Commodities Weekly Strong US dollar to remain a headwind for prices There was no clear direction in commodity prices this week, even within the same types of commodities. The takeaway is that commodity prices were dancing to their own tunes. Take energy, for example... 8th July 2022 · 6 mins read
Commodities Chart Pack Softer demand, but supply to remain tight Non-energy commodities prices generally fell in June on the back of concerns about the outlook for demand amid global monetary tightening and slower economic growth. Energy prices may also fall a... 6th July 2022 · 13 mins read
Capital Daily China’s stock market and metals prices may continue to diverge We think that the recent divergence between the fortunes of China’s stock market and the prices of most industrial metals will continue, albeit with the former seeing renewed falls and the latter... 4th July 2022 · 5 mins read
Commodities Weekly Demand concerns to weigh on prices for a while yet Prices struggled to find direction this week as concerns about demand deepened at a time of still constrained supply of many commodities. The price of Brent crude fell sharply on Thursday in response... 1st July 2022 · 5 mins read
Commodities Update Rebound in China’s PMIs likely to be a one-off We think that the recovery in China’s PMIs in June was driven by the lifting of virus-related restrictions rather than an improvement in underlying economic conditions. Accordingly, we think that... 1st July 2022 · 2 mins read
Commodities Weekly Non-energy prices only have so much more to fall Most commodity prices fell this week as demand concerns picked up due to ongoing monetary policy tightening by major central banks. Speaking to the US Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, Federal... 24th June 2022 · 6 mins read
Metals Data Response Global Steel Production (May) Global steel production continued to pick up in May, led by higher output in India and China, which more than offset the ongoing decline in Europe’s production. The rise in input costs, efforts to... 22nd June 2022 · 2 mins read
Latin America Economics Update The Codelco strike threat, Chile and the copper price A threatened strike at Chile’s copper giant, Codelco, could knock as much as 0.3%-pts off quarterly GDP growth for every week that workers are on strike and worsen the country’s balance of payments... 21st June 2022 · 3 mins read
Metals Data Response Global Aluminium Production (May) Global aluminium production has increased steadily since the start of the year in large part owing to a rebound in China’s output. At the same time, demand is relatively subdued, which suggests that... 20th June 2022 · 2 mins read
Commodities Weekly Supply concerns to dominate in gas markets European natural gas prices surged this week on renewed supply concerns, as Russia once again cut gas supplies to Europe and the US Freeport LNG export facility closed for six months. The huge price... 17th June 2022 · 6 mins read
Industrial Metals Update Chinese refined output will only plug some of the gap Robust Chinese refined metal output, alongside subdued domestic demand, has combined with constrained refined output elsewhere to provide greater export opportunities for China. But there are limits... 16th June 2022 · 3 mins read
Commodities Weekly Lockdowns are only part of China’s subdued demand The supply risks associated with the war in Ukraine have not gone away, but there has been more market attention in recent weeks on the outlook for commodities demand. In the very near term, the... 10th June 2022 · 6 mins read
Industrial Metals Update Weaker demand to drag on EU steel prices Softer demand for steel in Europe has dragged prices lower recently, despite production in the region being constrained by high production costs. We expect prices to fall a little further to €900 per... 9th June 2022 · 2 mins read
Commodities Chart Pack Supply concerns to dominate for some time yet Energy and agricultural prices continued to rise in May as concerns about supply more than offset signs that demand, at least for energy, could soften. We expect prices to remain historically high but... 7th June 2022 · 13 mins read
Commodities Update Weak China demand won’t hold back oil prices Despite a rise in May, China’s PMIs still point to weak Chinese demand, which will continue to weigh on industrial metals prices. However, the war in Ukraine will remain the bigger driver of energy... 1st June 2022 · 2 mins read
Commodities Weekly Waiting for clarity on the EU’s oil import embargo A persistent theme in energy markets is uncertainty about the outlook for the EU’s imports of energy from Russia. It does appear that some sort of embargo of oil imports will be announced, maybe as... 27th May 2022 · 6 mins read