Commodities Focus

The expansion in the Indian steel manufacturing capacity comes at an opportune moment for the industry as the country has witnessed massive infrastructure projects like construction of national highways over the past few years. Now, with the general elections underway in the country and if the incumbent government comes back to power, the thrust on infrastructure would likely receive continued boost on account of policy continuity.

Even though India has unseated Japan as the second largest producer of steel in the world over the past few years, steel production is quite a capital-intensive business, and a large chunk of production costs is driven by prices of raw materials. In such a scenario, the question arises if the Indian steel sector is comfortably placed in terms of having access to conventional and non-conventional raw materials going ahead.

In this discussion, Anirudh Iyer, steel and raw materials is joined byKeith Tan, associate regional pricing director for Asia metals, Rohan Somwanshi, managing editor for global agriculture and metals news and Paul Barthomolew, lead analyst for metals and mining, to share their views on what lies ahead for the Indian steel sector.

The rice markets in Asia have seen new trends emerging with Indonesia importing rice, and India putting restrictions on their rice exports. Ripple effects have been felt in other major growing rice growing countries such as Pakistan and Thailand.

In this Commodities Focus episode, Elizabeth Thang, Managing Editor for Food and Agriculture is joined by three rice experts from S&P Global Commodity Insights, Tanya Rana and Elvis John, associate editors with the agriculture markets and Mugunthan Kesavan, Engagement lead for food and agriculture to discuss some key questions—how the markets are reacting to Indonesia's return to the market as an importer, what the industry is anticipating about the rice export ban in India ahead of elections in the country, and more.

As a UK general election looms, energy security and the transition to net-zero are high on the agenda. In this episode of the Commodities Focus podcast, our experts sift through the policy options, from windfall taxes to licensing bans, and discuss why they matter, not just for the UK, but for Europe and beyond. Nick Coleman, senior editor for oil news, is joined by Gethin Baker, senior technical research analyst specialising in the North Sea, and Stuart Elliott, news reporter focusing on the UK and European gas markets.

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Pressured by sub-$2/MMBtu prices, many US producers have decided to cut spending on gas-directed drilling and completion activity and to scale back production in 2024. But there are signs of price improvement along the futures curve in late 2024 and thereafter, due in part to the arrival of new LNG facilities, giving operators reason for optimism.

In this episode, Jeremy Beaman, natural gas news editor, talks with Bryan Mcnamara and Imre Kugler, directors of upstream research about how natural gas producers are approaching a difficult price environment and what their plans are for 2024 and 2025.

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Red sea crisis has forced carriers and shippers alike to adjust strategies. Container freight rates not only reached yearly high after receding throughout 2023 but carriers also seized a profit making opportunity they were looking for after the post pandemic lull. The change in this dynamic has forced shippers to again look for alternatives in the hopes of making their supply chain more agile.

S&P Global Commodity Insights containers editor Tanya Kalra speaks with Chris Rogers, Head of Supply Chain and Research, S&P Global Market Intelligence, Greg Knowler, Senior Editor, Journal of Commerce and Mohammed Al Ansare, Associate Editor, EMEA Containers, S&P Global Commodity Insights about the changing dynamics in the containers market and how carriers and shippers are navigating through them.

Lithium producers are pushing timelines out for project development in North America as global lithium prices sit near a three-year low after plunging from record levels in 2022. The change in sentiment has cooled off a red-hot market and cast doubt on the future of domestic lithium supply for North America's electric vehicles and other energy transition applications.

S&P Global Commodity Insights metals editor Nick Lazzaro speaks with Viral Shah, managing editor for low carbon and base metals in EMEA, and Adriana Carvalho, senior managing editor for Americas metals markets, about the changing dynamics in global lithium markets this year, new pricing trends in the US, and the future prospects for North American lithium supply.

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S&P Global Commodity Insights events

Wheat prices have been on a largely downward trend since the start of 2024 despite lower production in key exporters, Canada and Australia, and continued logistics concerns due to the wars in the Black Sea and the Red Sea. Does this imply the weight of a larger global supply in the year ahead and that the markets have adapted to a new normal amidst geopolitical tensions? Or are there choppier waves to come?

In this podcast, Vivien Tang, associate grains editor, grains, Victoria Sinitsyna, associate director, Grains Analytics and Nikolaos Aidinis Antonopoulos, senior freight pricing specialist discuss the potential challenges faced by the wheat markets and provide an outlook on global wheat production and freight markets in 2024.

The Asian copper market saw CIF China copper concentrate TC/RC fall by 65% in just three months' time, while smelters were still not able to find enough feedstocks to meet their production needs. As copper concentrate market changed from surplus to deficit and copper price is still hovering at $8100-$8500/mt level, our experts discuss what happened behind the price, share the outlook for copper concentrate and copper cathodes.

S&P Global Commodity Insights senior managing editor Mok Cheng speaks with senior copper analyst Wang Ruilin and senior price editor Han Lu about the factors driving copper concentrate TC/RCs movement, implications for copper cathodes and copper price, and what we would expect in 2024.

Following on from heavy winter storms in recent years that disrupted power supply across US regions, power markets managed a mid-January 2024 winter storm with elevated prices and a few demand records, but no large-scale power outages.

S&P Global Commodity Insights reporters Mark Watson, Jared Anderson, Kassia Micek and Tom Tiernan discuss how grid operators are applying lessons learned from past winter storms and benefitting from policy directives on winterization of equipment.

World Petrochemical Conference

Over the past 20 years, Brazil's growth in the production of feedstuffs like soybeans and corn has been remarkable. In the process, it has become a powerhouse exporter. To accomplish this, it took the convergence of Brazil modernizing its agricultural production and transportation systems along with the equally meteoric demand growth of a willing buyer, China.

S&P Global Commodity Insights' chief agricultural economist Paul Hughes speaks with feed and grains senior analyst Anamaria Martins and grains and oilseeds pricing manager Rafael Savoia about the factors behind this astounding transformation, the implications for world trade, the beneficiaries, and what is likely ahead.

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