2024-05-02 23:05
SAO PAULO, May 2 (Reuters) - The death toll from heavy rains in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul rose to 29, local authorities said on Thursday evening, as the state government declared a state of public calamity to handle the dramatic situation. The storms, which have caused the greatest devastation in the state in recent years, also left 60 people missing and 10,242 displaced in 154 cities, according to Rio Grande do Sul's civil defense. "It's not just another critical case; it's the most critical that the state will probably have recorded in its history," state Governor Eduardo Leite said in a live broadcast on social media, adding that the situation is worse than last year's rains in the state. More than 300,000 people have also been left without electricity after a dam at a small hydroelectric power plant burst on Thursday, the state's main utilities company said. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew over the affected areas and met with Governor Leite in Santa Maria on Thursday for an emergency meeting. "I told the governor and my ministers that the federal government will make every effort. ... We will take care of this with great care and respect," Lula said during the meeting. In a video posted on social media, Leite called for coordination in the efforts to rescue people, asking for "full force" as he declared a state of public calamity citing the risk faced by the state as a result of climate events. Lula told Leite in a call late on Wednesday he would send as many men as necessary to help deal with the situation, the president's office said. Brazil has faced a recent spate of natural disasters. More than 50 people were killed in Sao Paulo state last year after massive downpours caused landslides and flooding. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/death-toll-rains-southern-brazil-climbs-13-lula-visits-region-2024-05-02/
2024-05-02 23:03
May 2 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Thursday lifted a lower court's order blocking a land exchange needed before developers can build a major clean-energy transmission line through a Mississippi River wildlife refuge. A three-judge panel of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a Wisconsin federal judge's preliminary injunction issued in March blocking work on a last stretch of the Cardinal-Hickory Creek high voltage line, which has already cost developers $655 million, was not justified. The appeals court said the lower court needed to determine the three environmental groups that challenged the swap - the National Wildlife Refuge Association, Driftless Area Land Conservancy and Wisconsin Wildlife Federation - were likely to succeed in their lawsuit, but did not do so. The decision lifts a major hurdle stopping developers ITC Midwest and Dairyland Power Cooperative from clearcutting a path through the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge for the power line, which would connect Iowa and Wisconsin. The environmental groups, which claimed in their lawsuit filed in March that the land swap would illegally destroy floodplains and fragment vital wildlife habitat, asked the Wisconsin court for a temporary restraining order hours after the 7th Circuit's decision. The U.S. Interior Department and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which approved the land exchange, the environmental groups and the developers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The developers of the 102-mile (164 km) power line say the it will connect more than 160 renewable energy projects to the Midwestern energy grid once complete. The land exchange at the heart of the lawsuit was approved by the federal government in February and would swap around 20 acres (8 hectares) of refuge land in the path of the transmission line to the developers in exchange for 35 acres (14 hectares) of land that would be added elsewhere to the refuge. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/us-court-lifts-order-blocking-655-mln-clean-energy-transmission-line-2024-05-02/
2024-05-02 23:00
LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Belgium's Nyrstar (NYR.BR) New Tab, opens new tab is reactivating the Budel zinc smelter in the Netherlands after a four-month period of care and maintenance. The company, controlled by global trade house Trafigura, said improved market conditions and the reinstatement of a Dutch energy cost assistance scheme will allow the plant to restart later this month New Tab, opens new tab, albeit not at full annual capacity of 315,000 metric tons. It is the second European smelter to come out of care and maintenance this year after Glencore (GLEN.L) New Tab, opens new tabre-fired New Tab, opens new tab its 165,000-ton-per year Nordenham smelter in Germany in February. The zinc market seems to have taken the news in its stride. London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month metal hit a 13-month high of $2,974 per ton on Tuesday. It is currently trading just shy of that level at $2,880. Zinc is being buoyed by the broader flow of investment money into the base metals sector. But the zinc narrative has also changed with focus shifting from smelter constraints to mine supply issues. TIGHTER THAN EXPECTED MARKET Smelter treatment charges have collapsed this year, signalling a squeeze on the availability of mined concentrates. This year's benchmark terms were set at $165 per ton, down from $274 in 2023. That is already looking generous to smelters. Spot terms for Chinese import delivery have slumped to $30-50, the lowest since 2018, according to price reporting agency Fastmarkets. This is the culmination of two years of falling mine production. Global mine output shrank by 2.3% in 2022 and by another 1.2% in 2023, according to the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG). The Group's latest forecast is for mine supply to improve this year but only by a marginal 0.7% and largely thanks to the ramp-up of the 250,000-ton-per year Kipushi mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Constrained raw materials supply will act as a brake on refined production growth this year, according to ILZSG, which now expects metal supply to grow by just 0.6% this year, compared with forecast growth of 3.3% when the Group last met in October. The sharp downgrade to global output explains why ILZSG has cut its expected supply surplus for 2024 from a glut of 367,000 tons to a much more marginal 56,000 tons. ILZSG's rethink about mine supply and the sharp cut in forecast surplus mirror the latest forecasts from sister organization the International Copper Study Group. There is, however, a key difference between the two metals. THE PRICE IS RIGHT Copper's mine supply woes have largely been due to operational constraints or, in the case of the closed Cobre Panama mine, a supreme court mandate. Most of the zinc mines that have shut down over the last year or so have done so in large part due to price. The LME zinc price slumped from a record high of $4,896 per ton in March 2022 to a low of $2,215 in May 2023, leaving a trail of price casualties in its wake. However, the recent rally means that prices are now trading around $400 per ton above the 90th percentile cost of production, according to analysts at Citi. Every mine has its unique cost configuration and for some price alone may not be enough, but the higher the price travels, the greater the potential for restarts. Swedish producer Boliden (BOL.ST) New Tab, opens new tab, for example, has been negotiating with unions at its Tara mine in Ireland on a new contract that would pave the way for resuming operations after a year of inactivity. The results of a ballot of union members are due on Friday, according to local news sources New Tab, opens new tab. The price has already voted. FLUID LANDSCAPE ILZSG estimates European zinc mine production fell by 6.2% in 2023 and is forecasting another 7.9% slide this year due to the closure of Tara and the Aljustrel mine in Portugal. If Boliden gets its union agreement at Tara, that will change just as the restart of the Budel and Nordenham smelters changes refined metal dynamics, particularly in Europe. Zinc fundamentals are currently highly fluid. So is fund positioning on the London market. Investment funds were collectively net short of zinc as recently as February, when the LME price was still below $2,500 per ton. They were net long to the tune of 27,036 contracts at the close of last week. Outright long positions of 59,391 contracts are the highest they've been since June 2022. Investor bull positioning is still modest by comparison with some of other base metals such as copper, which has stronger energy transition credentials. It is also likely to be more volatile simply because zinc's fundamental landscape is shifting so fast. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/high-flying-zinc-shrugs-off-european-smelter-restarts-2024-05-02/
2024-05-02 22:27
LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Commodities group Glencore (GLEN.L) New Tab, opens new tab is studying an approach for Anglo American (AAL.L) New Tab, opens new tab, two sources said, a development that could spark a bidding war for the 107-year old mining company. Glencore has not yet approached Anglo, one of the sources said. The discussions are internal and preliminary at this stage and may not result in an approach, the source added. "We do not comment on market rumour or speculation," a Glencore spokesperson said. Anglo on Friday rejected a $39 billion all-stock proposal from the world's No. 1 miner BHP Group (BHP.AX) New Tab, opens new tab. BHP's proposed premium was 31% above Anglo's closing price on April 23. A source familiar with the matter previously told Reuters that the Australian mining giant is considering making an improved offer. It has until May 22 to make a formal bid. U.S. shares of Anglo American rose after the news, closing up 6.5% on the session. Glencore’s U.S. shares fell 1%. Anglo is attractive to its competitors for its prized copper assets in Chile and Peru, a metal used in everything from electric vehicles and power grids to construction, whose demand is expected to rise as the world moves to cleaner energy and wider use of AI. Anglo American and Glencore each own 44% of the Collahuasi mine in Chile, estimated to have some of the world's largest reserves of copper. At the same time, Anglo's sprawling portfolio also includes platinum, iron ore, steelmaking coal, diamonds and a fertiliser project. Anglo's share price has jumped since the offer was made public. Before that, the miner had underperformed its peers following production downgrades and writedowns that led to a strategic review of its assets in February. Glencore is still in the middle of a $6.9 billion acquisition of 77% of Canadian miner Teck's coal unit, which it expects to close by the third quarter this year. A precondition of BHP's proposal was that Anglo sell its shares in Anglo Platinum (Amplats) (AMSJ.J) New Tab, opens new tab and Kumba Iron Ore (KIOJ.J) New Tab, opens new tab in South Africa, a country the world's largest listed company exited in 2015. In a statement on May 2, BHP said that the proposal "reflects the priorities for its portfolio and opportunity for synergies." Glencore owns coal and chrome assets in South Africa. "Unlike BHP, Glencore could benefit from keeping Kumba and marketing iron ore, and Glencore may face less political pushback in South Africa, especially if it were to propose a straightforward all-share deal that does not include Kumba and Amplats demergers," Jefferies analyst Christopher LaFemina said in a research note on April 29, where he assessed different takeover scenarios for Anglo American. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/glencore-studying-an-approach-anglo-american-sources-say-2024-05-02/
2024-05-02 22:21
LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - The world's largest stablecoin, Tether, has stepped up monitoring of how its tokens are used in broader crypto markets and payments in a bid to combat illicit finance, Tether said in a statement on Thursday. Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar, and blockchain analytics company Chainalysis have launched new tools to identify transactions associated with sanctioned entities and analyse the activity of major holders of the token, Tether said. Last month, Reuters reported that Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA planned to increase use of Tether in its crude and fuel exports at a time when the U.S. has reimposed oil sanctions. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Russian middlemen had used Tether to evade Western sanctions in order to source weapons parts for drones and other military equipment. Tether's announcement did not mention either report. Asked by Reuters if Thursday's announcement was related to the report about Venezuelan oil, a spokesperson for Tether said that its work to build a more powerful monitoring tool with Chainalysis had been "in the works for several months." "Tether has been using Chainalysis data for several years, as the foundation for our investigation and compliance work. Also, Tether has clearly announced its compliance with OFAC/SDN list," the spokesperson said in emailed comments, referring to the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control's sanctions. Tether has previously said that every action with the cryptocurrency is online and traceable, and "every asset can be seized and every criminal can be caught." Tether has grown rapidly in recent years, hitting $100 billion in circulation in March. That growth has been driven by its use as an alternative to the dollar in emerging markets, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told Reuters last month. Stablecoins can be used as a form of payment, as well as to convert in and out of other tokens, such as bitcoin, when trading on crypto exchanges. Tether, which is registered in Hong Kong and owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, is able to freeze its tokens and has previously said it has done so in response to requests from law enforcement. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/stablecoin-tether-steps-up-monitoring-bid-combat-illicit-finance-2024-05-02/
2024-05-02 22:00
May 2 (Reuters) - AES Corp (AES.N) New Tab, opens new tab beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit on Thursday, as the utility firm benefited from higher contributions from renewables projects and lower cost of sales. The Virginia-based company said its renewables unit grew from last year, benefiting from a global push to adopt cleaner methods of power generation. Companies and residents have been looking to capitalize on the Inflation Reduction Act, a key policy of the Biden administration, which provides generous tax credits for clean energy technologies like EVs and solar panels. The company's earnings were also helped by lower quarterly cost of sales, down 6.8% to $2.47 billion from the previous year. AES mainly operates in the renewables, utilities, energy infrastructure, and new energy technologies segments in Ohio, Indiana, and El Salvador. The Virginia-based company posted an adjusted profit of 50 cents per share in the first quarter, compared to analysts' estimate of 34 cents per share, according to LSEG data. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/aes-beats-first-quarter-profit-estimates-renewables-demand-2024-05-02/
