China calls for immediate cease to military operations, after Trump's comments
08:27 | China has responded after President Trump earlier, in an interview with UK newspaper the Financial Times, threatened to delay a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping if Beijing doesn't send help to secure the Strait of Hormuz.
When asked about the US president's comments, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry says "head-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role in China-US relations", before adding "the two sides have maintained communication regarding President Trump's visit”.
In response to a question about Trump calling for warships to be sent to the Strait, Lin Jian says that recent tensions have disrupted trade routes and undermined regional and global peace.
"China reiterates its call for all parties to immediately cease military operations," the spokesperson says and adds "we are committed to promoting de-escalation".
EU to discuss what Europe can do to keep Strait of Hormuz open
8.12 | European Union member states will talk about what can be done from the European side to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, the bloc's foreign policy chief says.
"It is in our interest to keep the Strait of Hormuz open," Kaja Kallas has said ahead of an EU foreign affairs meeting in Brussels, according to Reuters news agency.
A number of ships have reportedly been attacked since the conflict began as they attempted to navigate the narrow strait, through which about 20% of the world's oil usually passes.
As we reported a short while ago, US President Donald Trump says it "would be very bad for the future of Nato" if US allies don't help secure it.
On Sunday, Downing Street said Trump spoke with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer about the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz "to end the disruption to global shipping".
WANA (Mar 12) – Oman’s Foreign Minister said early Thursday that Muscat will not join the proposed “Trump Peace Council” and will not normalize relations with Israel.
Badr Albusaidi stated that “the real objective of the war is to weaken Iran, reshape the region, and advance the normalization process” between regional countries and Israel.
In a statement, Albusaidi explained that this objective is part of a broader framework that includes efforts to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and to weaken any country or entity that supports or stands alongside the Palestinian statehood project.
Omani media quoted him as saying that the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran represent “a new link in a dangerous chain of violations seen in recent years,” warning that such actions threaten to undermine the legal framework that has provided protection and stability for countries in the region for decades.
The Omani foreign minister emphasized that Oman “will not join the Peace Council and will not normalize relations with Israel.”
Albusaidi added that there is a broader plan for the region and that Iran is not its only target. According to him, many regional actors are aware of this reality but are betting that accommodating the United States might lead Washington to change its decisions and policies.
He also said Oman is working to help end the war and pave the way for a return to diplomacy, noting that continued conflict serves neither Oman’s vital interests nor those of its regional neighbors, and not even the interests of the United States.
“The global economy will bear the cost,” he said, citing rising oil prices and growing disruptions to supply chains.
Albusaidi concluded by saying that he believes the war will end soon, but stressed that preparations must still be made for the worst-case scenario.
https://wanaen.com/badr-albusaidi-the-real-aim-of-the-war-against-iran-is-to-reshape-the-region/
Wall Street is increasingly focused on rising oil prices as the primary driver of the economy and markets amid the Middle East conflict.
Brent crude (BZ=F) futures surged to $100 per barrel last week, with the war in Iran "creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market," according to the International Energy Agency.
An unprecedented amount of petroleum released from the International Energy Agency, along with easing of sanctions on Russian oil, are measures analysts say will help but won't solve the issue of higher oil prices.
"Unless the political and kinetic situation resolve, very fast in days, you're going to end up with a scarcity issue," Macquarie Group global energy strategist Vikas Dwivedi told Yahoo Finance.
"We don't actually think $150 is an outlier move in this situation," he added.
Gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel prices have surged, threatening to squeeze consumers and businesses. With oil prices more than $25 per barrel higher than before the war began, Wall Street is now factoring rising energy costs into inflation expectations, bond yields, and overall risk appetite.
"Crude is the straw that stirs the drink right now," wrote Charlie McElligott, managing director of global equity derivatives for Nomura Securities in a client note.
McElligott noted that before the Iran conflict broke out on Feb. 28, markets had been pricing in lower inflation prospects and, until recently, "an almost exclusively 'dovish' forward policy path" for the Federal Reserve.
Now, Wall Street increasingly expects policymakers to keep interest rates unchanged.
"A higher inflation path will make it harder for the Fed to start cutting soon," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote on March 11, pushing back the first cut in our Fed forecast from June to September, followed by a second cut in December.
However, should the labor market weaken "sooner and more substantially" than expected, the analysts do not think inflation concerns would prevent earlier cuts.
The expectation of higher inflation has pushed long-term US bond yields materially higher, as investors demand a higher premium for holding long-term debt. The 30-year yield (^TYX) is again nearing the 5% level, an area that has rattled stocks several times in recent years.
"For now, oil remains the primary market driver," LPL Financial chief technical strategist Adam Turnquist said.
New Delhi, March 15: Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on Sunday said India remains self-sufficient in the production of petrol and diesel, with no requirement for imports to meet domestic demand as refineries across the country continue to operate at high capacity.
In a statement, the ministry said adequate crude oil inventories are being maintained to ensure uninterrupted fuel availability across the country.
Public sector oil marketing companies — Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited — have reported no cases of fuel dry-outs at retail outlets, with regular supplies of petrol and diesel being maintained nationwide.
The government said it continues to prioritise domestic consumers and ensure uninterrupted supply of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), particularly for households and priority sectors such as hospitals and educational institutions. Citizens have been advised to avoid panic buying as adequate stocks of petrol and diesel are available.
Oil marketing companies are encouraging LPG consumers to use digital booking platforms such as IVRS calls, SMS, WhatsApp and mobile applications, while LPG distributorships are being kept open on Sundays to maintain smooth supply.
The ministry said LPG supply is being closely monitored amid the prevailing geopolitical situation. LPG bookings declined to around 77 lakh on Saturday from 88.8 lakh on Friday, while online bookings increased from 84 per cent to about 87 per cent.
Priority sectors continue to receive protected gas supplies, including full allocation for piped natural gas (PNG) and compressed natural gas (CNG), while supply to industrial and commercial consumers is being regulated at around 80 per cent.
The government has also encouraged commercial LPG users in major cities to shift to PNG connections through city gas distribution companies.
To ease pressure on LPG supplies, domestic LPG production at refineries has been maximised and refill booking intervals have been rationalised to 25 days in urban areas and up to 45 days in rural regions.
Additionally, an extra allocation of 48,000 kilolitres of kerosene has been provided to states and Union Territories, while alternative fuels such as kerosene and coal have been activated for select sectors including hospitality and restaurants.
Investing.com -- As Brent crude persistently tests the $100-per-barrel mark amid the escalating U.S.-Israel-Iran war, the traditional calculus of "oil shocks" is undergoing a structural reassessment. Surging energy costs have historically acted as a primary drag on American consumer spending.
But the United States’ evolution into the world’s largest crude producer has fundamentally altered the transmission mechanism between global price spikes and domestic GDP.
The shale buffer and the net-exporter pivot
The most significant shift in the U.S. energy narrative is the transition from a vulnerable importer to a dominant producer. Domestic output hovers near record highs of 13.3 million barrels per day, hence, higher oil prices now function as a dual-edged sword.
$100 oil increases the "pain at the pump" for the average household, but it simultaneously triggers a surge in capital expenditure across the Permian Basin and other shale plays.
This "shale buffer" means that every dollar increase in crude prices now provides a direct stimulus to the energy-producing states of Texas, New Mexico, and North Dakota. According to recent macro models, the traditional "tax" on consumers is now partially offset by gains in industrial production and high-paying energy sector employment.
Global investors should understand that the U.S. economy is far more resilient to the current Middle East crisis than it was during the 1973 or 1979 oil supply shocks.
The inflationary friction and consumer sentiment
Oil remains a potent driver of headline inflation and a primary risk to the Federal Reserve’s "soft landing" ambitions despite the production hedge. Energy costs ripple through the economy with high velocity, impacting everything from airline ticket prices to the logistics costs for retail giants like Walmart Inc (NASDAQ:WMT) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).
The global energy market is aggressively deploying its strategic buffers to minimize the upside of the oil "inflation tax," led by a coordinated International Energy Agency (IEA) intervention. Central to this effort is a record 400-million-barrel release, which includes 80 million barrels from Japan and a massive 180-million-barrel commitment from the Trump administration’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
Despite the historic liquidity injection, the psychological friction of $5-per-gallon gasoline continues to erode domestic consumer sentiment. The critical question for the U.S. economy, as the Persian Gulf conflict keeps the Strait of Hormuz shuttered, is no longer a matter of production capacity.
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/us-economy-100-oil-triggers-091410156.html
The global energy watchdog has pledged the largest release in its history from strategic oil reserves to calm volatile markets amid the war on Iran. But is the ‘one-shot’ tactic worth it?
By Yashraj Sharma
Published On 13 Mar 2026
The International Energy Agency (IEA), a global energy watchdog, with several of the wealthiest countries as member nations, has announced the largest release of government oil reserves in its history, two weeks after the United States and Israel started their war on Iran with strikes on Tehran.
In retaliatory attacks, Tehran has launched strikes on Israel as well as US military assets and energy facilities in Gulf countries, and has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery in the global oil supply chain, driving up crude prices to more than $100 per barrel.
“The war in the Middle East is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market,” the IEA said in its monthly market report.
While the IEA’s 32 member nations appeared hesitant earlier in the week to tap into the strategic reserves, they ultimately announced they would release nearly 400 million barrels of emergency crude. That’s one-third of the grouping’s total holding of 1.2 billion barrels of government reserves.
Previously, IEA member nations have released oil from emergency reserves five times: During the 1990-1991 Gulf War; after Hurricane Katrina in 2005; during the Libyan civil war in 2011; and twice after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But is this latest release sufficient to calm down the disrupted market?
What has the IEA announced?
The energy watchdog argued that the supply shock triggered by Iran’s strikes on cargo vessels and its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz meant energy markets are facing a worse crisis than during the Gulf War of 1991 and Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Before the US and Israel attacked Tehran – and assassinated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – on February 28, Brent crude was trading at about $65 per barrel. Now, it is above $100, and Iranian leaders have warned countries that it will not allow “one litre of oil” to pass the Hormuz Strait if attacks continue, and that the price could go above $200 per barrel.
Earlier this week, former IMF economist Olivier Blanchard was quoted by news outlet Business Insider that this could be possible if tankers carrying oil cannot be protected from Iranian attacks. “I find it hard not to have as a central scenario where oil prices will remain very high for a long time, higher than the market current prices,” Blanchard said on Thursday.
The IEA’s announcement of a plan to release 400 million barrels of oil is much higher than the 2022 release of 182 million barrels of oil by the group’s members after Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA, and I am pleased that IEA members are showing strong solidarity in taking decisive action together,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based IEA.
Birol applauded the member nations’ decision to contribute to the release from their strategic reserves. “This is a major action aiming to alleviate the immediate impacts of the disruption in markets,” Birol said. “But, to be clear, the most important thing for a return to stable flows of oil and gas is the resumption of transit through the Strait of Hormuz.”
About one-fifth of the world’s oil is transported through the Strait of Hormuz. That’s more than 20 million barrels daily on average. And coordinated IEA releases are usually spread over weeks or months, meaning only a portion of the 400 million planned barrels will be released in the short term.
The IEA has not yet provided a precise timeline for releasing the oil.
Neil Quilliam, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, London, said, ultimately, the IEA release “will not make a large material difference” in the ongoing crisis.
“It really depends on the pace of the release. It is not clear yet what the schedule is,” Quilliam told Al Jazeera. By some calculations, such relief could evaporate as soon as three weeks.
“It’s a one-shot solution. It’s a high-risk strategy,” he said. “So, once that all is finished, there is no real alternative.”
After new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the slain ayatollah, struck an even more defiant tone in his first address on Thursday, oil prices shot up yet again.
What has the US announced?
The US created its own strategic petroleum reserve in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo exposed Washington’s energy security vulnerabilities.
It has the world’s largest reserve of countries which publicly report such reserves, with a maximum capacity of about 720 million barrels.
At present, Washington only holds about 415 million barrels of crude, stored in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana, as stocks have been depleted by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Only China is estimated to have a larger stockpile currently, but Beijing’s holdings are not made public.
The US is currently the world’s largest oil producer and consumer, and has confirmed that it will release 172 million barrels of oil from its strategic petroleum reserve as its contribution to coordinated efforts with the IEA.
US President Donald Trump told a local news channel on Thursday that the US government would tap the strategic reserve, in its boldest bid yet to stabilise prices in the energy sector, and “then we’ll fill it up”.
Trump has previously criticised former President Joe Biden’s administration for tapping the reserve to bring down petrol prices.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said the release would begin next week and take roughly 120 days for delivery. He added that the government would then work to replace about 200 million barrels in the next year.
Will this plug the oil shortage straight away?
No.
“Oil molecules move fast, and so do markets. What matters is how fast the released volumes actually move,” Maksim Sonin, an energy executive who works with Stanford University’s Center for Fuels of the Future, told Al Jazeera.
“Unless the underlying problem is solved, no release can fix the market,” he added.
Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, added: “While the IEA has decided to release 400 million barrels from the group’s strategic oil reserves, with commitments from Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, the UK, and the US announced thus far, the market impact of the move may prove limited.
“Supplies will be constrained by the pace at which oil can be extracted from reserves.”
Trump and his officials have changed their position on the endgame from the hostilities against Iran, frequently by the time the sun sets in the other part of the world. The US president, however, insists that the conflict is a blip and not another drawn-out war.
“But the fact that they’ve rolled in with the IEA, and they’re releasing 172 million barrels, is significant,” Quilliam told Al Jazeera. “If we get beyond that timeframe [of ending the fighting and days that the strategic oil reserves can cover], what is the situation gonna be like?”
How quickly can the oil be released?
Not very. On paper, the US claims it can release 4.4 million barrels a day; however, its actual output is much smaller, and deliveries could take weeks to reach after a drawdown is signed.
The US would release its pledged 172 million barrels over the next 120 days “to deliver based on planned discharge rates”, Chris Wright, the energy secretary, said.
The US Department of Energy says it will be prepared to begin deliveries of oil into the market 13 days after the release and sale. It could take much longer if the oil needs to be shipped to Asia, where the shortage is most severe as a result of the fallout of the Iran war. That means that supplies may not reach Asian refiners until mid-May.
“The US is still in good shape, even given the current release volume,” added Sonin of Stanford University. “Such significant quantities cannot reach refineries in a day or two. It’s faster domestically, where pipeline connectivity is strong, and much slower when barrels are shipped.”
Regardless of the quantities of oil released from the reserves, “the government’s willingness to intervene is itself a strong positive signal to the markets”, Sonin told Al Jazeera.
Is it the ‘right’ type of oil?
The makeup of the entire 400 million barrels being released to the market is not known, but we do know what sort of oil the US has in its own reserves.
Currently, the US reserve has 155 million barrels of sweet crude, which has low sulphur, and 261 million barrels of sour crude, which has high sulphur.
Sweet crude is easier and cheaper to refine, while sour crude requires more complex refining and processing.
While US refineries have seen billions of investment which has equipped them to handle sour crude, many oil importers – such as India, where the energy crisis has caused the government to enact emergency measures to discourage hoarding – do not have the same refining capabilities, further complicating efforts to mitigate the crisis.
Oil comes in various types:
(Al Jazeera)
Will 400,000 barrels of oil be enough in the longer term?
Analysts have described the IEA’s release of oil reserves as a “Band-Aid”.
By charter, the IEA mandates its members, which include the G7 countries, to store emergency oil stocks of at least 90 days’ worth of imports.
Based on past precedents, data firms estimate IEA member countries would be able to boost their output by 1.2 million barrels per day at most on top of this. But this is only a fraction of the daily volume – about 20 million barrels – that sails through the Strait of Hormuz. Therefore, the release is unlikely to have a significant effect on world shortages, analysts say.
(Al Jazeera)
What other measures has the US taken to ease economic fallout from the Iran war?
Besides releasing oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve, the Trump administration has taken a few additional measures to ease supply pressures and attempt to curb rising oil prices.
The US Treasury issued a 30-day waiver allowing countries to purchase sanctioned Russian oil that was already loaded and at sea, amounting to roughly 100 million barrels, in an effort to quickly add supply to global markets.
The administration is also considering temporarily waiving the Jones Act, a US maritime law requiring goods shipped between domestic ports to be carried on US-built and US-crewed vessels, aiming to ease domestic supply bottlenecks.
However, a White House spokesperson said this has not been finalised yet.
By Tsvetana Paraskova - Mar 14, 2026, 6:00 PM CDT
The oil futures paper market is likely underestimating the massive supply disruption that a closed Strait of Hormuz is creating in physical crude and fuel supply globally.
Crude futures prices briefly spiked early this week to $119 per barrel, before retreating to the $90s and trading at $100 a barrel early on Friday in Asian trade.
However, the premium of physical Dubai crude has surged to $38 per barrel over its paper equivalent, according to data compiled by Reuters columnist Clyde Russell.
The wide gap between paper and physical prices suggests that supply is being immediately choked off.
But traders on the paper market appear to believe that the record-high emergency stocks release and the U.S. Administration’s scrambling to calm the markets with comments that the war will end soon would ease the upward pressure on oil prices.
Analysts started expressing views that $200 oil is not a fantasy anymore—with 20% of global oil supply choked at the Strait of Hormuz buyers are racing to procure physical cargoes, refiners in Asia consider cutting processing rates, and Asian countries restrict fuel exports.
As a result, jet and diesel cracks soared to never-seen highs, leaving entire regions such as Europe in a shocking shortfall of middle distillates.
Hours after announcing the biggest-ever coordinated emergency release of oil stocks, of 400 million barrels, from reserves, the International Energy Agency warned that the Middle East war is creating the biggest supply disruption in the history of the oil market.
The IEA-coordinated release will take weeks and possibly months to reach the market. The U.S. release of stocks as part of the IEA action will take about 120 days to complete, ING’s commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said.
“If you assume a similar timeline for other countries, that works out to 3.3m b/d – far short of the supply losses we are seeing from the Persian Gulf,” they noted.
With limited capacity available to bypass the crucial Strait of Hormuz and storage filling up, Gulf producers have slashed their combined oil output by at least 10 million barrels per day, the IEA said in its monthly Oil Market Report on Thursday.
In addition, over 3 million barrels per day of refining capacity in the Gulf region has already shut due to attacks and a lack of viable export outlets.
“Runs elsewhere will be increasingly limited due to feedstock availability,” the IEA warned.
The coordinated stocks release, while a record-high since the agency was created in the 1970s, wouldn’t go far to help supply in most of developing Asia, where neither China nor India, the top crude importers, are IEA members. China has some buffer to withstand part of the supply shock, but Indian stockpiles are among the lowest in the region.
The U.S. Treasury moved to allow, until April 11, purchases of Russian crude stuck in tankers in floating storage. China and India will likely compete fiercely for this supply. And still, it will not come close to offsetting the massive loss of Middle Eastern supply, most of which goes to Asia.
“Asia's alternative crude supply sources are severely limited, with both China and India competing for Russian crude,” said Sushant Gupta, Research Director, Asia Pacific Refining and Oils at Wood Mackenzie.
“Asian refiners will struggle to fulfil crude buying requirements for April, leading to run cuts across the region. Refiners will be dipping into their buffer stocks, which is typically up to 15 days of their needs,” Gupta added.
“Eventually, most countries will need to fall back on strategic petroleum reserves if the conflict continues.”
The conflict doesn’t look to be ending soon, despite the Trump Administration’s efforts to convince the market of the contrary and play down the spike in oil and gasoline prices.
Early this week, analysts at Wood Mackenzie said that Brent Crude prices could surge to $150 per barrel in the coming weeks.
“However, supply volumes at risk this time are dimensionally bigger – and real,” unlike in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, when supply was free flowing and just had to redirect to China and India, according to WoodMac.
“In our view, US$200/bbl is not outside the realms of possibility in 2026,” the analysts said.
The Trump Administration is scrambling to contain the fallout on prices. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday told CNN that oil prices are unlikely to hit $200 per barrel, “but we are focused on the military operation and solving a problem.”
At the same time, Wright told CNBC that the U.S. Navy is not ready to begin escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
While the paper market reacts to comments and attempts at assurances, the physical crude market is flashing signs of stress and distress as a large portion of global oil supply is now off the market for weeks, possibly months.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Futures-Market-Misreads-the-Hormuz-Oil-Shock.html
By Haley Zaremba - Mar 14, 2026, 12:00 PM CDT
This week, Zimbabwe took a historic step to protect its own value chains from external exploitation by fast-tracking a ban on raw lithium exports, effective until further notice – and the impacts have been widespread both domestically and abroad. The February 25 ban was immediate and unexpected, as were its impacts on global battery supply chains and local mining operations.
Originally, the export ban was planned for January 2027, with the intent of incentivizing the local processing and refining of lithium instead of leaving value additions – and their associated profits – to importing nations. Zimbabwe is the largest producer of lithium in Africa, and has some of the largest proven lithium reserves in the world, according to figures from the US Geological Survey (USGS).
Africa is rich in resources central to the clean energy transition. While this opens up a world of opportunity for many developing economies around the continent, it also comes with significant tradeoffs, including energy autonomy and the ability to keep the profits from African primary resources within Africa, where they are sorely needed. African leaders are faced with a dilemma – accepting international investment in exchange for exporting energy resources needed within Africa, or taking the much more difficult, costly, and time-consuming option of building up homegrown value chains.
Unfortunately, Zimbabwe’s surprise ban has had some unintended negative consequences on the ground. "Regrettably, in the period following that announcement, we witnessed an unprecedented and unacceptable scramble," Zimbabwe information ministry's Nick Mangwana said in a statement on social media. "Instead of preparing for value addition, some actors engaged in a frenzy of mining activity, seeking to extract and export as much raw lithium as possible before the deadline," he went on to say.
According to a report from Africa News, some insiders also report that large quantities of lithium have been "illicitly stockpiled in a neighbouring country." Mangwana has denounced this tactic as a "plunder" of Zimbabwe's "economic future".
The move has also had immediate ramifications for Chinese battery manufacturers and global lithium-ion battery value chains, especially already-volatile EV markets. Historically, most of Zimbabwe’s lithium exports have gone to Chinese markets, and the South African nation has become “a critical supplier to China’s lithium ecosystem” according to Business Insider Africa.
“For China, which dominates global lithium processing and battery manufacturing, the policy shift represents a direct supply shock,” the Business Insider report states. “Despite its midstream dominance, China remains dependent on imported hard-rock spodumene concentrate, sourced largely from Africa and Australia, to feed its vast refining capacity.”
China has been working hard to establish dominance in clean energy supply chains in emerging economies for years now. Influence in developing countries rich in primary energy manufacturing materials is a central pillar of China’s energy security strategy and its mission to become the world’s first electro-state as well as the “center of gravity for global energy markets.”
The spread of China’s influence has been rapid, extreme, and shadowy across the African continent. A 2025 report from the China Global South Project (CGSP) revealed that “in the years between 2020 and 2024, Chinese companies and financiers have been involved in 84 energy projects across the continent, with a combined capacity of more than 32 gigawatts – enough electricity to light up over 135 million urban African homes, or more than half a billion rural homes, every year,” CGSP summarizes.
But exporting all that potential to China presents a huge issue for Africa’s energy future. Today, approximately 600 million people in Africa lack access to electricity, and the continent’s energy demand is expected to increase by a factor of three over the next decade as sub-Saharan Africa grows, develops, and industrializes. Meeting projected demand will require power generation capacity to increase tenfold by 2065.
Some critics argue that Zimbabwe’s decision to try to homeshore value chains has come too late, but the move is in line with a much larger shift in global geopolitics. “While China maintains a commanding position in refining and battery production, upstream resource holders are increasingly asserting leverage,” reports Business Insider Africa.
Ghana’s mining industry has called on the government to reconsider the overall tax burden on gold producers despite a recent reduction in the Growth and Sustainability Levy.
Ken Ashigbey, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, said the government should review the effective royalty rate on mining companies to ensure the country remains competitive for investment.
His comments come after Ghana’s parliament passed the Growth and Sustainability Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2026, on Friday, cutting the levy on gold mining companies from 3% of gross production to 1%.
The government says the measure is intended to cushion mining firms following the introduction of the Minerals and Mining Royalty Regulations, 2025, which created a sliding-scale system allowing royalty rates to rise or fall depending on global commodity prices.
Speaking in an interview on News Digest on Saturday, Ken Ashigbey welcomed the government’s decision but said further adjustments may be necessary.
“We should first say thank you to the government. The minister for finance, when we met with him and the Ministry for Lands and Natural Resources, had made a commitment that he was going to take off two percent of the growth and sustainability levy, and we had told him that we’re grateful for that, but it was not going to be enough,” he said.
According to him, the combined royalty burden on gold producers remains high and could affect Ghana’s attractiveness as a mining destination.
“The 13.54% royalty in Ghana, which effectively means that’s where the one percent GSL to the twelve percent at today’s gold price conversion, will not make us competitive,” he said.
He called for continued engagement between the government and industry players to identify what he described as a balanced tax framework.
“Our appeal and the continuous engagement we have with the government is for the government to consider that there’s some work that we need to all do together to find a sweet spot that would ensure that Ghana would continue to be an attractive mining jurisdiction,” he added.
Ashigbey also warned that declining investor confidence could have wider economic consequences.
“If you look at the Fraser Report that has just been issued, you find that in terms of investment attractiveness, we’ve dropped. And it would have implications for investment,” he said.
According to him, reduced investment in the sector could eventually lead to lower production, job losses, and declining government revenue.
https://citinewsroom.com/2026/03/current-gold-royalty-will-not-make-ghana-competitive-ken-ashigbey/
South Africa’s investment in mineral exploration dropped for a seventh consecutive year, despite the government’s ambitions to arrest the decline.
While the country is Africa’s largest exporter of mineral products, companies are spending ever smaller amounts on prospecting to identify and define the mines of the future. Nations like Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo attract a greater share of exploration capital that’s allocated to the continent.
Exploration spending in South Africa fell 5.3% to R738 million in 2025, according to data published this week by the government’s statistics agency using 2015 constant prices. Investment in prospecting has slumped more than 85% in the past three decades, the data show.
Minerals Council South Africa – the mining sector’s main lobby group – last month described exploration as the industry’s “lifeblood.”
Dwindling investment “is deeply troubling for our sector and it needs urgent attention,” said the organization whose members include Valterra Platinum, Harmony Gold and Exxaro.
An underdeveloped junior mining and exploration industry is leading to the “effective collapse of the sector’s project pipeline,” according to a recent paper from the Cape Town-based Economic Research Southern Africa.
The government could revitalize prospecting by offering tax rebates, establishing a transparent database of available mining rights and increasing funding for geological mapping, it said.
The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources published a new strategy last year which prioritizes restoring South Africa’s share of global exploration spending to 5%, up from current levels below 1%.
Despite gloom around the mining industry’s prospects in South Africa, the country remains a leading producer of multiple commodities including coal, gold, iron ore, manganese, chrome and platinum-group metals. Total mineral sales jumped 7.3% last year to 861 billion rand.
New Delhi: The Aluminium Association of India (AAI), has urged the government to exempt aluminium products from the recent RoDTEP rate cut as it would help Indian exporters remain competitive in the international market.
AAI, the apex body representing the top aluminium producers within the country, in its representation to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), has requested the government to remove aluminium exports from the recent 50 per cent RoDTEP cut, just like the government has already done for agricultural products.
The export support scheme, Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP), launched in 2021, provides for a refund of taxes, duties and levies that are incurred by exporters in the process of manufacturing and distribution of goods, and are not being reimbursed under any other mechanism at the Centre, state or local level.
It also made a plea to the government to fix RoDTEP rates for 2026-27 based on the actual taxes exporters bear, so that aluminium exporters (both regular units and SEZ units) are fairly compensated for the taxes embedded in their products.
The government recently issued a notification cutting RoDTEP rates across sectors by half with immediate effect.
Earlier, aluminium exports were eligible for RoDTEP benefits of around three per cent for Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) units and about 2.2 per cent for SEZ units.
AAI pointed out that India's aluminium exports, valued at around USD 7 billion and accounting for nearly two per cent of the country's total goods exports, are already facing increasing pressure in global markets due to rising trade barriers.
According to the industry body, the sector is currently dealing with a double challenge: export opportunities are shrinking as several countries impose higher tariffs and regulations, while aluminium imports into India are rising sharply.
For instance, the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) could impose additional costs of 7-50 per cent on aluminium exports.
Exports to the United States continue to face 50 per cent duties under Section 232 tariffs, while Mexico increased customs duties on aluminium products to 10-35 per cent from January 2026.
At the same time, expanding Chinese-backed aluminium production capacities in countries like Indonesia are intensifying global competition.
AAI also highlighted that the industry had already submitted detailed data to the government committee responsible for recommending RoDTEP rates.
Based on these submissions, the actual unrebated taxes on aluminium exports are estimated at around 8-9 per cent of the export value for DTA units and 6-7 per cent for SEZ units.
The world's largest single-site aluminium smelter in the Middle East cut its output by about 20% on Sunday, marking yet another troubling development for the global economy. The disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is no longer just an energy story - it's now spreading into industrial metals. These second- and third-order effects could soon disrupt global supply chains and tighten aluminium availability, thus pressuring prices higher.
Bloomberg reports that Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) began a controlled, safe shutdown of three reduction lines on Sunday to preserve business continuity amid heavily disrupted maritime shipping routes through the Hormuz chokepoint.
This production shutdown accounts for about 19% of Alba's total output capacity of 1.62 million tons per year, representing roughly 2.2% of global aluminium production. The suspension aims to preserve its inventory of raw materials.
In 2025, Gulf Cooperation Council members produced around 6.16 million tons of aluminium, or about 8.35% of global supply, according to the International Aluminium Institute (IAI).
Alba's cutback, along with the risk of broader disruptions to the aluminium market in the Gulf, could drive aluminium prices in the London market even higher.
The latest ship tracking data of the Hormuz chokepoint shows tankers anchored on both sides of the strait's entry and exit points. Traffic remains muted.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi assured the world on Saturday evening that the Hormuz waterway was open to all vessels, except those linked to the US or Israel.
Canadian mining firm Group Eleven Resources is set to treble its Limerick exploration drilling after raising new funding, even after mining giant Glencore declined to take part in the round.
Toronto-listed Group Eleven intends to use the proceeds of its CAD$12m (€7.5m) private placement funding round for a major expansion and acceleration of its exploration drill programmes at Ballywire and Stonepark in Co Limerick.
It expects the current total of 20,000 metres that has been drilled at the two prospects will now more than treble to over 60,000 metres.
The company has described its Ballywire prospect, which it discovered in 2022, as “the most significant mineral discovery in the Republic of Ireland in over a decade".
The drilling programme at that prospect to date has demonstrated high grades of zinc, lead, silver, copper, germanium and antimony.
Its Stonepark zinc-lead prospect, in which it holds a 78pc share, is located 20km from Glencore’s Pallas Green zinc-lead deposit.
Mining giant Glencore declined to exercise its participation right, which was triggered by the share offering, meaning its share of the metals explorer has fallen to 13pc.
There has been ongoing speculation in the Irish minerals sector that Glencore is considering a sale of its Pallas Green asset, which could contain more than 40 million tonnes of ore.
Group Eleven CEO Bart Jaworski
The share price of the explorer has risen strongly over the past 12 months, from just CAD$0.20 to a high of CAD$1.15 last week.
That strong performance has come on the back of a series of very positive drilling reports from Limerick.
In January, Group Eleven CEO Bart Jaworski told the Sunday Independent business section that its most recent drilling results from Ballywire had displayed a strong presence of copper and “spectacular” silver numbers.
He hailed Ballywire as potentially a new Tara Mines-style zinc opportunity and said there was a renewed interest in the metals sector in Ireland because of the geopolitical backdrop.
