Commodities Focus

Two consecutive campaigns of lower sugar production and trade deficits are forecast in the European sugar market. EMEA agriculture pricing lead Robert Beaman, global market development manager Piero Carello and sugar editor Thomas Wigglesworth discuss, in the latest S&P Global Platts Commodities Focus podcast, the on-going sugar beet harvest, changing trade flow dynamics and the overall European m...

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 Euro...

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 th...

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence natural gas reporter Corey Paul discuss with Platts head of Americas gas news Joe Fisher the outlook for US LNG export growth in 2020, which projects will advance, which ones remain on the bubble, and how the ongoing trade dispute between the US and China will impact the landscape.

The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) is holding its fifth heads-of-state summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, next week with gas heavyweights such as Russia, Iran and Qatar set to discuss the state of the global gas market. With gas prices still low across the world and an oversupplied LNG market adding to the bearish mood, GECF members will have much to discuss against the background of an in...

The International Energy Agency has released its latest annual long-term energy outlook in which US shale gets a major resource uplift, shifting the oil market dynamic over the coming decades. S&P Global Platts editor Nick Coleman and Market Intelligence editor Peter Marrin join Robert Perkins to discuss the implications of the IEA's latest forecasts, how producers are meeting the supply challenge...

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?

The energy transition has become an increasingly important driver of energy and commodity markets, as power generation undergoes a profound transformation across the globe. In this podcast, Bruno Brunetti, S&P Global Platts head of global power planning, analytics; and Morris Greenberg, senior manager, North American power, analytics; discuss with Amy Gasca, manager of power pricing, the global an...

London-based editors Jeffrey McDonald, Sarah Matthews and Joseph Clarke discuss the mood of key sectors within the Atlantic basin thermal coal markets amid cheap gas prices and tumbling demand from Europe and the Mediterranean. The mood is bearish, especially for US and Colombian producers. Russian...

Ethanol has been at the forefront of the discussions at Sugar Week in Sao Paulo. The ethanol story will most probably remain bullish, with the renewable fuel accounting for more than 45% of Brazil's total gasoline pool since 2018 and the launch of the RenovaBio program in 2020. The...

FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee launched the EnVision Forum in his home state of Kentucky on October 21. The daylong event drew a diverse crowd of power and natural gas stakeholders, including CEOs, utility regulators, consumer advocates and landowners, to discuss challenges posed by the changing...

The middle distillate complex in Asia is expected to maintain a firm footing in the fourth quarter amid looming supply concerns despite Saudi Arabia's full restoration on all of its crude oil production following the September 14 attacks. Industry sources in the bull camp also anticipate rising...

In today's Commodities Focus podcast, steel pricing analysts Len Griffin and Viral Shah speak to lead news editor Annalisa Villa about the European steel market after the World Steel Association released its outlook for 2019, which revises global steel growth significantly upwards, with...

The energy transition has become the key talking point among energy and commodity market participants, marking what seems to be the beginning of a paradigm shift in power generation. And who better than S&P Global Platts experts in Global Power to analyse key drivers such as policy, the...

With domestic steel prices at three-year lows, India's steelmakers are hoping the government's efforts to boost liquidity and investment will stimulate demand. If not, will Indian steel exports increase and how will they fare in an overcrowded Asian market? S&P Global Platts Asian Steel Markets...

S&P Global Platts shipping editors George Griffiths and Sam Eckett look at the alternative marine fuels debate, ahead of IMO 2020's January 1st deadline. They are joined by Managing Editor for Freight Alex Younevitch, and discuss the ASBA Cargo Conference in Miami, nuclear power's...

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...