Commodities Focus

Chinese crude steel production had a bumper year in 2019, rising 8.3% to just short of 1 billion mt, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. S&P Global Platts steel specialists Paul Bartholomew and Jing Zhang revisit the factors that underpinned the growth in China's steel output last year, and examine the drivers that could support and impact the country's steel production in 2020.

An initial trade agreement between the US and China signed by officials from both countries January 15 could change the landscape for commodities markets that have been roiled by punishing tit-for-tat tariffs over the last 18 months.

Caustic soda is considered a major economic indicator for manufacturing, which is why its weaker pricing was among many indicators of economic slowdowns in China and Europe last year. Current market prices remain under pressure in all regions, amid global oversupply and lack of demand growth. Global Market Lead for polymers and editor Kristen Hays tells Ora Lazic about the events that led to this situation, as well as expectations and trends for 2020.

With details still scarce on the US-China trade deal, markets' initial reaction was underwhelming. This indicates that the highly anticipated deal did not deliver on market expectations. Ivy Li, Gustavo Bonato, Pete Meyer, and Andrei Agapi, S&P Global Platts specialists from China, Brazil, the US, and Singapore, examine the impact of the deal on soybean exports from US and Brazil, and the demand in China in light of the African swine fever.

Pressure on plummeting coal prices could cascade throughout 2020 as unprecedented events within the wider energy markets have helped the energy mix to connect like never before. Platts reporters Antoine Simon, Joseph Clarke and Amanda Flint discuss with Sarah Matthews where this year could lead in both the worlds of coal and gas and whether coal-to-gas switching levels can really go any higher.

The consortium of ExxonMobil, Hess and China's CNOOC recently announced that first oil was being produced from Guyana's offshore. Starr Spencer, S&P Global Platts senior editor for oil news, talks with Laura Huchzermeyer, Platts managing editor of Americas crude markets, about the news from Guyana and the potential impacts on the market.

As more US municipalities set ambitious goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power generation, transportation and other sectors, use cases for hydrogen are emerging that include fuel cells, direct burning in gas-fired turbines and energy storage applications. With these trends in mind, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems is launching the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in central Utah that seeks to develop 1,000 MW of clean energy storage using hydrogen stored in underground salt caverns. S&P Global Platts discussed the project and other US power market developments with MHPS Americas President and CEO Paul Browning.

In the final Shipping Commodities Focus podcast of 2019, S&P Global Platts editors George Griffiths and Sam Eckett discuss the state of the markets ahead of IMO 2020's January 1 deadline. They review the inaugural Platts European Shipping Seminar in Athens; how the Kübler-Ross model of grief (the five stages) applies to global shipping; and investigate why public and private companies are approaching the sulfur emissions cap regulations differently.

With record-high production and unprecedented exposure to global markets through exports, US natural gas markets are in many ways heading into uncharted territory this winter. S&P Global Platts Americas natural gas manager Ryan Ouwerkerk speaks with senior gas pricing specialists Veda Chowdhury and Kelsey Hallahan about what to expect this winter for US natural gas pricing. The discussion includes a dive into how new infrastructure, ranging from LNG export facilities to new pipelines, have pricing implications that will extend far beyond the near term.

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 market, against a backdrop of a global sugar market back in significant deficit for the first time since 2015-16.