2024-06-27 07:15
NEW DELHI, June 27 (Reuters) - Indian Oil (IOC.NS) New Tab, opens new tab aims to increase its liquified natural gas portfolio to 20 million tonnes per year (MTPA) by 2030, from 7.8 MTPA currently, Sujoy Choudhury, head of planning and business development at the company, said at an industry event on Thursday. The power sector is expected to be one of the key drivers for Indian LNG demand, Choudhury added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indian-oil-boost-lng-portfolio-20-mln-tonnes-by-2030-exec-says-2024-06-27/
2024-06-27 06:59
LME plans to add to network of 32 global warehouse locations Initiative receiving 'great support' from local market, says HKEX CEO LME undertaking consultation around Saudi expansion, says LME CEO HONG KONG, June 27 (Reuters) - The London Metal Exchange (LME) is exploring the possibility of listing Hong Kong as an LME warehouse location, the chief executive of its owner said on Thursday, as the exchange looks to strengthen its global logistics footprint. Registering warehouses in China, the world's largest consumer of industrial metals, to store metal traded on the LME has been a strategic aim since Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) (0388.HK) New Tab, opens new tab bought the LME in 2012 for $2.2 billion. The exchange has recently said it is looking to expand its global warehouse network to add Saudi port Jeddah while Reuters reported in January it was also examining opening a warehouse location in Hong Kong. "We recently commissioned a third party feasibility study on this idea and we have been receiving great support from the local market," said Bonnie Chan, confirming the Reuters report. "LME warehouses in Hong Kong could strengthen the link between mainland physical metals markets and international pricing on the LME, create more market arbitrage opportunities, close gaps in delivery networks and improve logistics costs with road connectivity to southern China," she added. As the world's biggest metals marketplace, the LME has approved metals storage facilities in 32 locations across the U.S., Europe and Asia that can take delivery of metals like aluminium, copper and zinc that underpin its contracts. Chan, speaking at an LMEWeek Asia event in Hong Kong, did not give a timeline for any developments. The exchange's head of market development, Robin Martin, at the same event later said the LME hoped to be in a position to give an update on the initiative later this year. Critics of the plan have raised concerns about the strategy due to risks associated with China's growing influence over foreign firms and individuals in the territory. They have also noted that Hong Kong's warehouse space is more expensive than other locations nearby and the city is not a large consumer of metals. Separately, the LME will undertake consulting on the "final rulemaking" around the Jeddah expansion, but remains positive on that initiative, LME CEO Matt Chamberlain, said, speaking at the same event. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/lme-eyes-hong-kong-potential-warehouse-location-hkex-ceo-says-2024-06-27/
2024-06-27 06:47
June 27 (Reuters) - British bicycle and car products retailer Halfords Group (HFD.L) New Tab, opens new tab reported a fall in annual profit on Thursday as footfall across its stores declined due to challenging market conditions and wet weather. The prolonged cost-of-living crisis has forced Britons to cut spending on discretionary spending, particularly big-ticket purchases like electric bikes and satellite navigation systems. "Elevated cost inflation continued to be a significant headwind, increasing the cost base by approximately 37 million pounds in fiscal 2024," the company said in a statement. In February, Halfords said it was seeing "very challenging and exceptional short-term market conditions" and was cautious about a recovery. Underlying pre-tax profit from total operations came in at 36.1 million pounds ($45.62 million) for the year ended March 29, compared with 44.2 million pounds it logged in the previous year. Analysts on average were expecting the firm to clock a profit of about 36.2 million pounds, according to a company-compiled consensus. ($1 = 0.7913 pounds) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/uks-halfords-group-posts-lower-annual-profit-2024-06-27/
2024-06-27 06:46
JAKARTA, June 27 (Reuters) - Copper miner Freeport Indonesia on Thursday launched its $3.7 billion copper smelter in Gresik, East Java, citing growing demand for the metal in the race to transition to renewable energy. The smelter's total input capacity is 1.7 million metric tons of copper concentrate and output capacity will reach around 650,000 tons of copper cathode and 50 to 60 tons of gold, said Tony Wenas, chief executive of Freeport Indonesia, majority owned by the Indonesian government but operated by U.S mining giant Freeport McMoran (FCX.N) New Tab, opens new tab. The facility is expected to produce its first copper cathode in August, when it starts to operate at 50% capacity, Wenas said, adding it will reach full capacity in December. "Copper going forward will be very much needed by the world," Wenas said. "Countries are racing to transition their energy sources to renewables and sustainable sources. This will need a lot of copper." Indonesia banned exports of all raw minerals from June 2023, but gave Freeport Indonesia and rival copper miner Amman Mineral Internasional (AMMN.JK) New Tab, opens new tab dispensation until May 31, 2024, to allow them to finish the construction of their smelters. Both companies have requested an extension of export permit until the end of 2024, so they could continue to ship copper concentrate while waiting for their smelters to reach full capacity. The government has said it would grant such extension. Attending the launch, Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia reiterated his support for the export permit extension, especially after the launch of the Gresik smelter. Minister Bahlil also asked Freeport to build another copper smelter in the country's eastern region of Papua, near its Grasberg copper mine. Freeport Indonesia spokesperson did not immediately respond to request for comment on the government's proposal for Papua smelter and when asked whether the company has received the permit extension. News website Bloomberg Technoz reported on Tuesday Freeport had not obtained the extension. Jakarta has given Freeport Indonesia a tax break for its Gresik smelter investment. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/freeport-indonesia-launches-37-bln-gresik-copper-smelter-2024-06-27/
2024-06-27 06:41
HOUSTON, June 27 (Reuters) - Oil futures settled higher on Thursday on worries about global crude supply disruptions as geopolitical pressure in the Middle East and Europe mounted, while a surprise increase in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories gave prices a ceiling. Brent crude oil futures settled up $1.14, or 1.34%, to $86.39 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled up by 84 cents, or 1.04%, at $81.74. WTI futures also rose by more than $1 a barrel earlier in the session. Cross-border strains between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been escalating, fanning fears that a widening war could draw in other countries including major oil producer Iran. The French foreign ministry said France is extremely concerned about the situation in Lebanon and called for restraint. Any contagion could have a big impact on crude supplies from the Middle East, said Panmure Gordon analyst Ashley Kelty. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his country stood in solidarity with Lebanon and called on the region's countries to show support. Israel stormed a neighbourhood in Gaza City, telling Palestinians they must head south. Israeli forces also bombed the southern city of Rafah in what it called final stages of an operation against Hamas militants. Yemen's Houthis targeted "vessel Seajoy" in the Red Sea with a drone boat and a number of missiles and drones, the Iran-aligned group's military spokesman Yahya Saree said. The Houthi militia, which controls the most populous parts of Yemen, has staged attacks on ships in the waters off the country for months in solidarity with Palestinians fighting Israel in Gaza. In Europe, Russia is considering a possible downgrade of relations with the West due to deeper involvement of the U.S. and its allies in the Ukraine war, but no decision had yet been made, the Kremlin said. Downgrading relations - or even breaking them off - would illustrate the gravity of the confrontation between Russia and the West over Ukraine following escalating tensions surrounding the war in recent months. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a 3.6 million-barrel weekly jump in crude oil stocks. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a drawdown of 2.9 million barrels. "Yesterday’s EIA report is still an overhang for the market today as it was a surprise in terms of the builds we saw, and the refinery run rates," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital. U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 2.7 million barrels. Analysts had expected a 1 million-barrel draw. "We are right now at the peak of the summer driving season, approaching July 4 weekend, so for markets to be moving sideways now, then we may well even see a dip after the holiday weekend,” said Tim Snyder, economist at Matador Economics. In Europe, independently held gasoline stocks in storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose by over 9% in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed, suggesting limited scope for transatlantic U.S. gasoline demand. Meanwhile, comments from Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic in a policy essay released on Thursday reiterated expectations of an interest rate cut in the fourth quarter of this year, in line with investors' expectations of cuts starting in September. "There is certainly nothing we can hang our hats on in terms of the Fed looking to juice the markets again," Again Capital's Kilduff said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/oil-prices-slide-fears-slow-us-demand-after-surprise-inventory-build-2024-06-27/
2024-06-27 06:38
FRANKFURT, June 27 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank faces an "easy last kilometre" in its fight against inflation and can continue to slowly cut interest rates, two researchers are set to tell the ECB's top brass next week. The paper by Giorgio Primiceri and Domenico Giannone will be the first to be presented at the ECB's annual get-together in a hilltop resort near Sintra, Portugal, on Tuesday. The researchers used a model that decomposes inflation into supply, demand and the effect of monetary policy on the latter to conclude that inflation was heading back to the ECB's 2% target barring new shocks. "This analysis indicates that there are reasons to be optimistic about inflation, both in the immediate and the more distant future," Primiceri and Giannone wrote in their paper. "In fact, our model predicts an 'easy last kilometre' in the coming quarters." ECB board member Isabel Schnabel has been warning that "the last mile of disinflation" would prove "the most difficult" after a sharp drop in energy prices helped bring down inflation from its 10% peak in late 2022 to 2.6% last month. But the paper sees inflation easing to the ECB's goal next year and staying there through 2026 even as the policy rate is cut to 2.5% from 3.75% currently. This is in line with market expectations. Contrary to the prevailing narrative, repeated New Tab, opens new tab by the ECB's chief economist Philip Lane on Thursday, the authors found that a stronger-than-expected recovery in demand after the COVID pandemic, rather than constrained supply, accounted for most of the high inflation in 2021-22. If the ECB had tightened policy sooner, inflation would have peaked at just 6% but at the price of one percentage point of lost economic output, the paper argued. "Since economic activity was already strained by adverse supply conditions, such policy has likely helped avoid a substantial further decline in economic activity," the authors said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/you-can-continue-cut-rates-researchers-tell-ecb-2024-06-27/
