Weather experts say

Argentina rains cap crop losses from drought

Buenos Aires - Argentina, a major grains exporter, is set for further abundant rains in the coming days and a likely near-average month of precipitation ahead, weather experts said, which should cap recent crop losses from an extended drought since December. The long spell of dry weather, brought to end by rains arriving earlier this week, had led the Rosario grains exchange to slash its forecasts for corn and soy harvests

Maximilian Heath
The country puts 4 mln barrels of Iranian oil into state reserves

China reports first official Iranian oil imports since Dec 2020

Singapore - China reported the first imports of Iranian crude oil in a year despite ongoing sanctions by the United States government, according to data released by customs on Thursday. China brought in 260,312 tonnes of Iranian crude oil in December, according to data from the General Administration of Chinese Customs

No salary since August

Afghanistan's China envoy leaves after months without pay

Beijing - Afghanistan's ambassador to China, Javid Ahmad Qaem, left his post earlier in January after months without pay from Kabul following the Taliban's seizure of power, he said on Twitter. Qaem said that many diplomats at the embassy had already left

Over COVID- 19 measures

Gabon oil and utilities workers strike

Libreville - Gabon's oil workers' union and water and electricity workers' union began a general strike on Tuesday in protest against COVID- 19 restrictions and the cost of PCR tests, they said: "We hereby inform you of the launch of an unlimited general strike which will cover all companies in oil and related activities, water and electricity sectors throughout the national territory," said a statement signed by the striking trade unions

Gerauds Wilfried Obangome
Due to higher metal prices

Kazakh president says mining companies must pay higher taxes

Almaty - Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered his government on Tuesday to extract greater tax revenue from the mining sector which he said was profiting from higher metals prices. Kazakhstan has just weathered the worst bout of unrest since it gained independence

As neighbours cancel flights

Sanctions-hit Mali facing isolation

Bamako - Airlines from neighbouring countries and former colonial ruler France cancelled flights to Mali on Monday, helping isolate a military junta under regional sanctions for trying to extend its hold on power

Ahead of export ban review

Indonesia secures more coal supplies

Jakarta - Indonesia's state utility secured an extra 7.5 million tonnes of coal supplies on Tuesday, helping to avert power outages, boost stocks and increase the chances of the government lifting its export ban soon

Fransiska Nangoy and Bernadette Christina
green deal

Global shipping in crosshairs as environmental scrutiny deepens

The IMO said concrete progress was made in 2021 on combating climate change including new regulations to improve the energy efficiency of the world fleet, adding that it would "work very hard" next year on the development of a revised GHG strategy, which will be finalised in 2023.

Jonathan Saul
Sustainability

Maersk tests heat recovery system to generate power on containership

Copenhagen - Shipping giant Maersk is undertaking what may be one of the first retrofits and testing of a heath recovery power system aboard one of its containerships in collaboration with a Swedish technology company Climeon that is developing heat recovery systems for marine and other applications. The demonstration project is one of the techniques Maersk  is exploring as it seeks to take a leadership role in developing new technologies to improve efficiency

As part of the "Fit for 55" package.

The Commission proposal for the extension of the application of the ETS Directive to the maritime transport sector

Genova - The European Commission presented the so-called "Fit for 55" package in July of this year. The package includes a series of proposals and initiatives aimed at ensuring that EU policies are in line with the objective of reducing emissions into the atmosphere by at least 55% set by the EU for 2030, with the ultimate aim of pursuing climate neutrality by 2050

*Marco Manzione
The operation

Moves to improve shipping of Namibian charcoal exports

Windoek - As the country's farmers increasingly diversify their activities, the Namibia Charcoal Association (NCA) last week met representatives of some shipping lines to resolve the challenge of handling charcoal shipping containers. According to the latest issue of the Namibia Agricultural Union newsletter, the situation where charcoal is treated as dangerous material with its containers restricted to a specific area on ships, is expected to improve next year

Amid fears of food shortages

Mali suspends grain exports

Bamako - Mali has indefinitely suspended exports of rice, maize and other grains to protect its food supply as the United Nations warned of worsening hunger in West Africa, the minister of trade and industry said on Tuesday

In line with global markets

UAE to shift to Saturday-Sunday weekend

Dubai - The United Arab Emirates will shift to a working week of four and half days with a Saturday-Sunday weekend from the start of next year to better align its economy with global markets, but private companies will be free to choose their own working week. The oil-producing Gulf state, the region's commercial, trade and tourism hub, currently has a Friday-Saturday weekend

Davide Barbuscia and Ghaida Ghantous
To ease Saudi dispute

Lebanon's information minister quits

Beirut - Lebanon's information minister resigned on Friday saying he was putting the nation before his personal interest as he sought to end a diplomatic spat with Saudi Arabia sparked by his comments. George Kordahi said he had quit before the French president visited Riyadh in the hope Emmanuel Macron would help ease the crisis sparked by the Lebanese TV host-turned-politican's critical remarks about Saudi Arabia's role in the Yemen war

Faces "unprecedented pressure"

Belarus says it will retaliate against sanctions

Moscow - Belarus said it would retaliate after the United States and its allies imposed sanctions against dozens of individuals and entities there, and it complained that its economy was facing unprecedented external pressure

For industrial sectors

China releases five-year green development plan

Beijing - China's industry ministry on Friday unveiled a five-year plan aimed at the green development of its industrial sectors, vowing to lower carbon emissions and pollutants and to promote emerging industries so as to meet a carbon peak commitment by 2030. The world's top greenhouse gas emitter is aiming to bring its carbon emissions to a peak by 2030 and become carbon-neutral by 2060

Alert in Pacific Ocean

Tepco finds melting of ice wall at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) will launch remedial works at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to strengthen an ice wall intended to halt the flow of groundwater after testing indicated partial melting. The work could begin as early as the start of December, according to a presentation from the plant operator dated Thursday, part of a costly and troubled effort to secure the site following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami

For next six months

Russia, Serbia reach deal on gas price

Moscow - Russia has agreed to continue selling Serbia gas at the current price of $270 per 1,000 cubic metres over the next six months, TASS news agency quoted Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic as saying on Thursday after he met with President Vladimir Putin. Vucic asked Russia last month for "favourable“" gas prices

The country set to receive largest single chunk of EU fund

Skills shortage in southern Italy could stymie recovery drive

Bari - Mayors in Italy's poor south should be relishing the prospect of billions of euros from the European Union's pandemic recovery fund, but a lack of project management expertise could mean they are unable to take full advantage of the scheme

Crispian Balmer and Angelo Amante
The goal

China plans methane emission controls in key industries

Beijing - China will look into methane emissions in key industries, including coal mining, agriculture and petroleum, and publish a nationwide methane emission control action plan, the environment ministry said on Thursday

Insight

African nations mend and make do as China tightens Belt and Road Initiative

Nairobi - Deep in Kenya's Great Rift Valley, members of the National Youth Service tirelessly swing machetes to clear dense shrubs obscuring railway tracks more than a century old. It's a distinctly low-tech phase for China's Belt and Road drive in Africa to create the trade highways of the future

Duncan Miriri
To fight fraud

Congo president demands audit of mining registry

Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi has demanded a ban on issuing and trading mining permits until the country's mining registry has been audited, a measure aimed at combating fraud within the sector

The project

China to meet "challenges" to giant Belt and Road initiative

Brussels - A feed additive that reduces emissions of potent greenhouse gas methane from cattle could be the first of its kind to come to market in Europe after receiving a positive assessment on Friday from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

In row with UK

France to "fight every day" for more fishing licences

Paris - France said on Friday it was still waiting for Britain to issue 150 more fishing licences to French vessels in a post-Brexit row that has strained British-French relations, and that it would "fight every day" to obtain them

Bucking global tapering trend

Japan unleashes record stimulus package

Tokyo - Japan unveiled a record $490 billion spending package on Friday to cushion the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic, bucking a global trend towards withdrawing crisis-mode stimulus measures and adding strains to its already tattered finances

Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto
After South China Sea standoff

Philippines tells China to "back off"

Manila - The Philippines on Thursday condemned "in strongest terms" the actions of three Chinese coast guard vessels that it said blocked and used water cannon on resupply boats headed towards a Philippine-occupied atoll in the South China Sea

after U. After U.S. request

Asia looks to release oil reserves

Singapore - Governments from some of the world's biggest economies said on Thursday they were looking into releasing oil from their strategic reserves, following a rare request from the United States for a coordinated move to cool global energy prices

Timothy Gardner and Chen Aizhu
As Warsaw "defends EU border"

Polish PM scolds Germany on Nord Stream 2

Berlin - Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday Germany should stop the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Europe if it wants to work for peace, linking the project to his country's handling of migrants on the Belarus border

Insight

Saudi Arabia's race to attract investment dogged by scepticism

Dubai - Saudi Arabia could have a credibility problem if it keeps shifting the goal posts for the amount of foreign investment it wants to turn its vision of a future beyond oil into a reality, financial sources and analysts said. Five years since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched Vision 2030 to end the kingdom's dependence on fossil fuels

Davide Barbuscia, Saeed Azhar and Yousef Saba
After midterm rout

Argentina's Peronists face identity crisis

Buenos Aires - Argentina's Peronist ruling coalition is teetering on the brink of political crisis, with President Alberto Fernandez facing a fight for control after voters abandoned his center-left party in bruising midterm elections, sapping his power in Congress

Eliana Raszewski and Nicolás Misculin
Under climate efforts

Oil industry calls for inclusivity

Abu Dhabi - Energy producers gathered in Abu Dhabi following the Cop26 U.N. climate talks called on Monday for greater inclusivity that would see more investment in hydrocarbons for energy security as they work to reduce emissions while developing their economies

Yousef Saba, Alex Lawler and Hadeel Al Sayegh
Current shortage not unexpected

UAE says Q1 to see oil supply surplus

Dubai - UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said on Monday that all indications point to an oil supply surplus in the first quarter of 2022 and he expected OPEC+ would likely stick to current production policy when it next meets in early December. OPEC and its allies agreed earlier this month to stick with plans to raise oil output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) from December

Alex Lawler and Hadeel Al Sayegh
For unpaid bills

France's EDF stops cutting electricity supply

Paris - EDF said on Friday it would no longer cut off French retail customers' electricity supplies for unpaid bills, extending a winter truce introduced by the regulator amid rising energy costs. The state-owned French company said that instead of cutting off supplies it would reduce power levels to a guaranteed minimum level

More than one billion dollars

Glencore assurances on Chad pave way for IMF lending program

London - Glencore has offered assurances over the restructuring of Chad's more than $1 billion commercial debt, paving the way for the International Monetary Fund to move forward on a lending program, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The African country in January became the first country to request a restructuring of its external debt of $3 billion under a common framework agreed last year by China and other Group of 20 members

Karin Strohecker and Andrea Shalal
Column

A winter of market confusion

London - If any investor tells you they are sure of what happens next in macro markets, they are likely to be fibbing. Such is the confusion in policy and investment circles right now over the course of inflation, output, jobs, financial prices and central bank policy that the next three-six months is likely impossible to predict with any conviction

Mike Dolan
For a third day

No Russian Yamal gas flows into Germany for a third day

Moscow - Gas flows on the Yamal-Europe pipeline between Russia and Germany flowed eastbound for the third day running on Monday before stopping completely, data on German transmission company Gascade's website showed

containers

Maersk says port delays will stretch into new year

Skou said the biggest problem preventing containers from leaving ports is a lack of labour, particularly drivers of heavy goods vehicles in the United States and Britain despite salaries having been raised "significantly".

green deal

“Nuclear power must have a place in the process of decarbonising shipping”

The engine of the world economy desperately seeking a solution to its emissions: consumption of about 340 million tonnes per year of HFO equivalent, more than a billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions, estimates of up to 400 thousand deaths and 16 million people ill every year due to air pollution

Angelo Marletta
analysis

What is happening to the dry bulk market?

The Capesize market continued its assertive rally in past weeks reaching new highs in dramatic fashion. The Capesize 5TC recently touched the $53,240 level and never looked like taking a backward step as it earned in one week a staggering $8,069 up settling at $61,309

Massimo Granieri
shipping industry

Flow of goods through Panama Canal hits record

Ricaurte Vasquez, the Panama Canal Authority's administrator, told reporters during a webcast news conference that 516.7 million tonnes of goods passed through the century-old waterway during the 2021 fiscal year, which ended in September.

By creditors

China's HNA restructuring plan approved

Shanghai - Creditors of China's HNA Group have voted to approve the company's restructuring plan, according to a court comment posted on HNA's official WeChat page on Saturday. The court said the vote had been conducted in accordance with the country's bankruptcy laws

Saudi Green Initiative Forum

Snam CEO hopes COP26 will provide definition for blue hydrogen

London - The COP26 climate conference in Glasgow ought to agree a definition for blue hydrogen to help producers trade it, the CEO of gas infrastructure group Snam said on Saturday: "At COP26 we need to define what blue hydrogen means"

As production at maximum

Qatar can't help red hot gas markets

Doha - Qatar, the world's largest supplier of liquefied natural gas, said on Monday it can't help ease the red hot gas market because it has allocated all its output and believes the high prices are destructive for demand: "We are maxed out as far as we have given all our customers their due quantities," Qatar's energy minister Saad al- Kaabi said

Andrew Mills
No plans to sell assets

Rebranded Qatar Energy touts broad strategy

Dubai - Qatar changed the name of its state-owned oil and gas firm to Qatar Energy from Qatar Petroleum to reflect what it said was a broader strategy but said it had no plans to sell assets to raise funds as other Gulf state producers have: "We have plenty of cash" Chief Executive Saad al-Kaabi said on Monday, indicating the Qatari firm would not follow in the footsteps of Gulf rivals which have sold assets

The dependency from fossil fuels

China rust- belt province warns of more shortages in energy crisis

Beijing - The largest provincial economy in China's northeast rust belt on Monday warned of worsening power shortages despite government efforts to boost coal supply and manage electricity use in a post-pandemic energy crisis hitting multiple countries

Muyu Xu and Shivani Singh
The deal

Global tax criticized for "no teeth"

Paris - A group of 136 countries on Friday set a minimum global tax rate of 15% for big companies and sought to make it harder for them to avoid taxation in a landmark deal that U.S. President Joe Biden said levelled the playing field

Leigh Thomas
And pushes more suppliers to brink

Dash for gas sparks oil switch

London - Soaring gas prices are forecast to drive a switch to oil and put more energy suppliers in Britain out of business, while industry groups called on Thursday for government action to ensure there is no supply interruption this winter

Noah Browning and Susanna Twidale
Through stake sale

UK looks at ways to remove China's CGN from nuclear project

London - The British government plans to sell a minority stake in a new nuclear power station to institutional investors or float it on the stock market, to remove China General Nuclear Power Group from the project. The state-owned Chinese company has a 20% stake in the proposed Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk

Supply's shortage

Samsung Electronics close to finalising $17 bln Texas chip plant

Seoul - Samsung Electronics is close to finalising the construction of a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Williamson County in the U.S. state of Texas, three people with knowledge of the matter said. Samsung told that it is continuing due diligence in multiple locations, and that it has yet to make a decision. The factory will make advanced logic semiconductor chips and is likely to create about 1,800 jobs

Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin
As crunch bites

China seeks to calm power supply fears

Beijing - China's all-powerful economic planning agency waded into the country's power crunch on Wednesday, attempting to reassure residents and businesses in areas hardest hit by shortages that it has the coal use and supply situation under close watch

Shivani Singh
Shengjing demands repayment of debts due to it

China Evergrande to sell $1.5 bln stake in Shengjing Bank to state firm

Hong Kong - Scrambling to avoid defaulting on its debts, cash-strapped China Evergrande Group said on Wednesday it plans to sell a 9.99 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) stake in Shengjing Bank Co Ltd to a state-owned asset management company. Shengjing Bank, one of the main lenders to Evergrande, had demanded that all net proceeds from the disposal be used to settle the financial liabilities of the property developer due to the lender

Donny Kwok and Anne Marie Roantree
China says Taiwan sugar, wax apples have pests

Taiwan threatens to take China to WTO in new spat over fruit

Taipei - Taiwan threatened to take China to the World Trade Organization on Sunday after Beijing said it would suspend sugar apple and wax apple imports from the island on pest concerns, in the latest spat between the two over fruit. Relations between Taipei and Beijing, which claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory, are at their lowest in decades, with China increasing political and military pressure to get the island to accept its sovereignty

Real estate crisis in China

Evergrande begins repaying wealth product investors with property

Beijing - Cash-strapped developer China Evergrande Group has begun repaying investors in its wealth management products with real estate, a unit of its main Hengda Real Estate Group Co Ltd unit said. Evergrande, with over $300 billion in liabilities, is in the throes of a liquidity crisis that has left it racing to raise funds to pay its many lenders and suppliers

After contract deal

Strike threat lifted at BHP's Cerro Colorado mine

Santiago - A union at Chile's Cerro Colorado copper mine in Chile has struck a collective contract deal with mine operators BHP after five days of government-led mediation, the company said on Saturday in a statement

Aislinn Laing
But says it's a "reality"

U.S. reassures allies over Nord Stream 2

Kyiv - A senior U.S. envoy said on Saturday he had delivered reassurances to Ukraine and Poland on mitigating any threat posed by Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, but that the project was now a "reality"

Matthias Williams
NOC says

Loading resumes at two Libyan oil ports

Tripoli - Loading operations at the Libyan oil terminals of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf resumed on Friday after a stoppage, National Oil Corporation and two engineers at the ports said. Exports were still halted at a third terminal, Hariga, where people have blocked loading operations, an engineer there said. Libyan oil output has been over 1.3 million barrels per day for much of 2021

Gas flows yet to start

Russia completes Nord Stream 2 construction

Moscow - Gazprom said on Friday it had finished construction of the Nord Stream 2 subsea pipeline to Germany, allowing Russia to potentially double lucrative gas exports to Europe via the Baltic Sea while bypassing and cutting off a source of income for political foe Ukraine

Vladimir Soldatkin
europe

Hungary government offers to buy Budapest airport

The Hungarian government would like to acquire a majority stake in Budapest Airport again through negotiations with theowners, the Innovation and Technology Ministry told Reuters in a statement, adding it was "strategically important to have the airport in Hungarian hands again"

green economy

ECB adds its clout to climate change battle

The EU has set itself a target of cutting net emissions by 55% by 2030 in an effort to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as set out in the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.

In the first half 2021

S. Africa says mine deaths rose 33%

Johannesburg - South Africa's mines recorded 32 deaths in the first half of 2021 compared with 24 during the same period in 2020, the mines ministry said on Thursday, continuing a spike in deaths which began last year in some of the world's deepest mines

Vai all'archivio