Commodities Focus

With another year of strong wheat production now hitting the grain silos, the latest S&P Global Platts Commodities Focus podcast discusses developments in two key exporters: Russia and Ukraine. EMEA agriculture pricing lead Robert Beaman discusses the latest production trends with grains...

The last quarter of the year is seasonally weak for Asian gasoline, but the attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities are proving to be largely supportive of the market. S&P Global Platts editors Mark Tan and Wendy Cheong share insights on the region's gasoline supply and the factors that could...

S&P Global Platts pricing specialists Kelli Ainsworth, Arsalan Syed and Olivia Kalb discuss the interplay between natural gas, coal and power pricing in the US Midwest with Amy Gasca, pricing manager, North American power.

The European PVC industry has gone through many changes in the last few decades regarding technology and assets, as well as marketing mechanism and building resilience against high raw material costs, but it has also experienced limited margins in sales. This year's political and economic...

Total coal imports to Southeast Asia is expected to hit 127 million mt in 2019, up 27% from 2018, with demand driven by existing and upcoming coal-fired power plants. In this podcast, S&P Global Platts Asia thermal coal editors Fred Wang, Jenny Ma, and Huimin Lee explain the rationale behind...

S&P Global 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 the highlights of the third day of the Gastech conference in Houston. Blackstone's potential sale of its...

S&P Global 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 the highlights of the second day of the Gastech conference in Houston. There was a healthy tension between...

S&P Global 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 the highlights of the first day of the Gastech conference in Houston. Offtake deals involving LNG...

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writers Harry Weber and J. Robinson preview with natural gas managing editor Joe Fisher next week's Gastech conference, which will bring together in Houston global market participants in the midstream, upstream and LNG sectors. The annual confab comes...

With US ethanol still shut out of China, this installment of Commodities Focus podcast looks at the current state of the US ethanol market, the key emerging demand centers in Asia, and the benefits of ethanol as a gasoline blending component from a sustainability perspective. Andrei Agapi, Platts...

S&P Global Platts shipping editors George Griffiths and Sam Eckett probe into the dry bulk and container markets and how bunker fuels are impacting pricing ahead of IMO 2020's January 1st deadline. They are joined by EMEA Associate Editor for Bunker Fuel Tom Washington. As rates are...

ERCOT power demand smashed record after record durin August, boosting spot prices to record highs and real-time power prices to $9,000/MWh. Natural gas prices, however, did not see any uplift from record power demand. Amy Gasca, manager of the Platts power pricing team; Kelsey Hallahan, senior...

China will bring on another 35 million mt/year of crude steel this year through its capacity replacement mechanism, S&P Global Platts estimates. How will this impact pig iron production growth? And is there enough downstream demand to absorb all of this steel? S&P Global Platts senior...

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence natural gas reporter Corey Paul discuss with Platts natural gas managing editor Joe Fisher the state of play in the US LNG industry, with competition for commercial deals heating up, final investment...

A number of major trends are impacting the US power sector, including lower utility load nearly across the board among electric utilities, largely because of milder temperatures this year but also in some cases because of lower industrial load. Some electric utility CEOs have also...

On today's Commodities Focus podcast with Ora Lazic and Miguel Cambeiro: Although Europe continues to be the most expensive pricing region, it is increasingly becoming an importer of competitively priced ethylene and main derivatives from the US —with its new shale-based capacity—, but...

With no end to the dispute in sight and a consensus that the real shocks to the markets could be yet to come, the latest installment of the Commodities Focus podcast takes a renewed look at the impact on trade flows that the ongoing tariffs dispute between the US and China is having on the LNG,...

Today's Commodities Focus podcast looks deeper into the evolving thermal coal trade flows in the Atlantic and what the future holds. Following the recent release of two new Platts assessments that capture these new dynamics, managing editor Jeffrey McDonald is joined by thermal coal pricing...

S&P Global Platts shipping editors Sam Eckett and George Griffiths review the US-China trade tensions, and their effect on global shipping markets ahead of IMO 2020's January 1st deadline. They are joined by EMEA Coal managing editor Jeff McDonald. As escalating tariffs between the two...

Oil majors across Europe have struggled in the second quarter largely due to weak gas prices while their counterparts across the pond have held up better thanks to the resilience of US tight oil.  S&P Global Platts' senior oil writer Robert Perkins and head of oil news in London Paul...

This week's Commodities Focus podcast  looks at the recycled plastics markets in Europe - the current situation and what the future holds in light of new legislation coming into force over the coming years. Join Luke Milner and Ben Brooks from the European petrochemicals team...

S&P Global Platts editors Wendy Cheong and Mark Tan examine Asia's demand for gasoline in the third quarter following a weak first half, with fundamentals in the region pressured by excess cargoes from North Asia.

S&P Global Platts Editors Cheong Su Yeen and Wanda Wang examine the increasing activity on loading middle distillate, especially gasoil and ultra low sulfur diesel, on newbuilding  vessels, such as Very Large Crude Carriers, SuezMax tankers or Long Range 3 tankers, from Asia and the Middle...

Iron ore prices have risen by around 30% since the start of June, putting intense pressure on steel margins. Are Chinese mills contemplating trimming production? How is the third quarter shaping up? And after the recent Baowu-Manshan tie-up announcement, is more Chinese steel consolidation on the...

This Commodities Focus podcast looks at S&P Global Platts Analytics latest Global Polyolefin Outlook, discussing the short, medium and longer term key market dynamics and price outlook for ethylene, propylene, PE and PP. Hetain Mistry and Lara Berton discuss the latest outlook, focusing on the...