Commodities Focus

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.

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)

The gene editing system is being used extensively by the private and public sectors to develop new traits of interest in crops. To date, more than 500 products are being developed worldwide using the technology and are at different stages of product development, with more than a dozen of gene edited grain and oilseeds having authorization for cultivation in the US.

In this episode, S&P Global Commodity Insights' Sophie Byron (associate editorial director, agriculture pricing), Bharti Malhotra (research and analytics manager and lead author of gene editing report), Alan Bullion (special reports and projects director for Agribusiness, co-author of report), and Pete Meyer (crops and feedstock economist) discuss the fast-growing world of gene-edited crops and how this technology is being perceived globally to resolve the biggest challenges of food security, energy security, and sustainability.

Register for the European Biofuels Conference here Register for the Geneva Sugar Conference here

The global petrochemical industry is grappling with the aftermath of COVID-fueled demand. The supply squeeze in 2020 and 2021 that led to soaring prices has been doused by economic uncertainty and oversupply, leaving producers with hard decisions about output and buyers with lots of options.

S&P Global Commodity Insights' global polymer lead Kristen Hays speaks with Chemical Week editors Rob Westervelt and Clay Boswell to break down how the markets got here and what's coming up. Don't miss them at the World Petrochemical Conference in Houston next week as well.

Related: Chemical Week

Algorithmic trading is increasingly a mainstay of European electricity and natural gas trade as major players seek to stay on top of fast-moving, volatile markets.

So-called algos, which make hundreds if not thousands of trades a day, are widely used to balance renewable energy portfolios and bring more liquidity to the market.

But traders have blamed the automated process for exacerbating volatility during last year's energy crisis, when electricity and gas prices exploded due to tight supplies and regulatory uncertainty.

In this episode S&P Global Commodity Insights' Kira Savcenko shares fragments of her conversation about this phenomenon with Jürgen Mayerhofer, CEO of algorithmic trader Enspired, and discusses further with Henry Edwardes-Evans, managing editor of S&P Global Commodity Insights' Power in Europe newsletter.

Related price assessments: UK Day-ahead Baseload Power price: AADET00 UK Day-ahead Peakload Power price: AADFC00 UK Block 5 Power price: GTB5G00

Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered major supply risks and wide-ranging sanctions that have dramatically changed global oil and gas markets. In a year of price volatility, supply concerns and increasingly harsh sanctions, Russia has accelerated its pivot to Asian markets. As we enter a second year of the conflict, the risk of major security incidents, a decline in Russian production, and even tougher sanctions hangs over global markets.

In this episode of the Commodities Focus podcast S&P Global Commodity Insights experts Paul Sheldon, Stuart Elliott and Sambit Mohanty discuss the impact of the war with managing editor for Russia commodities and energy news Rosemary Griffin.

Related price assessments: GTFWM10 - Dutch TTF 1-Mo PCAAS00 – Dated Brent AAWVH00 – Urals FOB Primorsk AAWVI00 – Urals Primorsk v Med Dtd Strip

The Freeport LNG terminal in Texas started exporting LNG cargoes in mid-February for the first time since a fire and explosion in June 2022 forced a shutdown of the facility, marking a milestone in the history of US LNG. In the global LNG market, the Freeport outage initially exacerbated supply shortages that sent sky-high spot prices even higher. In the US, the shutdown took the lid off a really hot domestic gas market, as a key source of domestic demand went offline. But global LNG and US gas market dynamics have changed dramatically in the eight months since Freeport went offline. In this episode, S&P Global Commodity Insights LNG experts Harry Weber and Corey Paul discuss these issues as Freeport returns, as well as LNG market fundamentals more broadly in the Atlantic.

Also listen: Have LNG and gas markets returned to normality in 2023?

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Prices are closer to lower, volatility has reduced and inter-product price spreads have come in, so are we seeing gas and LNG markets revert to normality? What are the factors that have calmed markets, and is this new-found tranquillity likely to be sustained?

In this Commodities Focus podcast episode, S&P Global Commodity Insights experts Kenneth Foo, Allen Reed and Stuart Elliott discuss these topics with global director for LNG Ciaran Roe.

Related price assessments: AAOVQ00 - LNG Japan/Korea DES Spot Crg AASXU00 - LNG NWE DES $/MMBtu GTFWM10 - Dutch TTF 1-Mo $/MMBtu