Political experts say Nov. 5 will likely become known as one of the most pivotal elections in US history. Whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins the presidency, and whether Republicans or Democrats control Congress, the energy sector faces major potential shifts. There will be implications for supply chains, energy infrastructure, and the overall direction of US energy markets. 

Jasmin Melvin, senior editor and team lead for The Energy Daily, leads a discussion on what's at stake in the oil, gas, power and metals arenas with Commodity Insights reporters and analysts Zack Hale, Taylor Kuykendall, Starr Spencer and Anna Mosby. They examine the polarizing energy positions from the presidential candidates and how a potentially divided Congress could reshape energy policy. 

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Platts Connect - S&P Global Commodity Insights news coverage, pricing and analysis

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India has maintained its position as the world's largest producer of direct-reduced iron (DRI) for several years. As the global race to accelerate energy transition efforts intensifies, DRI has gained prominence due to its potential for reducing carbon emissions in energy-intensive sectors like steel.

Recognized as a key pathway to 'green steel,' DRI offers various low-carbon steelmaking alternatives. Walking the DRI path is expected to help India's steel industry to lower its emissions. Capturing this evolving and dynamic market in India, S&P Global Commodity Insights' Platts has launched a daily pellet-based Indian domestic direct reduced iron spot price assessment on an ex-works Raipur, Chhattisgarh basis.

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Indian domestic direct reduced iron price assessment

As a UK general election looms, energy security and the transition to net-zero are high on the agenda.
In this episode of the Commodities Focus podcast, our experts sift through the policy options, from windfall taxes to licensing bans, and discuss why they matter, not just for the UK, but for Europe and beyond.
Nick Coleman, senior editor for oil news, is joined by Gethin Baker, senior technical research analyst specialising in the North Sea, and Stuart Elliott, news reporter focusing on the UK and European gas markets.

Links:
Energy Security Sentinel 
PCAAS00 Dated Brent
GTFTX00 Dutch TTF Eur/MWh Day Ahead

Jonty Rushforth, Senior Director of Markets and Energy Transition, and Paula VanLaningham, Platts Global Head of Carbon, talk about the devastating wildfires sweeping across the globe and the challenges facing Nature-Based Carbon Credits as the market reckons with Offset Permanence in the face of rising global temperatures.

For more discussions on all topics related to the Energy Transition, make sure to tune in to the Platts Future Energy podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and our website.

Plastic usage and recycling has become a hot-button topic recently, as the push for sustainable products is forefront in manufacturing goals.

Aluminum has long been touted the beverage package of choice because of the perceived sustainability it offers, but are the two closer in the race for sustainability than we think?

We take a closer look at the economic and environmental sustainability of recycling a can versus recycling a plastic bottle, and what it means for the industry at large.

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber, S&P Global Market Intelligence senior midstream finance reporter Allison Good and Platts managing editor for Americas LNG Luke Stobbart discuss current trends in the North American midstream sector as operators of gas pipelines and LNG export terminals prepare to release financial results for the second quarter of 2021.

Investors will be watching for signs that the pickup in commercial activity in recent months is sufficient to support new infrastructure growth opportunities, as ESG initiatives command a lot of attention across the industry.

US refineries have ramped up production in the second quarter as domestic demand for gasoline and diesel grows and global energy markets begin to adjust back to pre-pandemic demand and production levels.

Increasing US Gulf Coast refinery utilization has had an adverse impact to clean and dirty tanker freight in the Americas, however, leaving shipowner earnings at less-than-favorable levels. S&P Global Platts tanker freight editors Catherine Wood, Nicole Baquerizo and Marieke Alsguth, along with senior oil writer Janet McGurty, discuss the "push and pull" of the US refinery landscape and how it's playing out among various tanker freight segments in the Americas.

In this episode of the S&P Global Platts Agriculture Focus podcast, the Platts EMEA Agriculture team discusses how the prices of different agricultural commodities, from wheat, corn and rice, to veg oils, sugar and biodiesel, have fared during the coronavirus pandemic and whether we can expect any knock-on effects in the coming months.

Cheniere, the biggest exporter of LNG in the US, is working to secure sufficient buyer
interest for a proposed mid-scale expansion at its Corpus Christi liquefaction facility
in Texas. It is also pursuing initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint at Corpus Christi
and at its Sabine Pass export terminal in Louisiana, and give customers more information about
the life-cycle emissions of its cargoes.

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber is joined by Anatol Feygin,
Cheniere Energy's chief commercial officer, for a discussion about current trends in
the global LNG market, with a special emphasis on North America and the energy transition.

Raw feed materials have seen unprecedented growth in prices, putting a dent in the Asian feedmakers' margins. In this podcast, S&P Global Platts editors Elizabeth Thang, Takmila Shahid, and Ivy Li examine factors impacting the buying patterns of Asian customers, including supply and demand fundamentals, the impact of weather conditions on prices, as well as the current hog farm situation in China.

Flows of naphtha from the US Gulf Coast to Asia have reached record highs in May and June, drawn by fresh demand from Asia's steam crackers returning from seasonal maintenance and new units coming online over the second half of June.

Though higher refining rates and dampened demand for gasoline in the US have opened wide this normally delicate naphtha arbitrage, tanker owners operating in the Americas have shown resistance to making the trans-Pacific voyage, citing low daily earnings and weak freight levels in both the Americas and Asia Medium Range tanker markets as deterrents for repositioning their fleets.

Marieke Alsguth, S&P Global Platts clean tanker editor, sits down with Houston naphtha editor MK Bower and Singapore naphtha editor Wanda Wang to discuss the factors that opened the floodgates for naphtha barrels to move from the USGC to Asia, and how the resurgence of petroleum product demand as countries emerge from pandemic-related lockdowns could affect activity on the trans-Pacific trade flow.

The US Supreme Court's June 25 decision opens the door for further small refinery exemptions.

With bearish-for-RIN prices, Janet McGurty and Josh Pedrick of S&P Global Platts talk about what could be on the horizon as the Environmental Protection Agency digests the ruling.

It's already become clear which areas of the US power market are likely to face challenges this summer, with alerts and price spikes in Texas and California in recent weeks, where drought, wildfires and other factors have become recurring threats.

The S&P Global Platts power news team gives its summer power market outlook, looking at trends around the country with additional insights from Platts Analytics.

Pressured by sub-$2/MMBtu prices, many US producers have decided to cut spending on gas-directed drilling and completion activity and to scale back production in 2024. But there are signs of price improvement along the futures curve in late 2024 and thereafter, due in part to the arrival of new LNG facilities, giving operators reason for optimism.

In this episode, Jeremy Beaman, natural gas news editor, talks with Bryan Mcnamara and Imre Kugler, directors of upstream research about how natural gas producers are approaching a difficult price environment and what their plans are for 2024 and 2025.

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Tanker and dry bulk shipping freight market for inbound and outbound trade from India has become come expensive due to the lingering COVID-19 pandemic.

India is one of the world's largest importers of coal, vegetable oils and crude. It exports substantial volumes of refined products and dry bulk commodities such as iron ore, pellets, steel and salt.

Many countries are insisting that ships will be allowed to berth at their ports only if they have not called any Indian ports over the previous two to four weeks. This has resulted in many shipowners seeking a freight premium for loading or discharging cargoes in India. It is a double-edged sword - causing delays in delivery of cargoes as well as crew changes and thereby increasing the transportation cost. Some ports are also tweaking their quarantine rules too frequently and adding to the confusion.

S&P Global Platts Senior Managing Editor for Asia Pacific & Freight Pradeep Rajan, Senior Editor Sameer Mohindru and Associate Editor Isaac Eio examine present challenges being faced by the freight market for trade from and out of India.

New York has one of the most aggressive decarbonization plans in the country through its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which sets goals for building several gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, including offshore wind, battery storage and the transmission lines to connect those resources with urban demand centers.

In this edition of the Platts Commodities Focus podcast, Jared Anderson, senior writer with S&P Global Platts, speaks with Clint Plummer, CEO of Rise Light & Power, whose company is retooling one of the oldest fossil fuel-fired power plants in New York City into a renewable energy and storage hub.

Plummer, an industry veteran who helped develop the country's first offshore wind project, discusses challenges and potential solutions associated with bringing incremental renewable energy capacity into the physical and electrical island that characterizes New York City.

As piracy attacks grow in the Gulf of Guinea, the industry has banded together to make a statement – enough is enough, and the attack on merchant ships must come to an end.

S&P Global Platts speaks to the Head of Maritime Security at BIMCO Jakob Larsen on what has pushed the industry to band together and what the Declaration means for the future of security in the basin.

The upcoming federal elections in Mexico, the largest in recent history, are expected to have broad implications across many energy sectors.

We spoke with Adrian Duhalt, post-doctorate fellow in energy studies at Rice University in Houston, about the implications for the energy industry.

China on May 14 announced that it will implement a consumption tax on mixed aromatics, light cycle oil and bitumen blend from June 12 in an effort to close a loophole in its tax system. This tax is expected to have repercussions not only in the domestic market, but also in the regional refined products market and crude markets.

Mixed aromatics and light cycle oil or LCO are used as blend stocks in gasoline and gasoil, and bitumen blend is used as a feedstock by independent refiners.

The tax is expected to alter domestic supply-demand balances, regional trade flows, and types of crudes imported into China.

Prices have been soaring in most of the major steel markets, driven by high demand and insufficient supply. S&P Global Platts Lead Steel Analyst Paul Bartholomew, Associate Pricing Director for Metals Keith Tan, and Managing Editor Laura Varriale examine the factors in play.

US gasoline demand has been picking up as the country opens up from the coronavirus lockdowns.

Gasoline inventories are tight, especially on the US Atlantic Coast
following the recent Colonial Pipeline outage, but refiners are
ramping up runs, lured by strong margins.

S&P Global Platts Director of Americas Oil News Jeff Mower, Senior Editor Janet McGurty and Futures Editor Chris van Moessner discuss what is in store for this summer's gasoline markets.

Operators of pipelines and liquefaction terminals that were able to deliver supplies during the February freeze in Texas were rewarded with strong first-quarter profits, while those that had difficulty were saddled with higher costs and lower revenue.

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence senior midstream finance reporter Allison Good analyze the just-completed release of Q1 earnings results by companies in the midstream and LNG sectors.

The US has the world's largest nuclear generation footprint and has witnessed early retirement of nuclear plants, due in part to low natural gas prices as well as declining costs of wind and solar technologies, as well as policy factors.

Today's podcast looks at the major cost concerns of nuclear generation today, how some US states are utilizing Zero Emission Credits, and how these issues are impacting decisions to extend operating licenses.

Petcoke prices out of the US Gulf have doubled since this time last year. Prices continue to rise amid tight supply, and volatile freight markets within the region add fuel to the flames.
S&P Global Platts coal and shipping editors discuss the impetus behind this price rally, in what has been one of the most notable commodity bull-runs of 2020/2021.

Red sea crisis has forced carriers and shippers alike to adjust strategies. Container freight rates not only reached yearly high after receding throughout 2023 but carriers also seized a profit making opportunity they were looking for after the post pandemic lull. The change in this dynamic has forced shippers to again look for alternatives in the hopes of making their supply chain more agile.

S&P Global Commodity Insights containers editor Tanya Kalra speaks with Chris Rogers, Head of Supply Chain and Research, S&P Global Market Intelligence, Greg Knowler, Senior Editor, Journal of Commerce and Mohammed Al Ansare, Associate Editor, EMEA Containers, S&P Global Commodity Insights about the changing dynamics in the containers market and how carriers and shippers are navigating through them. 

Are recent shifts in Atlantic Basin products arbitrages an unusual pandemic feature or the new normal for clean tanker trade?

And are the 38kt US Gulf Coast-to-Brazil and 37,000 mt UK Continent-West Africa freight runs the new pacesetters of the Americas and European freight markets?

S&P Global Platts Americas managing editor Barbara Troner examines the southward shift in Atlantic Basin clean tanker trade flows to Latin America- and West Africa-bound voyages with Platts experts Marieke Alsguth in Houston and Chris To in London.

For free access to information on the dynamics and assessment methodology of the MR USGC-Brazil, please click here or send us an email at tankers@spglobal.com.

Is the recent six-day Suez Canal blockage causing a spike in container box freight?

And are the canal's misfortunes the only culprit for impending port delays, or the tip of the iceberg?

It may be all too easy to blame the Ever Given incident for the latest logistical issues, rate hikes and arbitrage impacts on agricultural, metals and petrochemical commodity markets.

S&P Global Platts Americas shipping managing editor Barbara Troner examines the container market with Platts experts Greg Holt in Houston and George Griffiths in London.

S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence midstream finance reporter Allison Good preview with senior digital editor Jason Lindquist the upcoming release of first-quarter earnings results by companies in the North American midstream sector.

While weather negatively affected operations in the most recent quarter and seasonal maintenance is expected to be a factor heading into the summer, fundamentals are relatively strong. With vaccines rolling out, the economic recovery driving midstream volumes should continue.

The Mexican government has recently issued a spate of regulations in the midstream and power sectors that have had broad implications.

We spoke with Diego Campa of Campa and Mendoza Associates, a law firm in Mexico City, about the most relevant moves, how companies are able to use the courts to halt regulations, and how the recent regulations might fare in the legal system.

Container shortages and high freight rates have proven to be a major hurdle for international trade in the last six months. Nowhere has this been more so than for various agricultural products.
S&P Global Platts shipping and agricultural editors come together to discuss the fallout from global container freight shortages and how they have affected the rice, sugar and used cooking oil markets.

The oil market is starting to face a new set of questions as it emerges from the pandemic and as energy transition momentum builds.
S&P Global Platts Associate Director Paul Hickin spoke with the International Energy Agency's Head of Oil Markets Division Toril Bosoni about the outlook for oil demand, the role of OPEC+, US shale and China in the new reality and the challenges for energy security.

Canada enters the natural gas injection season with below-average storage levels as demand from resurging activity in the oil sands as well as coal-to-gas switching and higher exports look to boost AECO prices in relation to major market centers in the US Upper Midwest. The NGTL pipeline and storage system also looks to play a role in the market this year.

S&P Global Platts natural gas editor Brandon Evans and analyst Richard Frey look at the issues driving the market.

A long-standing regional supply shortage, aggravated by COVID-19 impacts, has prompted steel prices in Mexico to jump to 13-year highs, while local demand is yet to recover.

Higher raw materials prices, coupled with a strong US dollar, were also drivers of a trend that is not expected to end in the short term.

Adriana Carvalho, S&P Global Platts managing editor for Latin American metals, and Claudia Cardenas, pricing specialist of Mexican metals pricing, examine the trends influencing the markets and present the latest updates on Platts methodology and specifications for Mexican flat steel pricing.

Mexico's Pemex, the state oil company, is facing challenges to increase production, as the government desires, and also internationally to meet its environmental commitments.

We spoke with Andrew Rudman, director of the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute, about these challenges and the relationship between Pemex and the United States under the Biden administration.

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The oil futures market has been volatile on news that a large container ship was blocking the Suez Canal, a key artery for petroleum shipments, but do spot markets give a better indication of the impacts on global trade flows?

Why are producers remaining so focused on growth in Guyana, considering softer demand growth expectations?

Jeff Mower, head of Americas oil news for S&P Global Platts, discusses the issues with Platts editors Starr Spencer and Chris van Moessner.

Lithium producers are pushing timelines out for project development in North America as global lithium prices sit near a three-year low after plunging from record levels in 2022. The change in sentiment has cooled off a red-hot market and cast doubt on the future of domestic lithium supply for North America's electric vehicles and other energy transition applications.

S&P Global Commodity Insights metals editor Nick Lazzaro speaks with Viral Shah, managing editor for low carbon and base metals in EMEA, and Adriana Carvalho, senior managing editor for Americas metals markets, about the changing dynamics in global lithium markets this year, new pricing trends in the US, and the future prospects for North American lithium supply.

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Recent dynamics driving unseasonably high JKM and TTF pricing, ranging from elevated carbon pricing and LNG outages creating supply disturbance in Asia, have further illustrated the emerging global links driving natural gas pricing.

Beyond these current dynamics, European and US storage exit winter at lower levels than recent years, but what does robust US production, low pricing, record US feedgas and elevated TTF levels mean for global gas prices heading into summer?

Ira Joseph, S&P Global Platts head of generating fuels and electricity power pricing, and Ryan Ouwerkerk, manager of Americas natural gas pricing, dive into the trends influencing the markets.

The International Maritime Organization has approved amendments to its MARPOL Annex VI regulations, introducing an Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) that is expected to come into force in 2023.
S&P Global Platts container editor George Griffiths and tankers editor Charlotte Bucchioni look at what these new amendments entail, and how they might impact the world of shipping at a time when freight rates are already volatile and uncertainty has become the new normal.

The cost to ship goods on containers are climbing as additional premiums, such as the priority-loading premium, take hold in the market. The premium, which can be from 50-70% over the freight all kinds rate for Southeast Asia to the US and Europe routes, ranges from $2,000-3,500/FEU.

S&P Global Platts Container Market experts Ng Bao Ying and Parisha Tyagi examine how the rise in rates echoes a tight container shipping market. Brian Ng, Platts agriculture market specialist, joins in to share insights on the impact of shipping rate and logistical issues on India's sugar exports.

Learn more: Platts Container Price Assessments

Get in touch with our team: containers@spglobal.com

Mexico's Pemex recently announced it had discovered more than 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent in an onshore complex in the state of Tabasco, near the site where the company is planning to build its Dos Bocas refinery.

That's a large discovery, but there are serious questions about Pemex's ability to reach its stated production goals.

S&P Global Platts editors Sheky Espejo in Mexico City and Starr Spencer in Houston examine Mexico's newest discovery.

Brazil's Center-South region will kick off the 2021-22 sugar and ethanol crop season April 1 and producers are betting again on high international sugar prices and depreciated Brazilian real to increase their profitability.

Fuel demand was initially forecast to increase in 2021; however, as the country has moved back to further social distancing measures, the forecasts have been revised down.

S&P Global Platts editors discuss the main themes to watch in Center-South Brazil in the coming months.

Explore now: The Platts Atlas of Energy Transition, your map to the sustainable commodity markets of the future

China consumes around 50% of world's copper and will continue to play a critical role in the market this year. S&P Global Platts metals experts Keith Tan and Han Lu examine China's appetite for copper concentrates as its economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. They also discuss what the market can expect in the second quarter, and give methodology and specification details on Platts clean copper concentrate assessments. 

To know more about Platts clean copper concentrate assessments, email our team at platts_asia_copper@spglobal.com or download the methodology here.

Explore now: The Platts Atlas of Energy Transition, your map to the sustainable commodity markets of the future

US plug-in electric vehicles accounted for 2.6% of total sales in December, tied with Nov. 2020 for a record high and year-to-date PEVs account for just shy of 2% of all light duty vehicles sold in the US, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.

However, recent large orders for electric buses and other fleet vehicles suggest that sector could play a leading role in the proliferation of EVs in the US.

In this edition of the Platts Commodities Focus podcast, Jared Anderson, senior writer with S&P Global Platts speaks with John McClure, managing director at Nomura Greentech, about EV market growth, investment trends and how greater EV usage could impact US power markets.

The current European Commission is the greenest ever as it pushes toward carbon neutrality by 2050. Gas —despite being a fossil fuel— is considered by many as having a key role to play in Europe's energy transition, and the industry is working hard on ways to decarbonize gas and secure the future of Europe's vast gas infrastructure, including through the growing use of hydrogen.

Following an interview with James Watson, secretary general of industry body Eurogas, S&P Global Platts Stuart Elliott, Henry Edwardes-Evans and James Huckstepp discuss Eurogas' key messages around the role of gas in Europe.

Refinery outages from the cold snap on the US Gulf Coast Feb. 15-19 put even more bearish pressure on the already weak Americas clean tanker market, and heightened diesel prices in the USGC.

With petroleum product demand still low globally, the Americas clean tanker market continues to move along the freight floor as typical arbitrages to Europe and Latin America remain closed. Heightened diesel prices and ever-drawing stocks in the USGC have reversed the typical arbitrage to Europe, exacerbating the already low cargo supply for clean tankers looking to carry USGC product exports to other regions.

Marieke Alsguth and Troy Duffie of the Americas shipping team sit down with Maha Husseini from the clean oil products team in Houston to discuss immediate impacts from the mid-February cold snap refinery outages and potential outlooks for petroleum product demand in the Americas as the vaccine effort rolls out.

The global styrene market has risen sharply in February, driven by a number of factors around the world, including production issues in Europe and severe winter storms in Texas.

Matthew Cook, associate editorial director for Americas petrochemicals coverage for S&P Global Platts, discusses the recent trends with Platts editors Simon Price in London, Emily Burleson in Houston and Tess Tseng in Singapore.

Wheat prices have been on a largely downward trend since the start of 2024 despite lower production in key exporters, Canada and Australia, and continued logistics concerns due to the wars in the Black Sea and the Red Sea. Does this imply the weight of a larger global supply in the year ahead and that the markets have adapted to a new normal amidst geopolitical tensions? Or are there choppier waves to come?

In this podcast, Vivien Tang, associate grains editor, grains, Victoria Sinitsyna, associate director, Grains Analytics and Nikolaos Aidinis Antonopoulos, senior freight pricing specialist discuss the potential challenges faced by the wheat markets and provide an outlook on global wheat production and freight markets in 2024.

Commodities have witnessed a broad upturn in prices across the board in recent months. In a discussion with S&P Global Platts Asia Energy Editor Sambit Mohanty, veteran commodities investor and chairman of Beeland Interests Inc Jim Rogers says that oil's future would still be looking good 10 years from now, energy transition will find strong support from governments across the globe, while agriculture would still be one of his favorite investment picks.

Beeland Interests Inc. is the owner and sponsor of the Rogers International Commodity Index, a composite, US dollar-based total return index, designed by Rogers in the late 1990s. The index represents the value of a basket of commodities consumed globally, ranging from agricultural commodities to energy and metals.

Ira Joseph, head of generating fuels and electricity power pricing for S&P Global Platts, and Ryan Ouwerkerk, manager of Americas natural gas pricing, are joined by Kelsey Hallahan and Arsalan Syed, pricing specialists from the North American natural gas team, to untangle the historic Texas freeze and subsequent price movements and what it means for US and global gas markets.

Commodity prices, as assessed by S&P Global Platts, are hitting fresh highs, sparking a debate around a potential supercycle.
Goldman Sachs' global head of commodity research Jeff Currie, who identified the last supercycle in the early 2000s spoke with Platts associate director Paul Hickin about why and how it's different this time around, what it means for oil, copper and the energy transition, as well as the outlook for demand, US shale and OPEC+.