manser, head of gas analytics at ICIS.
OMV said it could fulfill its supply obligations through alternative sources if supplies from Russia under its long-term contract were to be hampered.
“Austria can and will manage without Russian gas. Nevertheless, it is clear that a sudden interruption in supply could cause tension on the gas markets,” said Austrian Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler.
OMV said the supply of 5 terawatt-hours per month could be disrupted. That's about 1% of the European Union's total gas needs during the peak demand season earlier this year - still enough to make traders nervous given the fragility of the market balance. September was the 10th consecutive month that Russia covered more than 80% of Austria's gas demand.
Slovakia's largest energy supplier, Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel, described alternative gas supply routes if the deal fails to secure future flows through Ukraine. In June, the German utility company Uniper was awarded more than 13 billion in compensation for undelivered gas to Gazprom.
Russian pipeline flows through Ukraine are expected to stop on December 31 unless an alternative agreement is reached with Kyiv.
Landlocked Central European countries can access LNG, including through new terminals that were quickly established in Germany and the Netherlands in the midst of the energy crisis.
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/gas-prices-in-europe-rise-sharply-as-gazprom-1731589191.html
Ed Miliband is expected to strengthen Britain’s commitment to climate leadership at UN talks in Baku, Azerbaijan - Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
Britain’s wind generation is set to plummet to virtually zero this week as Ed Miliband presses ahead with plans to increase the nation’s reliance on renewable energy.
Much of the UK has seen zero hours of sunshine this month, and the first part of this week will see already-light winds hit fresh lows in many areas, according to Met Office forecasters.
The dark and windless weather comes as Sir Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, fly to the UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, to pledge massive cuts in UK greenhouse gas emissions.
They are expected to pledge to cut CO2 emissions by 240m tonnes, or 60pc of their 2022 levels, by 2035.
They will also confirm plans to “decarbonise” the UK electricity system by 2030, by ending the use of the UK’s 32 main gas-fired power stations.
Sir Keir’s speech, expected on Tuesday, coincides with a record “dunkelflaute” spell of low winds and sunshine that have already slashed output from renewables.
Wind speeds are expected to fall again this week, making gas more essential than ever to keep the lights on.
“Many of our weather stations have recorded zero sunshine so far this month,” said a Met Office forecaster. It’s very unusual.”
Those weather stations are spread across the southern UK, with zero sunshine readings from Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, Ross on Wye, near the Welsh borders, St Athan, west of Cardiff, Liscombe in Devon and Wittering, near Peterborough.
The Met Office said: “Monday and Tuesday will see unusually light winds. There’s an area of high pressure across the UK and Europe which makes for very settled and calm weather.”
Weather readings and forecasts have become increasingly important for UK power generation because of growing reliance on wind and solar.
Over the last week solar generated just 0.7pc of the nation’s electricity and wind just 10.6pc, according to grid data.
By contrast, on sunny and windy days renewables have generated more than 87pc of UK power needs.
Neso, the UK’s National Energy System Operator, which runs the grid, expects the UK to have its first periods of complete decarbonisation, when no gas is needed, in 2025.
However, such data also underscore the problem of intermittency, with the grid needing some means of supplying low carbon power all the time, not just when the wind is blowing.
Mr Miliband said the UK’s willingness to pledge such massive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions was a sign of “climate leadership.”
He said: “The only way to protect our children and future generations is by leading global climate action. At the Cop29 climate talks, we will work with other countries to step up ambition on tackling the climate crisis.”
Breaking Down the Cost of an EV Battery Cell
This was originally posted on Elements. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on natural resource megatrends in your email every week.
As electric vehicle (EV) battery prices keep dropping, the global supply of EVs and demand for their batteries are ramping up.
Since 2010, the average price of a lithium-ion (Li-ion) EV battery pack has fallen from $1,200 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to just $132/kWh in 2021.
Inside each EV battery pack are multiple interconnected modules made up of tens to hundreds of rechargeable Li-ion cells. Collectively, these cells make up roughly 77% of the total cost of an average battery pack, or about $101/kWh.
So, what drives the cost of these individual battery cells?
The Cost of a Battery Cell
According to data from BloombergNEF, the cost of each cell’s cathode adds up to more than half of the overall cell cost.
EV Battery Cell Component% of Cell Cost
| Cathode | 51% |
| Manufacturing and depreciation | 24% |
| Anode | 12% |
| Separator | 7% |
| Electrolyte | 4% |
| Housing and other materials | 3% |
Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding.
Why Are Cathodes so Expensive?
The cathode is the positively charged electrode of the battery. When a battery is discharged, both electrons and positively-charged molecules (the eponymous lithium ions) flow from the anode to the cathode, which stores both until the battery is charged again.
That means that cathodes effectively determine the performance, range, and thermal safety of a battery, and therefore of an EV itself, making them one of the most important components.
They are composed of various metals (in refined forms) depending on cell chemistry, typically including lithium and nickel. Common cathode compositions in modern use include:
The battery metals that make up the cathode are in high demand, with automakers like Tesla rushing to secure supplies as EV sales charge ahead. In fact, the commodities in the cathode, along with those in other parts of the cell, account for roughly 40% of the overall cell cost.
Other EV Battery Cell Components
Components outside of the cathode make up the other 49% of a cell’s cost.
The manufacturing process, which involves producing the electrodes, assembling the different components, and finishing the cell, makes up 24% of the total cost.
The anode is another significant component of the battery, and it makes up 12% of the total cost—around one-fourth of the cathode’s share. The anode in a Li-ion cell is typically made of natural or synthetic graphite, which tends to be less expensive than other battery commodities.
Although battery costs have been declining since 2010, the recent surge in prices of key battery metals like lithium has cast a shadow of doubt over their future. How will EV battery prices evolve going forward?
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/breaking-down-the-cost-of-an-ev-battery-cell/
Photovoltaic solar panels sit in an array at the Senergy Santhiou Mekhe PV solar plant in Thies, Senegal.
(Bloomberg) -- Senegal will recommit to a €2.5 billion ($2.67 billion) program to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels in coming weeks, a key funder said.
Negotiations over the pact — a so-called Just Energy Transition Partnership — with some of the world’s richest nations had been slowed by a change of government in Senegal this year. A commitment to the deal, in the form of an investment plan, is now expected, said Remy Rioux, the chief executive officer of France’s state development bank.
While former President Macky Sall had initially announced the program in June 2023, his party lost presidential elections in March and Bassirou Diomaye Faye was appointed as his replacement. That created uncertainty over the deal as well as oil and gas developments worth billions of dollars that companies such as BP Plc and Kosmos Energy Ltd. plan to implement.
Faye is expected to announce support for the project if his party and the prime minister he appointed, Ousmane Sonko, wins parliamentary elections on Nov. 17, Rioux said. Sonko’s Pastef party is widely expected to secure a majority and shore up Faye’s power in parliament.
“It will probably be rapidly after the election if Prime Minister Sonko has a majority,” Rioux, the head of Agence Francaise De Developpement, said in an interview in Johannesburg. The investment plan would detail how the African country plans to boost the share of renewable power in its energy mix.
A government ministry official said the drafting of the plan is at an advanced stage and its completion is planned for December.
The deal, if confirmed, would see the money flow from France, Germany, the European Union, the UK and Canada over the next five years.
It would add to similar programs with larger developing countries that are reliant on fossil fuels for electricity production. South Africa committed to a program, now worth $9.3 billion, in 2021. It is gearing up to implement its investment plan and has already won €700 million in funding from AFD as well as loans from Germany’s KfW development bank.
Indonesia and Vietnam followed with their own agreements worth $20 billion and $15.5 billion respectively.
The program is an effort by some of the world’s most industrialized nations, which produce the bulk of the emissions causing climate warming, to help emerging nations invest in renewable energy and reduce their own output of greenhouse gases as they develop.
Senegal currently relies on burning oil and gas to produce most of its electricity. South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam rely mostly on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.
--With assistance from Yinka Ibukun.
(Updates with government comment in sixth paragraph.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
New report highlights Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engines as a key solution for greener off-road machinery
11 November 2024
A new report reveals hydrogen internal combustion engines (H2ICE) as the leading technological solution to decarbonise critical off-road heavy-duty sectors, from construction and agriculture to mining and forestry, which rely heavily on non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) for their operations.
Issued today, “Powering Growth - The Role of Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engines in Non-Road Mobile Machinery” provides key findings and recommendations for advancing hydrogen engines in the UK’s off-road machinery market - a sector both economically crucial and challenging to decarbonise.
IAAPS contributed significantly to the report, with Research Director Professor Sam Akehurst leading the analysis on Performance and Efficiency, underscoring the organisation’s role in pioneering practical, research-driven solutions to support the UK’s net-zero goals. Professor Akehurst's expertise helped reveal that H2ICE technology can match or exceed diesel engine efficiency while producing a fraction of the emissions, showcasing its feasibility as a sustainable replacement.
“Hydrogen internal combustion engines offer immediate decarbonisation for NRMM by facilitating a quick transition to hydrogen fuel, driving investment and infrastructure growth for hydrogen,” Akehurst stated. He emphasised H2ICE’s potential as the least inflationary option, leveraging existing manufacturing and supply chain capabilities.
The report was commissioned by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) via the Off-takers Working Group of the Hydrogen Delivery Council (HDC) and published by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and the Hydrogen Energy Association. It includes recommendations for government recognition of H2ICE as a zero-emissions technology, aligning with EU standards. Additional recommendations include incentives to support low-emission solutions in public procurement, regulatory alignment for hydrogen safety, and financial support for NRMM fuel switching.
Key findings include:
• Performance and Efficiency: H2ICE technology can match or surpass diesel engines, enabling swift decarbonisation and supporting hydrogen market expansion.
• Air Quality Benefits: With emissions reductions 14-20 times lower than current diesel engines, H2ICE could save £150m–£505m in environmental and healthcare costs annually.
• Minimal NOx and Particulates: Research shows H2ICE technology can reduce NOx and particulate emissions by over 98%, enhancing urban air quality.
• Greenhouse Gas Emissions: H2ICE allows a 99.95% reduction in CO₂ emissions, leveraging existing industry infrastructure for rapid deployment.
• Economic Impact: H2ICE represents a £17.6 billion opportunity to secure and expand UK jobs, while reinforcing the country’s leadership in sustainable technology.
Zacks Equity Research November 13, 2024
BP plc’s (BP) current efforts to scale back on its renewable projects' expansion shall not affect the offshore wind projects that the British energy major has undertaken with the German energy company EnBW, as per Reuters. In recent months, BP has been maintaining its focus on its high-margin business while scaling down the aggressive expansion of its renewables unit. The company had previously announced that it plans to sell off its U.S. onshore wind business and divest a small stake in its offshore wind business.
Overview of the Partnership
However, per EnBW, these decisions are not likely to affect BP’s partnership with the German energy firm. BP and EnBW forged a 50-50 partnership in 2021 to develop offshore wind projects in the UK. The companies have signed lease agreements for two 60-year leases that should enable them to develop offshore wind projects in the Irish Sea. Furthermore, they have signed an option agreement related to a lease in the UK North Sea.
The three projects, named Morven, Morgan and Mona, have the collective capacity to generate up to 5.9 gigawatts (GW) of power, enough to meet the needs of approximately 6 million households in the UK.
BP’s Scale-Back Unlikely to Affect JV’s Operations
EnBW mentioned that BP’s strategy to scale down its renewables business is global. The decision does not affect the JV’s plans. EnBW further mentioned that the JV is advancing with its projects, and the operations remain unaffected by BP’s decision to cut back on further investments in renewables.
The operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), announced the successful transport of a radioactive debris sample from the site to a laboratory near Tokyo. The operation was carried out in complete secrecy for security reasons, a common approach in handling highly radioactive materials.
The sample, weighing about 0.7 grams, was extracted using specially developed equipment. The Oarai Nuclear Engineering Institute, affiliated with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), will conduct an in-depth analysis of this debris fragment. This analysis is expected to last several months, with the goal of gathering valuable data for future debris recovery operations.
A delicate mission in multiple phases
Since the 2011 accident, which followed a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami, the Fukushima site has been under constant monitoring. The tsunami caused the cooling systems of three of the six active reactors to melt down, leading to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. Experts estimate that 880 tons of radioactive debris remain inside the reactors, posing a significant challenge for the plant’s decommissioning.
The decommissioning work, spanning several decades, requires innovative technological means. The gradual removal of this radioactive debris is one of the most technical aspects of the project. The JAEA expects that analysis results will provide crucial information for expanding the scope of future recovery operations.
Controversy over water management
Beyond the fuel debris, the management of water stored on site has sparked international debates. Since August 2023, Japan has been releasing this water into the Pacific Ocean, a process validated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but which has provoked strong reactions from some countries, notably China. Beijing temporarily suspended all imports of Japanese seafood, a measure soon followed by Russia.
Despite criticism, the IAEA reaffirmed that the water release was in line with international safety standards. In September, China eased its stance, announcing a gradual resumption of seafood imports from Japan, signaling a potential reduction in regional tensions.
Japan’s decommissioning challenges
The decommissioning of the Fukushima plant is a major project for Japan and requires close cooperation with international authorities. The efforts by Tepco to retrieve and analyze radioactive debris illustrate the complexity of the ongoing decontamination process, which requires decades of commitment and technical innovation.
This new phase of debris analysis represents a key step in ensuring safe and effective planning for future decommissioning phases. Japan continues to work under the watchful eye of the international community, seeking to reassure both local residents and neighboring countries about the safety of its operations.
https://energynews.pro/en/analysis-of-fukushima-radioactive-debris-a-key-step-in-decommissioning/
1 | Trade war, schmade war
Here is the real issue:
2 | Missing the forest for the trees
Now, I am not saying another trade war won’t have implications, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees.
China’s import growth has slowed all while Brazil’s production continues to expand.
What happens when production grows exponentially?
You unburden yourself of excess supplies by way of exports:
3 | It adds up
Same data, different view:
Collectively over the past five marketing years, Chinese imports of Brazilian soybeans have outpaced imports from the U.S. by a staggering 6 BILLION BUSHELS.
Let that sink in a bit (for reference, the US will produce a near-record 4.46 billion bushel crop this year).
Anyone blaming the 2018/19 disaster in soybeans on Trump alone needs to reconsider their ‘go-to’ sources of market intel. Be careful what narrative you are listening to in the weeks and months ahead because talking heads love to feed off the idea of a 2nd trade war which, while definitely impactful, the underlying issues are far more complex.
4 | Soybean oil export sales, strong like bull
Soybean oil export sales for the week ending October 31 were a whopping 114,000 tonnes - the largest single week of sales in more than five years. Last week's sales were also the 7th largest week of all-time, larger than the previous eleven weeks of sales combined, and the same size as ALL sales in calendar year 2023.
Current commitments have reached an unprecedented 86% of USDA's current full-year export estimate with a full ten months remaining in the current marketing year - a number that USDA will be forced to revise higher in future WASDE reports, especially as most sales are for nearby shipment and the U.S. remains competitive in the world market.
5 | The oil shuffle
While the U.S. continues to see a resurgence in soybean oil export demand amid a rallying world veg oil market (led by palm), we also continue to import record amounts of fats and oils to satisfy growing biomass-based diesel feedstock demand.
Combined imports of used cooking oil, tallow, and canola oil set a record in September at 1.45 billion pounds led by a surge in both UCO (record high 693 million pounds) and the second-highest monthly tallow imports on record.
Records were made to be broken, though as the U.S. will soon become more reliant on domestically-produced biomass based diesels and the feedstock (imports) needed for their production once 45Z goes into effect January 1.
For the full version of this post, visit NoBullAg.Substack.com.
Thanks!
Posted 08:44 -- December corn is down 1 cent per bushel, January soybeans are down 3/4 cent per bushel. December KC wheat is down 2 1/4 cents per bushel, December Chicago wheat is down 3 cents per bushel and December Minneapolis wheat is up 1 1/2 cents. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 112.87 points at 44,071.06. The U.S. Dollar Index is up 0.110 at 106.59. December crude oil is up $0.83 per barrel at $69.26. USDA announced a new export sale of 176,000 mt (6.9 mb) of soybeans to unknown destinations for 2024-25. Corn and soy markets are little changed but slightly lower early Thursday, and wheat is mixed with KC December lower for the seventh straight day on improving conditions and world wheat pressure. The U.S. Dollar Index has risen to the highest level in one year.
Livestock
OMAHA (DTN) -- December live cattle are down $1.20 at $182.825, January feeder cattle are down $0.55 at $243.1, December lean hogs are down $2.25 at $79.625, December corn is down 6 1/4 cents per bushel and December soybean meal is down $2.60. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 162.74 points. Bids of $185 live are currently being offered in Nebraska and Kansas, but thus far there haven't been any new sales reported Thursday. On Wednesday afternoon a few cattle sold in the North for $290, which is $3.00 lower than last week's weighted average.
Posted 08:40 -- December live cattle are down $0.10 at $183.925, January feeder cattle are up $1.05 at $244.7, December lean hogs are up $0.35 at $82.225, December corn is down 1 1/4 cents per bushel and December soybean meal is down $2.20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 111.07 points. There was light movement of cattle in the North on Wednesday afternoon where dressed cattle sold for $290, which is $3.00 lower than last week's weighted average. Otherwise, the countryside remains quiet and more business will need to develop before week's end. Asking prices are noted in the South at $188 to $189, and at $292 in the North.
(c) Copyright 2024 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.
https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/article/2024/11/14/periodic-updates-grains-livestock
Bitcoin (BTC) jumped above the $79,000 mark for the first time in history in an unusual weekend pump that liquidated $280 million in bearish crypto trades.
BTC rose 4%, extending 7-day gains to over 16% on the back of a week that saw Republican Donald Trump elected the U.S. president and Federal Reserve cutting rates by 25 basis points — with both events considered widely bullish among traders.
Weekend pumps are generally considered bullish in the crypto market, as trading volumes typically decrease over the weekend when many institutional investors and professional traders are less active. Lower liquidity can lead to more volatile price movements, whereas even smaller trades can cause significant price changes.
However, a significant price increase over Saturday and Sunday might suggest that retail investors are driving market activity. This is a bullish sign because it indicates broad interest and participation from smaller investors rather than just institutional players.
Profit-taking among bitcoin traders remains tiny compared to previous euphoric periods, suggesting the current rally still has plenty of room to run, a CoinDesk analysis shows .
Meanwhile, bearish crypto bets took on over $280 million in losses — an unusually high figure for the weekend — with $103 million in bitcoin shorts and $70 million in ether short bets liquidated. Shorts are bets against higher prices.
DOGE and Solana’s SOL saw over $25 million in liquidated traders, suggesting increased futures participation in tokens outside of BTC and ETH.
A liquidation occurs when an exchange forcefully closes a trader's leveraged position due to the trader's inability to meet the margin requirements. Large-scale liquidations can indicate market extremes, like panic selling or buying. A cascade of liquidations might suggest a market turning point, where a price reversal could be imminent due to an overreaction in market sentiment.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-smashes-79k-bullish-weekend-060541098.html
TERRY Holohan, CEO of Resolute Mining, is one of several of the company’s executives to have been detained by the military-controlled government of Mali in West Africa, said Bloomberg News citing people with knowledge of the matter.
They were taken by Mali’s junta over the weekend, said the newswire. Perth-based Resolute declined to comment. A Mali mining ministry official declined to comment when reached by phone, said the newswire. The matter was earlier reported by Agence France-Presse.
According to the Daily Mail in Australia, Holohan and other executives were arrested at a hotel in Bamako, Mali’s capital, and taken to a specialised unit set up to tackle corruption and economic or financial crimes. Holohan has denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
Mali has overhauled the country’s mining sector after legislating a new mining code in 2023, and running an audit of new projects.
The country is currently locked in a dispute with Barrick Gold over allegations the company owes about $500m in unpaid taxes from 2020 to 2023, according to a report by Reuters.
Mark Bristow, CEO of Barrick told Miningmx last week he would be prepared to pay the majority of economic benefits from mining to the government but added that such an agreement would have to be done “in the proper way”.
Holohan’s detention follows a number of arrests by Mali authorities in recent weeks including employees of Barrick Gold in October.
Resolute, like other international miners operating in Mali, has been under growing pressure since the military seized power, said Bloomberg News.
Mali has overhauled the country’s mining sector after legislating a new mining code in 2023, and running an audit of new projects.
The country is currently locked in a dispute with Barrick Gold. According to Reuters, Barrick owes about $500m in unpaid taxes from 2020 to 2023.
Mark Bristow, CEO of Barrick told Miningmx last week he would be prepared to pay the majority of economic benefits from mining to the government but added that such an agreement would have to be done “in the proper way”.
Holohan has staged an impressive turnaround since his appointment at Resolute about two years ago. Aided by a one-third improvement in the price of gold this year, he has rubbed out $229m in company net debt.
In addition to ramping up production at Resolute’s flagship Syama project, Holohan has also driven a second phase expansion which is expected to be in operation in 2025. Plans are also afoot to extend the life of the Mako gold mine in Senegal.
Holohan also said recently the company was looking for additional opportunities. In September, the miner announced it had raised $60m in debt which would be used for new organic and inorganic expansion.
At least 24 people were killed and more than 40 others injured as a result of a bomb explosion on Saturday, November 9, 2024. The bomb explosion occurred precisely at a train station in Quetta City in southwest Pakistan.
Quetta is the capital of Balochistan Province, which has been struggling with a wave of attacks by separatist ethnic groups that have raised concerns about development projects in the province, whose mineral resources remain untapped. Inspector General of Police of Balochistan Province, Mouzzam Jah Ansari, stated that as of the release of this news, at least 24 people had died due to the bomb explosion at the train station, which is usually busy in the morning or at the time when the bomb explosion occurred.
"The target of this explosion was military personnel from the Infantry school," said Jah Ansari, who also mentioned that many of the injured victims were in critical condition. Meanwhile, Commissioner of Quetta, Hamza Shafqat, stated that about 16 soldiers were killed.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group claimed responsibility for the bomb attack. The BLA seeks the independence of Balochistan Province, home to 15 million people. The province also shares borders with Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west.
BLA is the largest ethnic group fighting against the Pakistani government. They claim that Islamabad has been unfair in exploiting the province's gas and mineral wealth.
"So far, 44 injured persons have been taken to the public hospital," said Wasim Baig, a hospital spokesperson.
Muhammad Baloch, a police officer, said that the bomb explosion was likely a suicide bombing. Investigations are ongoing to gather more information. The bomb explosion occurred inside the station as the Peshawar-bound train was departing from the station towards its destination.
Previously in August 2024, at least 73 people were killed in Balochistan Province after separatist members attacked several police posts, railway tracks, and highways. The August attacks were the largest by separatist militants in decades in an attempt to seize Balochistan Province from Pakistan. Balochistan Province has been a host to Chinese projects such as ports, gold mines, and copper mines.
Editor's Choice: India, Pakistan Tiptoe Around the Nuclear Threat
Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News
Gold miner Resolute Mining finds itself at the center of a broad shakeup of regulatory regimes across West Africa following the detention of the company’s chief executive in Mali, as cash-strapped governments seek to generate more revenue from their natural resources.
Mali’s military junta — crippled by sanctions and cut off from Western aid — is at the forefront of the push, aggressively pursuing both Resolute and Canadian giant Barrick Gold, which has also had its employees detained and a key license threatened in recent months. But neighboring Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Ivory Coast are also updating mining codes, stripping permits or launching sector-wide audits.
“We’re seeing it across Africa, especially in West Africa,” Chris Eger, Resolute’s chief finance officer, said on an earnings call last month. “It’s unfortunately the environment that we’re living in. As we’re generating a lot more cash because of the gold price environment, one of the, I think, unfortunate byproducts of it is that people are looking for possibly a bigger piece of the pie.”
The moves have come as gold has soared. The precious metal has risen about 30% this year and reached an all-time high of $2,790.10 an ounce amid mounting geopolitical uncertainty in the run-up to Donald Trump’s US election victory.
The detention of Resolute’s boss Terry Holohan follows Mali’s audit of the mining industry and the adoption of new legislation for the sector that raises the state’s share in mining projects. Although producers including Resolute and Barrick negotiated so-called conventions with previous governments to run their projects, Mali’s junta is putting pressure on foreign firms after revising its mining law.
Next door, Niger’s military government has blocked France’s Orano SA from exporting uranium ore — which contributed to a breakneck rally in the mineral’s price following the ban. Meanwhile, Burkina Faso changed its mining code last year to ratchet up the state’s royalty share, Ivory Coast is changing its tax regime and Senegal’s new government is conducting an audit of the mining sector dating back to 2017.
While Resolute’s shares plummeted by a third on Monday, other mining companies active in Mali also suffered. Kodal Minerals – which is building a lithium project in the country – fell as much as 13%.
(Ecofin Agency) - Valued at $700 billion, Nigeria's mineral resources include iron, lithium, gold, and coal. To tap into this potential, the country launched several reforms in its mining sector, which currently contributes less than 1% to GDP.
From November 6 to 9, 2024, the Nigerian Embassy in South Africa hosted the inaugural Nigerian Mining Investment Forum. During the event, Nigerian Minister of Mines Dele Alake highlighted the strengths of Nigeria's mining sector and encouraged investors to explore opportunities in the country.
“I urged South African investors and global mining giants to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the ongoing reforms and the improved business climate in Nigeria’s mining sector. I emphasized that Nigeria is open for business [...]” said the official in a message posted on November 10 on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
Organized in partnership with Rosebank Capital, the three-day event aimed to increase South African investments in Nigeria's mining industry. According to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), South Africa ranked fifth among foreign direct investors in Nigeria in 2023, with $116.37 million invested.
The forum falls under Nigeria’s strategy to expand mining’s contribution to the national economy. Although Nigeria's mineral resources are estimated at $700 billion—comprising lithium, iron, coal, and gold—the mining sector accounts for less than 1% of GDP.
To address this, Nigerian authorities have signed agreements with the Africa Finance Corporation and Xcalibur Multiphysics to improve geological data availability through a new database.
Additionally, cooperation agreements have been established with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for investment in the mining sector.
Nigeria has also formed a joint working group with the United States to explore potential collaboration in developing its mining industry.
Emiliano Tossou
Miners are plundering one of the biggest mother lodes of gold in Latin America, led by gunmen who seized tunnels from a Chinese mining giant
BURITICÁ, Colombia—Some 700 yards deep in Colombia’s richest gold mine, private security guards crouch behind sandbags, trapped in a failing battle with a drug-trafficking gang that has commandeered 30 miles of tunnels worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The air below ground is hot, humid, sometimes toxic, and the work is dangerous—defending claustrophobic passageways against tossed explosives and gunfire from AK-47 assault rifles. Two guards were killed and several others wounded last year. On the other side, braving their own dangers, are an estimated 2,000 illegal miners.
The scale of plunder is stunning. Mine owner Zijin Mining Group, a Chinese state-controlled company, estimated that last year it lost more than 3.2 tons of gold, worth around $200 million and equal to 38% of the mine’s total production. The illegal mining, a slow and laborious process that continues largely unpoliced by authorities, is a war “we are losing,” a Zijin security official said.
Rogue miners at Zijin’s mines and elsewhere in Colombia get access, protection and equipment from the Gulf Clan, an armed militia of some 7,000 men that moves cocaine and migrants along routes headed to the U.S. The group seizes Zijin tunnels on behalf of illegal miners in exchange for a cut of the spoils.
Illegal gold mining in South America has expanded in recent years, government officials said, propelled by record-high gold prices, up 30% this year to around $2,600 an ounce. The miners move dredges and excavators into jungles, igniting conflicts with local indigenous groups, and use mercury to separate gold from rock, polluting parts of the Amazon rainforest in several countries.
As history shows, the lure of gold can be irresistible. Some of Colombia’s trespassing miners extract $5,000 or more worth of gold a month, a sum about equal to what business executives earn. Since 2019, about 18 illegal miners have been killed in accidents at the Zijin mine, company officials said.
“The wages are very good, but you risk it all,” said Erik Dubier, a 22-year-old illegal miner. “You can get trapped. There are rock slides. And there’s combat every day.”
Zijin Mining, which operates worldwide, filed a $430 million lawsuit at the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, alleging Colombia authorities aren’t doing their job. Zijin estimates that illegal miners control more than 60% of its mining tunnels in the mountains around Buriticá, a two-hour drive from Medellín.
The company bought the mine in 2020 from Canada’s Continental Gold for $1 billion, part of Beijing’s global push to secure minerals. Leizhong Li, the company’s chief executive, said violent incursions have since become a daily threat—with little help from the government.
“We tried to talk to the state all last year but didn’t see much will,” Li said. The company estimated that Colombia lost the equivalent of $100 million in taxes and royalties last year.
Daniela Gómez, the vice minister of defense, said Colombia doesn’t have the capacity to flush out the clandestine miners from the “subterranean theater of operations.” The government, she said, wants to avoid violent confrontations that might endanger civilians.
“The demands made by the company are not realistic,” said Gómez. Zijin bought the gold-mine operation “knowing that the illegal extraction of minerals was taking place,” she said.
Over the past four years, illegal miners have built an underground network so vast that Zijin engineers said the mountain has started to resemble Swiss cheese, crisscrossed with makeshift passageways and tunnels leading from an estimated 380 aboveground entryways. The Gulf Clan provides bunks, kitchens, bathrooms and security.
The gang also delivers sex workers, marijuana and other drugs to miners during weeklong stints. “There’s everything there,” Dubier said.
Trench warfare
Illegal miners worm their way into the Zijin mine from a chain of small houses perched on a mountain holding one of Latin America’s largest gold mother lodes.
The miners use explosive charges and rock drills to penetrate bathroom floors and bore through hundreds of yards of stone and clay. Inch by inch, the miners excavate passageways to reach the Zijin tunnels.
Militia fighters force the retreat of Zijin security forces with explosives and gunfire in what a company official described as trench warfare. Zijin said it has no other recourse but to surrender the tunnels, a retreat jeopardizing the future of its gold-mine concession.
“It happens every day,” Li said of the subterranean clashes. The company estimated that it has had to abandon an estimated 40 tons of gold deposits in the areas seized by the Gulf Clan and illegal miners.
Gómez, the vice minister of defense, described legal obstacles to searching homes and arresting miners. “I can go to Buriticá tomorrow and capture 300 people,” she said. “The judge will free them by nightfall.”
On a recent tour of the underground tunnels, Zijin’s senior security official at the mine pointed out the wall of sandbags separating company operations from trespassers working less than 100 yards away. The miners’ voices carried through the darkness.
“All the mining from here to there has been lost,” he said, pointing to the distant lights where illegal miners worked. “They advance progressively, taking ownership.”
Miners often seize Zijin tunnels by first tossing explosives and shooting at guards, the security official said. The miners carry jackleg drills and set off as many as 250 detonations a day to break through rock. Their advance has cost Zijin two of the mine’s three sections.
The richest and deepest part of the gold mine remains in company hands. Zijin has about 4,500 workers there and at processing centers. The company excavates around 4,000 tons of rock a day, which yields an average of 53 pounds of gold.
“It’s a tremendous problem,” said Javier Sarmiento, an investigator tracking mine troubles in Buriticá for Colombia’s Inspector General’s Office, a state agency.
‘Lack of control’
Zijin executives said the underground battle worsened after the 2022 election of leftist President Gustavo Petro. Past governments welcomed foreign mining companies, including Zijin. But Petro and his ministers have been critical of large-scale mining, saying they want to shift the economy toward such sustainable industries as avocado farming and tourism.
Colombia’s government says the country needs to transform the economy of Buriticá so that citizens have a choice of better jobs. Officials say they want to open a path for illegal miners to instead form legal cooperatives to run small artisanal mines. Some officials have suggested that Zijin give up some of its mine holdings to trespassers in a bid for peace.
“There are areas in that concession where there is no exploration, no activity whatsoever,” said Luis Álvaro Pardo, president of the state’s National Mining Agency. “So we’re saying, ‘Look Zijin, cede some areas.’”
Previous government had more aggressive policies against armed groups, said Li, the company’s chief executive. In 2016, Colombia launched Operation Crete, which closed more than 250 illegal passageways into the mine over four years.
Zijin said Colombia needed to again close off routes used by criminals stealing company gold. “From our point of view, the policy is not favorable to mining and the multinationals,” Li said. “How can authorities not know this and act against this?”
The state Inspector General’s Office has asked the government to develop a plan of action to stop the theft, Sarmiento said. Nothing has come of the request. “It has a lot to do with politics,” he said. “The arrival of this new government appears to have not been favorable to the situation.”
Brigadier General William Castaño, who oversees a police team assigned to the mine, said his forces regularly confront rogue miners. “There are interventions almost every day,” he said.
Sarmiento and Zijin executives said the state should try to cut off the electricity that powers the drills used by illegal miners. They said police and troops deployed in Buriticá could inspect vehicles traveling on the single road leading to the mine. Vehicles ferry in equipment and supplies and leave laden with stolen gold ore, according to Zijin executives.
“This is a pure lack of control by the authorities,” Sarmiento said.
Thousands of miners have arrived from other parts of Colombia and neighboring Venezuela to seek their fortune. Some have branched away from Zijin’s tunnels to mine gold deposits in La Centena, a mine a few miles away. Those miners deny Zijin’s claim that they are taking company gold.
On a recent day, Andres Rave, an older miner at La Centena, walked through the water and mud of a tunnel floor. He and a handful of others have dug passageways that extend about 200 yards into the mountain.
With the light on his hard hat illuminating colorful, craggy rocks, Rave ran his hand along a distinctive layer of minerals. “This vein that runs here,” he said, ”this is the one that holds the gold.”
Dust particles floated in the air. Rocks underfoot had fallen from tunnel walls and ceilings. Duber Antonio Quiros didn’t give it much thought. He and other miners worked to reinforce man-sized tunnels with wooden beams. Commercial miners use tunnel-boring equipment to build passageways supported by steel and concrete. Some are large enough for trucks.
“We small-time miners don’t have the technology the big companies have,” Quiros said. “But this gets into your blood and becomes your passion.
https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/colombia-gold-mine-theft-gangs-china-0f556f2a?st=qNZcVE
Cape Town. Tanzania has called for increased collaboration among African nations to establish processing and refining facilities on the continent to ensure maximum benefits from Africa's vast natural resources.
Representing the Minister of Minerals, Mr Anthony Mavunde, at the "Ministerial Session" of the Africa Critical Minerals Summit in Cape Town, South Africa, on Thursday, November 7, 2024, CEO of the State Mining Corporation (Stamico), Dr Venance Mwasse, spoke of the need to conduct cost-benefit analyses to determine the ideal locations for such facilities across the continent.
“For example, the upcoming Kabanga Nickel multi-metal smelter in Kahama, Tanzania, will enable neighbouring countries such as Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo to process their minerals locally, fostering regional prosperity and maximizing the benefits derived from these resources,” Dr Mwasse said. “Strong partnerships among African nations are crucial for making this vision a reality.”
Dr Mwasse also highlighted Tanzania’s growing role as a global leader in the mining of minerals critical for modern energy production and technological advancement. These include graphite, nickel, cobalt, lithium, rare earth elements, and niobium. According to Dr Mwasse, Tanzania is on track to become a global powerhouse in graphite mining.
Citing a recent World Bank report and data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr Mwasse said that by 2050, Tanzania is projected to rank sixth globally and third in Africa in graphite production, with Mozambique and Madagascar leading in Africa.
Dr Mwasse also presented Tanzania’s Mining Vision 2030, which aims to attract investment by conducting extensive geological research in areas where data is currently limited. This will help "de-risk" the mining sector, boosting investor confidence.
“One key initiative involves expanding high-resolution airborne surveys from the current 16 percent coverage to 50 percent by 2030. This will improve exploration accuracy and help build investor confidence,” he said.
Furthermore, Tanzania is strengthening Stamico’s role by issuing exploration licenses and conducting preliminary research to reduce investor start-up times and minimize risks associated with unproven resources. Dr Mwasse concluded by urging other African nations to strengthen their state-owned mining corporations to drive critical mineral development and enhance national benefits.
UPDATE 2-India's Hindalco beats Q2 profit view on higher aluminium prices
Adds management comments in paragraphs 10-11
By Neha Arora and Anuran Sadhu
Nov 11 (Reuters) -India's Hindalco Industries HALC.NS, one of the country's largest aluminium and copper producers, posted a better-than-expected second-quarter profit on Monday, helped by higher aluminium prices.
The company, owned by the Aditya Birla Group, said its consolidated net profit jumped 78% to 39.09 billion rupees ($463.3 million) for the three months ended Sept. 30, beating estimates.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 34.46 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The demand for metals in the transportation, construction, and packaging industries remained strong this year, with prices of base metals like aluminium and copper rising for the second straight quarter in the July-September period.
The benchmark aluminium CMAL3 and copper CMCU3 prices on the London Metal Exchange rose 20% and 24%, respectively, from the second quarter of last year.
Hindalco's revenue from operations rose 7.4% to 582.03 billion rupees, while total expenses increased 3.3% to 531.21 billion rupees.
The company recorded a one-time cost of 5.14 billion rupees during the quarter due to expenses tied to production disruption at the Switzerland-based plant of its unit Novelis NVL.N.
The U.S. IPO-bound aluminium recycler Novelis, which accounts for more than 60% of Hindalco's overall revenue, incurred a net cash impact of $80 million due to the shutdown of its Switzerland plant from flooding in late June.
Revenue from Novelis rose 5.9%, while the copper segment, the second-largest contributor to Hindalco's revenue, grew nearly 5.4% during the quarter.
Hindalco sees Chinese imports as an increasing concern, especially if U.S. were to raise tariffs further, said Managing Director Satish Pai.
"My worry still remains imports from China because the U.S. market is going to get closed for them with the new administration. The only big market left for them, if they have surplus, is going to be India," Pai said.
Shares of the company closed 0.75% higher ahead of the results. The stock gained 9% in the quarter ended September, against the benchmark Nifty 50's .NSEI 7.5% rise.
($1 = 84.3700 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Anuran Sadhu and Neha Arora; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Krishna Chandra Eluri
Copper prices slid to a two-month low on Tuesday, as the U.S. dollar strengthened and weak demand prospects in top metals consumer China continued to weigh on the market in the wake of recenteconomic stimulus measures.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) CMCU3 was down 1.7%to $9,175.5 per metric ton by 0752 GMT. It had fallen to $9,173.5, the lowest since Sept.12, earlier in the session.
The most-traded December copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) SCFcv1 fell 1.6% at 75,310 yuan ($10,406.82) a ton.
The dollar rose toward a four-month peak versus major peers and bitcoinextended its record rally as investors continued to pile into trades seen as benefiting from the incoming Donald Trump administration. USD/
A stronger dollar makes greenback-priced metals more costly for holders of foreign currencies.
“With little focus being paid to the effectiveness of subsequent support from China, we anticipate that the dollar will remain the primary factor influencing metal prices this week,” Sucden Financial said.
Investors are also concernedabout U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to impose stiff tariffs on China, which could dampen metals demand. They were also left disappointed by Beijing’s stimulus measures announced last week.
Upcoming indicator of the Chinese economy’s strength will be the house price data due this Friday.
Among other metals, LME aluminium CMAL3 fell 1.5% to $2,549 a ton, nickel CMNI3 eased 0.6%to $16,020, zinc CMZN3 declined 1.1% to $2,946, tin CMSN3 dropped 5.2% to $29,655, while lead CMPB3 firmed up 0.07% to $2,023.5.
SHFE aluminium SAFcv1 shed 2.5% to 20,915 yuan a ton, nickel SNIcv1 eased 1.4% to 126,760 yuan, zinc SZNcv1 edged lower 0.2% at 24,850 yuan, tin SSNcv1 slid 1.9% to 255,310 yuan, while lead SPBcv1 climbed 0.8% to 16,995 yuan.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Neha Arora; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Sumana Nandy)
Published by: Dippy Singh on 12/11/2024
The Vancouver-headquartered copper development company has now raised a combined CAD 15 million (USD 10.7 million) to help bolster its flagship Namibia copper project.
Koryx Copper has completed the second round of its equity financing, securing over CAD 5.2 million (USD 3.7 million) to aid the development of its Haib copper project in Namibia. The company announced the funding completion on Friday (8 November).
The second tranche of the private placement equity offering involved the sale of over 4.7 million of common shares in the company. The first tranche, which was sold in October, raised CAD 9.6 million (USD 6.8 million) through the sale of over 8.7 million shares, bringing the total raised to just under CAD 15 million. The financing was non-brokered, with the company advised by Vancouver-based law firm Boughton Law.
A spokesperson for Koryx Copper tells ALB in an email that the funds will help grow, de-risk and advance the Haib copper project. In a company statement, Koryx said the net proceeds will also be used to advance its Luanshya West project in Zambia – which is the site of one of the most prolific copper belts in the world – and for general working capital purposes.
The mineral exploration company, which was founded in 1987, engages in the acquisition, exploration and development of major mineral properties in Africa. In addition to its 100%-owned Haib project – one of the largest copper porphyry deposits in Africa – the company is also building a portfolio of copper exploration licenses in Zambia.
Heye Daun, executive chairman of Koryx Copper, said in a statement: “We are pleased that many of our early stage supporters […] such as Ross Beaty and Resource Capital Funds and many other institutional and retail investors have elected to come in again in order to support us in advancing our assets and creating value for stakeholders.”
“We have already initiated a substantial ramp-up in drilling and technical activities with the aim of delivering an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) around the middle of 2025. We will very soon update the market with further details regarding our technical activities geared towards fast-tracking the development of our flagship Haib copper project in Namibia whilst continuing to build and enhance our project portfolio in Zambia,” Daun added.
Earlier this year, natural resources company Kamoa Copper secured a USD 200 million facility to help develop its Kamoa-Kakula site in the Democratic Republic of the Congo into the world’s third-largest copper mine.
https://www.africanlawbusiness.com/news/21882-koryx-copper-completes-major-equity-financing
Chinese copper smelters are likely to further cut production, shut down or extend maintenance to cope with a severe shortage of raw material or concentrate supply next year, participants at a conference in Shanghai said on Wednesday.
Global mine disruptions and smelters expanding capacity at a fast pace have led to extreme competition for copper concentrate and pushed treatment charges - a gauge of concentrate availability - to historic lows.
The concentrate deficit is estimated at more than one million metric tons next year, analyst Zuo Haoen from Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Company told delegates at the CRU World Copper Conference Asia.
Zuo said China's smelters are likely to moderately cut output, shut down, extend maintenance time, delay commissioning of new plants or lower the utilisation rate next year.
China's copper smelting capacity will grow significantly in 2025 by about 1 million tons and the utilisation rate will likely fall to 75% or even lower next year, Zuo added.
Earlier this year, Minmetals expected China's copper concentrate consumption to increase by 600,000 tons in 2024, but it has revised the number down to 300,000 tons.
On the mine side, the copper mining industry needs around $120 billion deployed by 2030 to fill the supply gap, said CRU consultant Francisco Acuna.
There is "no lack of projects", but many of these have not really moved forward, Acuna said, citing multiple factors including technical and geopolitical issues, permitting, and "the lack of decision making to actually move projects forward".
DEMAND
Copper is expected to be a major beneficiary of the energy transition. It is used in renewable power and electric vehicles, a leading driver of copper demand this year.
Copper demand from electric vehicles in 2030 will likely be 2.5 million tons higher than it was in 2020, said CRU's head of copper and zinc Eric Heimlich at the conference.
Renewable energy's copper demand in 2030 will be 2.4 million tons more than in 2020, while the grid sector could see an extra 2.3 million tons, Heimlich added.
China's real estate sector in 2030 is likely to consume 400,000 tons less copper than in 2020, Heimlich said.
China's copper consumption in 2025 is likely to hit 16.69 million tons, up 2% from 16.34 million tons this year, said Motoki Makita, a general manager from Mitsui & Co.
Copper demand for data centres was only 467,000 tons last year. However, with data centres, AI and cloud services becoming increasingly widespread, copper demand from these sectors is expected to increase rapidly, Makita said.
Looking forward, demand from the robotic sector could add at least two million tons to copper consumption, said Yang Chengxiao, a research director from Minmetals Securities.
Growth in flying vehicles including drones will boost copper demand, while efforts to electrify ships could add 100,000 tons to demand, Yang added.
Global miners and smelters in the world’s largest copper producer and consumer usually meet in Shanghai every November for the Asia Copper Week gathering to negotiate their copper concentrate contracts and settle treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) for the following year.
TC/RCs, which typically fall when ore supply declines, are a key source of revenue for smelters paid by miners.
The fees are expected to be set at a 15-year-low in 2025, a survey of industry participants found.
Using more recycled copper could reduce China’s reliance on overseas resources, which is currently more than 70%, Ge said.
China’s recycled copper volume will rise from 2.5 million metric tons in 2024 to 2.7 million tons in 2025 and 3.5 million tons by 2030, Ge forecast, encouraging Chinese companies to go to politically stable areas abroad to secure more recycled copper resources.
China has allowed imports of more recycled copper and established a new state-backed recycling company to help reduce reliance on primary raw materials.
Ge called for mergers and the reorganization of China’s copper refining capacity to increase industrial consolidation so as to enhance negotiating power to buy concentrate.
Aluminum-copper substitution
Using aluminum to replace copper already presents economic advantages, said Ge, with copper prices more than 3.5 times those of aluminum.
China buys 60% of resources needed to produce aluminum from abroad, and Chinese-funded companies have acquired more than 8 billion tons of foreign bauxite, more than a quarter of the total overseas reserves, said Ge.
Bauxite is refined into alumina, the main ingredient for making aluminum.
(By Amy Lv and Mai Nguyen; Editing by Neil Fullick and Mark Potter)
https://www.mining.com/web/swapping-aluminum-for-copper-will-maintain-chinas-resources-group-says/
Zinc futures on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) has been charting a sideways trend since early October. The November contract has been oscillating between ₹275 and ₹290.
The contract has been facing selling pressure since the beginning of this week. Consequently, it slipped below the support at ₹275 on Wednesday, turning bearish.
The prevailing price action indicates that zinc futures might drop to ₹255 in the near-term. Support below ₹255 can be spotted at ₹242.
On the other hand, if the contract recovers from the current level of ₹273, it can face a barrier at ₹ 285 and ₹290. Only a clear breach of ₹290 can turn the trend bullish. In such a case, the price can rise to ₹320 or even to ₹340, notable resistance levels.
Trade strategy
Since zinc futures has started to exhibit bearish bias, traders holding long positions can consider exiting.
Go short now at ₹273 with a stop-loss at ₹285. When the price falls to ₹260, tighten the stop-loss to ₹268. Book profits at ₹255.
LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese zinc producers are rushing to send 30,000 to 40,000 metric tons of refined zinc to warehouses registered with the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) ahead of November contract expiry on Friday, three sources with direct knowledge said.
That tonnage will take zinc stocks in the ShFE system to between 56,524 to 66,524 tons and is likely to hit prices of the metal, used to protect steel from corrosion. Already they have fallen by 4% to 24,638 yuan since Friday.
More than a dozen of China's producers are delivering zinc to the ShFE, the sources said. They expect surpluses in the world's biggest consumer as the country's construction and real estate sectors show little sign of recovery.
Among those delivering their unsold zinc to ShFE warehouses are subsidiaries of Zijin Mining and Jiangxi Copper, the sources said.
ShFE, Zijin and Jiangxi Copper did not respond to emails and calls for comment.
The sources could not be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
Zinc stocks in ShFE-monitored warehouses have almost doubled this week with deliveries of 24,039 tonnes. Total stocks stood at 50,563 tonnes as of Thursday.
The rate of increase in ShFE zinc stocks will depend on how quickly the Shanghai exchange approves the deliveries. The sources expect to see higher levels on Friday when the monthly contract matures.
Market participants holding zinc positions on ShFE must then decide whether to close or roll over their positions. Delivering physical metal is one way to close their short positions or contracts to sell zinc.
Those that have taken out bets zinc would fall have been frustrated as it has been the best performing metal on the ShFE.
ShFE's front month zinc contract has gained 16% so far this year to 24,975 yuan per ton, outperforming the 6.4% rise in copper and 5.7% rise in aluminium.
China's August zinc consumption shrank by 3% to 581,000 tonnes, World Bureau of Metal Statistics data showed.
A Reuters poll published last month showed the global zinc market is expected to see a surplus of 115,000 tons next year.
(Reporting by Julian Luk; editing by Pratima Desai and Barbara Lewis)
By Julian Luk
London copper prices fell below $9,000 for the first time in more than two months on Thursday, extending their decline as the dollar firmed and investors weighed the prospects of demand from top consumer China.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) CMCU3 fell 1.6% to $8,903 per metric ton by 0710 GMT, its lowest since Sept. 5.
The most-traded December copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) SCFcv1 closed 2% down at 73,170 yuan ($10,102.87) a ton, hitting its lowest since Sept. 12.
The dollar, steered by Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, has scaled a one-year high, which makes dollar-priced metals more expensive for other currency holders. USD/
Trump has vowed to adopt blanket 60% tariffs on U.S. imports of Chinese goods as part of his “America First” trade measures.
That can impact copper demand through two channels – by weakening Chinese economic activity and likely causing yuan depreciation, said Kyle Rodda, a senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com.
Investors have also been disappointed by the scale of China’s recent stimulus measures to reboot its lacklustre economy. China’s property market is one of the largest consumers of base metals.
Citi analysts expect prices to remain at $8,500-$9,000 into the year end.
“We think elevated net investor positioning length in copper and other base metals is vulnerable to a further unwind by the year-end in reaction to heightened uncertainty around metal demand prospects next year,” they said in a note.
LME aluminium CMAL3 fell 1% to $2,506.5 a ton, nickel CMNI3 was flat at $15,735, zinc CMZN3 decreased 2.8% to $2,899, lead CMPB3 lost 1.2% to $1,984 and tin CMSN3 fell 1.8% to $29,125.
SHFE aluminium SAFcv1 dipped 1.3% to 20,560 yuan a ton, nickel SNIcv1 declined 0.8% to 125,140 yuan, lead SPBcv1 dropped 1.5% to 16,905 yuan, zinc SZNcv1 slipped 0.9% to 24,465 yuan, while tin SSNcv1 slumped 3% to 242,240 yuan.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Savio D’Souza)
JAKARTA - PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) said that each year it is able to produce the best 1 ton of copper in the world.
PT Freeport Indonesia held a media gathering in 2024 with reporters from Jayapura City, Papua Province, Thursday.
PTFI Vice President Corporate Communication Katri Krisnawati in Jayapura, Thursday said, in 2024 many challenges were faced but were also able to achieve something unexpected.
"Something unexpected was that some time ago we inaugurated a copper smelter with the largest production process in the world," he said.
According to Katri, the inauguration of the PT Freeport Indonesia smelter is in Gresik, East Java Province.
"With the inauguration of this smelter, the production of copper concentrate from Papua can be processed entirely domestically," he said.
From the presence of this smelter, he continued, it is estimated that the results of the management are 1 million tons of copper cathode.
"In addition to producing 1 million tons of copper cathode, it also produces 50 tons of gold bullion, 200 tons of silver and various other precious metals," he said.
He added that the operation of the smelter in Gresik, East Java Province, PT Freeport Indonesia is the largest copper mine manager in the world and operates a smelter with all the largest mining income in the world.
"PT Freeport Indonesia is the largest integrated mining company from upstream to downstream in the world," he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Ribka Haluk said that the presence of a smelter in Gresik would increase production results and have a positive impact on the regional economy.
"I think the largest downstream smelter industry has been inaugurated and is ready to operate in improving the regional and Indonesian economy," he said.
PT Freeport Indonesia's smelter is operated by PT Smelting Gresik Smelter and Refinery which operates in Gresik, East Java Province.
Hundreds of journalists began printing, electronics, online Jayapura City, Jayapura Regency, Keerom participated in the media gathering held by PT Freeport Indonesia.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
Using more aluminium and recycled copper would help China cope with scarce copper resources, an industry group said on Wednesday, at a time when tight copper concentrate supplies are eroding profits at Chinese smelters.
“The copper industry faces many uncertainties and severe challenges … profit of smelters, in many cases, is not from copper but from byproducts with some already suffering loss,” Ge Honglin, chairman of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA), told a conference.
Global miners and smelters in the world’s largest copper producer and consumer usually meet in Shanghai every November for the Asia Copper Week gathering to negotiate their copper concentrate contracts and settle treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) for the following year.
TC/RCs, which typically fall when ore supply declines, are a key source of revenue for smelters paid by miners.
The fees are expected to be set at a 15-year-low in 2025, a survey of industry participants found.
Using more recycled copper could reduce China’s reliance on overseas resources, which is currently more than 70%, Ge said.
China’s recycled copper volume will rise from 2.5 million metric tons in 2024 to 2.7 million tons in 2025 and 3.5 million tons by 2030, Ge forecast, encouraging Chinese companies to go to politically stable areas abroad to secure more recycled copper resources.
China has allowed imports of more recycled copper and established a new state-backed recycling company to help reduce reliance on primary raw materials.
Ge called for mergers and the reorganisation of China’s copper refining capacity to increase industrial consolidation so as to enhance negotiating power to buy concentrate.
ALUMINIUM-COPPER SUBSTITUTION
Using aluminium to replace copper already presents economic advantages, said Ge, with copper prices more than 3.5 times those of aluminium.
China buys 60% of resources needed to produce aluminium from abroad, and Chinese-funded companies have acquired more than 8 billion tons of foreign bauxite, more than a quarter of the total overseas reserves, said Ge.
Bauxite is refined into alumina, the main ingredient for making aluminium.
Source: Renters (Reporting by Amy Lv and Mai Nguyen in Shanghai. Editing by Neil Fullick and Mark Potter)
Resources in the inferred category increased 63% to 7.2 million tonnes, at grades of 1.56% copper, 0.17% zinc, 0.87 g/t gold and 7.4 g/t silver, or 2.21% CuEq. The contained metal count is 246 million lb. copper, 27.3 million lb. zinc, 200,800 oz. gold and 1.7 million oz. silver, or 348.8 million lb. CuEq.
The resource update highlights a 38% increase in contained copper, 15% increase in contained zinc, 29% increase in contained gold and 22% increase in contained silver relative to the last resource estimate in 2018.
Abitibi, which holds 9.9% of B26, is working to earn 80% of the project over seven years from Soquem, a subsidiary of Investissement Québec. The company has raised C$18.5 million from investors such as Frank Giustra, who helped start Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX: WPM, NYSE: WPM; LSE: WPM) and Endeavour Mining (TSX: EDV; LSE: EDV).
The company in April identified a new copper target west of B26 that shows potential for expanding the project.
The B26 polymetallic deposit remains open at depth and laterally. The ongoing 16,500-metre Phase 2 drill program has not been included in this resource update and initial results will be announced next week, it said.
“This substantial increase in contained metal inventory underscores the exceptional potential of this asset and validates our team’s disciplined approach to unlocking value in one of the world’s premier mining jurisdictions,” Abitibi CEO Jonathon Deluce said in a news release.
Deluce said that following an in-depth evaluation of both open-pit and underground scenarios for the B26 deposit, the company currently sees greater value in pursuing an underground-only model.
“However, we continue to see strong merit in the open-pit potential, particularly given the promising lower-grade, near-surface halo. We plan to conduct further work to better understand and outline this zone, which could enhance the resource’s versatility and add significant optionality in the future. Our approach remains focused on maximizing the long-term value of the B26 deposit,” Deluce said.
The company said it is fully funded with C$13 million to complete the remaining 2024 Phase 2 work program and an additional 20,000 metres of diamond drilling in 2025, which will be incorporated into a preliminary economic assessment.
Abitibi’s stock was halted on Wednesday as it delivered the news to the market, but closed the day up 2.5% on the CSE. The company has a C$44 million market capitalization.
https://www.mining.com/abitibi-metals-boosts-resource-by-62-at-b26-polymetallic-deposit-in-quebec/
The ongoing market downturn may force steelmakers to shut down or sell some capacity
European long products producers are under serious financial pressure, Kallanish reports, citing sources at steel mills.
If the market downturn continues and there is no government support, this could potentially force producers to close or sell certain facilities. Low profitability and high costs continue to have a negative impact on production in both southern and northern Europe.
Producers of long products point to high electricity costs and rising scrap prices. In particular, they are resorting to measures such as production cuts and night shifts to save on electricity.
Current selling prices for long products are unstable and difficult to increase, said one market source. According to the source, sales of wire rod and rebar are experiencing a decline across Europe, with both types of products currently performing poorly. In particular, sales in Germany continue to decline in terms of volumes and prices.
European rolled steel producers in southern Europe are considering stopping production as a strategy to cut costs and minimize scrap purchases.
Current indicators do not indicate a recovery, so the market expects that 2025 will reflect the current year, albeit with some adjustments. However, demand may recover in the second half of next year.
One of the long products producers with facilities in several European countries suggested that the market may structurally decline in the long term.
The European steel distribution sector is also under pressure. According to sources, a large number of service centers across Europe are facing difficulties and may potentially cease operations.
As GMK Center reported earlier, in October 2024, the global rebar market showed different price trends depending on the region. In Turkey, prices rose amid rising scrap prices and stable demand in the domestic market. At the same time, the US saw negative price dynamics due to weak demand caused by economic uncertainty. The European market was under pressure from growing competition from imported products.
https://gmk.center/en/news/european-long-products-producers-struggle-with-high-costs/
Posted on 11 Nov 2024
Vietnam anti-dumping probe stifles China-origin HRC buying
The Vietnamese hot rolled coil market is seeing Chinese-origin HRC trading dwindle as a pending anti-dumping suit progresses, Kallanish notes. As expected, Vietnamese importers are reluctant to take the risk of paying anti-dumping duties as the trade case’s results draw closer.
“There are expectations that there will be some preliminary duties or retroactive taxes in December or early January,” a Hanoi trader said on Friday. “No one will book today except those who are willing to gamble.”
Market rumours suggest Indian-origin HRC imports will face anti-dumping duties of 22.27% and those from China, 27.83%. This is being reported by “mouthpieces” of one of the producers, says a regional trader.
Some Chinese traders are telling buyers they will bear the risk of any additional tariffs, another Hanoi trader relates, citing a discussion with a Vietnamese pipemaker who booked Chinese Q195 for December shipment at around $490-500/tonne cfr. However, even the pipemaker is uncertain whether the supplier involved will honour contractual delivery if tariffs are implemented.
Chinese Q235 3-12mm HRC for December shipment is offered at around $510/t cfr Vietnam. An offer for Chinese SAE 1006 2mm up thickness HRC for shipment by 20 December at $515/t cfr has not been taken up, a Vietnamese trader notes. SAE grade 2-2.7mm thickness HRC is assessed at $515-525/t cfr Vietnam, down $5 on-week.
Hoa Phat Group is expected to increase the existing 5.6 million t/year HRC capacity at its Dung Quat complex when the first of two new blast furnaces is completed as part of its expansion to double capacity. Commissioning of the nearly 3m t/y new capacity is scheduled in the first quarter of next year. The second new blast furnace could start by end-2025 but this will depend on steel market conditions.
Hoa Phat’s expanded capacity, together with imports from Japan and South Korea, and Formosa Ha Tinh’s capacity estimated at 5m t/y would meet Vietnam’s consumption of around 13-15m t/y, an industry observer says.
Meanwhile, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel is expected to announce the price of its January-shipment HRC allocations during the week beginning 11 November. Market sources hear that the mill may keep prices unchanged. The producer’s non-skin passed SAE 1006 HRC for December was pegged at around $540/t cif Ho Chi Minh City.
On 1 November, Hoa Phat offered its non-skin passed SAE1006 or SS400 grade HRC for January/February shipment at the equivalent of around $534/t cfr southern Vietnam, excluding VAT.
Source:Kallanish
The base price for hot-rolled sheet reached $750 per short ton
US steelmaker Nucor has announced an increase in its weekly spot price (WSP) for hot-rolled coils by $10 per tonne compared to the previous week, to $750 per short tonne. This is evidenced by the company’s data.
Nucor’s weekly hot rolled coil price rose for the first time in November. The last adjustment took place on October 28, when offers increased by $20/t to $740/t, the highest since early June this year. At the same time, from mid-September to the end of October, the market was stagnant for a long time, with prices remaining stable.
Thus, Nucor’s offers were settled with the Cleveland-Cliffs ex-works price, which the company published on October 30.
As of November 8, prices for hot-rolled flat products in the US were at $710-720 per short tonne Ex-Works. The quotes remained unchanged from the previous week, but increased by $20 per tonne since October.
As a reminder, in October, prices for hot-rolled steel in the United States fell for the first time after a long gradual increase since July. Supply declined amid market uncertainty. Although demand is sufficient, consumers are not confident about the need to build up significant stocks for November-December.
As GMK Center reported earlier, in September 2024, the United States reduced imports of rolled steel by 8% compared to August this year, to 1.69 million tons. Total steel imports (rolled products and semi-finished products) decreased by 10.3% month-on-month – to 2.13 million tons.
Review initiated at the request of Tata Steel UK
The UK’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has announced the launch of a review to determine whether final safeguard measures on imports of cold-rolled coils (CRC) should be lifted. This is stated in the report of the agency.
The review was initiated at the request of Tata Steel UK. The applicant claims that since the application of the final safeguard measures (from July 1, 2024), there has been a change in circumstances, as Tata Steel UK, the only producer of these products in the country, has decided to stop producing them for sale in the domestic market. Thus, imports will no longer cause serious damage to local steelmakers if the measure is canceled.
The review will cover the period from January 1 to October 21, 2024 (this time period was not considered when establishing the final safeguard measures).
The goods subject to the review are classified under the following codes: 2091500, 72091690, 72091790, 72091891, 72092500, 72092690, 72092790, 72092890, 72099020, 72099080, 72112320, 72112330, 72112380, 72112900, 72119020, 72119080, 72255020, 72255080, 72262000 and 72269200.
In July 2024, British traders proposed to remove cold-rolled coils from the scope of steel safeguard measures, as Tata Steel will not produce the material for external sales. During the decarbonization campaign, Tata Steel will produce CRC only for the needs of its galvanizing lines operating at its plants in the south and north of Wales.
As GMK Center reported earlier, in October this year, the British government approved TRA’s recommendation to split the import quota for hot-rolled flat products and increase its volume. The TRA’s proposal was a response to Tata Steel’s plans to go green and shut down blast furnaces at its Port Talbot facility. Starting from October 1, 2024, two types of quotas will be applied to imports of hot-rolled plates: 1A (commercial imports) and 1B (applicable only to downstream companies).
China is the main supplier of rolled metal to the Indian market
India has increased its imports of rolled steel products to a 7-year high of 5.7 million tons since the beginning of the 2024/2025 fiscal year (April-October 2024). This is evidenced by preliminary government data, according to Reuters.
The world’s second largest steel producer continues to maintain its status as a net importer of steel, which was formed in fiscal year 2023/2024.
China is the key supplier of rolled steel to the Indian market. High demand for steel is driven by the automotive and infrastructure sectors. Steel consumption in the period reached a 7-year high of 85.7 million tons. At the same time, the country’s Ministry of Steel is advocating the introduction of protective tariffs or taxes to curb the rapid growth of imports.
India’s steel exports in April-October 2024 showed the opposite trend, falling to a 7-year low of 2.8 million tons. Rolled steel production reached 82.7 million tons, up 4.4% y/y, and steel output was 84.9 million tons (+3% y/y).
As GMK Center reported earlier, India increased its imports of rolled steel by 42.2% y/y in April-September to 4.7 million tons. Hot-rolled coils were the largest imported item in the period, accounting for 44% of total rolled steel supplies. Exports of rolled steel products from India in April-September decreased by 35.9% year-on-year – to 2.3 million tons.
India became a net importer of rolled steel in FY2023/2024. Last year, the country imported 8.3 million tons of rolled products (+38.1% yoy), while exports amounted to 7.5 million tons (+11.5% y/y). Steel consumption increased by 13.4% y/y – to 136 million tons over the period, reflecting strong demand for the products.
https://gmk.center/en/news/india-increases-steel-imports-to-7-year-high-in-april-october/
The IPO, expected before June, marks Friedland’s latest effort to expand his influence, this time leveraging Australia’s expertise in iron ore and critical minerals. The move will offer Australian investors exposure to Ivanhoe Atlantic’s Nimba iron ore project in Guinea.
The listing would also coincide with Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LON: RIO) plans to start production at the neighbouring Simandou project before the end of 2025.
Ivanhoe Atlantic, previously known as High Powered Exploration (HPX), operates independently of Friedland’s flagship enterprise, the C$25 billion ($18bn) Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN).
The Toronto-based company owns the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex and the Kipushi zinc mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It also has a majority stake in the Platreef platinum-group metals, nickel, copper and gold project in South Africa.
Unlike Simandou, which requires a 650-kilometre railway to a Guinean port, Ivanhoe Atlantic intends to transport Nimba’s high-grade ore via an existing rail line across the Liberian border. This shorter route could provide a logistical and financial advantage.
Ivanhoe Atlantic acquired the iron ore deposit in September 2019. Based on a 2015 report by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Nimba holds roughly one billion tonnes of high-grade iron ore. At full-tilt, the mine is expected to produce 30 million tonnes a year.
Bronwyn Barnes, Ivanhoe Atlantic’s CEO, emphasized that Australia is the ideal market for the IPO. “The Australian market has a really strong understanding of the iron ore industry,” Barnes said during an event in Sydney on Tuesday, according to an Australian Financial Review report.
While iron ore will be the initial focus, the IPO will also support investments in critical minerals. Barnes highlighted a strong interest in nickel, cobalt and scandium, which are on the US critical minerals supply list.
Friedland has a proven track record in developing major mining projects, including Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, Canada’s Voisey’s Bay nickel mine and the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine.
https://www.mining.com/friedland-mulling-to-float-african-iron-ore-company-on-asx/
SINGAPORE, Nov 12 (Reuters) -Iron ore futures prices traded within a narrow range on Tuesday as investors assessed a slew of softer economic data in China, after the top consumer's latest stimulus measures underwhelmed and took the wind out of markets in the previous session.
The most-traded January iron ore contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) DCIOcv1 traded 0.07% lower at 763.5 yuan ($105.58) a metric ton, as of 0250 GMT.
The contract had slumped by as much as 3.5% to a two-week low of 754.0 yuan in the previous session.
The benchmark December iron ore SZZFZ4 on the Singapore Exchange was 0.16% lower at $100.5 a ton.
New bank lending in China tumbled more than expected to a three-month low in October, data showed on Monday, as a ramp-up of policy stimulus to buttress a wavering economy failed to boost credit demand.
The world's second-largest economy had unveiled a 10 trillion yuan debt package on Friday to ease local government financing strains and stabilise flagging economic growth, as it faces fresh pressure from the re-election of Donald Trump as U.S. president.
"A lack of further support for China’s property market weighed on the iron ore market and was exacerbated by signs of weak demand," said ANZ analysts in a note.
Port holdings of iron ore in China have expanded for the past four weeks to be at their highest level since early September, ANZ added.
Chinese imported iron ore prices continued losing ground in both portside and seaborne markets on Nov. 11, while trading for port stocks cooled as well, Chinese consultancy Mysteel said.
Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE were weaker, with coking coal DJMcv1 and coke DCJcv1 down 1.84% and 1.56%, respectively.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange lost ground. Rebar SRBcv1 shed abuot 0.8%, hot-rolled coil SHHCcv1 dropped nearly 0.7%, wire rod SWRcv1 dipped about 0.2% and stainless steel SHSScv1 declined by 0.56%.
($1 = 7.2316 Chinese yuan)
Reporting by Gabrielle Ng; Editing by Janane Venkatraman
India's coal import rose by 7.8 per cent to 140.60 million tonne (MT) in the April-September period of the ongoing financial year.
The country's coal import was 130.34 MT in the year-ago period, according to data compiled by B2B e-commerce company mjunction services ltd.
Overall, coal import demand is likely to remain modest due to the healthy stock position and high volumes being offered through spot e-auctions in the domestic market, mjunction MD and CEO Vinaya Varma said.
Coal import in September dropped by 10.09 per cent to 19.42 MT from 21.60 MT in the corresponding month of previous fiscal.
Of the total imports in September, non-coking coal volume was 13.24 MT, against 14.88 MT in the year-ago month. Coking coal import stood at 3.39 MT, against 4.59 MT a year ago.
During the April-September period, non-coking coal import was at 91.92 MT, higher than 83.45 MT imported during the same period last year. Coking coal import was at 28.18 MT as against 29.44 MT.
"There was a slight increase in non-coking coal import in September (over previous month), ahead of the festive season. However, coking coal imports fell, in line with the softness in steel demand and prices," Varma said.
The country's domestic coal production rose 6 per cent to 453 MT in the April-September period of FY25, over 428 MT in the year-ago period.
Coal minister G Kishan Reddy had recently said Coal India's priorities should be to ramp up production of coal and scale up supplies to reduce imports.
Coal India Ltd accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output.
In this week’s “Shipping Number of the Week” from BIMCO, Shipping Analyst, Filipe Gouveia, examines the drop in coal shipments to advanced economies which, if keeping up the pace, will reach a 15-year low this year.
According to Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analyst, BIMCO, thermal coal shipments fell by 9% y/y as electricity generation from coal decreased, especially in Europe. In Asian advanced economies, shipments only fell 4% y/y, as higher temperatures increased electricity demand for air conditioning.
Furthermore, coking coal imports in advanced economies rose 1% y/y, even as steel production marginally decreased. Coking coal is used to produce virgin steel but not recycled steel.
"During the first 10 months of 2024, coal shipments to advanced economies fell 6% y/y. Import demand weakened, particularly in Europe, where it fell 22% y/y as countries continued to decarbonise their electricity generation. At this rate, shipments to advanced economies will reach a 15-year low in 2024." …said Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analyst, BIMCO.
Shipments to advanced economies are falling for the second consecutive year in 2024, but their share of global coal shipments has been falling for longer. In 2009, the last time the volumes were this low, these economies were the destination of 57% of global coal shipments compared to only 30% today.
In addition, Filipe Gouveia states that the volume loss so far in 2024 is equivalent to a 0.5% decrease in global dry bulk cargo, primarily affecting the capesize market. Despite this, global coal shipments have still risen, supported by strong shipments to emerging economies.
Panamax and capesize segments are used to ship coal to these economies, accounting for 53% and 33% of shipments respectively. Between January and October, cargoes on panamax ships only fell by 2% y/y, while falling 11% y/y on capesizes.
The reduction in cargo volumes to Europe and a surge in capesize freight rates likely contributed to a comparatively higher use of panamax ships.
Moreover, on the origin side, shipments from Russia, the US and South Africa fell by 18%, 10% and 34% y/y respectively while shipments from other exporters remained stable.
Logistical challenges in Russia and South Africa limited exports, while the US increasingly exported to emerging economies amid weaker demand from Europe.
Looking ahead, both thermal and coking coal imports in advanced economies are expected to continue falling due to decarbonisation. Investment in electricity generation from renewables, and in recycled steel production, is expected to increase.
Import demand in emerging economies could also weaken soon. Both electricity generation from renewables and domestic mining in importing countries are on the rise. As decarbonisation efforts increase, global coal shipments are forecast to fall 1-2% in 2025 Filipe Gouveia concluded.
https://safety4sea.com/bimco-coal-shipments-to-advanced-economies-head-for-a-15-year-low/
The UK announced on Thursday, November 14, that it will introduce legislation to ban new coal mines, as the Labour government ramps up its plans to make Britain a clean energy leader. The government said it will unveil the new law to restrict the future licensing of new coal mines "as soon as possible", in what it called a "crucial step" to tackling climate change.
It comes after Britain's last coal-fired power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, closed in October, making the UK the first G7 country to end its reliance on fossil fuel for electricity.
In a landmark ruling in September, British courts overturned a permit given by the previous Conservative government to a project in Whitehaven, Cumbria, which was set to become the country's first new coal mine for 30 years. It would have mined metallurgical coal used solely for steelmaking.
Energy minister Michael Shanks said in a statement that "consigning coal power to the past" would "pave the way for a clean, secure energy system that will protect billpayers and create a new generation of skilled workers".
Coal has gone from generating around 40% of the UK's electricity supply in 2012 to 0% today, the government said in a statement. Labour won the July general election vowing to be more ambitious on polices geared towards meeting Britain's climate change commitments, promising among other things to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030.
Read more Subscribers only COP29: British PM Starmer wants to regain 'climate leadership'
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in Baku, Azerbaijan for the UN climate change summit, said the UK would aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 81% from 1990 levels by 2035, as part of government plans to reach net-zero by 2050.
The center-left government has also ended an effective Tory ban on new onshore wind projects and ended new oil and gas exploration licences in the North Sea.
Shares of metal manufacturers faced selling pressure on November 11 as China's latest stimulus measures failed to meet investor expectations, yet again. This further dampened hopes for a significant recovery in the country's struggling property sector, which is a key driver of metal demand for the world's largest importer.
China's underwhelming stimulus plans also led to a decline in iron ore prices, which dropped by more than 2 percent, approaching $100 per ton. This followed the Chinese government's announcement of a debt-swap plan, but it fell short of implementing measures to directly boost domestic demand, particularly in the struggling property sector.
The steel-making staple has fallen by over a quarter this year, weighed down by China's property slump and signs that miners are ramping up production. With mills in China facing challenges in selling steel domestically due to weak demand, exports of the alloy soared to their highest level since 2015 last month, further adding pressure on the global steel prices.
Bogged down by this, names like NMDC, MOIL and NALCO fell 1-2 percent, turning out to be the worst hit on the Nifty Metal index. The sectoral index was also down half a percent.
Other metal stocks like Tata Steel, SAIL, Jindal Steel and Power, Hindustan Zinc, JSW Steel and Vedanta also struggled with losses.
Meanwhile, the dollar index has also been on uptick since the return of Donald Trump as US President, which has added pressure on metal prices for non-dollar denominated importers.Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
