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Hurricane Beryl puts oil and gas supply in peril While Hurricane Beryl took a tragic and heavy toll on communities and economies in the Caribbean this week, its impact on fossil fuel production in the Gulf of Mexico looks set to be relatively small. …
5th July 2024
China overcapacity fears coming to industrial metals China’s dominant role in the world of commodities is evolving subtly. This is particularly the case for gold, where increased demand by the PBoC and Chinese retail investors has weakened the importance …
3rd July 2024
The Dallas Fed survey of oil and gas firms released this week revealed deep dissatisfaction with the Biden administration. While there was little of note in the closely trailed headline numbers – participants indicate that oil and natural gas production …
28th June 2024
Overview – We forecast most commodities prices to fall next year – despite falling interest rates and faster global GDP growth – as numerous supply constraints ease and a crunch in Chinese construction begins to cloud the outlook for industrial metals. …
27th June 2024
A return of President Trump to the White House would be a shot across the bows for global efforts to reduce emissions – particularly as he would almost certainly withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement again . But while he could deal another blow to the …
25th June 2024
This week's weaker-than-expected activity data in China seems to be at odds with the broadly flat or slight increases in base metals prices this week. (see Chart 1.) The big picture however is, that the data released this week add to the argument that …
21st June 2024
The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will rejig the way commodity imports enter the EU when it comes into force later this year and could lead to premiums for compliant commodities over non-compliant ones. 1. What is the EUDR? The EUDR is a new …
17th June 2024
The focus in oil markets this week was on the long term with the IEA predicting that oil demand will peak in 2029 while OPEC argued there is no peak in sight. In any case, when the peak occurs is only part of the picture. In its annual oil report, …
14th June 2024
The US economy has persistently outperformed its peers for over a century, and as our Spotlight series argues, will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. More recently, the US has also benefited from securing low-cost energy supplies. But these …
13th June 2024
The green transition and the accompanying rollout of renewables means that global coal demand could peak this year, followed by oil around 2030. Meanwhile, the importance of natural gas as a transition fuel means that it will peak a few years later around …
12th June 2024
The decision by OPEC+ last Sunday to increase output from October caught investors by surprise and sent oil prices sinking to below $78 per barrel early in the week. Ahead of the meeting, investors had expected that the cuts would be rolled over for the …
7th June 2024
A return of La Niña could provide some respite for those commodity producers who have been hit hardest by El Niño. But it could also pose problems for others – not least in South America – and so assessing any potential impacts on commodity prices is …
6th June 2024
OPEC+’s decision to roll over its production cuts into Q3 will keep supply constrained in the near term. But the unwinding of some of these cuts from October will mean that the oil market is better supplied over 2025 and oil prices should fall. Ample gas …
The agreement by OPEC+ to rollover voluntary production cuts into Q3 will keep global oil supply constrained and should support oil prices over the rest of this year. Meanwhile, natural gas prices have continued to rally on the back of risks to Europe’s …
5th June 2024
The rally in industrial metals prices over the last few months has begun to unwind and, because it seemed based on excessive optimism, we think prices will fall further over the coming months. After all, while industrial metals demand will recover this …
4th June 2024
At long last, OPEC+ outlined a plan on Sunday for when and how members would unwind the large production curbs currently in place. We assume that this plan is followed th rough and that output gradually increases from October, pushing the crude market …
OPEC+ keep screws tight for another quarter The agreement by OPEC+ to rollover voluntary production cuts for another quarter will, in our view, push the crude oil market into a sizeable deficit in Q3. Oil supply will be more constrained than we had …
3rd June 2024
The decision by OPEC+ to move its crunch meeting from in-person on Saturday in Vienna to online on Sunday, historically a sign of an uneventful meeting, suggests that members will rollover production cuts into the second half of this year. But a host of …
31st May 2024
Natural gas bucks the trend In a week dominated by sharp falls in oil and precious metals prices, the 12% jump in European natural gas prices has been a notable outlier. Although the front-month TTF benchmark price has slipped back in trading today, at …
24th May 2024
The metals-intensive nature of green technologies will add to demand for a host of industrial and battery metals, with green demand for copper and aluminium likely to grow twice as quickly as traditional demand for both metals has in the past. That said, …
23rd May 2024
The death of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi yesterday creates greater uncertainty over the succession planning for the next Supreme Leader. But, taking a step back, the balance of political power within Iran means that there is unlikely to be a major …
20th May 2024
Having soared to a record high level under the Biden administration, we expect US shale oil output to peak this year before contracting in 2025, driven by a combination of further industry consolidation, productivity improvements running out of steam, and …
The second consecutive monthly reduction in the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) 2024 oil demand growth forecast this week further widened the wedge between the IEA’s and OPEC’s near-term outlooks. Against the backdrop of the recent falls in oil prices …
17th May 2024
This interactive dashboard allows you to explore our energy market forecasts through to 2050, which are characterised by continued growth in energy consumption and an accelerating shift to renewables . The dashboard was last updated on 23rd April 2024. …
The surge in copper prices today, to a record high of over $5/lb in trading on the New York commodities exchange (COMEX), is the latest twist in the eye-popping market rally and leaves prices looking even more overstretched. Although the fundamentals will …
15th May 2024
This interactive dashboard displays the commodity charts to watch and allows you to explore our price forecasts. If you have subscriber access to the data underlying this redesigned dashboard, you can download it via the menu options in the top right of …
This note answers some of the most frequently asked questions that we received from clients during a recent online briefing about the latest US tariffs on China. Watch the original briefing here . What has been announced? Yesterday was the end of a …
The impact of the US tariffs announced today will barely register on the paltry flows of solar panels and electric vehicles that China directly exports to the US. However, the new tariffs could have a bigger impact on imports of Chinese-made batteries, …
14th May 2024
With less than a month to go until OPEC+ meets to decide upon its next policy move, rumours are heating up as to what its move will be. Last week, anonymous OPEC+ sources suggested that the 2.2 million bpd of voluntary cuts would be extended once again, …
10th May 2024
We held an online Drop-In session last week to discuss geopolitical risk and the commodities price outlook. ( View a recording here .) This Update answers several of the questions that we received. Q1: What Middle East escalation scenario do you consider …
The surplus in the zinc market will shrink a little this year, as recovering raw material supply and a pick-up in refined output is offset by a boost to demand from a cyclical recovery in China. That said, prices are likely to fall this year from their …
9th May 2024
We think that oil prices have further to fall, as we expect OPEC+ to gradually increase output later this year. Prices have recently fallen as worries that the conflict in the Middle East could affect oil supply have eased. Natural gas prices in the US …
8th May 2024
The fall in oil prices since Iran and Israel’s back-and-forth attacks suggests that some of the risk premium in prices has now unwound. Prices continue to be supported by OPEC+ production cuts but we suspect that members will gradually unwind these cuts …
7th May 2024
The strong rally in industrial metals prices seems stretched and, as a result, we expect prices to ease lower by end-year. After all, while industrial metals demand will recover this year, boosted by a combination of interest rate cuts, a recovery in …
The 6% fall in the price of Brent oil this week, to around $84 per barrel at the time of writing, was at least partly driven by receding fears that an escalation of hostilities in the Middle East could imperil oil supply. That said, geopolitics in the …
3rd May 2024
China’s PMI surveys for April suggest the economy continues to grow at a faster pace than a few months ago which is providing support for commodity demand. Today’s Politburo statement signalled that the policy support that has lifted the economy will be …
30th April 2024
Longstanding turmoil in Mexico’s state-owned oil company, Pemex, alongside newly announced export cuts, raise questions about the outlook for Mexico’s oil output. But it will not be a large enough factor to alter the global oil market balance. What’s …
In a mixed week for commodity prices, one interesting development is that, after the tin price reached multi-year highs at the end of last week, copper followed suit this week by topping $10,000 per tonne for the first time since April 2022. This is the …
26th April 2024
A resurgent nuclear power sector in Japan and a continuously growing one in South Korea coupled with an expansion in renewable power capacities will ensure both countries’ LNG demand will fall throughout the rest of this decade. All this supports our view …
23rd April 2024
In a week that started with Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel and which ended with Israel’s retaliatory strike on Iran , it is somewhat surprising that the price of Brent crude fell by over 3% w/w. It would be easy just to explain the move by …
19th April 2024
Recent increases in natural gas prices in Europe have predictably been mirrored in the EU carbon price, which has risen from a 31-month low of €52 per tonne in February to €71 at the time of writing. The rise in European natural gas prices has been driven …
18th April 2024
The latest US CPI data may have dashed hopes of interest rate cuts as early as June, but looser monetary policy is still firmly on the cards late this year and over the course of next year. Lower rates should be positive for commodity prices but, …
16th April 2024
Concerns about escalating tensions in the Middle East and the impact on global oil supplies increase the likelihood that the US will renew its sanctions waiver on Venezuela when the current one expires on Thursday. A rise in key oil exports would help the …
This year’s falls in iron ore prices are likely to have been a dress rehearsal for what's ahead. Our China team’s forecast for the property sector to halve by the end of the decade does not bode well for iron ore producers’ plans to ramp up production. …
We think that any impact from the suspension of trading of Russian metal on the LME and CME is likely to be muted, given that trade flows have already shifted markedly and it is unlikely to impact supply. The US and UK announced fresh sanctions on Russia …
15th April 2024
There are clearly many ways in which tensions between Iran and Israel could escalate and push up oil prices following the Iranian drone strike at the weekend. But the risk that a conflict involving Iran disrupts oil production in the Gulf states is much …
The stronger-than-expected US CPI data for March may have sent the dollar and Treasury yields higher but commodity prices largely shrugged off the news. Indeed, precious metals rose strongly this week, with gold prices breaking a new intra-day record …
12th April 2024
We think the price of gold will ease back from current record highs by end-2024, but falling US Treasury yields and some softness in the US dollar will keep the price elevated. Similarly, we expect the silver price to fall, but it will outperform gold. We …
China’s energy and industrial metal imports were generally strong in the first quarter. We expect them to hold up well in the coming months as fiscal stimulus continues to support construction activity, but we expect import growth to subside later in the …
In light of our China team’s new non-consensus view that an aggressive slowdown in property sector construction seems almost inevitable in the years ahead, we have revised our price forecasts. We now expect prices to generally flatline in 2025, before …
10th April 2024
