Commodities Focus

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 economi...

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 discu...

Libya exported some crude and condensate from its storage caverns at the Zawiya terminal this week, a first from this port in almost four months. But with the civil conflict still brewing in the volatile North African oil producing powerhouse, a full or sustained return of Libyan oil is unlikely. When these barrels do come back, they will face a crowded sweet market place along with an oil market...

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. Opera...

India has started to wind back its lockdown regime but domestic demand for steel could remain muted until the October-December quarter. This has left Indian mills relying on overseas markets, particularly China, in recent times. But how sustainable is this approach? How will the various downstream segments in India perform in the coming months? S&P Global Platts Head of Metals News & Insight for A...

The S&P Global Platts benchmark Chicago Argo ethanol assessment has trended upward and ethanol inventories have started to drop after reaching record highs as production has climbed. Does this mean that the US ethanol industry is recovering from COVID-19? Join Platts Agriculture Associate Pricing Director Sophie Byron and pricing specialists Wes Swift and Sergio Alvarado as they discuss the US eth...

Brazil, the top global sugar producer and second-largest ethanol producer, started its Center-South crop on April 1, targeting to crush 600 million tons, amid a global consumption crisis and huge uncertainty in the world's economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. S&P Global Platts senior analysts Beatriz Pupo and Claudiu Covrig join senior price specialist Nicolle Castro for a wide discussion about...

London shipping editors Wyatt Wong, George Griffiths, and Sam Eckett explore the devastated LNG, container, and dry bulk markets post-COVID-19. How can shipping recover from a global demand drought? Can positive sentiment for the second half of 2020 stand up to the facts?

At China's latest "Two Sessions," the government did not provide a GDP target for 2020, but it outlined plans to boost infrastructure investment. The big focus this year was on maintaining employment levels and protecting the economy from uncertainties caused by the coronavirus pandemic. What are the implications for the oil and metals markets? Will it be enough to drive consumption? S&P Global Pl...

US crude storage quickly became a major issue at the crux of the coronavirus lockdowns, as global markets struggled to find enough places to stash oil amid the oversupply and decreased demand. That created a huge incentive for traders and producers to store their barrels instead of selling them on a prompt, physical basis, which overwhelmed storage availability. Ernie Barsamian, CEO of the Tank Ti...

S&P Global Platts market specialists Kevin Allen, Lara Berton, and Eric Su, give a global view on petrochemical markets dealing with the consequences of the recent oil price crash and the coronavirus pandemic, with particular focus on olefins, polymers and aromatics.

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 challe...

Renewable energy continues to grow at a rapid pace in the power markets. Tom Tiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, talks with Manan Ajuha, senior director, North America power analytics, S&P Global Platts, about the economics of US offshore and onshore wind development, policy priorities, and the industry's challenges ahead.

After a historic collapse into negative territory, oil prices have rebounded on the backs of OPEC+ production cuts and the first glimmers of an economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Will the upward trend be sustainable? S&P Global Platts news editors examine the latest market forecasts and the dynamics influencing the OPEC+ alliance's ability to bring down the global surplus of oil.

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence midstream finance reporter Allison Good analyze the just-completed release of first-quarter earnings results by companies in the midstream sector. The rocky market is expected to continue in the months ahead due to the coronavirus pandemic, with impacts on supply, demand and prices. Companies are cutting spe...

As states begin to lift coronavirus pandemic stay-home orders and business start the process of reopening, power load is expected to slowly rebound from the increase in commercial demand. However, it could take some time as many states have a phased-in approach while many areas are still under local restrictions. By early May, 23 states had begun to lift stay-home orders with a handful of states e...

Demand destruction from shutdowns designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic has put PVC, a construction staple, through the ringer in recent months. S&P Global Platts editors Kristen Hays, Ora Lazic and Fumiko Dobashi take a look at the situation in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Battery technology for electric vehicles and energy storage will play an important part of the broader energy transition. Key topics include understanding cost trends and competitivenes of these technologies and challenges ahead for alternative storage technologies. Roman Kramarchuk, head of energy scenarios, policy and technolgy analytics at S&P Global Platts, talks with Christina Lampe-Onnerud,...

Will commodity markets ever be the same again? Global investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Beeland Interests Inc., talks to Sambit Mohanty, S&P Global Platts senior editor, to discuss what lies ahead for commodity markets, where the silver linings are as the coronavirus pandemic continues to trample markets, and the pains of recession.

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....

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Platts Analytics head of gas and power Ira Joseph discuss the latest developments in the global LNG market as the weak price environment continues and project developers face challenges securing long-term contracts to finance new terminals. Amid supply and demand disruptions, decisions on new projects are being deferred to 2021...

US natural gas prices have long been primarily determined by domestic supply and demand dynamics; however, with the rise of associated gas production in prolific basins like the Permian and the buildout of substantial LNG export capacity, the US natural gas market is experiencing unprecedented exposure to global market dynamics. S&P Global Platts senior natural gas pricing specialists Eric Janssen...

S&P Global Platts experts interviewed Matthew Chamberlain, CEO of the London Metal Exchange, and the youngest one in history. The key topics of discussion revolved around the temporary switch away from traditional open outcry trade in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and how things will evolve from an environment standpoint once the world restarts.

Europe is slowly coming out of lockdown and steel mills in Southern Europe can gradually ramp up production again. The steel market is however still far away from a healthy supply and demand balance - with prices dipping and production cuts remaining in place across most of Europe's steelmakers. Laura Varriale talks to Annalisa Villa, Viral Shah and Amanda Flint about how the steel industry is rea...

Supply and demand in the global vegetable oils markets have both shifted in response to the coronavirus crisis, resulting in increasingly complex and unpredictable price trends. Robert Beaman talks to George Duke and Piero Carello about how production and consumption have changed in Asia, while Rowan Staden-Coats looks at how this has combined with trends in the European biofuels sector to influen...