2025-03-13 00:07

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - A crash between a fuel tanker and a container ship off the English coast should be subject to a transparent and internationally coordinated investigation, a global seafarers' union said on Wednesday. One person is presumed dead after the Solong, a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship, crashed on Monday into the Stena Immaculate, an anchored tanker that was carrying U.S. military jet fuel. The collision caused huge fires and explosions. All 36 other crew members from the vessels were brought to shore. Sign up here. The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), the biggest seafarers' union, urged all the jurisdictions involved to cooperate to understand how the incident happened. "There are crucial questions that remain unanswered in the wake of this tragedy, and these must be addressed through a full and transparent internationally coordinated investigations," ITF general secretary Stephen Cotton said in a statement. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-ship-crash-needs-fully-transparent-investigation-says-seafarers-union-2025-03-12/

2025-03-13 00:07

Stena Immaculate’s crew of US nationals in good health Tanker part of US military program to supply fuel for forces British authorities arrest Solong’s Russian captain LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Most of the jet fuel onboard the U.S.-flagged tanker Stena Immaculate that was hit by a container ship in a collision off Britain's coast remains contained and only two of the vessel's 18 fuel tanks have leaked, owner Stena Bulk said on Wednesday. The Portuguese-flagged Solong container ship crashed into the tanker carrying jet fuel for the U.S. military, on Monday. British police have arrested Solong's captain on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. Sign up here. "(There's) no fire any longer" on the Stena Immaculate, Stena Bulk's Chief Executive Erik Hanell told Reuters. "We will have a much clearer picture in the next 24-48 hours on the whole salvage operation." The Stena Immaculate remains stationary at anchor and is being monitored by Stena Bulk representatives, government authorities and executives from U.S. logistics group Crowley, which manages the vessel, Stena Bulk said separately on Wednesday. Hanell said two of the vessel's 18 fuel tanks had leaked, with an estimated 10% of the cargo. "The total volume (of jet fuel) onboard is around 50,000 cubic metres, so I guess that's roughly the maximum amount ... hopefully less than that," he said. Hanell had met with the vessel's 23 American crew members and they were in good health, he said. Ernst Russ, the German company that owned the Portuguese-flagged Solong, confirmed on Wednesday that the captain was Russian. The rest of the 14-strong crew, one of whom is missing and presumed dead, were Russian and Filipino nationals. Hanell said the fire onboard the Solong was somewhat under control based on his understanding of the situation, adding that the exact details of what happened were under investigation. US MILITARY PROGRAMME Gothenburg-headquartered Stena Bulk has around 18 active crude tankers and 40 oil products and chemical tankers. The company has two other products tankers under management with Crowley that are part of the US Tanker Security Program (TSP), which can be used by the Department of Defense to transport fuel supplies for the U.S. military. There are only 10 tankers in the TSP, so with the Stena Immaculate out of action, it is likely to cause logistics challenges for the U.S. military, shipping industry sources said. Hanell said there had been no discussions yet in terms of any back up options in relation to the TSP programme. "Commercial challenges will be discussed in the next week or so," he said. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/jet-fuel-cargo-mostly-intact-stena-immaculate-after-ship-collision-off-uk-says-2025-03-12/

2025-03-13 00:01

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - First some good news for U.S. aluminium buyers. President Donald Trump has backed off from his threat to hit imports of Canadian metal with a huge 50% tariff. Now for the bad news. As of today they will be paying a 25% import tariff, not just for Canadian metal but for all aluminium products from all countries. Sign up here. Market pricing has already shifted to reflect the Trump administration's doubling-down on tariffs as a way of reviving domestic smelting capacity. The CME Midwest premium , reflecting the cost of unwrought aluminium delivered to a U.S. fabricator over and above the international London Metal Exchange basis price, is trading at record highs. The high premium will flow down the aluminium product chain until it hits the last-stage user, whether it be Ford Motor (F.N) , opens new tab, Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) , opens new tab or one of the country's many independent brewers. That's how tariffs have worked to date and things won't change while the United States remains so dependent on imports. TARIFF HANGOVER Trump's original 2018 tariffs on aluminium were set at 10% and within a year the Beer Institute, which represents the nearly 8,000 brewers in the United States, estimated they had already cost the industry an extra $250 million , opens new tab. A report by consultancy Harbor Aluminum found that $50 million had gone to the U.S. Treasury, $27 million to domestic smelters and $173 million to the fabricators who convert metal to aluminium sheet for beer cans. What really irked the Beer Institute was that the import tariff was being passed through even though U.S. cansheet typically contains around 70% recycled metal sourced domestically. But that's how tariffs tend to work. Just ask European aluminium buyers. The European Union also imposes import tariffs ranging from 3% on primary aluminium to 6% on some alloys. Researchers from the LUISS University of Rome studied the impact on consumers and in a 2019 paper , opens new tab found that even though duty-exempt metal accounted for around half of all European Union imports, everyone ended up paying 6% anyway. Producers are incentivised to "align their prices to the highest possible level - that is, the duty-paid price," the researchers wrote. The Beer Institute's follow-on research in 2022 , opens new tab confirmed this harsh economic reality, finding that even with exemptions for key suppliers such as Canada, beer makers were still paying the full import tariff for their can metal. The cost at that stage had risen to $1.4 billion. IMPORT DEPENDENCY Harbor Aluminum's finding that the main beneficiaries of tariffs to date have been first-stage processors reflects the imbalanced nature of the domestic U.S. supply chain. The country has a large base of semi-manufactured product makers but only four operating primary metal smelters to supply them. The aluminium sector directly employs more than 164,000 workers but only 4,000 are engaged in upstream metal production, according to the U.S. Aluminum Association. Those four smelters produced 670,000 metric tons of metal in 2024, compared with U.S. consumption of around 4.9 million tons. Imports of primary metal totaled almost 4.0 million tons, of which 70% came from Canadian smelters. It's hard to see how that dynamic is going to change any time soon. Even if all the currently idled smelting capacity of around one million tons per year returned to production - a big "if" given the age and cost structure of the four mothballed plants - it would still leave a big import dependency gap. Century Aluminum's (CENX.O) , opens new tab proposed new smelter is years away and the company hasn't yet found a source of competitively priced power to feed the plant's electrolysis process. There is much more potential to lift domestic production from domestic scrap but as long as even one ton of extra imported metal is needed to meet domestic consumption, you can be sure that the tariffs will continue to determine the end price for American buyers. TRADING UNCERTAINTY Moreover, as the markets learned on Tuesday, Trump is quite capable of raising tariffs on a presidential whim. The changeable tariff rhetoric is causing volatility in the CME U.S. premium, which briefly jumped to almost $1,000 per ton over the LME price on the threat of 50% tariffs on Canadian metal before retreating on news of the truce with Ontario Premier Doug Ford. But it may also be about to generate a major realignment of global trading patterns. Previous spikes in the U.S. aluminium premium have pulled European premiums higher. This is logical given that Europe, which is also dependent on primary metal imports, must compete for spare units in the global market-place. Not this time, though. Even as the U.S. premium has surged to all-time highs, European premiums have been falling. This is counter-intuitive, particularly since European consumers are set to lose Russian supply over the next year as part of the bloc's latest sanctions package. If anything, the European premium should be even more sensitive to what is happening in the North American market. The divergence suggests that some suppliers to the United States are already looking to avoid Trump's tariff tantrums by re-directing sales to Europe. If so, it will be good news for European beer drinkers, who may raise an aluminium can to their less fortunate American counterparts. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/bad-news-american-beer-drinkers-aluminium-tariffs-kick-andy-home-2025-03-12/

2025-03-13 00:00

Record power demand drives US power sector M&A surge Happening even amid market uncertainty, wider slowdown in deals Take-privates, business unit stake sales, single power plant acquisitions among possible transactions Private equity firms eye lucrative exits amid power deal fervor March 12 (Reuters) - Dealmakers expect 2025 to be a bumper year for mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. power industry, with a voracious appetite for assets as the sector gears up to meet massive demand growth from data centers for artificial intelligence. Record power demand and dizzying projections for electricity consumption for AI have made power generation and infrastructure assets, and companies which own them, attractive to energy companies, private equity and other institutional investors. Sign up here. The biggest growth in the sector in generations has already fueled a deal bonanza in the first months of the year, according to a dozen industry and financial sources who spoke to Reuters. The sources included several attendees at the annual CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. In January and February, there were 27 U.S. power deals worth a combined $36.4 billion, headlined by Constellation Energy's (CEG.O) , opens new tab $16.4 billion acquisition of Calpine. This surpasses, both by value and volume, the first two months of every year barring one during the last 20 years, according to data from LSEG. Busy power sector deal-making is in contrast to the overall market for M&A, which recorded its weakest start since the global financial crisis, amid market volatility and uncertainty over the Trump administration's policies and what they mean for the economy. U.S. President Donald Trump has declared an energy emergency to facilitate the build out in the power sector, calling it "an immediate and pressing priority for the protection of the United States' national and economic security." Opportunities are significant and stretch across the power sector, said Kathleen Lawler, managing director at investment firm KKR (KKR.N) , opens new tab. "I don't think we have ever been busier," said Lawler. KKR and Canadian pension fund PSP Investments agreed in January to buy a 20% stake in some of American Electric Power's (AEP.O) , opens new tab transmission network for $2.8 billion. DEMAND Strong price increases have boosted power companies' shares, meaning they can do bigger transactions or give up less of the company to clinch a stock-fueled deal. Even with stock market falls in recent days, independent power producers Vistra (VST.N) , opens new tab, Constellation and NRG Energy (NRG.N) , opens new tab are trading between 82% and 220% higher than the start of 2024. Potential acquirers may be emboldened too by the reaction of Constellation investors to the Calpine deal. Constellation's share price rallied 25% on the day of the announcement - when typically buyers trade lower when announcing a large deal funded by the issuance of shares to the seller. That is because the share issuance dilutes existing shareholder positions. Private equity firms, pension and infrastructure funds have in recent years raised huge sums for energy investments. The total capital raised but still waiting to be deployed, known as dry powder, into infrastructure investments at the end of 2024 was $334 billion, according to data provider Preqin. Ways this cash could be invested include buying stakes in companies pioneering developing technology, and acquiring businesses that service existing energy infrastructure. David Foley, global head of Blackstone Energy Transition Partners, told a panel discussion at CERAWeek the booming power market has created "opportunities for investment in equipment manufacturing, the picks-and-shovels types of companies." It could also be used to take listed power companies private. The year has already seen Altus Power (AMPS.N) , opens new tab, one of the largest owners of U.S. commercial-scale solar plants, agree a $2.2 billion sale to TPG's (TPG.O) , opens new tab climate investment arm. Reasons to go private differ, depending on the type of power company. Smaller utilities may struggle to compete for contracts with technology companies building and operating data centers, so being owned by a large investment firm could help challenge larger peers. Long-term institutional investors could offer higher valuations than public markets, especially for renewable power companies. These firms have seen their share prices slump since the election of Trump, who has called for fossil fuels to be prioritized at the expense of green energy. "The market could see more (utility) take-privates over the next few years as there is significant infrastructure capital that has been formed in recent years that is highly focused on this asset class," said Greg Hort, managing director at Lazard. Another source of deal flow will be utilities continuing to offload business units, or stakes in them, to help fund huge expansion of power infrastructure to support heightened demand, the people said. On top of the AEP deal with KKR and PSP, Eversource Energy (ES.N) , opens new tab said January 27 it had agreed to divest its Aquarion Water unit for $2.4 billion, and National Grid (NG.L) , opens new tab announced on February 24 it would offload its U.S. renewables business to Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.TO) , opens new tab. The deal fervor is also allowing buyout firms who own power assets to exit profitably. This includes small portfolios of power generation, or individual power plants, which in recent years saw limited buyer attention due to their size. Particularly sought-after are natural gas plants constructed in the last decade, which are more efficient and were built when U.S. power demand was in its 20-year plateau. Relative scarcity was part of the rationale behind the purchase in January by Blackstone's (BX.N) , opens new tab energy transition arm of Potomac Energy Center from Ares Management (ARES.N) , opens new tab. "Many private equity firms, which took ownership of their assets three to five years ago, will be seeking liquidity events," said Hill Vaden, executive director of energy capital insights at S&P Global. OVERCOMING HURDLES The momentum behind power dealmaking will endure despite market ructions, as the uncertainty only makes existing assets more prized, the sources said. While Trump's economic agenda is expected to make it easier for energy projects to secure necessary permits, key components are still hard to source, with the wait for turbines for a natural gas power plant stretching out towards the end of the decade. The president's tariffs on materials critical to the power sector will likely push up costs. This includes steel and aluminum, and potentially copper, whose conductivity makes it essential in a host of products. Uncertainty around whether tax credits for renewable projects, including those introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act, will be scrapped is also casting a shadow on new clean energy generation. Reverberations from immigration reform, which threatens to deport millions of non-citizens, will also weigh on constructing new projects. "I've even told members of the Trump team that we're going to run out of electricians as we build out data centers," BlackRock (BLK.N) , opens new tab CEO Larry Fink said at the CERAWeek conference, when asked about the impact of deportations on the U.S. economy. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/ceraweek-analysis-ai-fuel-bumper-year-ma-us-power-sector-2025-03-12/

2025-03-12 23:10

HOUSTON, March 12 (Reuters) - TerraPower, the new nuclear power company backed by Bill Gates, is interested in expanding into Texas, an executive said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston on Wednesday. TerraPower began construction of its first small modular reactor in Wyoming last year, aiming to usher in a next generation of nuclear plants to meet growing global power demand from the proliferation of data centers and the electrification of sectors like transportation. Sign up here. "We would like to put a flagpole down here," said Jeffrey Miller, vice president of business development at TerraPower, in response to an invitation to do business in the Lone Star state by Texas Public Utility Commissioner Jimmy Glotfelty. "We are very bullish on Texas," said Miller, who added that he was interested in moving into the state in some capacity this year. It was unclear what type of expansion into Texas TerraPower was considering. The state is trying to create incentives to build new reactors. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ceraweek-next-generation-nuclear-company-terrapower-eyes-texas-expansion-2025-03-12/

2025-03-12 22:33

HOUSTON, March 12 (Reuters) - A scaffolding collapse on Wednesday at Chevron's (CVX.N) , opens new tab Pasadena, Texas, refinery injured three workers, a Chevron spokesperson said in a statement. One of the three contract workers was flown by helicopter to a Houston-area hospital due to the severity of injuries received, according to the company. Sign up here. The other two workers were taken to a hospital by ambulance, Chevron's spokesperson said. The three were demolishing the scaffolding when it collapsed, the company said. Refineries erect scaffolding around production units that are undergoing planned overhauls or unplanned repairs. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/scaffolding-collapse-injures-workers-chevron-texas-refinery-sources-2025-03-12/