2025-01-06 12:36
SANTIAGO, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Copper production at Chile's Codelco, the world's largest producer of the metal, was "slightly higher" in 2024 from the previous year, Chairman Maximo Pacheco said in an interview with a local newspaper on Monday. In the interview with Diario Financiero, Pacheco said production increased by 3,000 to 4,000 metric tons from 2023's 1.325 million tons. "We crossed the production valley in 2024 and are ready to start 2025 on the upswing to retake the peak of 1.7 million tons of fine copper at the end of the decade," Pacheco said, adding that December's production topped 160,000 tons. Codelco has been struggling to revive output from a 25-year low and made a late dash in December to hit its 2024 targets. The company had been grappling with construction problems at key mines, accidents and a drop in ore grades. Despite copper output falling behind target by May, including delays caused by worker deaths, the company made a strong push in the final months of the year. In the interview, Pacheco said he expected the company to have binding offers from potential joint venture partners in its Maricunga lithium project in the first quarter of 2025. Codelco is entering the lithium business after President Gabriel Boric tasked the state miner in 2023 with leading an expansion of the industry. Chile is the world's second-largest lithium producer after Australia, but Codelco is building lithium production virtually from scratch. Codelco aims to begin construction in Maricunga in early 2027 and launch production in early 2030. Codelco is also launching a joint venture with local lithium producer SQM to mine the metal in the Atacama salt flat. Pacheco said they had mostly fulfilled the compliance obligations for the contract to be approved. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chiles-codelco-copper-production-slightly-increases-2024-local-press-reports-2025-01-06/
2025-01-06 12:24
JUBA, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Sudan has lifted a near one year force majeure on the transportation of crude oil from its neighbour South Sudan to a port on the Red Sea after security conditions improved, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Monday. Khartoum declared the force majeure in March last year after the main pipeline carrying oil from South Sudan through Sudan for export suffered stoppages linked to problems spurred by the war between Sudan's army and the insurgents Rapid Support Forces (RSF). In the letter by Sudan's Ministry of Energy and Petroleum dated Jan. 4 to South Sudan's energy minister, Khartoum said it was lifting the force majeure based on new security arrangements it had reached with Juba and BAPCO, the Sudanese company that runs the pipeline, to ensure safe flow of oil. "We are hereby lifting the force majeure," Sudan's Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mohiedienn Naiem Mohamed Saied, wrote to South Sudan's minister of petroleum, Puot Kang Chol. An official from Sudan's energy ministry confirmed the letter was authentic. The Petrodar pipeline, set up by a consortium including China's CNPC and Sinopec as well as Malaysia's Petronas, runs more than 1,500 km (932 miles) from the Melut Basin in South Sudan's Upper Nile state to Port Sudan on Sudan's Red Sea coast. Another pipeline carries oil from South Sudan's Unity State to Port Sudan. South Sudan had been pumping about 150,000 barrels per day of crude through Sudan for export, under a formula established when South Sudan gained independence from Khartoum in 2011. Sudan erupted into a civil conflict in April 2023 and the fighting has unleashed waves of ethnic violence and created world's largest internal displacement crisis. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudan-lifts-force-majeure-oil-port-sudan-2025-01-06/
2025-01-06 11:42
NEW DELHI, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The United States is finalising steps to clear hurdles for civil nuclear partnership with Indian firms, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday, seeking to give fresh momentum to a landmark deal between the two countries. Washington and New Delhi have been discussing the supply of U.S. nuclear reactors to energy-hungry India since the mid-2000s. But a longstanding obstacle has been the need to bring Indian liability rules in line with global norms which require the costs of any accident to be channelled to the operator rather than the maker of a nuclear power plant. The deal was signed by then President George W. Bush in 2007, a major step toward allowing the United States to sell civilian nuclear technology to India. "United States is now finalising the necessary steps to remove long-standing regulations that have prevented civil nuclear cooperation between India's leading nuclear entities and U.S. companies," Sullivan said in New Delhi on Monday. He is on a two day visit to the Indian capital, days before President-elect Donald Trump is due to be sworn in. Washington expects the impact of Chinese upstream dams, artificial intelligence, space, military licensing and Chinese economic overcapacity to be discussed while Sullivan is in New Delhi, a U.S official said on Saturday. The two countries agreed in 2019 to build six U.S. nuclear power plants in India. The South Asian nation's stringent nuclear compensation laws have previously hurt deals with foreign power plant builders, subsequently deferring India's target to add 20,000 MW of nuclear power from 2020 to 2030. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us-taking-steps-clear-hurdles-civil-nuclear-partnership-with-indian-firms-2025-01-06/
2025-01-06 11:40
COPENHAGEN, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Norway's Equinor (EQNR.OL) , opens new tab said on Monday the Troll gas field in the North Sea had produced a record volume of natural gas in 2024, increasing nearly 10% from the previous high set in 2022. The Troll gas field, Europe's largest, in 2024 delivered 42.5 billion standard cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas, up from 38.8 bcm in 2022, Equinor said in a statement. Norway is Europe's largest supplier of natural gas after a sharp reduction in Russian deliveries since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, with the Troll field alone meeting around 11% of the European Union's demands, according to Equinor. Troll, which began production in 1996, is owned by Equinor, Petoro, Shell (SHEL.L) , opens new tab, TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) , opens new tab and ConocoPhillips (COP.N) , opens new tab. An upgrade to the capacity of the onshore Kollsnes gas processing plant in recent years has contributed to lifting Troll's output, Equinor said. The state-controlled company and its partners said last May that they would invest a further 12 billion Norwegian crowns ($1.06 billion) to boost production of the Troll field. The new investment will accelerate production equivalent to about 55 bcm of gas, and at its peak the annual contribution from the additional development will amount to around 7 bcm, Equinor said at the time. ($1 = 11.2732 Norwegian crowns) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/norways-troll-gas-field-produced-record-volume-2024-2025-01-06/
2025-01-06 11:36
MUMBAI, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Indian wheat prices jumped to a record high on Monday due to dwindling supplies amid robust demand from flour mills that are struggling to secure the grain to operate at full capacity, industry officials told Reuters. The record prices are likely to lift retail inflation, which eased in November after surging to a 14-month high in October, and could influence the central bank's decision on interest rate cuts. "Wheat supplies are limited in the market. Even after paying record prices, flour mills are unable to secure enough to operate at full capacity," said Ajay Goyal, managing director of Shivaji Roller Flour Mills. In December, New Delhi lowered the limit on wheat stocks that traders and millers can hold to help boost the grain's availability and moderate prices. But the curbs failed to bring down prices, which were trading around 33,000 rupees ($384.66) per metric ton in New Delhi, up from 24,500 rupees in April and far above the government fixed minimum support price of 22,750 rupees for last season's crop. The stock limit failed to improve supplies and bring down prices, indicating that private players are holding few supplies, and the government needs to sell more wheat from its reserves to bulk consumers, said Pramod Kumar, a flour miller. The state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) is selling 100,000 metric tons of wheat to bulk consumers every week, but this is not sufficient to meet demand, as private players' sales are falling, Kumar said. In November, the government announced plans to sell 2.5 million tons of wheat from state reserves to bulk consumers in the year ending March 2025. This is significantly lower than the nearly 10 million tons sold in the previous season. The surplus wheat with the FCI is limited, preventing it from offering more to private players, said a New Delhi-based dealer with a global trade house. Wheat stocks in state warehouses totalled 20.6 million tons at the start of December, slightly higher than the previous year's 19.2 million tons, but far below five-year average of 29.5 million. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indian-flour-mills-struggle-wheat-prices-surge-record-high-2025-01-06/
2025-01-06 11:23
A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan The first full trading week of 2025 kicks off with markets positioning for the Jan. 20 inauguration of Donald Trump as President, lifting U.S. 'long bond' yields to their highest in two years and forcing Beijing to calm nervy Chinese markets. With fiscal concerns to the fore as a new Congress convened on Friday and narrowly re-elected Republican Mike Johnson as speaker, the 30-year Treasury bond yield on Monday hit its highest level in more than two years - breaching last year's peak to reach 4.85%. The long bond yield is now stalking the 5% level last topped in late 2023 and the 2-to-30-year yield curve gap is at its widest in more than three months. Reflecting the degree to which rising long-term borrowing rates are down to concerns about fiscal impact of tax cuts and long-term inflation uncertainty, the New York Federal Reserve's estimate of the 10-year 'term premium' demanded by investors to hold longer term debt to maturity is at its highest since 2015. But the brisk growth and relatively hawkish Fed picture is playing its part too, with Friday's surprisingly upbeat U.S. manufacturing reading for December adding to the prior day's news of a drop in weekly jobless claims to an eight-month low. With a big week of labor market updates ahead, culminating in an expected 150,000 rise in national payrolls in Friday's employment report, the U.S. economic surprise index has returned to positive territory after a brief dip negative last week for the first time in three months. Adding to the inflation anxiety has been a return of U.S. crude oil prices to their highest since October - albeit off a touch first thing Monday. As for Fed thinking, futures pricing shows markets even more hawkish than the central bank - which recently indicated just two interest rate cuts this year. Fed futures now have just one quarter-point cut priced by June only see just over a 50% chance of a second cut by year end. ] San Francisco Fed boss Mary Daly and Fed governor Adriana Kugler said over the weekend that the job was not yet done on reining in inflation. The brisk underlying growth picture and tax cut hopes did see U.S. stocks regain their poise on Friday after a bumpy couple of holiday-strewn weeks (.SPX) , opens new tab, (.IXIC) , opens new tab. Wall Street stock futures were up again ahead of Monday's bell, with one eye on the imminent fourth-quarter earnings season. Sailing to two-year highs last week on that interest rate picture and speculation about draconian trade tariffs from the incoming Trump administration, the dollar (.DXY) , opens new tab has dialled back a bit on Monday - with Chinese officials mobilising to steady the yuan as it plumbed 16-month lows and threatened pivotal historical levels around 7.35 per dollar. China's stock exchanges and central bank on Monday scrambled to defend the currency and shore up a stock market relapse that has seen the mainland Chinese stock index (.CSI300) , opens new tab lose more than 5% last week. Seeking to soothe investor concern about Trump's return to the White House and Beijing's ability to revive its spluttering economy in the face of new tariff threats, Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges recently held meetings with foreign institutions to reaffirm commitments to open up China's capital markets. But on Monday sources said the exchanges had asked large mutual funds to restrict stock selling at the start of the year. There were also reports the People's Bank of China could issue more yuan bills in Hong Kong in January, a sign authorities want to absorb currency to dampen rising speculation. Financial News, a central bank publication, said the PBOC has the tools and the experience to react to yuan depreciation. But with monetary easing being a key part of the government's ongoing economic stimulus, the bond yield gap with the United States is now yawning - and 10-year U.S. Treasury debt spreads over Chinese equivalents topped 300 basis points for the first time on Monday . Although calmer than last week, the CSI300 also ended in the red again earlier today. The latest data showed China's services activity expanded at the fastest pace in seven months in December, driven by a surge in domestic demand. But orders from abroad declined, reflecting the growing trade risks. Elsewhere, the Canadian dollar was calm after reports Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is increasingly likely to announce his departure - even though he has not made a final decision. The Globe and Mail reported Trudeau was expected to confirm as early as Monday that he would step down as leader of Canada's ruling Liberal Party after nine years in office. The decision throws the spotlight on this year's election, which must be held by October, and could see a protracted hiatus at the helm of the ruling Liberals, now trailing in the polls. It remains unclear whether Trudeau will leave immediately or stay on as prime minister until a new Liberal leader is selected. Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S. markets later on Monday: * Final U.S. December business survey readings from S&P Global, November factory goods orders * Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook speaks * US Treasury sells 3 and 6-month bills Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/global-markets-view-usa-2025-01-06/
