Commodities Focus

A US appeals court rejected the Environmental Protection Agency's use of waiver authority to lower the federal biofuel mandate's blending volumes based on downstream constraints, but the decision leaves a lot of questions about how to find RINs to make up compliance shortfalls. Josh Pedrick and Wes...

With the future of anti-dumping duties against Argentinian and Indonesian biodiesel uncertain, S&P Global Platts editors Tim Worledge, Samar Niazi and George Griffiths take a look at how this could change the global biodiesel market and the emergence of new trade flows stemming from this,...

Alumina prices started the year on a high note, and corrected in the second quarter. What's instore for the Asian alumina market for the rest of the year? Editors Yuen Cheng Mok and Joanna Lim examine the factors that could affect the market in the second half, including China's drive to tackle...

The US Environmental Protection Agency's proposed 2018 renewable volume obligations were released July 5, and responses from biofuels and oil industry players were mixed. Biofuels reporters Josh Pedrick and Wes Swift, as well as policy reporter Brian Scheid, crunch the numbers and consider how...

Asia's seaborne thermal coal market unexpectedly took off in June on a sudden surge in demand from Chinese buyers including large power utilities after a relatively subdued May. In this podcast, senior editor Michael Cooper joins editor Michelle Zhao in examining what's driving coal buyers in China...

Tom Crotty, director of European petrochemical company Ineos talks about its recent expansion plans underpinned by the need for more ethylene and propylene in Europe. The plans include a new propane dehydrogenation unit in Europe and expansion of ethylene capacity in Rafnes, Norway and Grangemouth,...

Russian and Saudi relations are emerging in the wider energy sphere and how these deepening ties feed into the whole OPEC/non-OPEC cooperation is begging the question as to whether one is a precursor to the other, according to associate editorial director Paul Hickin and managing editor Nadia...

The US aluminum industry is keeping a close eye on automotive sales forecasts and competition among smelters with the approach of summer — a typical time for maintenance shutdowns. Pricing specialists Sarah Baltic Hilliard and Alex Ifkovits delve into secondary aluminum trends and the current...

The Turkish polyethylene market faces tough times ahead due to the combination of a resurgent lira, high Asian polyethylene stocks, weak domestic demand and rising supplies from both east and western markets. S&P Global Platts North Africa and Turkey petrochemicals editor Daved Chohan and...

The North American power pricing team takes a coast-to-coast look at the US electric power landscape, including forecast demand, generating capacity and prices for ERCOT, Cal-ISO and the PJM Interconnection. Kassia Micek, Charles Noh and Jeff Zhou evaluate how the power markets are shaping up as...

Volumes of palm oil methyl ester from Southeast Asia is heading towards the European biofuels complex, as Europe's blending and production hubs of Spain and Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp soak up imports to fire FAME 0 production. S&P Global Platts editors Tim Worledge and George Griffiths...

Neil Atkinson, Head of the IEA Oil Industry & Markets Division, talks to S&P Global Platts senior oil news editor, Robert Perkins, on the outlook for global oil market balances, the recent oil price slip, the implications of potential rollover of output cuts by OPEC and other key oil...

The Eastern Fuel Buyers Conference draws coal players from all basins and different market segments, and the mood had lifted this year as the industry welcomes an uptick in demand and new administration in the White House. Coal Trader editors Jeff McDonald and Jim Levesque both attended the...

Expectations are rife of an introduction of consumption taxes on mixed aromatics into China. But will this change the face of the European blending components market? Yuriko Kato, petrochemicals EMEA editor, explores this subject with the aromatics senior specialist, Sam Hashmi, and the gasoline...

Extremely volatile metallurgical coal and coke prices, and delays in industry reference pricing is pushing uncertainty into the market. There is speculation around the rate of return for shipments from Queensland, and how much further restocking is expected. At the recent Eurocoke conference in...

Paul Harnick, head of chemicals and the global chemicals chief operating officer at KPMG, joins Yuriko Kato, reporter in the European petrochemicals team, to discuss the latest trends in M&As in the petrochemicals industry. Despite significant political unknowns, from Brexit negotiations to the...

In 2020 the shipping industry is facing its biggest change since the shift away from burning coal a century ago as the IMO is set to impose a new 0.5% sulfur cap on marine fuel emissions. S&P Global Platts associate director Paul Hickin and editorial lead for bunker news Jack Jordan assess the...

Turkey stopped Russian grain imports following a government decision in mid-March. What impact did the lack of Russian grains imported into Turkey have on the milling and processing industry, how is the decision likely to affect the trading landscape, and will Turkish consumers continue buying...

Unica, Brazil's sugar industry group, is seeking the reinstatement of an ethanol import tariff, citing greenhouse gas emissions from other producers and surging ethanol imports — especially from the US. Biofuels analyst Beatriz Pupo talks to US ethanol editor Josh Pedrick about how Brazil's...

S&P Global Platts content director for EMEA metals Christopher Davis, and senior writer Robert Perkins -– just back to London from the shores of Lake Geneva -- discuss the outlook from the recent FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland. From oil to metals and mining to...

It was another busy International Petrochemical Conference from the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers in San Antonio, and our editors and analysts share what they learned from various conversations about olefins, polymers, aromatics and intermediates. John Calton, managing editor for...

It seems Mother Nature decided to skip most of winter in the Northeast US this year, but a recent cold snap bumped up power and gas prices in March and the region's generation mix is still changing. Charles Noh and Eric Wieser, with the power pricing team, examine how day-ahead power prices were...

Senior editor Michael Cooper and associate editor Mia Corazon Aureus give an overview of Asian thermal coal markets, including the latest in Japan's benchmark contract negotiations, South Korean imports and coal consumption tax updates, Indonesian prices, and our newly-launched Northeast Asian...

On both sides of the Atlantic, recent political developments are starting to have an impact on what will end up on your plate. Fresh back from the International Sweetener Colloquium, Tim Worledge, editorial director of pricing, sits down with Thomas Houghton, senior pricing specialist, to take a...

Last year, CSX's chemical segment surpassed coal as the railroad's largest revenue generator as it and other railroads are moving more resin and years of polymer production growth is coming. Kristen Hays, petrochemical analyst, examines how railroads are looking to fill space where coal revenues...