Commodities Focus

A global dislocation of clean tanker tonnage has driven freight volatility in recent weeks, as charterers scramble for barrels in east and west of Suez markets to satisfy European and South American demand. In this episode of the Commodities Focus podcast, Americas freight senior managing editor Barbara Troner speaks with EMEA middle distillate editor Rowan Staden-Coats and shipping editors Sameer Mohindru in Singapore and Chris To in London about how the Russia-Ukraine conflict has exacerbated the global shortage in diesel markets and to what extent the replacement of Russian-origin diesel barrels has driven recent volatility in the global clean tanker markets. This Commodities Focus podcast was produced by Jennifer Pedrick in Houston and Felix Fernandez in London.

In this special episode of the Commodities Focus podcast from S&P Global Commodity Insights, Vincent Valk, senior editor of Chemical Week, and Luke Milner, managing editor of the EMEA olefins and polymers team, discuss the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on European polymer markets, whether buyers in Europe are avoiding Russian material and the impact of the recent reduction in demand.

High and volatile oil prices exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine crisis is raising questions as to when and if it will lead to demand destruction and renewed investment in the energy sector. Jeff Currie, head of commodity research at Goldman Sachs talks to associate director Paul Hickin about the infancy of what he has been calling a new commodity supercycle and the supply challenges ahead.

With 2022's volatile gas prices causing uncertainty across the energy markets, the case for LNG as a marine fuel has been shaken. LNG has previously been called the frontrunner in the race for alternative marine fuels – is that still the case? Editors Sam Eckett and Piers de Wilde are joined by analyst Anastasia Zania to look at the current state of the market, and the future outlook for LNG bunkers. Tell us more about your podcast preferences so we can keep improving our shows. Take our two-minute survey here: https://bit.ly/plattspod22

US states are ramping up their decarbonization goals in legislation, and corporations are committing to powering their operations with renewables. Enter Renewable Energy Certificates. What role do RECs play in the energy transition, and do they bring more clarity or challenges to the race to decarbonize? Global power manager Amy Gasca leads the discussion with power pricing analyst Nicole Baquerizo and senior manager of North American power analytics Morris Greenberg. This Commodities Focus podcast was produced by Jennifer Pedrick in Houston.

Asia’s LNG market has been disrupted by the war in Ukraine at a time when supply was already tight because of outages, low inventories and a rebound in economic activity. Global gas prices continue to flirt with record high levels with every escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The unwinding from Russian gas supply threatens to further disrupt spot trade and long-term gas dependence for Asian gas importers in 2022. In this podcast, S&P Global Commodity Insights’ Eric Yep, Kenneth Foo and Jeffrey Moore talk about the way ahead for Asia’s LNG market.

The global fuel oil market is currently going through a turmoil on account of the lower Russian oil flowing into the marine fuel oil pool and a fair share of blending components being used to produce higher margin transportation fuels. Tightening sanctions on Russian oil has seen newer trade flows emerge. As Asian markets gear up for peak summer demand, trade flows are poised to undergo further changes. The recent fuel contamination issue at Singapore has further exacerbated product availability concerns. In this podcast, S&P Global Commodity Insights' Rajesh Nair, Atsuko Kawasaki and Zhuwei Wang talk about the outlook for the Asian fuel oil market.

Center-South Brazil's crop officially started on April 1, and although more than 70% of the expected sugar exports are already hedged, there is still flexibility for the allocation of the sugarcane mix to switch between sugar and ethanol. The final mix will largely depend on the relative prices of sugar and ethanol, which are exposed to several factors such as international oil prices, the Brazilian real, weather, fuel demand, and fuel pricing policy. Nicolle Monteiro de Castro, senior price specialist for agriculture, and Luciana Torrezan Soncin, global manager of sugar analytics, discuss the key variables impacting the 2022-23 Center-South Brazil sugarcane crop, and how the local and global geopolitical factors can potentially impact the ultimate sugar and ethanol production figures. This Commodities Focus podcast was produced by Jennifer Pedrick in Houston.

The global natural gas market is exhibiting record volatility, with prices at unprecedented levels as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine casts a cloud of uncertainty over the future of Europe’s supply mix. LNG has however emerged as a key source of flexibility for the European market, with active competition with Asia for volumes leading to record deliveries in the first quarter of 2022. In the latest Commodities Focus podcast, pricing manager Allen Reed and analyst Luke Cottell discuss Europe's new role in the global LNG markets, emerging regasification capacity constraints on the continent, as well as the challenges of relying on LNG to diversify away from Russian pipeline gas in the years ahead. Tell us more about your podcast preferences so we can keep improving our shows. Take our two-minute survey here: https://bit.ly/plattspod22

Nickel prices hit an unprecedented $101,365/mt in early trading on March 8 following a historic short squeeze on pure nickel and have been volatile ever since.  China, the world's largest consumer of nickel, has seen trading activity for nickel sulfate, an important component of nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries, fall to an all-time low. This comes at a time the China is witnessing booming domestic demand for electric vehicles. S&P Global Commodity Insights' Clement Choo, Lucy Tang and Jesline Tang discuss what the nickel price volatility could mean for battery chemistries and pricing moving forward. Tell us more about your podcast preferences so we can keep improving our shows. Take our two-minute survey here: https://bit.ly/plattspod22