2024-02-20 10:16
Germany could play big role in Shell's biomethane plans Evisages its own plants in Brandenburg and Lower Saxony Clients want to lower their carbon footprint ESSEN, Germany, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Shell (SHEL.L) , opens new tab expects growth in German biomethane markets where its client base seeks decarbonised energy and its fossil fuels activities could be transformed to support future profitability from a high-value segment, a top manager said. Sonja Mueller-Dib, managing director of Shell Energy Deutschland, said her company is planning two biomethane plants at Karstaedt and Steinfeld, which could meet up to 5% of current national biomethane consumption by the end of this decade. Demand outstrips supply from industry and over 150 local power plants supplied by Shell for methane from organic residue such as manure, she said in an interview during the E-World of Energy trade fair in Essen. "Our motivation is to supply the green molecule in large quantities and at competitive prices," Mueller-Dib said. "The value of such products is higher than a pure natural gas product and that allows us the investment." Biomethane can be used and stored for all the same applications as fossil fuel gas and will be sought after, the more carbon emissions costs rise. She stressed there was no intention to use food crops for biomethane applications, which reach the transport, chemicals, automotive, steel and heat sectors, under food security guidelines that put human nutrition first. In its RepowerEU plan issued after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Commission said biomethane output should rise tenfold by 2030 to reach 35 billion cubic metres in order to replace part of the 155 bcm of gas it used to buy from Moscow. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, produced 10.5 terawatt hours (TWh), or 1 bcm, of biomethane last year, still a tiny amount compared to national gas usage of 813 TWh. But Shell's planned two plants, probably costing several hundred million euros, could each produce 200 to 250 gigawatt hours (GWh), eclipsing the current standard size of 50-70 GWh, Mueller-Dib said. Shell last year acquired Danish biomethane producer Nature Energy for $2 billion. "We can use our infrastructure position to ship biogas out of Denmark," she said, adding other future suppliers could be Poland, France, Spain and the Czech Republic. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/shell-sees-rising-value-german-biomethane-market-2024-02-20/
2024-02-20 09:02
NAPERVILLE, Illinois, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Speculators have been net sellers across U.S. grain and oilseed futures for nine consecutive weeks, coinciding with a heavy easing in prices, and fresh lows came in the following days amid bearish government supply outlooks through 2025. In the week ended Feb. 13, money managers’ combined net short position in Chicago corn and soybeans rose by nearly 21,000 contracts to 448,841 futures and options contracts. The record is 455,225 set in April 2019. Combined corn and soybean open interest as of Feb. 13 topped 3 million futures and options contracts for the first time since June 2022, up 19% from the unusually light year-ago levels but close to recent averages for the date. CBOT May corn and soybean futures in the week ended Feb. 13 both declined more than 1%. Individually, money managers’ net short in CBOT corn rose to 314,341 futures and options contracts, the second largest on record. That compared with 297,744 a week earlier and mostly involved new gross shorts. In CBOT soybean futures and options, the Feb. 13 managed money net short was the fifth largest on record at 134,500 contracts, up from 130,300 in the prior week. That marked funds’ 13th consecutive week as net sellers in beans, and the pre-2024 selling record was 10 consecutive weeks. Money managers in the week ended Feb. 13 returned to heavier selling in CBOT soybean meal, pushing their net short to 27,592 futures and options contracts from 14,590 a week earlier as new shorts entered the market. Funds were net buyers of meal in the prior week but sellers in the 10 weeks before that. In CBOT soybean oil, money managers were net buyers for a second consecutive week through Feb. 13, trimming their net short to 35,440 futures and options contracts from 44,225 a week earlier. CBOT May soyoil had jumped 3% in the week but May soymeal lost more than 4%. Nearby CBOT wheat contracts were mixed in the week ended Feb. 13, but money managers cut their net short in CBOT wheat futures and options to 55,672 contracts from 66,738 a week earlier, marking their least bearish wheat view since early August. However, CBOT wheat plunged more than 6% between Wednesday and Friday, its biggest three-session tumble since September. May corn fell 3% in the last three sessions, and both wheat and corn hit contract lows on Friday. May soymeal notched contract lows on Thursday but were relatively unchanged the last three sessions, and May soyoil fell 3.6%. May soybeans were down more than 1% over this period, and beans hit new three-plus-year lows on a most-active basis on Thursday. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued unofficial U.S. supply and demand outlooks for the 2024-25 season beginning Sept. 1, and corn, soybean and wheat stocks are all seen growing significantly versus the current season. The heaviest numbers came in corn, as projected 2024-25 U.S. corn ending stocks would be the largest since 1988. Next year’s soybean stocks are seen at five-year highs but more than 50% above the past four years’ average. U.S. markets were closed on Monday, but European wheat futures on Monday hit 2-1/2 year lows under pressure from large stocks and stiff Black Sea export competition. Karen Braun is a market analyst for Reuters. Views expressed above are her own. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/funds-bearish-cbot-corn-soy-views-flirting-with-all-time-highs-2024-02-20/
2024-02-20 07:45
Feb 20 (Reuters) - Anglo American Plc's (AAL.L) , opens new tab Kumba Iron Ore (KIOJ.J) , opens new tab plans to cut about 490 jobs, it said on Tuesday, after reducing production as it struggles to overcome South Africa's persistent rail bottlenecks and move sufficient volumes to ports. In December, Kumba said it was curbing production to match the limited capacity of state-owned rail operator Transnet, hit by shortages of locomotives and spares, as well as rampant cable theft and vandalism. Stockpiles of iron ore stood at 7.1 million tons in December and the persistent challenge in moving the commodity to ports for exports has forced Kumba to cut output to between 35 million tons to 37 million tons from this year to 2026. The restructuring is "necessary" for Kumba to remain competitive, the company said. Job losses across South Africa's mining sector due to weaker commodity prices and infrastructure challenges add pressure for the government ahead of elections due later this year. South Africa's official jobless rate, measured at 31.9% in the third quarter of 2023, is among the highest in the world. On Monday, Anglo American Platinum (AMSJ.J) , opens new tab announced plans to cut 3,700 jobs in South Africa after a sharp decline in metal prices slashed annual profit by 71%. Kumba's headline earnings per share rose 26% to 70.80 rand in the year ended Dec.31, up from 56.19 rand the previous year as its high grade iron ore continues to fetch prices 15% above the benchmark rate. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/anglos-kumba-iron-ore-plans-cut-490-jobs-rail-crisis-hits-output-2024-02-20/
2024-02-20 07:44
LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Britain's antitrust regulator said it would scrutinise the country's infant formula market after prices soared by 25% over the last two years. The rising cost of baby milk formula has been in the spotlight during Britain's inflation-driven cost of living crisis, with media reports saying that some struggling parents have watered it down to feed their children. Nestle (NESN.S) , opens new tab and Danone (DANO.PA) , opens new tab are amongst the companies which supply baby formula in Britain through brands such as SMA Nutrition and Cow & Gate. The Competition and Markets Authority said it would launch a market study, meaning it has the power to force suppliers to provide information on pricing and other issues, instead of relying on voluntary submissions. The regulator said it would aim to publish its final report in September 2024, adding that it would consider whether there are problems in the baby formula market and if so what actions should be taken to address these. CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell said that the cost of infant milk remained at "historically high levels" even after prices fell over the last three months. "We're concerned that parents don't always have the right information to make informed choices and that suppliers may not have strong incentives to offer infant formula at competitive prices," she said in a statement on Tuesday. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-regulator-scrutinise-baby-formula-market-2024-02-20/
2024-02-20 07:09
MOSCOW, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Tuesday it had detained a 33-year-old woman with dual Russian-U.S. citizenship on suspicion of treason for raising funds for Ukraine's armed forces. The resident of Los Angeles had been collecting funds for a Ukrainian organisation whose ultimate beneficiary was the Ukrainian army, the FSB said in a statement. It said it had opened a treason case against the woman, who was not named. The FSB, the main successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, said in its statement that it had "suppressed the illegal activities of a 33-year-old resident of Los Angeles, who has dual citizenship of Russia and the United States of America, involved in providing financial assistance to a foreign state in activities directed against the security of our country". "Since February 2022, she has been proactively collecting funds in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organisations, which were subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine items, equipment, weapons and ammunition by the Armed Forces of Ukraine." A spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Moscow said: "We are aware of the reports, however due to privacy considerations we have nothing further to convey at this moment." https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-detains-dual-us-russian-citizen-treason-tass-cites-fsb-saying-2024-02-20/
2024-02-20 07:09
Feb 20 (Reuters) - New car sales in the European Union rose 12.1% year-on-year in January, helped by double-digit growth in Germany and Italy, data showed on Tuesday, with registrations of fully electric cars growing in annual terms but slumping from December. Total registrations at Europe's two largest carmakers Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) , opens new tab and Stellantis (STLAM.MI) , opens new tab rose by 11.5% and 15% respectively in January, but were down 2.9% at Renault (RENA.PA) , opens new tab, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) showed. Sales of new battery electric (BEV) cars dropped 42.3% from December to 92,741 vehicles, although that was a 29% increase from a year earlier. The trend was driven by Germany and France, the two biggest BEV markets in the bloc, where fully electric sales fell respectively by 59% and 46% from the previous month, but rose 24% and 37% from a year earlier. The figures reflect a global slowdown in electric vehicle sales, which dropped 26% in January from December but rose 69% from a year earlier, according to data published last week, as subsidy cuts or tighter rules in Germany and France weighed, among other factors. As the high cost of EVs has become a barrier to broader mass adoption, Stellantis and Renault are trying to develop more affordable EVs. EVs - whether fully electric models, plug-in hybrids or full hybrids - accounted for 47.5% of all new EU passenger car registrations in January, up from 42.7% a year earlier, but down from 53.3% in December. U.S. EV pioneer Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab saw a 66.9% yearly increase in EU sales in January. The number of new vehicles registered in January in the EU, Britain and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) rose by 11.5% to 1 million vehicles, the ACEA said. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/eu-new-car-sales-rise-12-yy-january-acea-2024-02-20/
