Commodities Weekly Demand fears in the driving seat, for now Most commodity prices fell this week as global monetary tightening and fears about economic growth intensified. The high June inflation reading in the US nails on another large rate hike at the FOMC’s... 15th July 2022 · 6 mins read
Industrial Metals Update What to make of the price slump As metals prices soared early in the year, we cautioned that they would end the year lower owing to soft demand growth. Prices have since plunged. Now, we think they may have a little further to fall... 15th July 2022 · 4 mins read
Energy Data Response US Weekly Petroleum Status Report Total crude stocks fell again, mainly due to ongoing sales from the strategic reserve. That said, the big news was hefty builds in petroleum product stocks, suggesting that high prices are finally... 13th July 2022 · 2 mins read
Commodities Update China’s commodities imports may be close to a trough Commodity import volumes were generally weak in June. We think some of this reflects the lingering impact of lockdowns on demand, but it also points to subdued activity in heavy industry and... 13th July 2022 · 2 mins read
China Stimulus Unlikely to Reverse Global Metals Meltdown “Yes, China’s economy is going to revive in the second half, but modestly,” Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist at Capital Economics Ltd., said by phone. “That’s possibly a little bit more... 11th July 2022 · Bloomberg
China Stimulus Unlikely to Reverse Global Metals Meltdown “Yes, China’s economy is going to revive in the second half, but modestly,” Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist at Capital Economics Ltd., said by phone. “That’s possibly a little bit more... 11th July 2022 · Bloomberg
Commodities Weekly Strong US dollar to remain a headwind for prices There was no clear direction in commodity prices this week, even within the same types of commodities. The takeaway is that commodity prices were dancing to their own tunes. Take energy, for example... 8th July 2022 · 6 mins read
Commodities Chart Pack Softer demand, but supply to remain tight Non-energy commodities prices generally fell in June on the back of concerns about the outlook for demand amid global monetary tightening and slower economic growth. Energy prices may also fall a... 6th July 2022 · 13 mins read
Commodities Weekly Demand concerns to weigh on prices for a while yet Prices struggled to find direction this week as concerns about demand deepened at a time of still constrained supply of many commodities. The price of Brent crude fell sharply on Thursday in response... 1st July 2022 · 5 mins read
Commodities Update Rebound in China’s PMIs likely to be a one-off We think that the recovery in China’s PMIs in June was driven by the lifting of virus-related restrictions rather than an improvement in underlying economic conditions. Accordingly, we think that... 1st July 2022 · 2 mins read
Commodities Weekly Non-energy prices only have so much more to fall Most commodity prices fell this week as demand concerns picked up due to ongoing monetary policy tightening by major central banks. Speaking to the US Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, Federal... 24th June 2022 · 6 mins read
Metals Data Response Global Steel Production (May) Global steel production continued to pick up in May, led by higher output in India and China, which more than offset the ongoing decline in Europe’s production. The rise in input costs, efforts to... 22nd June 2022 · 2 mins read
Latin America Economics Update The Codelco strike threat, Chile and the copper price A threatened strike at Chile’s copper giant, Codelco, could knock as much as 0.3%-pts off quarterly GDP growth for every week that workers are on strike and worsen the country’s balance of payments... 21st June 2022 · 3 mins read
Metals Data Response Global Aluminium Production (May) Global aluminium production has increased steadily since the start of the year in large part owing to a rebound in China’s output. At the same time, demand is relatively subdued, which suggests that... 20th June 2022 · 2 mins read
Commodities Weekly Supply concerns to dominate in gas markets European natural gas prices surged this week on renewed supply concerns, as Russia once again cut gas supplies to Europe and the US Freeport LNG export facility closed for six months. The huge price... 17th June 2022 · 6 mins read
Energy Update Freeport outage fuels already heightened supply fears The closure of the Freeport LNG facility in the US, for up to six months, adds to concerns about Europe’s ability to fill its gas storage tanks ahead of winter. We always suspected that supply... 15th June 2022 · 2 mins read