Commodities Focus

This Commodities Focus podcast looks at S&P Global Platts Analytics latest Global Polyolefin Outlook, discussing the short, medium and longer term key market dynamics and price outlook for ethylene, propylene, PE and PP. Hetain Mistry and Lara Berton discuss the latest outlook, focusing on the...

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence midstream finance reporter Allison Good preview with natural gas managing editor Joe Fisher the upcoming second-quarter earnings season for midstream companies.  Investors are eager to know the status of...

Amid the US energy transition toward increasing volumes of renewable energy and distributed energy resources like microgrids and demand response, global power sector engineering company Black & Veatch recently restructured its power business to focus more on these shifting market...

Refineries worldwide have been consuming more light sweet crude oil, resulting in an oversupply of light distillates products market. In the second quarter, naphtha was the worst performer across the barrel in Asia. The Asian naphtha crack against ICE Brent crude fell close to an 11-year low to...

US corn futures have been soaring since May, as persistent rains have pummeled the Midwest.  Now, the impact of the rains are being felt not just for corn, but for ethanol as well. Platts agriculture editors Sergio Alvarado, Nicolle Monteiro de Castro and Wes Swift discuss how the weather is...

Severe weather this year in the US Midwest has kept farmers from planting crops, cutting regional diesel demand. Even with prices at multimonth lows, the market is unlikely to quickly reverse course due not only to high stocks of diesel and jet fuel, but because farmers will be unable to plant as...

Markets are now gearing up for the implementation of the International Maritime Organization's new sulfur cap regulation, which takes effect on January 1, 2020. Shipowners are increasingly taking compliant fuel for sea trials, while traders are lapping up any and all low sulfur components within...

Last summer, ERCOT saw record power demand, while California power prices reached an all-time high. With another summer coming up, S&P Global Platts senior pricing specialists Kassia Micek, Kelli Ainsworth and Jeff Zhou discuss ISO summer load and resource expectations and July and August...

As China will restrict imports of aluminum scrap from July, the global scrap industry is preparing for the material flow change by the world’s biggest scrap-consuming nation. The outlook, whether near or longer term, is uncertain as no one is sure yet how much scrap China will be importing...

Global crude oil prices have fallen to two-month lows in recent days amid concerns that the ongoing trade dispute between the US and China could slow global demand growth. US President Donald Trump said this week that he was not rushing to reach a trade agreement with China, increasing uncertainty...