Tag: sustainable aviation fuel

Best in Energy – 23 May 2023

Germany to subsidise industrial power (Reuters)

Boeing sceptical on sustainable aviation fuel (FT)

U.S. western states in Colorado river deal (WSJ)

Ford’s procurement deals for lithium (FT)

Ocean shipping container production falls (FT)

U.S. retailers near end of destocking cycle (WSJ)

EUROZONE manufacturers have reported another widespread decline in business activity so far in May. Preliminary results show the purchasing managers’ index slipping to 44.6 (6th percentile for all months since 2006) in May down from 45.8 (8th percentile) in April and 54.6 (67th percentile) a year ago. The index is firmly in recession territory at the lowest level since the first wave of the pandemic in March-May 2020 and before that July 2012 and October 2008-June 2009 following the financial crisis:

EUROPE’s gas storage is refilling more slowly than average as a result of a relatively cold start to spring and sharply lower prices encouraging more consumption by industry and power generators. Storage sites across the European Union and United Kingdom (EU28) topped up their fill by +10.3 percentage points between March 31 and May 21 compared with a prior ten-year average top up of +11.3 percentage points. But because storage started from a record high, fill remains exceptionally high. EU28 storage was 65.9% full on May 21, the second highest on record, and compared with a prior ten-year seasonal average fill of just 44.7%:

Best in Energy – 26 April 2023

[MUST READ] Chile’s lithium strategy (Reuters)

[MUST READ] Global supply chain length (NBER)

EU sets sustainable aviation fuel goal (Bloomberg)

Chile’s lithium participation plan (Reuters)

India gains from cheap Russia oil (Reuters)

U.S. gas stock draw in winter 2022/23 (EIA)

Tesla’s price-cutting strategy (Bloomberg)

Nordic transmission grid incident (Reuters)

EUROPE’s summer-winter gas futures calendar spread between July 2023 and January 2024 has slumped into a contango of more than €17 per megawatt-hour down from €4 on December 30 and a backwardation of €3 at the start of last winter on October 3. Storage is expected to become full well before the end of the traditional refill season in late October or early November. Nearby futures prices are falling to encourage more consumption this summer and divert cargoes to price-sensitive buyers in Asia. But prices in the middle of next winter are still expected to be high given limits on the total amount of gas that can be stored and released and the consequent need for demand restraint in December 2023 and January 2024:

NORTHWEST EUROPE has experienced a slightly colder-than-normal start to the gas refill season, limiting the volume added to storage and forestalling a sharper fall in futures prices and deeper contango. Average daily temperatures at Frankfurt in Germany have been -0.6°C below the long-term seasonal average so far in April:

Best in Energy – 28 March 2023

China’s coal imports rebound as economy restarts

France hit by fuel shortage due to industrial unrest

Kurdish regional oil output falls after pipeline halt

Sustainable aviation fuel adoption in United States

U.S. renewable generation surpasses coal or nuclear

Freight forecasts downgraded on stock glut ($WSJ)

U.S. retailers negotiate cuts in freight rates ($WSJ)

U.S. shale producers avoid forward oil selling ($FT)

Aramco’s downstream integration into China ($FT)

Aramco downstream integration into China ($BBG)

Central banks constrained by inflation targets ($FT)

U.S. CONTAINER PORTS handled loaded boxes amounting to 2.24 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in February 2023, down from 2.77 million TEUs in February 2022, and the lowest for the time of year since 2015. Businesses are still trying to reduce excess inventories as a result of the pivot from spending on merchandise to services following the lifting of epidemic controls, as well as the general slowdown in the business cycle: