Sugar mills start production
The new stock is expected to curb the price of the commodity and tame the inflation in Pakistan. A number of sugar mills have started production of the sweetener for the new season 2020-21 well on time this year. More than 20 sugar mills have started crushing sugarcane in the past one week or 10 days in Sindh out of total 30-31 mills in the province. The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) said the mills, including the ones in Punjab, have stared production of sweetener well on time this year. There are over 40 mills in Punjab and around 8-10 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). The two stakeholders projected sugar production to be 5-10 percent higher than 5.2 million tons attained last year (2019-20). The new production should reduce the price to at least Rs75-80 per kg in retail compared to over Rs100 at present. To recall, sugar was available at Rs54 per kg in retail when the government of Pakistan came into power. The government conducted forensic audit of sugar mills to investigate causes for the significant surge in the commodity price to over Rs80 per kg in May 2020. The price, however, continued its uptrend and reached Rs110 per kg.
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OPEC+ agrees to begin increasing oil production quotas in Jan
OPEC+ reached a contact to ease its oil-output cuts in 2021 more slowly than previously planned, giving a fragile market more time to absorb the extra supply. Sources recorded that the group will add 500,000 barrels a day of production to the market in January — a quarter of what would have occurred under the prior plan. Ministers will then hold monthly consultations to decide whether to approve similar-sized output hikes in subsequent months.
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U.S. natural gas beats covid-19
It’s surely going down as the most challenging year ever for the U.S. oil and gas industry. But a solid rebound for shale has been in the works for a few months. WTI crude oil prices, for instance, are now up over $45 per barrel, which is at or even above the breakeven price for many producers and the highest price since early-March. Yet to be clear, oil’s sister fuel natural gas remains the real fuel of the future. In short, any serious climate policy has more natural gas as a centerpiece strategy. While U.S. oil demand has been lower this year, gas consumption has been at or even above year-ago levels. Seemingly unbeknownst to most, U.S. natural gas demand has never really went away through Covid-19, showing its resiliency. For measure, electricity and industry account for ~65 percent of U.S. gas needs.
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Grain output forecast to rise in EU in 2021
In its first forecast for 2021, Coceral sees the total grain crop in the EU-27+UK at 307.4 million tons, a significant increase over the 295.7 million tons harvested in 2020. International Experts reported that wheat production (excluding durum) will recover from 127.9 million tons to 143 million tons, driven by higher predicted plantings and yields in France, Germany, the UK, and the Balkan countries where adverse weather had affected the last crop. Coceral forecasts EU-27+UK 2021 barley production at 61.5 million tons, down from 63.1 million tons last year. While Germany and France are forecast to see much better crops than in 2020, production is seen down in Spain, where weather during the most critical crop development stage has been excellent in 2020, and in the UK, where spring barley planting should decrease substantially as the country has planted more winter grains this year than last year.
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Colombia’s coal output halves in 3q
Colombia, the world’s fourth-largest coal exporter, produced 11 million tons of steam, coking coal and metallurgic coke during the third quarter, down from 20.8 million tons in the same period last year, but 12.8 percent higher than the 9.7 million tons produced during the second quarter. The government imposed restrictions to try to control the spread of Covid-19 in late March. The country’s major coal producers closed operations early on in the pandemic even though the country had exempted coal mining from restrictions. Coal production at Drummond, the country’s largest coal mining firm, fell by 12 percent to 7.3 million tons. Coal production from the Cesar province, home to Prodeco, Drummond and CNR, fell by 41.4 percent to 7.8 million tons.
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Could China replace Australian iron ore with metal from Africa?
Across China and around the clock, furnaces fuelled by Australian iron ore pump out the steel the country needs to build its way out of the coronavirus downturn. But as China’s trade war with Australia has become louder, working its way from unofficial stoppages to swingeing tariffs on barley and wine, so too have rumblings that the country may slow or end its use of Australian ore. For Australia, a lot is at stake. Exports of goods and services to China are about 7 percent of Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP), and iron ore is the single-biggest category, at about 40 percent of the $153 billion in goods and services Australia sends to China every year. It is also said that any restrictions on Australian iron ore sales to China would send shockwaves through the market. But could China replace Australian iron ore with metal from somewhere else?