Commodities Focus

California voters are about to have the chance to ditch a recently passed increase in their gasoline tax. Is there a chance that they will vote against their self-interest and in favor of the greater good? Plus, does a tax really push gasoline demand one way or another? Jeff Bair and native...

US crude exports to Europe have declined in the past few weeks as the cost to move barrels across the Atlantic has risen. US crude editor Laura Huchzermeyer joins Americas crude oil managing editor John-Laurent Tronche to discuss this recent run-up in prices, and how the market is adapting to...

The International Maritime Organization has mandated bunker sulfur limits to drop to 0.5% sulfur on January 1, 2020, from 3.5% sulfur currently. Regardless of the compliance option shipowners choose, the global sulfur mandate will increase freight cost tremendously. Noteworthy is a huge uptick in...

The pricing power of domestic mills in Brazil was built on strengthening Chinese steel prices over the past few months, putting Brazilian steel products near discounts against imported material. Historically, sustainable import parity premiums for domestic flats and longs over imported goods were...

The European paraxylene market is seeing significant changes this year as fundamental shifts in global demand and supply yield opportunities and challenges for the region. The start-up of a new downstream PTA plant in Portugal has placed the region in a net short position, and Europe will now have...

North American power pricing specialists Kelli Ainsworth, Kassia Micek and Jeff Zhou, all based in Houston, look back on how US power markets fared over the summer, where ERCOT markets sizzled out, but California markets reached decade high prices. Kelli, Kassia and Jeff also turn their attention...

As the bunkering industry gears up for the International Maritime Organization's tighter sulfur emission standards from 2020 onward, is the blending of biofuels a viable way to reduce emissions? S&P Global Platts senior biofuel specialist George Griffiths and fuel oil associate editor Emma...

When US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on steel imports earlier this year, the impacts went far beyond that industry, with ripple effects for crude oil, natural gas, LNG export projects and petrochemicals. S&P Global Platts editors Michael Fitzgerald, Kristen Hays, Starr Spencer and...

A unique season for the 2018-19 sugarcane crop in North-Northeast Brazil is starting to shape up, with producers expected to maximize ethanol production. And for the first time since 2010-11 producers are expected to focus on hydrous production, which is already is triggering higher anhydrous...

S&P Global Platts senior pricing specialists John DeLapp and Veda Chowdhury discuss the changing natural gas storage picture in the Midwest. Although stocks are running well behind the five-year average build, market participants do not seem to be concerned. John and Veda explain why. Related...