With domestic steel prices at three-year lows, India's steelmakers are hoping the government's efforts to boost liquidity and investment will stimulate demand. If not, will Indian steel exports increase and how will they fare in an overcrowded Asian market? S&P Global Platts Asian Steel Markets...
Oct 18, 2019•9 min
S&P Global Platts shipping editors George Griffiths and Sam Eckett look at the alternative marine fuels debate, ahead of IMO 2020's January 1st deadline. They are joined by Managing Editor for Freight Alex Younevitch, and discuss the ASBA Cargo Conference in Miami, nuclear power's...
Oct 09, 2019•10 min
With another year of strong wheat production now hitting the grain silos, the latest S&P Global Platts Commodities Focus podcast discusses developments in two key exporters: Russia and Ukraine. EMEA agriculture pricing lead Robert Beaman discusses the latest production trends with grains...
Oct 08, 2019•10 min
The last quarter of the year is seasonally weak for Asian gasoline, but the attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities are proving to be largely supportive of the market. S&P Global Platts editors Mark Tan and Wendy Cheong share insights on the region's gasoline supply and the factors that could...
Oct 03, 2019•5 min
S&P Global Platts pricing specialists Kelli Ainsworth, Arsalan Syed and Olivia Kalb discuss the interplay between natural gas, coal and power pricing in the US Midwest with Amy Gasca, pricing manager, North American power.
Oct 01, 2019•8 min
The European PVC industry has gone through many changes in the last few decades regarding technology and assets, as well as marketing mechanism and building resilience against high raw material costs, but it has also experienced limited margins in sales. This year's political and economic...
Sep 27, 2019•21 min
Total coal imports to Southeast Asia is expected to hit 127 million mt in 2019, up 27% from 2018, with demand driven by existing and upcoming coal-fired power plants. In this podcast, S&P Global Platts Asia thermal coal editors Fred Wang, Jenny Ma, and Huimin Lee explain the rationale behind...
Sep 23, 2019•6 min
S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence natural gas reporter Corey Paul discuss with Platts senior digital editor Jason Lindquist the highlights of the third day of the Gastech conference in Houston. Blackstone's potential sale of its...
Sep 19, 2019•9 min
S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence natural gas reporter Corey Paul discuss with Platts senior digital editor Jason Lindquist the highlights of the second day of the Gastech conference in Houston. There was a healthy tension between...
Sep 18, 2019•9 min
S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence natural gas reporter Corey Paul discuss with Platts senior digital editor Jason Lindquist the highlights of the first day of the Gastech conference in Houston. Offtake deals involving LNG...
Sep 17, 2019•12 min
S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writers Harry Weber and J. Robinson preview with natural gas managing editor Joe Fisher next week's Gastech conference, which will bring together in Houston global market participants in the midstream, upstream and LNG sectors. The annual confab comes...
Sep 12, 2019•14 min
With US ethanol still shut out of China, this installment of Commodities Focus podcast looks at the current state of the US ethanol market, the key emerging demand centers in Asia, and the benefits of ethanol as a gasoline blending component from a sustainability perspective. Andrei Agapi, Platts...
Sep 12, 2019•12 min
S&P Global Platts shipping editors George Griffiths and Sam Eckett probe into the dry bulk and container markets and how bunker fuels are impacting pricing ahead of IMO 2020's January 1st deadline. They are joined by EMEA Associate Editor for Bunker Fuel Tom Washington. As rates are...
Sep 11, 2019•7 min
ERCOT power demand smashed record after record durin August, boosting spot prices to record highs and real-time power prices to $9,000/MWh. Natural gas prices, however, did not see any uplift from record power demand. Amy Gasca, manager of the Platts power pricing team; Kelsey Hallahan, senior...
Sep 06, 2019•9 min
China will bring on another 35 million mt/year of crude steel this year through its capacity replacement mechanism, S&P Global Platts estimates. How will this impact pig iron production growth? And is there enough downstream demand to absorb all of this steel? S&P Global Platts senior...
Aug 28, 2019•6 min
S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence natural gas reporter Corey Paul discuss with Platts natural gas managing editor Joe Fisher the state of play in the US LNG industry, with competition for commercial deals heating up, final investment...
Aug 27, 2019•23 min
A number of major trends are impacting the US power sector, including lower utility load nearly across the board among electric utilities, largely because of milder temperatures this year but also in some cases because of lower industrial load. Some electric utility CEOs have also...
Aug 22, 2019•9 min
On today's Commodities Focus podcast with Ora Lazic and Miguel Cambeiro: Although Europe continues to be the most expensive pricing region, it is increasingly becoming an importer of competitively priced ethylene and main derivatives from the US —with its new shale-based capacity—, but...
Aug 20, 2019•10 min
With no end to the dispute in sight and a consensus that the real shocks to the markets could be yet to come, the latest installment of the Commodities Focus podcast takes a renewed look at the impact on trade flows that the ongoing tariffs dispute between the US and China is having on the LNG,...
Aug 16, 2019•42 min
Today's Commodities Focus podcast looks deeper into the evolving thermal coal trade flows in the Atlantic and what the future holds. Following the recent release of two new Platts assessments that capture these new dynamics, managing editor Jeffrey McDonald is joined by thermal coal pricing...
Aug 16, 2019•6 min
S&P Global Platts shipping editors Sam Eckett and George Griffiths review the US-China trade tensions, and their effect on global shipping markets ahead of IMO 2020's January 1st deadline. They are joined by EMEA Coal managing editor Jeff McDonald. As escalating tariffs between the two...
Aug 12, 2019•6 min
Oil majors across Europe have struggled in the second quarter largely due to weak gas prices while their counterparts across the pond have held up better thanks to the resilience of US tight oil. S&P Global Platts' senior oil writer Robert Perkins and head of oil news in London Paul...
Aug 06, 2019•19 min
This week's Commodities Focus podcast looks at the recycled plastics markets in Europe - the current situation and what the future holds in light of new legislation coming into force over the coming years. Join Luke Milner and Ben Brooks from the European petrochemicals team...
Aug 02, 2019•13 min
S&P Global Platts editors Wendy Cheong and Mark Tan examine Asia's demand for gasoline in the third quarter following a weak first half, with fundamentals in the region pressured by excess cargoes from North Asia.
Jul 31, 2019•5 min
S&P Global Platts Editors Cheong Su Yeen and Wanda Wang examine the increasing activity on loading middle distillate, especially gasoil and ultra low sulfur diesel, on newbuilding vessels, such as Very Large Crude Carriers, SuezMax tankers or Long Range 3 tankers, from Asia and the Middle...
Jul 30, 2019•9 min
Iron ore prices have risen by around 30% since the start of June, putting intense pressure on steel margins. Are Chinese mills contemplating trimming production? How is the third quarter shaping up? And after the recent Baowu-Manshan tie-up announcement, is more Chinese steel consolidation on the...
Jul 19, 2019•6 min
This Commodities Focus podcast looks at S&P Global Platts Analytics latest Global Polyolefin Outlook, discussing the short, medium and longer term key market dynamics and price outlook for ethylene, propylene, PE and PP. Hetain Mistry and Lara Berton discuss the latest outlook, focusing on the...
Jul 17, 2019•11 min
S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence midstream finance reporter Allison Good preview with natural gas managing editor Joe Fisher the upcoming second-quarter earnings season for midstream companies. Investors are eager to know the status of...
Jul 17, 2019•15 min
Amid the US energy transition toward increasing volumes of renewable energy and distributed energy resources like microgrids and demand response, global power sector engineering company Black & Veatch recently restructured its power business to focus more on these shifting market...
Jul 12, 2019•16 min
Refineries worldwide have been consuming more light sweet crude oil, resulting in an oversupply of light distillates products market. In the second quarter, naphtha was the worst performer across the barrel in Asia. The Asian naphtha crack against ICE Brent crude fell close to an 11-year low to...
Jul 03, 2019•4 min