Commodities Focus (S&P Global Commodity Insights)

As a UK general election looms, energy security and the transition to net-zero are high on the agenda.
In this episode of the Commodities Focus podcast, our experts sift through the policy options, from windfall taxes to licensing bans, and discuss why they matter, not just for the UK, but for Europe and beyond.
Nick Coleman, senior editor for oil news, is joined by Gethin Baker, senior technical research analyst specialising in the North Sea, and Stuart Elliott, news reporter focusing on the UK and European gas markets.

Links:
Energy Security Sentinel 
PCAAS00 Dated Brent
GTFTX00 Dutch TTF Eur/MWh Day Ahead

Over the past 20 years, Brazil’s growth in the production of feedstuffs like soybeans and corn has been remarkable. In the process, it has become a powerhouse exporter. To accomplish this, it took the convergence of Brazil modernizing its agricultural production and transportation systems along with the equally meteoric demand growth of a willing buyer, China. 

S&P Global Commodity Insights' chief agricultural economist Paul Hughes speaks with feed and grains senior analyst Anamaria Martins and grains and oilseeds pricing manager Rafael Savoia about the factors behind this astounding transformation, the implications for world trade, the beneficiaries, and what is likely ahead.

White paper: How China’s aging demographics will affect food and agricultural commodities (subscriber content)

Global container markets have endured a year of volatility not experienced since the global pandemic in 2020-2021, anchored by the complexity for supply chains as carriers loop around the Cape of Good Hope. Now that demand is ushering back into markets in a period of restocking, rates have surged upwards for North and South American import markets from Asia, with some suggesting that the ceiling has not yet been reached heading into Q3. In the midst of all of this is an uncertain geopolitical environment, where impending tariffs imposed by the US government on Chinese goods have influenced volume shifting in this upward drive.

Global demand for commodities has been obliterated. From copper as a barometer of the global economy to oil as a potential inflation hedge, no commodity has escaped the impact of coronavirus.
Jeff Currie, head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs and someone who identified the commodities supercycle in the 2000s, did a Q&A with the London news team at S&P Global Platts on 7th April hosted by Paul Hickin and Andy Critchlow. He discussed what a potential supply and demand recovery could look like and what the OPEC+ deal could mean for crude markets. In a wide-ranging discussion he brought his insight to LNG, the broader metals complex, shale oil and energy transition too.

Prices are closer to lower, volatility has reduced and inter-product price spreads have come in, so are we seeing gas and LNG markets revert to normality? What are the factors that have calmed markets, and is this new-found tranquillity likely to be sustained?

In this Commodities Focus podcast episode, S&P Global Commodity Insights experts Kenneth Foo, Allen Reed and Stuart Elliott discuss these topics with global director for LNG Ciaran Roe.

Related price assessments:
AAOVQ00 - LNG Japan/Korea DES Spot Crg
AASXU00 - LNG NWE DES $/MMBtu
GTFWM10 - Dutch TTF 1-Mo $/MMBtu

Pressure on plummeting coal prices could cascade throughout 2020 as unprecedented events within the wider energy markets have helped the energy mix to connect like never before. Platts reporters Antoine Simon, Joseph Clarke and Amanda Flint discuss with Sarah Matthews where this year could lead in both the worlds of coal and gas and whether coal-to-gas switching levels can really go any higher.

Copper prices reached six-month high in December on a weakening US dollar and news of China relaxing its zero-COVID control policy, but copper cathode end-users reduced term contracts coverage for 2023. Copper concentrate supply is expected to be in surplus this year, but we saw spot tightness just in the start of the year.

S&P Global Commodity Insights’ experts Yuen Cheng Mok, Han Lu and Jesline Tang discuss the driving factors for recent copper market and expectations for the new year.

Price assessments on Platts Dimensions Pro:

Clean Copper Concentrate CIF China - PCCCB00

Copper Concentrate Producer-Trader Differential - PCCCG00

The annual acreage report from the US Department of Agriculture saw a 5 million acre drop in corn planting from the Prospective Plantings report at the end of March.

The resultant rise in corn prices coupled with low ethanol stocks lifted ethanol prices, the S&P Global Platts benchmark Chicago Argo terminal ethanol price reached its highest level in eight months seven on July 7.

Join Sophie Byron, associate pricing director for agriculture in the Americas; Pete Meyer, director of agriculture analytics; and Rafael Savoia, pricing specialist covering Latin American corn, as they discuss what is happening to Americas corn crop and how the Brazil and Argentina export programs are shaping up.

A constant rush of imports has commanded short supply of equipment needed to move out exports of resins used to make everything from grocery bags and shampoo bottles to vinyl siding and vehicle dashboards. After US resin producers struggled through a year of severe weather that squeezed supply, they entered 2022 with multiple hurdles to restoring those outflows just when more supply is ready to ship out.

Global polymer lead Kristen Hays and US container freight editor David Lademan discuss the whys and wherefores of these logjams, and what shipping and resin markets can expect going forward into the year.

As the oil and gas industry works to find its footing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic it now faces a world transformed, with new risks stemming from Russia’s war in Ukraine and brewing global economic headwinds. In their third quarter earnings, oil industry executives appeared to diverge on their outlooks for the sector. Upstream players, hamstrung by capacity constraints, are maintaining capital discipline in the face of broad uncertainties, while the downstream side of the industry is eyeing ever bullish demand outlooks.

Oil editors Chris van Moessner, Starr Spencer, Janet McGurty and Lassana Fisiru sat down to recap the emerging themes and outlooks following S&P Global's coverage of the industry’s third-quarter earnings.

Subscribe to Platts Dimensions Pro to learn more about Platts Global Jet Index (PJGLO00) and WTI MEH USG (AAYRG00). 

Price regulation plays an important political and economic role in emerging countries, and Latin American countries this year have faced oil price volatility that has forced them to look for buffer alternatives.

News experts Jeff Mower and Sheky Espejo sat down with pricing experts Maria Jimenez and Sarah Hernandez to discuss how price regulation has been applied in Colombia, Brazil and Mexico and how that has affected domestic and export refined products markets.

Related content:

Platts Capitol Crude podcast

Oil markets have experienced a quiet revolution for over the last decade as proprietary trading houses have gradually replaced the participation of banks.

Andy Critchlow, head of news in EMEA for S&P Global Platts, recently caught up with Greg Newman, CEO of London-based prop trader Onyx Capital Group, to discuss the latest developments in oil and the outlook for more participants entering the market.

Petcoke prices out of the US Gulf have doubled since this time last year. Prices continue to rise amid tight supply, and volatile freight markets within the region add fuel to the flames.
S&P Global Platts coal and shipping editors discuss the impetus behind this price rally, in what has been one of the most notable commodity bull-runs of 2020/2021.

S&P Global Platts talks to Mercuria CEO and co-founder Marco Dunand about the challenges, implications, and opportunities that the COVID-19 pandemic presents across all the key commodity classes in a time of unprecedented volatility in the global markets.
Founded in 2004, Mercuria Energy Trading is one of the world biggest independent energy traders with a turnover of $116 billion last year. Operating in more than 50 countries, Mercuria trades oil, petrochemicals, biofuels, natural gas and LNG, power, coal, iron ore, base metals and a range of other dry bulk commodities.

California is showing significant power price drops as a result oversupply, congestion and decreasing demand, with renewable curtailments increasing.

Adverse weather events due to climate change are increasingly impacting agriculture.

In this podcast, S&P Global Commodity Insights reporters Shikha Singh and Mugunthan Kesavan speak to Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist with NASA, and recipient of the 2022 World Food Prize Award on greenhouse emissions, rising temperatures and their impact on agriculture.

James McMahon, CEO of The Climate Service at S&P Global’s Sustainable 1, also joins the discussion and shares his thoughts on global emissions and the modelling of climate risks. 

Learn more about climate-related physical risks and transition risks.  

The push to transition away from fossil fuel-fired power generation in the US relies heavily on energy storage projects that facilitate renewable energy growth, with several states mandating energy storage capacity targets.

However, valuing battery energy storage attributes can vary significantly between power markets, customers and applications.

In this edition of the Platts Commodities Focus podcast, Jared Anderson, senior writer with S&P Global Platts, speaks with Jeff Bishop, CEO of energy storage developer Key Capture Energy, about the most valuable US energy storage markets, the accessibility of those markets, policy barriers, preparing for market changes, federal regulation to watch in 2021, and more.

Pandemic oil demand destruction has converted clean products tankers into offshore storage containers as onshore storage is approaching tank top. Forced floating storage as a result of discharge problems has the products tanker markets buzzing arguably at a faster pace at present than their larger sisters on the crude side.

Barbara Troner, Marieke Alsguth and Chris To of the S&P Global Platts shipping team put their heads together with Platts’ Beth Brown to explore the dynamics of current products forward pricing structures and floating storage opportunities.

S&P Global Platts global thermal coal experts Deepak Kannan, Fred Wang and Sarah Matthews discuss key developments driving coal demand in the South Asian region, specifically in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and explain how Platts new assessments shed light on the price impact and supply-demand fundamentals in the region.

Platts Shipping editors Sam Eckett and George Griffiths interview Alexis Rodriguez on environmental initiatives by the Panama Canal ahead of IMO 2020. In a wide-ranging conversation, they discuss new rules prohibiting the use of marine distillate fuels in canal waters; traffic impacts of the US-China trade tensions; and answer the question: Is the Panama Canal turning into an ECA zone?

New York has one of the most aggressive decarbonization plans in the country through its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which sets goals for building several gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, including offshore wind, battery storage and the transmission lines to connect those resources with urban demand centers.

In this edition of the Platts Commodities Focus podcast, Jared Anderson, senior writer with S&P Global Platts, speaks with Clint Plummer, CEO of Rise Light & Power, whose company is retooling one of the oldest fossil fuel-fired power plants in New York City into a renewable energy and storage hub.

Plummer, an industry veteran who helped develop the country’s first offshore wind project, discusses challenges and potential solutions associated with bringing incremental renewable energy capacity into the physical and electrical island that characterizes New York City.

What's in store for 2020? As 2019's heavy turnaround season at all main European petrochemical cracker units came to an end, ethylene supplies returned to a progressively weakening derivatives market. Styrene monomer in particular has been significantly affected and set to remain bearish for the foreseeable future.

On the opposite side, upstream naphtha has kept strong and has recently pushed European cracker margins to the floor. How did this situation develop and what is to expect in H1 2020? Ora Lazic, European ethylene editor, and Olu Shaw, editor for the European styrenics chain, discuss on today's Commodities Focus podcast.

Ira Joseph, head of gas and power for S&P Global Platts Analytics, and Ryan Ouwerkerk, manager of Americas natural gas pricing for S&P Global Platts, are back with their first podcast of 2021 to discuss the remarkable price and market movements that have ushered in 2021, stretching from the historic drivers of JKM to $20/MMBtu to the trickle-down impact the surge has had on European and US markets.

The global styrene market has risen sharply in February, driven by a number of factors around the world, including production issues in Europe and severe winter storms in Texas.

Matthew Cook, associate editorial director for Americas petrochemicals coverage for S&P Global Platts, discusses the recent trends with Platts editors Simon Price in London, Emily Burleson in Houston and Tess Tseng in Singapore.

The recent floating storage boom drove tanker freight earnings to levels last seen during the Golden Tanker Era of 2004-2008, but how sustainable are VLCC time charter equivalent revenues in excess of $100,000/d? Tanker owners have now concluded their
first-quarter earnings call season and were wondering how long the current boom would last.

Barbara Troner, Catherine Wood and Marieke Alsguth discuss what’s been driving the Americas tanker markets into the second quarter, comparing shipowner hopes and concerns with current market reality.

Copper smelter margins have been facing noticeable pressure in recent months as copper concentrate TC/RCs plunged on tight supply, will this mean more production cuts upcoming? Primary copper prices, premiums, and even byproduct sulfuric acid charges, meanwhile, have been rising. Can these offer enough relief to smelters amid record-low TC/RCs?

In this podcast, Asia nonferrous metals senior manager price reporting, Mok Yuen Cheng is joined by Asia nonferrous metals senior price reporter Han Lu, minerals and fertilizer associate price reporter Ong Jia Lun, and metals market news specialist Lucy Tang, to discuss the latest happenings in copper and take a closer look at the key drivers in the market.

It's been a rough couple of years for US corn and soybeans. 2022 brought drought, record-low Mississippi River water levels, and ultimately sky-high grains and oilseeds prices. The 2023 planting season was initially met with dry weather, causing concern of low yields come harvest time, but have conditions turned around since then and if not, what would that mean for prices and for domestic and export demand?

S&P Global Commodity Insights' Jennifer Pedrick, Pete Meyer, Paul Hughes and Luke Lundgren examine the progress of these crops so far in the crop year, and look toward the possible outcomes of the upcoming harvest on the US market and trade flows in South America and around the globe. 

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Ira Joseph, head of gas and power for S&P Global Platts Analytics, and Ryan Ouwerkerk, manager of Americas natural gas pricing for S&P Global Platts, take stock of the market a few weeks into winter, revisiting several topics from the bulls vs. bears discussion and how they are holding up in early winter.

In this episode of the S&P Global Platts Agriculture Focus podcast, the Platts EMEA Agriculture team discusses how the prices of different agricultural commodities, from wheat, corn and rice, to veg oils, sugar and biodiesel, have fared during the coronavirus pandemic and whether we can expect any knock-on effects in the coming months.

Raw feed materials have seen unprecedented growth in prices, putting a dent in the Asian feedmakers’ margins. In this podcast, S&P Global Platts editors Elizabeth Thang, Takmila Shahid, and Ivy Li examine factors impacting the buying patterns of Asian customers, including supply and demand fundamentals, the impact of weather conditions on prices, as well as the current hog farm situation in China.

Tanker and dry bulk shipping freight market for inbound and outbound trade from India has become come expensive due to the lingering COVID-19 pandemic.

India is one of the world's largest importers of coal, vegetable oils and crude. It exports substantial volumes of refined products and dry bulk commodities such as iron ore, pellets, steel and salt.

Many countries are insisting that ships will be allowed to berth at their ports only if they have not called any Indian ports over the previous two to four weeks. This has resulted in many shipowners seeking a freight premium for loading or discharging cargoes in India. It is a double-edged sword - causing delays in delivery of cargoes as well as crew changes and thereby increasing the transportation cost. Some ports are also tweaking their quarantine rules too frequently and adding to the confusion.

S&P Global Platts Senior Managing Editor for Asia Pacific & Freight Pradeep Rajan, Senior Editor Sameer Mohindru and Associate Editor Isaac Eio examine present challenges being faced by the freight market for trade from and out of India.

The coronavirus pandemic has had opposing effects on the grains and ethanol markets, despite the strong interlinkages between them. While grains are one of the major feedstocks for ethanol production and prices are usually highly correlated, changing demand dynamics as a result of the virus saw the decoupling of this relationship.
S&P Global Platts reporters Alex Bobylov and Karim El Afany discuss with Robert Beaman the reasons behind the price divergence in grains and ethanol and what to look out for in 2021.

This year has been a roller-coaster ride for the Asian light ends market, as the coronavirus pandemic gripped the world, slashed demand for refined oil products and forced the closure of several refineries across the region in its wake. The future of the light ends market will hinge largely on how fast the world progresses in its fight against the pandemic and its economic impact. In this podcast, S&P Global Platts light ends experts Wendy Cheong, Mark Tan, Wanda Wang, and Ramthan Hussain look ahead and explore the potential paths of the Asian gasoline, naphtha and LPG markets in 2021.

Related content

• China rolls out new oil export quotas in bid to cut stocks at home
• Europe's Dec naphtha arbitrage limited by shipowner interest; Asia firm for Jan arrivals
• US LPG arrivals to Asia in Dec to be around 2.7 million mt: traders

The global petrochemical industry is grappling with the aftermath of COVID-fueled demand. The supply squeeze in 2020 and 2021 that led to soaring prices has been doused by economic uncertainty and oversupply, leaving producers with hard decisions about output and buyers with lots of options. 

S&P Global Commodity Insights’ global polymer lead Kristen Hays speaks with Chemical Week editors Rob Westervelt and Clay Boswell to break down how the markets got here and what’s coming up. Don’t miss them at the World Petrochemical Conference in Houston next week as well. 

Related: Chemical Week

Steel and raw materials markets have been particularly affected by the coronavirus, as two of the key demand sectors – construction and manufacturing – remain in limbo awaiting workers to return. Meanwhile, deliveries of raw materials have been held up by logistical constraints, while mills are tentatively starting to trade again.

Paul Bartholomew, S&P Global Platts head of market insight for metals in Asia-Pacific is joined by Keith Tan, Platts senior managing editor, for steel and raw materials, and Niki Wang, who heads up the Platts iron ore pricing team to discuss the current market situation in China.

Brazil's ferrous scrap exports have undergone a significant transformation, driven by a weakening domestic steel industry and increasing demand from India. Brazil exported a record 800,000 mt in 2023, following a decline in domestic scrap consumption. Looking ahead, the Brazilian recycling sector is diversifying and adapting to international standards while navigating the ongoing challenges of stagnant economic growth and global steel oversupply.

Americas senior metals pricing manager Adriana Carvalho is joined by Mayara Baggio and Camila Martinez, price reporters for Latin America metals, and Abdi Salad, price reporter for EMEA low-carbon and base metals, to discuss the evolving role of Brazil in the ferrous scrap trade. 

Links:
Subscribe to Platts Connect
HMS 1/2 Containerized FOB Brazil $/mt ABUPA00
Shredded Scrap Containerized FOB Brazil $/mt ABUPB00
Platts TSI Shredded Scrap CFR Nhava Sheva India $/mt AAXRQ04

S&P Global Platts journalists discuss European gas, power and carbon market trends going into the third quarter of 2020. The markets saw price support in June as economies began to emerge from coronavirus lockdowns – but any faltering in demand or rebound in gas flows could undermine these trends, as could a modest uptick in French nuclear availability.

Mexico's Pemex recently announced it had discovered more than 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent in an onshore complex in the state of Tabasco, near the site where the company is planning to build its Dos Bocas refinery.

That's a large discovery, but there are serious questions about Pemex's ability to reach its stated production goals.

S&P Global Platts editors Sheky Espejo in Mexico City and Starr Spencer in Houston examine Mexico's newest discovery.

Asia’s LNG market has been disrupted by the war in Ukraine at a time when supply was already tight because of outages, low inventories and a rebound in economic activity. Global gas prices continue to flirt with record high levels with every escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The unwinding from Russian gas supply threatens to further disrupt spot trade and long-term gas dependence for Asian gas importers in 2022. In this podcast, S&P Global Commodity Insights’ Eric Yep, Kenneth Foo and Jeffrey Moore talk about the way ahead for Asia’s LNG market.

With global container shipping costs coming down, European polymer markets are seeing offers of material from the Far East rise, adding pressure to prices in an already over supplied environment.

Platts Petrochemicals editors Abdulaziz Ehtaiba, Hui Heng and Daniel Pelosi, and Containers editor George Griffiths talk about the logistical landscape and the fallout it is causing in the polymer markets.

Price assessments relevant to this episode:

PP Homo Inj FD NWE Spot Eur/mt - AALUR00

PP Inj CFR FE Asia - PHBIF00

Platts Container Rate 1 North Asia-UK Continent $/FEU - PCR0100

HDPE Film CFR Far East Asia - AATYE00

Jonty Rushforth, Senior Director of Markets and Energy Transition, and Paula VanLaningham, Platts Global Head of Carbon, talk about the devastating wildfires sweeping across the globe and the challenges facing Nature-Based Carbon Credits as the market reckons with Offset Permanence in the face of rising global temperatures.

For more discussions on all topics related to the Energy Transition, make sure to tune in to the Platts Future Energy podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and our website.

In today's Commodities Focus podcast, join EMEA agriculture pricing lead Robert Beaman, oilseeds editor George Duke and global market development manager Piero Carello as they discuss how the global vegetable oil complex is pressuring sunflower oil prices upwards, despite the bumper sunflower harvests in the Black Sea region.

In today's Commodities Focus podcast, steel pricing analysts Viral Shah and Pascal Dick speak to Shan Islam, head of ferrous trading at Amalgamated Metals Trading (AMT) about the growing market interest in scrap and rebar futures contracts traded on the London Metal Exchange.

The team discuss the various scenarios and questions that may arise when a market participant begins hedging, as well as the positive market reaction to the launch of the LME's hot-rolled coil steel futures in the US (Platts) and China in March 2019.

In the UK, the drive toward Net Zero 2050 makes hydrogen an attractive investment, but questions remain about how markets will develop and the associated costs. Hydrogen has vast potential to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors such as heavy transport, home heating and industry, but the path to decarbonisation is still not entirely clear.
Jeffrey McDonald speaks with Corin Taylor, principal consultant in DNV GL and Tony Smith of Peel, to dive further into these questions and the potential for a hydrogen hub to emerge in the UK.

The current European Commission is the greenest ever as it pushes toward carbon neutrality by 2050. Gas —despite being a fossil fuel— is considered by many as having a key role to play in Europe's energy transition, and the industry is working hard on ways to decarbonize gas and secure the future of Europe's vast gas infrastructure, including through the growing use of hydrogen.

Following an interview with James Watson, secretary general of industry body Eurogas, S&P Global Platts Stuart Elliott, Henry Edwardes-Evans and James Huckstepp discuss Eurogas' key messages around the role of gas in Europe.

Brian Gilvary spent almost a decade as chief financial officer of supermajor BP until he stepped down in June 2020. In an interview with Andy Critchlow and Robert Perkins from S&P Global Platts, Gilvary discusses a broad range of subjects including his career at BP; the challenges of reducing carbon emissions for hydrocarbons producers; living with $40/b crude and how hydrogen can transform the energy system.

France’s Total was the first mover among European oil and gas majors to announce its ambition to become a greener company, creating in 2016 a separate division for gas, renewables and power under the leadership of Philippe Sauquet.

Sauquet joined S&P Global Platts on June 10 for an in-depth chat about Total’s strategy, its ambitions to grow the business, and challenges facing the sector given low energy prices and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

It's been a chaotic couple of months for the global commodities markets, and the oil sector has been on the firing line of the price and demand collapse resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

Within days of lockdowns, expanding from Asia into Europe and the US, capex cuts were announced by oil and gas producers as they rapidly adjusted their spending plans to shore up budgets as prices slumped.

The majority of oil majors have reported their first-quarter earnings, showing a partial snapshot of the pandemic's impact on commodity markets.

With Luis Inacio Lula de Silva returning to the presidency in Brazil after 12 years, the agriculture industry anticipates its market fundamentals could be impacted by an increasingly progressive agenda. Some defining issues include how Lula's government will deal with Petrobras' fuel price policy; fuel subsidy mechanisms; regulation of the biodiesel mandate; and the Renovabio program.

In this episode, Latin America agriculture experts Beatriz Pupo, Luciana Torrezan and Nicolle Castro discuss the possible impacts of the recent presidential elections on sugar and biofuels -- not only in Brazil, but globally.

India’s imposition of steep tariffs on steel exports has put global markets in a tizzy, with unanswered questions on the longevity of the policy, immediate benefits to domestic end-users and strategies that local mills could adopt to manage excess inventories.

In this podcast, S&P Global Commodity Insights' experts, Senior Editor Ashima Tyagi and Lead Analyst Paul Bartholomew, discuss with Aruna Sharma, Former Secretary, Government of India the immediate and long term implications of this decision. They also weigh in on India’s diminishing role as an exporter of prominence and its future pace of capacity additions. 

Copper prices were on a roller-coaster ride in 2021 with demand recovery in US and Europe, logistics issues, COVID-19 disruptions and power cuts in China all contributing to the price fluctuations. Futures backwardation also hit a historical high in 2021. 

In 2022, increasing supply from new and existing mines is likely to be one of the key factors to watch out for.

On this week's Commodities Focus podcast, S&P Global Platts Yuen Cheng Mok and Han Lu discuss what’s in store for copper markets in 2022.

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber, S&P Global Market Intelligence senior midstream finance reporter Allison Good and Platts managing editor for Americas LNG Luke Stobbart discuss current trends in the North American midstream sector as operators of gas pipelines and LNG export terminals prepare to release financial results for the second quarter of 2021.

Investors will be watching for signs that the pickup in commercial activity in recent months is sufficient to support new infrastructure growth opportunities, as ESG initiatives command a lot of attention across the industry.

Tariff uncertainty, high freight rates, labor issues and other dynamics have combined with supply constraints and healthy demand to elevate global aluminum premiums.

And all that’s happening as the value chain -- from producers to end-users -- is grappling with decarbonization and other big-picture challenges.

Hear from S&P Global Platts senior North America aluminum editors Tina Allagh and Sarah Baltic, along with Christopher Davis, Platts Regional Pricing Director for Metals in the Americas, about how US market participants are navigating these difficult times and more.

April was the nadir of the global demand slump from COVID-19 lockdowns while swinging output cuts from OPEC+ and a slump in US drilling hit production volumes across the board. Oil and gas producers have also been grappling with more pessimism over long term oil demand, have written down asset values and some have stepped up their energy transition game. S&P Global Platts senior writer Robert Perkins is joined by colleagues Nick Coleman, Starr Spencer and S&P Global Market Intelligence's Peter Marin to discuss the key themes of the latest earnings season.

China appears to be almost singlehandedly supporting global metals prices on the back of a return to high levels of industrial activity. But other Asian markets are still slowly emerging from Covid-19 related lockdowns. How is this impacting iron ore, steel, coking coal, scrap and alumina demand and prices?

Julien Hall, director of Metals for APAC, S&P Global Platts, and Paul Bartholomew, head of metals news and insight, APAC, Platts, discuss key findings from the latest quarterly spot market trade reviews, and ponder the implications of these on the current quarter.

Related special report: https://insight.spglobal.com/story/platts-asia-metals-quarterly-trade-insight/

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence midstream finance reporter Allison Good wrap up the recently completed second-quarter earnings reporting season by companies in the midstream sector.

While some companies looked for expansion opportunities, others outlined additional capital spending cuts and project deferrals as operators of pipelines, processing facilities and liquefaction terminals looked for signs of a rebound in volumes.

S&P Gloal Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence natural gas reporter Corey Paul discuss with Platts senior digital editor Jason Lindquist current trends in the North American and global LNG markets amid ongoing headwinds, including low prices, narrow margins, shifting trade flows and a significant dropoff in commercial activity that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The outlook has been clouded by extraordinary uncertainty about the near-term trajectory of supply and demand fundamentals.

A sluggish start to the peak summer demand season has disrupted the global recycled PET markets, with subpar demand from beverage bottling in North America, squeezed margins, stiff competition from virgin resin and pessimism running rampant. 

S&P Global Commodity Insights' Heng Hui, global market lead for sustainable chemicals, Lee Joon lei, associate editor for petrochemicals, Charlie Wright also an associate editor and Antoinette Smith, senior editor, Americas chemicals discuss the current RPET conditions and provide a look ahead at the rest of the year and early 2024.

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Ira Joseph of S&P Global Platts Analytics and Ryan Ouwerkerk, manager of Americas natural gas pricing for S&P Global Platts, discuss key market fundamentals following the historic JKM price movements of early January and the trickle-down impact on TTF, and what’s next for the global gas market as it moves into the latter part of winter.

To date, there is no integrated strategic vision for trading low carbon hydrogen, but European gas grid operator SNAMs VP of Hydrogen Cosma Panzacchi discusses ways that could happen over time with S&P Global Platts Hydrogen Content and Pricing Specialist Jeffrey McDonald. Discussion topics include development of the European Hydrogen Backbone, the formation of local vs. international supply chains, and the need for clear international standards on low carbon hydrogen. Panzacchi indicates where markets will develop first, and what kind of pricing will be needed, as hydrogen markets emerge.

2021 has already seen all-time highs for both container and LNG freight rates and this strength appears set to last until firmly into the first quarter. S&P Global Platts Shipping Managing Editor Sam Eckett is joined by editors George Griffiths and Wyatt Wong as they look into what these markets have in store and how long this bullish run is likely to extend.

Market participants expect a supply glut in 2022-23 amid record Brazilian soybean output forecast by different agencies. If Brazil can produce a huge volume of the oilseed in the upcoming marketing year, that could have major implications for US soybeans exporters and for Chinese demand. 

In this podcast, S&P Global Commodity Insights agriculture experts Asim Anand, Rafael Savoia, Pete Meyer and Emerson Wohlenberg break down the possible impacts to the global market.

Subscribe to Platts Dimensions Pro for access to assessments and premium content covering SOYBEX FOB Santos (SYBBB00), SOYBEX FOB New Orleans (SYBBI00), China Soybean Gross Crush margin (CSGCD00) and much more.

While energy prices are moving higher and higher, there's a clear laggard in the commodities space: the tanker freight market. Why are clean and dirty tankers not keeping pace? S&P Global Platts shipping market experts Pradeep Rajan, Vickey Du and Sameer C. Mohindru examine the factors shaping the clean and dirty tanker markets, and their path to recovery.

Coal markets are giving way to the coronavirus pandemic as cascaded demand and international government regulations left producers presented with the complex decision to slash supply. Sarah Matthews discusses the situation with EMEA coal market specialist Joseph Clarke, Asia market specialist Fred Wang and Jenny Ma, and Americas market specialists Tyler Godwin and Olivia Kalb.

Ira Joseph, head of gas and power for Platts Analytics, and Ryan Ouwerkerk, manager of Americas natural gas pricing for S&P Global Platts, take a look at oversupply in global natural gas markets.

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence midstream finance reporter Allison Good preview the upcoming release of first-quarter earnings results by companies in the North American midstream sector.

It will be the first opportunity for the market to see how extensive the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been on operators of pipelines, processing facilities, gathering systems and liquefaction terminals. The near-term outlook is expected to be dim for many.

With record-high production and unprecedented exposure to global markets through exports, US natural gas markets are in many ways heading into uncharted territory this winter.

S&P Global Platts Americas natural gas manager Ryan Ouwerkerk speaks with senior gas pricing specialists Veda Chowdhury and Kelsey Hallahan about what to expect this winter for US natural gas pricing.

The discussion includes a dive into how new infrastructure, ranging from LNG export facilities to new pipelines, have pricing implications that will extend far beyond the near term.

Natural gas storage inventories in the US have crept within 5% of the five-year average and Canada is pushing even higher as the injection season winds down. However, key hubs throughout the US and Canada are reporting prices not maintained since the dawn of the shale revolution due to North America’s newfound exposure to global gas market forces. If the US and Canada experience a colder-than-normal winter, and drops inventories below 1 Tcf, pricing analysts expect the benchmark Henry Hub to crack $10/MMBtu, with others across the continent following suit.

US plug-in electric vehicles accounted for 2.6% of total sales in December, tied with Nov. 2020 for a record high and year-to-date PEVs account for just shy of 2% of all light duty vehicles sold in the US, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.

However, recent large orders for electric buses and other fleet vehicles suggest that sector could play a leading role in the proliferation of EVs in the US.

In this edition of the Platts Commodities Focus podcast, Jared Anderson, senior writer with S&P Global Platts speaks with John McClure, managing director at Nomura Greentech, about EV market growth, investment trends and how greater EV usage could impact US power markets.

New York has one of the most aggressive decarbonization plans in the country through its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which sets goals for building several gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, including offshore wind, battery storage and the transmission lines to connect those resources with urban demand centers, particularly New York City.

In this edition of the Platts Commodities Focus podcast, Jared Anderson, senior writer with S&P Global Platts, speaks with Sophie Brochu, CEO of Hydro Québec, whose company is active in the transition to cleaner energy sources and has submitted a proposal to transport hydropower from Québec’s large network of reservoirs into New York City via a high-voltage direct-current transmission line.

Additionally, Kieran Kemmerer, power market analyst with S&P Global Platts Analytics, offers perspective on the outlook for New York's clean energy ambitions and how the state’s goals could impact power supply, demand, and pricing dynamics.

The oil market is starting to face a new set of questions as it emerges from the pandemic and as energy transition momentum builds.
S&P Global Platts Associate Director Paul Hickin spoke with the International Energy Agency’s Head of Oil Markets Division Toril Bosoni about the outlook for oil demand, the role of OPEC+, US shale and China in the new reality and the challenges for energy security.

Hydrogen is seen across all sectors of the economy, from transportation to industry, power generation and domestic heat, as a potential decarbonisation tool. Huge questions remain about the cost and route to market of low and zero carbon H2 production, and whether governments and industry are willing and able to step up and accelerate a transition to meaningful scale. This episode of the Commodities Focus podcast defines the pathways to H2 decarbonisation, explains what S&P Global Platts is doing to shed light on an opaque market and looks at emerging strategies in Europe and beyond.

Plastic usage and recycling has become a hot-button topic recently, as the push for sustainable products is forefront in manufacturing goals.

Aluminum has long been touted the beverage package of choice because of the perceived sustainability it offers, but are the two closer in the race for sustainability than we think?

We take a closer look at the economic and environmental sustainability of recycling a can versus recycling a plastic bottle, and what it means for the industry at large.

The commercial and financial ramifications of the Russia-Ukraine conflict will be felt for a long time. As the conflict escalates, sanctions have been imposed on Russian banks and shipping companies. This has meant that many companies are reluctant or unable to trade with Russia. In this podcast, S&P Global Commodity Insights' Pradeep Rajan, Sameer C. Mohindru, Zhuwei Wang and Shriram Sivaramakrishnan explain what the latest developments mean for the maritime sector, global trade and shipments and prices of key commodities including crude, refined oil products, grains and coal.

Tell us more about your podcast preferences so we can keep improving our shows. Take our two-minute survey here: https://bit.ly/plattspod22

Sustainability is currently a key theme in the world of commodities. Recycled plastics and recycled metals have garnered considerable attention given how widely plastics and metals are used in downstream consumer products including food packaging and electronics.

S&P Global Platts market experts Samuel Chin, Miranda Zhang, and Eric Su explore the differences and similarities of these materials and their markets, and offer insights on how both commodities fit into the bigger picture of sustainability in Asia.

Commodity prices, as assessed by S&P Global Platts, are hitting fresh highs, sparking a debate around a potential supercycle.
Goldman Sachs’ global head of commodity research Jeff Currie, who identified the last supercycle in the early 2000s spoke with Platts associate director Paul Hickin about why and how it’s different this time around, what it means for oil, copper and the energy transition, as well as the outlook for demand, US shale and OPEC+.

Despite challenges in the commercial aviation sector, hydrogen remains a potentially disruptive energy carrier and transportation fuel, particularly in decarbonisation scenarios. Aviation is responsible for between 2%-3% of global emissions, and most of the abatement has come from blending biofuels into the existing blend.

Could hydrogen play a bigger role in aviation? How does the current economic crisis, which has decimated the aviation industry, factor into current research and trends?

Jeffrey McDonald speaks with Dr. Anita Sengupta from Airspace Experience Technologies and Roel van Benthem from Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre to discuss these questions and more.

China’s latest round of oil product export quotas had tightened compared to the same tranche a year ago. However, healthy margins and strong aviation recovery have pretty much cemented jet fuel’s position as the king of the barrel for Chinese exporters, though turbulence remains.

S&P Global Commodity Insights’ Asia oil news editor, Neo Rong Wei discusses China’s latest export quotas and export plans, as well as its impact on regional markets with Market Specialist Daisy Xu and associate price reporter Lee Shu Ling, who covers Asia jet fuel/kerosene markets.

Southwest Power Pool expects wind generation to return to the top of the fuel stack and become the No. 1 fuel source for 2020, while keeping an eye on the evolution of energy storage and continuing its expansion of the Western Energy Imbalance System market.

Barbara Sugg discusses her first six months as SPP president & CEO, which started with the challenges of the global coronavirus pandemic, with Kassia Micek, an editor covering North American power markets for S&P Global Platts.

Within hours of being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders, and declared a national emergency with the aim of ensuring reliable energy supplies and position the US as a leading minerals producer. Trump also threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico -- major exporters of crude to the US. How have commodities markets responded to Trump's actions? What powers do these emergency declarations give Trump to boost production? And how will this reliance on emergencies and executive orders play out down the road as new administrations shift energy policy? 

Jeff Mower, director of Americas oil news, discusses the emergency declaration and the executive orders with senior editors Eamonn Brennan, Taylor Kuykendall, Maya Weber and Kate Winston.

Links:

Trump’s executive orders on trade, immigration signal dealmaking intent (video)

Trump's return to office could raise solar panel production costs (video) 

The US power sector is known for its high level of reliability and focus on contingency planning and redundancies, but what happens when working next to your colleague suddenly becomes a health hazard?

Scott Aaronson, vice president of security and preparedness for the Edison Electric Institute, talks with Jasmin Melvin of S&P Global Platts about emergency preparedness for utilities and the challenges ahead for the industry.

US natural gas and power markets are strengthening as the heart of winter heating season nears. 

In this podcast, editors from S&P Global Platts power and natural gas teams discuss spot and forward pricing, weather outlooks, major trends, and market fundamentals impacting the winter outlook. With power and gas prices rising across the board, we investigate how these markets have evolved from the previous year, what infrastructure has been added, and what to expect as winter forges ahead. 

US LNG developers face challenges advancing any new export projects this year amid the escalating coronavirus outbreak, which has exacerbated the drop in global demand that has already led to record-low prices in Asia.

Decision makers are lamenting that for the foreseeable future China’s door appears to be shut to US LNG, and that has put the
sector in hunker-down mode as participants try to ride out the turmoil.

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and senior digital editor Jason Lindquist discuss the challenges ahead.

Commodities have witnessed a broad upturn in prices across the board in recent months. In a discussion with S&P Global Platts Asia Energy Editor Sambit Mohanty, veteran commodities investor and chairman of Beeland Interests Inc Jim Rogers says that oil's future would still be looking good 10 years from now, energy transition will find strong support from governments across the globe, while agriculture would still be one of his favorite investment picks.

Beeland Interests Inc. is the owner and sponsor of the Rogers International Commodity Index, a composite, US dollar-based total return index, designed by Rogers in the late 1990s. The index represents the value of a basket of commodities consumed globally, ranging from agricultural commodities to energy and metals.

As the maritime industry faces a crucial turning point, the adoption of stringent environmental regulations is reshaping fuel consumption and market dynamics. In this episode of Commodities Focus, our Platts experts discuss the implications of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) on shipping operations and the transition to alternative fuels.

With the upcoming FuelEU regulations and the establishment of a new Emissions Control Area in the Mediterranean, we delve into how these changes are influencing supply chain strategies and the demand for traditional versus alternative fuels. Join us as we explore the challenges and opportunities presented by these regulatory shifts, and gain insights into the future of freight markets amidst an evolving landscape.

Links:
GSI 10 Dirty Tanker Global Index Suezmax (Non-Scrubber Fitted Non-Eco) - GSTDA00
GSI 10S Dirty Tanker Global Index Suezmax (Scrubber-Fitted Eco) - GSTDB00
Dirty Tanker Basis Global Index VLCC (Non-Scrubber Fitted Non-Eco) - VGIBS00
Dirty Tanker Basis Global Index VLCC (Scrubber-Fitted Eco) - VGIBR00

Interactive: Platts global bunker fuel cost calculator

Platts to include EU ETS carbon costs in tanker freight assessments, launching carbon-exclusive rates for two benchmark routes Jan. 2, 2025 - Read more

S&P Global Platts Asia thermal coal team Deepak Kannan, Fred Wang and Jenny Ma discuss key developments in Northeast and Southeast Asia region amid the coronavirus pandemic, while Platts Analytics analyst Matthew Boyle gives a peek into the outlook for coal demand and supply-demand fundamentals for the rest of 2020.

Josh Pedrick, S&P Global Platts managing editor for Americas biofuels pricing, and Corey Lavinsky, adviser for biofuels analytics, discuss the recent surge in prices for renewable identification numbers and trends to watch.

High prices in corn and soybean oil futures, key feedstocks for US biofuel producers, have supported the market even as policy uncertainty leaves questions about how much biofuel refiners and importers need to blend into gasoline and diesel.

The discussion also looks at the supply and demand fundamentals and when the market might hear news from Washington.

After a collapse in oil demand due to both the COVID-19 pandemic and the accord between Saudi Arabia and Russia earlier this year, OPEC+ is now back in the driving seat. It has extended its unprecedented production cut deal through July, tried to crack down on those that lack the will power to deliver their share and brought in frequent market monitoring in a bid to react quickly to rapidly changing conditions.

S&P Global Platts seasoned OPEC watchers Paul Hickin, Herman Wang and Rosemary Griffin examine whether this is a new and improved alliance or whether the same old cracks may start to appear.

Container shipping markets have been tagged as red hot because base box rates have more than quintupled since the market began its steep hike north in May 2020 amid the pandemic's operational and logistical constraints.

But because exorbitantly high base rates are no longer the ticket to getting a box on a ship or a guarantee of timely delivery, the market has been shaped by measures such as carriers' premium services and surcharges that can more than double base rates.

S&P Global Platts Americas shipping senior managing editor Barbara Troner talks to Platts global container market experts Parisha Tyagi in Gurgaon, George Griffiths in London and David Lademan in Houston about how unusual market fundamentals make for unorthodox market behavior on all sides of the equation.

Refinery outages from the cold snap on the US Gulf Coast Feb. 15-19 put even more bearish pressure on the already weak Americas clean tanker market, and heightened diesel prices in the USGC.

With petroleum product demand still low globally, the Americas clean tanker market continues to move along the freight floor as typical arbitrages to Europe and Latin America remain closed. Heightened diesel prices and ever-drawing stocks in the USGC have reversed the typical arbitrage to Europe, exacerbating the already low cargo supply for clean tankers looking to carry USGC product exports to other regions.

Marieke Alsguth and Troy Duffie of the Americas shipping team sit down with Maha Husseini from the clean oil products team in Houston to discuss immediate impacts from the mid-February cold snap refinery outages and potential outlooks for petroleum product demand in the Americas as the vaccine effort rolls out.

With trans-Pacific container rates at an all-time high, even more containers are flowing from Asia to the US. The return leg is a different story, however, with empty space frequently seen on board. The US agriculture industry has spotted this crack, and expectations are high that containerized soybeans, wheat, and corn could fill the gap.

In light of the proposed Green Deal to make Europe carbon neutral by 2050, it is clear that the energy transition is on the forefront of policymakers’ minds. Roman Kramarchuk and Dan Klein of S&P Global Platts Analytics put the European energy transition into a global context, and the likelihood of meeting 2-degree warming targets.

Clean energy resource capacity in PJM Interconnection states has been increasing in recent years, often spurred by state programs that provide financial support. In response, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s December 19 order aimed to combat the potential price-suppressing effects of subsidized resource participation, setting off a scramble to assess the impacts of the rule.

Amy Gasca, Manan Ahjua and Mark Watson of S&P Global Platts talk with Brett Perlman, CEO of the Center for Houston's Future
and ex-Public Utility Commissioner of Texas, about the state's energy policies and the energy transition.

* Is ERCOT's market functioning as it was intended?

* How can Houston's role as "Energy Capital of the World" shape North America’s energy transition?

Asian aluminum markets continue to see lackluster demand and ample stocks pressuring premiums, though the sporadic reopening of the Chinese import arbitrage window is providing support across the region.

Further upstream in the alumina markets, flat demand remains a drag on prices globally, but cost pressures and output curtailments are keeping significant declines at bay.

As the market looks at what’s ahead for 2024, YuenCheng Mok, Senior Managing Editor of Asia nonferrous metals at S&P Global Commodity Insights discusses the key developments in the Asian alumina and aluminum markets with Jenson Ong and Germaine Lee from the Asia nonferrous metals team, and Lucy Tang, market specialist for Metals.

In this podcast, find out what’s in-store in the near term for these markets.

The tsunami of IMO 2020 turned into a tidal wave of cheap oil as producers flood the crude oil market and refiners cut runs amid the COVID-19 demand destruction. In the meantime crude is heading toward containment in tankers floating offshore.

Catherine Wood and Barbara Troner of the S&P Global Platts shipping team put their heads together with Platts crude editor Kristian Tialios to explore the dynamics of current floating storage plays.

The cost to ship goods on containers are climbing as additional premiums, such as the priority-loading premium, take hold in the market. The premium, which can be from 50-70% over the freight all kinds rate for Southeast Asia to the US and Europe routes, ranges from $2,000-3,500/FEU.

S&P Global Platts Container Market experts Ng Bao Ying and Parisha Tyagi examine how the rise in rates echoes a tight container shipping market. Brian Ng, Platts agriculture market specialist, joins in to share insights on the impact of shipping rate and logistical issues on India’s sugar exports.

Learn more: Platts Container Price Assessments

Get in touch with our team: containers@spglobal.com

A long-standing regional supply shortage, aggravated by COVID-19 impacts, has prompted steel prices in Mexico to jump to 13-year highs, while local demand is yet to recover.

Higher raw materials prices, coupled with a strong US dollar, were also drivers of a trend that is not expected to end in the short term.

Adriana Carvalho, S&P Global Platts managing editor for Latin American metals, and Claudia Cardenas, pricing specialist of Mexican metals pricing, examine the trends influencing the markets and present the latest updates on Platts methodology and specifications for Mexican flat steel pricing.

The gene editing system is being used extensively by the private and public sectors to develop new traits of interest in crops. To date, more than 500 products are being developed worldwide using the technology and are at different stages of product development, with more than a dozen of gene edited grain and oilseeds having authorization for cultivation in the US.

In this episode, S&P Global Commodity Insights' Sophie Byron (associate editorial director, agriculture pricing), Bharti Malhotra (research and analytics manager and lead author of gene editing report), Alan Bullion (special reports and projects director for Agribusiness, co-author of report), and Pete Meyer (crops and feedstock economist) discuss the fast-growing world of gene-edited crops and how this technology is being perceived globally to resolve the biggest challenges of food security, energy security, and sustainability. 

Register for the European Biofuels Conference here
Register for the Geneva Sugar Conference here