2025-06-23 11:39
Companies instructing vessels to limit time in strait Shiptracking data shows at least five tankers turning away The strait is on vital Gulf oil shipping route SINGAPORE/LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - At least two supertankers made U-turns near the Strait of Hormuz following U.S. military strikes on Iran, shiptracking data shows, as more than a week of violence in the region prompts vessels to speed, pause, or alter their journeys. Washington's decision to join Israel's attacks on Iran has stoked fears that Iran could retaliate by closing the strait between Iran and Oman through which around 20% of global oil and gas demand flows. Sign up here. That has spurred forecasts of oil surging to $100 a barrel. Both Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude hit fresh five-month highs on Monday in choppy trade as investors weighed the potential risks to supply. Shipping rates for supertankers, which can carry 2 million barrels of oil, have also soared, more than doubling in a week to over $60,000 a day, freight data shows. The Coswisdom Lake, a very large crude carrier supertanker, reached the strait on Sunday before making a U-turn and heading south, Kpler and LSEG data showed. On Monday it turned back again, resuming its journey towards the port of Zirku in the United Arab Emirates. The South Loyalty, also a VLCC, made a similar U-turn and remained outside the strait on Monday, LSEG data showed. It was scheduled to load crude from Iraq's Basra terminal, according to Kpler data and two shipping sources. The Coswisdom Lake was scheduled to load crude at Zirku for delivery to China. It was chartered by Unipec, a trading arm of China's state-run Sinopec (600028.SS) , opens new tab, LSEG and Kpler data showed. Sinopec did not respond to a request for immediate comment. Singapore-based Sentosa Shipbrokers said that over the past week, empty tankers entering the Gulf are down 32% while loaded tanker departures are down 27% from early May levels. CHANGING COURSE, PAUSING There have also been changes to how tankers are navigating the area, with a cluster of them sailing closer to Oman, while mainly Iranian-flagged vessels use Iran's local waters, shiptracking data on the MarineTraffic platform showed on Monday. The chemical tanker Kohzan Maru was sailing towards the strait before changing course to remain in the Gulf of Oman. The oil tanker Red Ruby and chemical carrier Marie C were also sailing towards the strait before opting to drop anchor off the UAE port of Fujairah, the data showed. All three en route for loadings. Shipowners are trying to minimise time that vessels spend inside the Strait of Hormuz due to the conflict, KY Lin, spokesperson at Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp, said on Monday. "Vessels will only enter the region when it is nearer to their loading time," he said. Japanese shipping firms Nippon Yusen (9101.T) , opens new tab and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (9104.T) , opens new tab said on Monday they continue to transit the strait but have instructed their vessels to minimise time spent in the Gulf. Several oil traders and analysts told Reuters that they had been warned to expect possible shipping delays as vessels wait for their turn outside the area. "Diversifying sources of supply and shipping routes and learning from past disruptions like the Red Sea are critical," said Leon Alexander, partner at global law firm Clyde & Co. Iran's parliament on Sunday approved a measure to close the strait, Iran's Press TV reported, but any such move would require approval from the Supreme National Security Council. Iran has threatened to close the strait in the past but has never done so. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/tankers-u-turn-zig-zag-pause-around-strait-hormuz-2025-06-23/
2025-06-23 11:28
LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - The pound fell against the dollar on Monday with the greenback benefiting from safe-haven demand as investors assessed the risk of an Iranian response to U.S. attacks on its nuclear sites. By 1054 GMT the pound was down 0.5% versus the dollar at $1.33795 , its lowest level since May 20. Sign up here. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday, his office said. Starmer also urged Iran to return to the negotiating table. Market focus is firmly on the price of oil, which earlier spiked as much as 5.7% and was last up 0.5%. "Ultimately the pound is exposed...Pro-cyclical currencies have a negative sensitivity to oil prices," said Francesco Pesole, FX strategist at ING. Elsewhere, UK flash PMIs hit screens showing business activity expanded modestly in June, but the data barely moved the needle on the pound. The S&P Global UK Composite Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 50.7 from 50.3 in May - edging further above the 50.0 growth threshold. "Overall, the PMIs suggest that the biggest hit to the economy was in April and things are now starting to recover. That said, the subdued level of the PMIs is still pointing to near stagnation," Thomas Pugh, chief economist at RSM UK, wrote in a note. The Bank of England held interest rates at 4.25% last Thursday as expected but flagged a weaker labour market and the risk of higher energy prices as conflict in the Middle East escalated. Despite the hold, market watchers took a doveish hint from the 6-3 vote split in favour of keeping rates on hold, with three MPC members in favour of a cut, a factor that is still playing a role according to ING's Pesole. "Markets are still tending towards the doveish side for the pound curve," he said. As of Monday, 58% of traders were betting on a 25-bps rate cut at the BoE's next session in August, with 42% betting on no change. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/sterling-five-week-low-against-dollar-markets-mull-middle-east-risk-2025-06-23/
2025-06-23 11:21
BUDAPEST, June 23 (Reuters) - Hungary and Slovakia have decided not to support the EU's plan for an 18th sanctions package against Russia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday in a press briefing broadcast on his Facebook page. Hungary and Slovakia decided to block the sanctions package in response to European Union plans to phase out Russian energy imports, the minister said. Sign up here. "We did this because the European Union ... wants to prohibit member states, including Hungary and Slovakia, from purchasing cheap Russian natural gas and cheap Russian oil as they have done previously," Szijjarto said. Hungary and Slovakia continue to rely on Russian gas and oil supplies and have maintained warm ties with Moscow. The Commission on June 10 proposed a new round of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, targeting Moscow's energy revenues, its banks and its military industry. In response, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that Slovakia will not back the package of sanctions unless the European Commission provides a solution to the situation Slovakia faces if the bloc phases out Russian energy imports. Sanctions proposals require unanimity in the bloc for approval. Late on Sunday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban urged the EU to take a proposed ban on Russian energy off the agenda due to an expected rise in energy prices following the U.S. bombing of Iran. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/hungary-slovakia-block-russian-sanctions-package-budapest-says-2025-06-23/
2025-06-23 11:14
Iran's Araqchi in Moscow to meet Putin Araqchi brings a letter from supreme leader Iran wants Russia's support after U.S. strikes Russia, already at war in Ukraine, weighs war in Iran LIVE news on Israel-Iran: ISTANBUL/MOSCOW, June 23 (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader sent his foreign minister to Moscow on Monday to ask President Vladimir Putin for more help from Russia after the biggest U.S. military action against the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution over the weekend. U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel have publicly speculated about killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and about regime change, a step Russia fears could further destabilize the Middle East. Sign up here. While Putin has condemned the Israeli strikes, he has yet to comment on the U.S. attacks on Iranian nuclear sites though he last week called for calm and offered Moscow's services as a mediator over the nuclear programme. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was due to deliver a letter from Khamenei to Putin, seeking the latter's backing, a senior source told Reuters. Iran has not been impressed with Russia's support so far, Iranian sources told Reuters, and the country wants Putin to do more to back it against Israel and the United States. The sources did not elaborate on what assistance Tehran wanted. The Kremlin said that Putin would receive Araqchi but did not say what would be discussed. Araqchi was quoted by the state TASS news agency as saying that Iran and Russia were coordinating their positions on the current escalation in the Middle East. Russia, a longstanding ally of Tehran, plays a role in Iran's nuclear negotiations with the West as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier nuclear deal Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. But Putin, whose army is fighting a major war of attrition in Ukraine for the fourth year, has shown little appetite for a confrontation with the U.S. over Iran just as Trump seeks to repair ties with Moscow. MEDIATION Putin has repeatedly offered to mediate between the U.S. and Iran, and has conveyed Moscow's ideas on resolving the conflict to them while ensuring Iran's access to civil nuclear energy. Putin said Israel had given Moscow assurance on the safety of Russian specialists helping to build two more reactors at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran during air strikes. While Moscow has bought weapons from Iran for its war in Ukraine and signed a 20-year strategic partnership deal with Tehran earlier this year, their relationship - which spans centuries - has at times been troubled. The partnership deal does not contain a mutual defence clause. Inside Russia, there were calls for Russia to support Iran in the same way Washington has supported Ukraine - including air defence systems, missiles and satellite intelligence. At the U.N. Security Council on Sunday, Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East after U.S. strikes. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia recalled former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell making the case at the U.N. Security Council in 2003 that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent danger to the world because of the country's stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. "Again we're being asked to believe the U.S.'s fairy tales, to once again inflict suffering on millions of people living in the Middle East. This cements our conviction that history has taught our U.S. colleagues nothing," he said. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/irans-supreme-leader-asks-putin-do-more-after-us-strikes-2025-06-23/
2025-06-23 10:58
JOHANNESBURG, June 23 (Reuters) - South Africa has signed a $1.5 billion loan agreement with the World Bank, aiming to overhaul its transport and energy infrastructure and reignite economic growth, the National Treasury said on Monday. For more than a decade Africa's most advanced economy has struggled to grow as regular blackouts have crippled productivity while crumbling rail networks and chronically congested ports have frustrated major industries such as mining and automaking. Sign up here. The government hopes the loan will ease transport bottlenecks and improve energy security, but it did not provide details of specific projects the World Bank money would be earmarked for. The financing should also limit rising debt-service costs as it carries more favourable terms than commercial borrowing, including by having a three-year grace period. State-owned energy and transport companies Eskom and Transnet have been mired in operational and financial crises for years, holding back growth, which rose just 0.1% in the first quarter. The Treasury gave the interest rate on the 16-year World Bank loan as six-month Secured Overnight Financing Rate plus 1.49%. It is separate from $500 million of financing the World Bank Group is considering to help unlock private investment in the electricity transmission grid, which needs to be expanded to connect more renewable energy projects. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's budget last month contained more than 1 trillion rand ($55.5 billion) of investment across transport, energy, water and sanitation to support growth and improve public services. It aimed for public debt to peak at 77.4% of gross domestic product in the current fiscal year, slowly declining after that. ($1 = 18.0283 rand) https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africa-agrees-15-billion-world-bank-loan-upgrade-infrastructure-2025-06-23/
2025-06-23 10:53
June 23 (Reuters) - Grid operator PJM Interconnection has issued an alert for Monday asking power generators to be ready to operate at maximum capacity if needed, as hot weather continues throughout the eastern U.S. region the grid operator serves. PJM expects its electricity needs to reach 160,000 MW on Monday, 158,000 on Tuesday and 155,000 on Wednesday, it said. Sign up here. The alert is aimed at transmission and generation owners who can schedule maintenance work accordingly, and also signals to neighboring regions that PJM power exports may need to be curtailed, the grid operator said. A hot weather alert is in effect through June 25 for PJM's entire service area, which includes all or parts of 13 states including New Jersey and Illinois plus the District of Columbia, ahead of an expected extended heat wave. Major cities across the U.S. are preparing for extreme temperatures caused by a heat dome that hit the U.S. Plains on Friday and is expected to expand to much of the rest of the country over the coming days. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/grid-operator-pjm-issues-maximum-generation-alert-monday-amid-heat-wave-2025-06-23/
