2024-08-14 12:50

PRISTINA/BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Raba Peci never wanted air conditioning - the cold air made people sick, she thought. Then this year a string of heatwaves in her town of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo finally changed her mind. "This summer is very hot and unbearable and that's why we decided to buy one now," she said as she prepared Turkish coffee for two workers who were installing a new unit in her home. Her next door neighbour already had two put in. Many in the Balkans region of central Europe have long mistrusted artificial cooling methods. In some areas, away from the tourist hot spots, people even avoid chilled drinks and ice cream for fear of catching a cold. Blistering summer temperatures like the ones seen this week are altering those attitudes, analysts say and data show. That is good news for air conditioning suppliers. But it is raising concerns about the impact of growing consumption on a fragile power grid. "Air conditioning is a challenge for us because we always had high consumption during winter and now we have a similar situation during summer," Margarita Rashiti, a spokesperson for Kosovo energy supplier Kesco, said. On July 16 the company issued a warning to customers to limit power consumption because it was having to import one million euros' worth of power per day from its neighbours. One month earlier , opens new tab, a spike in consumption during a heatwave likely helped trigger a major power outage across Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania and most of Croatia's coast, disrupting businesses and shutting down traffic lights. "The stress that the power grids had already received due to the prolonged heatwave in the region contributed to the occurrence of this damage," the head of the Greek transmission operator IPTO, Manos Manousakis, said at the time. KEEPING COOL Long term, countries will need to strengthen their grids and increase domestic renewables output, experts say. Bosnia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia rely on coal for electricity production. Albania uses hydropower but relies on imports when rainfall dips in summer. "This is a new situation, heavy network load in summer months. The transport network is old, the capacities are old," Mirza Kusljugic of the Regional Center for Sustainable Transition said. Kosovo has seen a 400% increase in air conditioning unit imports in the past five years, customs data show. Once the preserve of banks and businesses, they now hum from apartment buildings across the capital Pristina. "We are having enormous number of requests. We are even having requests to install up to four units in one house," said Rinor Gashi, a manager at local Interplast Group who this year doubled the number of crews to meet soaring demand. For years Markovic Koviljka, an 86-year old pensioner in Belgrade, avoided air conditioning in her apartment on the 16th floor in one of the city's landmark skyscrapers. But this summer, as the heatwaves kept coming and July was the hottest in 70 years, she asked her daughter to buy her a unit. "I do not like air conditioning, it consumes too much electricity," she said. "However, I cannot remember such high temperatures, and I remember a lot." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/balkans-new-love-air-conditioning-strains-grid-temperatures-soar-2024-08-14/

2024-08-14 12:34

NEW YORK, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Global jet fuel demand is poised to soften as a slowdown in consumer spending hits travel budgets, a shift that could weigh on oil prices in the months ahead. Global oil demand has struggled to meet expectations in the first half of the year due to weaker-than-forecast consumption in the United States and China, the top two oil markets. Jet fuel makes up about 7% of global oil demand and was widely expected to be one of the pillars of growth this year as travel continues to rebound from the pandemic. Global jet fuel demand averaged about 7.49 million barrels-per-day (bpd) this year through July, a nearly 500,000-bpd increase over the same period last year, according to Goldman Sachs data. Demand will need to rise faster in the months ahead to meet the bank's growth forecast of 600,000 bpd for the year. That is looking less likely given the signs of slowdown. Major U.S. airline operators and travel companies in recent days echoed worries that consumer spending is slowing as disposable incomes have shrunk, which is likely to weigh on leisure travel. U.S. consumer spending growth averaged just 0.3% in the three months through June, the slowest increase in over a year. "We see limited scope for further gains for (U.S.) jet fuel, traditionally the most macro-driven product category, as a cooling economy weighs on demand for air travel," the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday. Weaker economic activity could also worsen a slowdown in global trade, which would cut air freight demand, Bank of America analysts said. They noted that global trade has been experiencing a slowdown over the past few years as demand in the U.S. and Europe has shifted to services from goods. This week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cut its 2024 oil demand forecast for the first time since it was issued in July 2023, while the IEA trimmed its 2025 estimate. Both cited weaker-than-expected economic growth in China and elsewhere among the reasons for the downgrade. A global tech outage that grounded scores of flights for a few days in July has also impacted jet fuel demand. It was likely the reason that U.S. jet fuel consumption fell by about 10,000 bpd year-over-year in July, the IEA said. "In sum, macro conditions for transportation fuels are deteriorating pretty quickly," Bank of America analysts said. "With this background in mind, we believe that the broader demand trends for jet fuel remain soft," they said. LONG-TERM HIT Some longer-term factors, such as changes in consumer behavior and improved technology, are also hitting consumption. Improved efficiency and mileage in newer aircraft means airlines are carrying more passengers over longer distances while burning less fuel, Rystad analyst Wei Ran Gan said. The average fuel economy of U.S. commercial carriers rose to 65.5 seat miles per gallon in 2023, from 64.9 in 2019. Seat mile is an aviation industry term used to measure airline capacity. A post-pandemic shift in consumer preferences for shorter domestic flights over international destinations has also hurt demand, Bank of America analysts said. Meanwhile, years of trade wars between the U.S. and China have cut air traffic between the countries to a quarter of what it was five years ago, Goldman Sachs analysts said. International travel out of Russia has slumped 40% from 2019 levels as many borders have been closed to Russian passengers since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they added. If those two routes had grown as other global air travel did, jet fuel demand would have been around 80,000 bpd higher, the analysts said. They expect jet fuel demand will continue to grow, but warned that the slowdown from these issues and mileage improvements pose a risk to their oil demand and price forecasts for the year. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/slowing-global-jet-fuel-consumption-adds-oil-demand-concern-2024-08-14/

2024-08-14 11:43

BERLIN, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Poland received a European arrest warrant issued by Berlin in connection with the 2022 attack on Nord Stream pipelines, but the suspect, a Ukrainian man named as Volodymyr Z, has already left Poland, Polish prosecutors told Reuters. He was able to leave as Germany had failed to include his name in a database of wanted persons, added the prosecutors. The multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines transporting gas under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of explosions in September 2022, seven months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. German investigators believe Volodymyr Z, a Ukrainian diver, was part of a team that planted the explosives, the SZ and Die Zeit newspapers reported alongside the ARD broadcaster, citing unnamed sources. Polish National Public Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Anna Adamiak said German authorities sent a European warrant to the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw in June for Volodymyr Z in connection with proceedings conducted against him in Germany. "Ultimately, Volodymyr Z was not detained because at the beginning of July he left Polish territory, crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border," she wrote in an emailed statement in reply to Reuters questions. "Free crossing of the Polish-Ukrainian border by the above-mentioned person was possible because German authorities ... did not include him in the database of wanted persons, which meant that the Polish Border Guard had no knowledge and no grounds to detain Volodymyr Z." Polish law does not allow for publication of the full name of suspects in criminal investigations. Germany said its relationship with Ukraine was not strained by the Nord Stream inquiry. "The procedures have no bearing on what the Chancellor (Olaf Scholz) has described as the support of Ukraine's defence against Russia's illegal war of aggression, as long as necessary," the spokesperson added. Ukraine's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The German federal prosecutor's office declined to comment on the media reports. A married couple, a man and a woman - also Ukrainian diving instructors - have also been identified in Germany's investigation into the sabotage but so far no arrest warrants have been issued for them, according to SZ, Zeit and ARD. The woman told broadcaster Welt on Wednesday that neither she nor her husband were involved, and that she was in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, at the time of the pipeline attack. The blasts wrecked three out of four Nord Stream pipelines, which had become a controversial symbol of German reliance on Russian gas in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Russia blamed the United States, Britain and Ukraine for the blasts, which largely cut Russian gas off from the lucrative European market. Those countries have denied involvement. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden all opened investigations into the incident, and the Swedes found traces of explosives on several objects recovered from the explosion site, confirming the blasts were deliberate acts. The Swedish and Danish investigations were closed this February without identifying any suspect. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-issues-arrest-warrant-ukrainian-diver-nord-stream-probe-media-report-2024-08-14/

2024-08-14 11:34

LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Britain's approval of a new gas-fired power station backed by BP (BP.L) , opens new tab was lawful, London's High Court ruled on Wednesday, dismissing a legal challenge over the project. Climate campaigner Andrew Boswell had taken legal action over the decision to build the power station with carbon capture and storage in Teesside, northeast England. Net Zero Teesside Power, a joint venture between BP and Norway's Equinor (EQNR.OL) , opens new tab, aims to build the plant with a capacity of up to 860 megawatts, fitted with post-combustion carbon capture. Boswell's lawyers argued that ministers did not give adequate reasons for their conclusion that the development would "help deliver the government's net zero commitment". Judge Nathalie Lieven dismissed Boswell's case in a written ruling on Wednesday, saying: "The development was strongly supported in national policy, both planning and energy policy." BP welcomed the ruling, with a spokesperson saying in a statement: "This project will help the UK Government to meet its net zero targets by capturing CO2 emissions, while helping to maintain energy security through the supply of dispatchable low-carbon electricity to back up renewables." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-approval-new-gas-fired-power-station-was-lawful-london-court-rules-2024-08-14/

2024-08-14 11:27

Aug 14 (Reuters) - Ukraine said its major cross-border assault had advanced one to two kilometres in Russia's Kursk region since the start of Wednesday and that its troops had finished clearing the Russian town of Sudzha of Moscow's forces. Kyiv blindsided Moscow by pouring thousands of troops into the western Russian region of Kursk last week. The surprise operation has given Ukraine its biggest battlefield gains since 2022 after months on the backfoot. In a video posted on his Telegram account, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was shown being briefed by his top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, by video link. "We continue to advance further in Kursk region. From one to two kilometres in various areas since the start of the day. And more than 100 Russian prisoners of war in the same period," Zelenskiy wrote in a statement published alongside the video. Kyiv says it has taken control of more than 1,000 sq km (386 sq miles) of territory so far. Syrskiy said the Russian border town of Sudzha was fully under Ukrainian control. "The search and destruction of the enemy in the settlement of Sudzha has been completed," he said in the video. Reuters was unable to independently verify the situation on the ground. Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to hit back at Ukraine with a "worthy response" and accused Kyiv's "Western masters" of helping Ukraine. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-troops-still-advancing-russias-kursk-region-zelenskiy-says-2024-08-14/

2024-08-14 11:19

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan Feeding off impressive disinflation and a growing list of central bank interest rate cuts around the world, global stocks and bonds are rallying anew - with today's U.S. consumer price update set to clear the deck for Fed easing next month. Helped by a benign producer price readout and the VIX volatility gauge (.VIX) , opens new tab subsiding back below its 30-year mean, Wall Street indexes (.SPX) , opens new tab, (.IXIC) , opens new tab roared higher again on Tuesday and futures held the move ahead of the CPI report. With overall U.S. producer price inflation receded by more than forecast in July, the most eye-catching element of Tuesday's report was the biggest drop in the cost of services in nearly 1-1/2 years and clear signs of ebbing pricing power. As services inflation has irked the Federal Reserve for months, the latest development packs a punch - along with other elements of the PPI that feed the Fed-favored PCE gauge also behaving. With today's CPI expected to show modest 0.2% monthly gains at headline and 'core' levels, and multiple measures of inflation expectations dissipating again, futures seem comfortable in pricing as much as 107 basis points of Fed easing over the remainder of the year. Even though typically hawkish Atlanta Fed boss Raphael Bostic said on Tuesday he wants to see "a little more data" before supporting a cut, he will likely get that before September's meeting. Two-year Treasury yields have plunged back below 4% and 10-year yields have retreated as low as 3.84%. The dollar fell back, with the euro hitting its best levels of the year against the greenback as second-quarter GDP growth in the bloc came in at an expected 0.3%. With inflation on the wane and Fed cuts coming, the wider economy tracking almost 3% real growth and annual corporate profit growth running at close to 14%, it's a rosy picture for stocks and both the S&P500 and the Nasdaq added more than 1%. Adding to the global easing party on Wednesday, the usually hawkish Reserve Bank of New Zealand surprised with its first rate cut in more than four years and said inflation was heading back to its target. The kiwi dollar was jolted backward. The decision by one of the earliest adopters of inflation-targeting will resonate beyond NZ markets. And there was inflation cheer in Britain, too. Even though UK headline annual CPI inflation popped higher for the first time this year after two months bang on the 2% target, the rise to 2.2% was smaller than forecast and service sector inflation continued to ease. Sterling nudged lower after Tuesday's sharp rally. European and Asia stocks were generally higher on Wednesday - with Japan's Nikkei (.N225) , opens new tab and yen shrugging off news that unpopular Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will step down as ruling party leader in September after three years in power. Once again, China's mainland stock indexes (.CSI300) , opens new tab underperformed and closed almost 1% in the red and at their weakest in six months. Tuesday's poor data on economy-wide lending has unnerved investors once again. There was better news for newly revived tech stocks in the incoming earnings season. Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab supplier Foxconn (2317.TW) , opens new tab beat expectations with a 6% rise in quarterly net profit on a boom in demand for AI servers and it stood by its forecast for full-year revenue to grow significantly. On the flip side, Bloomberg reported the U.S. Department of Justice is considering options that include breaking up Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google - a week after a judge ruled the tech giant illegally monopolized the online search market. Shares of the California-based company were down about 1% ahead of today's bell. UBS (UBSG.S) , opens new tab, meantime, gained almost 2% as Switzerland's largest bank posted a net profit of $1.14 billion for the second quarter, comfortably surpassing analyst estimates. Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S. markets later on Wednesday: * US July consumer price index * US corporate earnings: Cisco Systems, Progressive, Cardinal Health Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/global-markets-view-usa-2024-08-14/