Commodities Focus

The podcast discusses the impact of drought restrictions at the Panama Canal on shipping markets, including longer wait times and increased freight costs. It explores options for ship owners, such as offloading cargo and rerouting ships. The potential impact of El Nino on shipping markets and the risks faced by US agricultural producers are also explored.

This podcast discusses the challenges in the global recycled polymer markets, impact of imported P.T. resin, challenges in the European market, lack of mandates for recycled materials, and outlook for global recycled polymer markets and demand.

US gas prices have dropped, resulting in narrow margins for producers. Despite recent capex cuts, gas production remains near record highs. The podcast discusses the outlook for US output as producers readjust to leaner margins and the impact of low prices on their strategies.

It's been a rough couple of years for US corn and soybeans. 2022 brought drought, record-low Mississippi River water levels, and ultimately sky-high grains and oilseeds prices. The 2023 planting season was initially met with dry weather, causing concern of low yields come harvest time, but have conditions turned around since then and if not, what would that mean for prices and for domestic and export demand? S&P Global Commodity Insights' Jennifer Pedrick, Pete Meyer, Paul Hughes and Luke Lundgren examine the progress of these crops so far in the crop year, and look toward the possible outcomes of the upcoming harvest on the US market and trade flows in South America and around the globe.  We want to hear about your podcast preferences so we can keep improving our shows. Take our podcast survey here and share your thoughts: https://www.surveylegend.com/s/4xyz

A year after a historic short squeeze sent LME nickel metal prices soaring above $100,000/mt, industry players remain divided over their pricing preferences in the nickel market with some still referencing the LME, while Chinese market participants have largely moved to other alternatives such as sulfate-basis pricing and SHFE nickel.  Following the Indonesian government's announcement of its plan to develop a nickel index, as well as proposed changes from the LME to strengthen its legacy position, what are the potential implications for the nickel market, and how could near-term supply-demand fundamentals influence this?  Leah Chen, editor of the S&P Global Commodity Insights non-ferrous team discusses the impact of the black swan event as well as recent developments in the nickel industry with Jesline Tang, editor of battery metals pricing team, and Charles Thompson, editor of EMEA nickel, aluminum and secondary alloys.   Related price assessments: Nickel sulfate DDP China BATNS04  MHP CIF NA basis LME BATMC00  MHP CIF NA basis NS BATMB00 (percentage)  MHP CIF NA basis NS BATMA00   MHP CIF NA basis NSME00   MHP CIF NA basis LME BATMD00 (percentage)    We want to hear about your podcast preferences so we can keep improving our shows. Take our podcast survey here and share your thoughts: https://www.surveylegend.com/s/4xyz

Up to two-thirds of North America is at an elevated risk of electricity shortfalls this summer in extreme conditions with a high load and high outages, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. Conventional plants are retiring faster than the needed transmission and generation can be built, and there are questions about whether the natural gas system is up to the task of supplying fuel to gas-fired generators needed for reliability. S&P Global Commodity Insights' Kate Winston, a senior editor for Americas power news, discussed reliability with John Moura, the director of reliability assessment at NERC. Joining the discussion were Mason Lester, a senior research analyst with SPGCI, and Daryna Kotenko, the team lead for North American power pricing at SPGCI. We want to hear about your podcast preferences so we can keep improving our shows. Take our podcast survey here and share your thoughts: https://www.surveylegend.com/s/4xyz Subscribe to Platts Dimensions Pro

China was among the last to lift COVID restrictions at the close of 2022, but its polymer exports remain elevated amid continued sluggish domestic demand, creating more global competition for limited pockets of demand. India has been a bright spot in the region given its demand, but not enough to fill the gap left by China. Those global flows continue to force US sellers and prices to compete as all chase the same thin pockets of demand, particularly with new polymer capacity coming online in the next few months that will push more material into export markets. Kristen Hays, global market lead for polymers at S&P Global Commodity Insights, sat down with three polymer market experts at SPGCI to discuss the state of play as a rebound in China’s domestic demand remains key to buyers and sellers worldwide. Joining Hays were Heng Hui, senior editor in Singapore whose coverage includes Asian polyethylene, and Fumiko Dobashi, also a senior editor in Singapore whose coverage includes Asian polyvinyl chloride, and Preeti Bhagat, associate editor in Gurgaon, India, who covers India's polyethylene and PVC markets.

Australia, one of the world's leading wheat exporters, has produced three bumper wheat harvests in a row, and with the prospect of an extension of the Black Sea grain corridor deal fading by the day, the country is emerging as a reliable wheat supplier to Asian markets. In this episode of the Commodities Focus podcast, S&P Global Commodity Insights agriculture news senior editor Asim Anand discusses the outlook for Australian wheat with associate editor Vivien Tang, senior pricing specialist Nikolaos Aidinis Antonopoulos and editor Sampad Nandy. The panel considers whether Australian wheat has an edge over its competitors and supply prospects for the upcoming marketing year, as well as diving into the ambiguity surrounding the Black Sea grain trade deal and the impacts on the Asian market if the deal is not renewed on May 18.

From a dramatic shift in oil trade flows to a series of clean fuel policy reforms, India's energy sector has  been in the spotlight recently. With the country poised for massive growth in energy consumption, lawmakers and corporates are preparing for an energy future that will aim to strike a balance between traditional oil and gas businesses, while making greater inroads into hydrogen, biofuels and electric mobility sectors. In a wide-ranging discussion with Sambit Mohanty, Asia Energy Editor at S&P Global Commodity Insights, Pulkit Agarwal, India head of content, Deepak Kannan, head of global coal markets, and Agamoni Ghosh, senior editor for carbon markets, discuss whether India's heavy reliance on fossil fuels could create hurdles in moving towards cleaner fuels at the desired pace.

The issues impacting US power markets seem to be widespread and far-reaching lately. Since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in August, it’s really taken over discussions at energy conferences due to its far-reaching impacts. But US power markets are also facing reliability concerns from extreme weather events, transmission permitting and the interconnection queue backlog, and massive growth in battery storage capacity. S&P Global Commodity Insights’ Kassia Micek, Mark Watson, Morris Greenberg, and Sam Huntington discuss the biggest topics impacting US power markets right now and what progress has been made regarding change. Related price assessments: Lithium Carbonate CIF North Asia (BATLC04) ERCOT North Hub day-ahead on-peak (IERNM00) Powder River Basin 8,800 OTC (CTAOM01) CAISO SP15 Gen Hub solar capture price index (ACPID00)