China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao condemned the United States for its recent tariff measures which he said threaten global trade stability and disrupt the international economic order.
Wang made the remarks during a video call with World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Friday. He described the U.S.' implementation of "reciprocal tariffs" as a classic example of unilateral bullying, which he warned would disproportionately harm developing countries, particularly the least developed nations, and could even lead to a humanitarian crisis.
Wang emphasized that the U.S.' "reciprocal tariffs" not only violated core principles of the WTO, but undermined the international trade order and eroded the foundation of the multilateral trade system. In response, China has taken firm action to protect its legitimate rights and to defend global fairness and justice, Wang said.
He further stated that while trade differences among WTO members are inevitable, they should be resolved through dialogue and mutual respect, in accordance with WTO rules. He called on all WTO members to unite in countering unilateralism, protectionism, and coercive trade practices, advocating for open cooperation and multilateralism.
Wang reaffirmed China’s commitment to upholding WTO rules, participating actively in WTO reforms, and safeguarding a fair, transparent, and non-discriminatory global trading system.
Okonjo-Iweala said the growing trade tensions have posed significant challenges to global trade and economic growth. She stressed the importance of defending an open, rules-based multilateral trade system, and emphasized that disputes should be resolved within the WTO framework through constructive dialogue.
She also underscored that any agreements reached with the U.S. must adhere to the WTO's Most-Favored-Nation principle.
https://english.cctv.com/2025/04/13/ARTI8Yhq5BVw7f24wPjwEPup250413.shtml
When the White House imposed volatile trade policies that changed within hours or days, it hurt the U.S. dollar. Investors who dumped the currency and treasury bills bought gold instead.
Last week, Barrick Gold (GOLD) added 19.92% to close at $20.59. Nemont (NEM) gained 27.02% to close at $54.97. NEM stock topped the S&P 500 (SPY) for two straight days. At its highest in almost six months, investors are betting gold prices will rise further.
UBS set a $3,500 price target on gold. It has a $60 price target on NEM stock, implying another $5.00 upside ahead. UBS analyst Daniel Major thinks that the firm has operational momentum. Demand for gold will continue to increase as the U.S. dollar loses its position as the world’s reserve currency.
Newmont will likely outperform analyst expectations as it increases gold output. In addition, the firm demonstrated management discipline in divesting its assets. For example, since its Newcrest merger, it will receive around $3.2 billion in cash. Shareholders will get most of that cash back through a stock buyback program this year.
Your Takeaway
Gold prices show no sign of weakening. Volatile stock markets, driven primarily by uncertainties in tariff rates, will lift gold prices. Investors may hold ETFs like gold (GLD) or gold miners (GDX) to participate in the shiny metal rally.
http://www.baystreet.ca/articles/stockstowatch.aspx?id=20553
The shifting U.S. trade policies have caused uncertainty in global oil markets. On Monday, OPEC lowered its demand forecast for the first time since December. Similarly, on Tuesday, the IEA reduced its oil demand growth projections to 730,000 barrels per day (bpd) for this year, down from 1.03 million bpd, and to 690,000 bpd for next year, citing growing trade tensions.
The IEA stated that the worsening global economic outlook, driven by a sudden rise in trade tensions in early April, has led to a cut in their oil demand growth forecast for this year.
Key points from IEA
Despite the OPEC + and IEA downgrades, oil prices are finding support after data from China yesterday, which showed that China’s crude oil imports for March were up around 5% YoY. Chinese crude oil imports topped 12 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, the highest volume since August 2023. The jump was also said to be down to an Iranian oil surge as the US looks to tighten sanctions on the Middle Eastern country.
The US and Iran are currently having nuclear talks after stern warnings from president Trump that the lack of a deal could lead to military action. The risks from a potential US-Iran confrontation could lead to a significant jump in oil prices but it does seem like President Trump is eyeing a deal rather than military confrontation at this point.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Friday that the U.S. might block Iranian oil exports to put pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program. However, based on Chinese data this week, there is skepticism over whether such an approach would work.
https://www.marketpulse.com/markets/oil-price-outlook-iea-downgrades-and-china-imports/
Year after year, decade after decade, officials in Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul and beyond dutifully bought U.S. Treasury securities. That’s now changing.
By William Pesek, Senior Contributor.
On a recent New York-Tokyo flight, I bumped into a former Bank of Japan official. A senior, battle-tested one who has ostensibly seen it all. He was on the job during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Russia’s default in 1998, the Lehman Brothers crash in 2008, the “taper tantrum” of 2013, the Donald Trump 1.0 era and Covid-19.
Naturally, I asked him what he made of the Trump 2.0 trade war shaking up Asia. “I keep thinking of the Far Side,” he quipped, referring to Gary Larson’s anthropomorphic comic strip of old.
One in particular, he said, depicting airline pilots warning their 300 passengers of turbulence to come. In the next panel, we see that the pilots are swinging the yoke wildly back and forth, creating havoc for fun.
“We’re all on that plane now, with Trump at the controls creating chaos for his amusement,” he said. “But Asia sure isn’t amused.”
Neither are bond investors, which only means more Trumpian turbulence everywhere. Self-inflicted, too, which is generating a sense of betrayal among Asian central banks that have long been the core of Washington’s ability to live beyond its means.
Year after year, decade after decade, officials in Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul and beyond dutifully bought U.S. Treasury securities. That’s now changing. Investors everywhere are questioning the idea that U.S. government debt is still special and immune to the laws of financial gravity.
Trump has, in short order, threatened the sanctity of U.S. government debt. That has governments from Japan to China to Germany wondering about the safety of vast amounts of public savings.
For years now, a succession of American governments took for granted Asian demand for Treasuries. Trump, though, is the first U.S. leader to try the patience of Asian central banks in direct terms. That itself raises questions about this White House’s interest in global stability.
Aside from the policy volatility, underlying fundamentals raise their own questions. The U.S. national debt is approaching $37 trillion at a moment when Team Trump is angling for more tax cuts and neutering the Internal Revenue Service.
Trump’s tariff policies, meanwhile, threaten to send inflation skyrocketing. This has Trump on something of a war footing with the Federal Reserve. Trump wants Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut rates. Powell argues inflation is too uncomfortably high to lower rates.
The schizophrenic policy shifts are really spooking investors, too. Trump’s tariffs on China alone have gone from 10% to 145% in the space of a few weeks. Are they going even higher? Lower? It’s anyone’s guess.
If you’re a CEO anywhere who was uncertain last month about hiring, hiking wages, making investments or taking a risk on a new product or strategy, you’re now even less inclined to do any of these things. And if you’re an Asian central bank official worried about holding U.S. Treasuries, the impulse to buy more is dwindling by the minute.
But what of large-scale selling? Any whiff that Japan might trim its nearly $1.1 trillion of Treasuries could devastate global credit markets. The same with Beijing dumping large blocks of its $760 billion of U.S. government debt.
Last week, markets were awash in rumors that the Bank of Japan, People’s Bank of China or one Asian monetary authority or another might be reducing exposure to Trump’s policy chaos. Suffice to say, the most tantalizing financial data in coming weeks will be on central banks’ reserve holdings.
It’s not that simple, of course. News that officials in Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, India or elsewhere are selling dollars could send U.S. yields sharply higher. That could destabilize the global financial system in unprecedented ways. Aside from the carnage in markets, the shockwaves could have U.S. consumers closing their wallets.
It’s possible that the losses Asian governments might suffer from Treasuries are preferable to a global crisis that could make 2008 seem tame by comparison. Indeed, Japanese officials say they’re not planning on using U.S. debt as a tariff retaliation tool.
Yet if China went that route, BOJ officials would face some very uncomfortable decisions and trade-offs. Particularly with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba gearing up for bilateral trade talks with Team Trump.
These risks make Powell’s job even harder, too. If he cuts interest rates to make Trump happy, inflation could shoot higher and damage trust in the dollar. Inflation risks are also intensifying thanks to Trump’s tariffs.
The Fed losing control over inflation could greatly reduce demand for U.S. Treasuries. Trump’s designs on changing the Fed’s mandate to pressure Powell’s board to cut rates could end up doing the same.
One doesn’t need to indulge in conspiracy theories to worry that China might shun Treasuries. The more Washington’s profligate fiscal policies collide with Trump’s chaos, the more America’s last AAA credit rating could be in trouble.
The silence from Moody’s Investors Service, the last to assign the U.S. a top rating, is deafening. The same goes for S&P Global and Fitch Ratings, both of which rate the U.S. economy AA+.
Yet as Trump wreaks havoc with the U.S. markets, China gets to look like a pillar of strength, stability and, yes, capitalism. Just one more way Trump’s self-defeating trade war is making China’s ambitions of economic dominance great again.
The head of research at Fundstrat says that the de-escalation of the trade war between the US and China could be the catalyst for a massive reversal in the stock market.
In a new interview with CNBC Television, Tom Lee says that tariff negotiations between the nations cooling down would decrease the probability that the economy goes through a recession.
“We know markets have gotten very pessimistic, they’ve priced in a 60% probability of a recession, and if tariff negotiations de-escalate, then the probability isn’t that high, so I think that there’s still a big window for markets to have a large rebound but it’s really the path of this de-escalation.”
According to Lee, investors should pay attention to how the tariff war between the US and China plays out. He says that if the tariffs remain in place, it could be bad news for the world economy. However, if one of the nations capitulates or the situation de-escalates – a scenario he deems likely – it could lead to a turnaround for the stock market.
“The US and China have absurd levels of reciprocal tariffs at the moment. And if you believe those are in place, then the global economy is in trouble and you should be bearish.
But if this is a matter of who makes the overture first or blinks, but we know it de-escalates, then I think the downside comes off dramatically, and I think stocks can actually do really well into the rest of the year.”
Seabed nodules rich in key metals such as nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese are crucial for the battery and defence industries.
The initiative is part of a broader US strategy to become self-sufficient in these essential minerals. Credit: Gallwis/Shutterstock.
The US Government is drafting an executive order to facilitate the stockpiling of minerals from the Pacific Ocean seabed, the Financial Times reported.
The move aims to reduce dependence on China for critical battery minerals and rare earth elements (REEs), said people with knowledge of the matter.
Seabed nodules rich in nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese are seen as vital for various industries including battery production and defence.
The initiative is part of a broader US strategy to become self-sufficient in these essential minerals.
The Trump administration has been proactive, with efforts ranging from pushing Ukraine for a minerals deal to exploring domestic production increases.
Alexander Gray, former chief of staff to the US National Security Adviser, highlighted the importance of focusing on deep-sea mining. He said: “China increasingly views the deep seabed as a front line in economic and military competition with the US.”
A strategic reserve of polymetallic nodules could help the US compete with China’s control over REEs, as Beijing has recently placed restrictions on the export of these minerals.
The proposed stockpile would ensure the availability of large quantities of these minerals on US soil, particularly in the event of a conflict that might disrupt imports.
Key Republicans have supported the move, with last year’s defence budget bill mandating a feasibility study into the nodules’ potential for defence applications.
Despite the enthusiasm, the US has been noticeably absent from international seabed mining negotiations and has not ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The International Seabed Authority’s (ISA) recent talks did not result in approval for mining in international waters, with many countries advocating a moratorium due to environmental concerns and doubts about competing with China’s extensive mineral supply chain.
The Metals Company, through its US subsidiary, is seeking permits for seabed mining, bypassing the ISA’s authority, as the US is not a signatory to the relevant treaty.
Photo: Michael M. Santiago (Getty Images)
U.S. stocks edged up Monday morning as investors digested mixed messages on the trade war, following some of the most chaotic and turbulent weeks in recent market memory.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 91 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 added 12 points, also climbing 0.2% as of 12:20 p.m. Eastern. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite remained breakeven. Gold, meanwhile, slipped 0.8%, suggesting a slight pullback from last week’s mad dash into safe-haven assets. Apple (AAPL) stock climbed, helping lead market indexes higher.
A surprise tariffs announcement late Friday triggered the tech-led bounce on Monday. The electronics exemption, issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, seemed to shield smartphones, laptops, and other consumer electronics from Trump administration tariffs on Chinese goods – offering relief for companies that rely heavily on Chinese manufacturing, such as Apple, Nvidia (NVDA), and Microsoft (MSFT)
But the reprieve may be short-lived. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the products are still included under a forthcoming round of semiconductor-related tariffs, “coming in probably a month or two.”
And President Donald Trump later rejected the idea that there had been any exemption at all, saying the goods are still subject to existing 20% fentanyl-linked tariffs and had merely shifted tariff categories. He said no product was actually exempt, calling the change a simple reclassification.
“NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook,’” Trump said Sunday on his social media site Truth Social.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts criticized the shifting policies as “chaos and corruption,” warning that such unpredictability is eroding investor confidence.
Forecasts cut amidst extreme fear
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Fear & Greed Index is still planted in “extreme fear” territory, reflecting a lack of bullish sentiment amidst chaotic policy announcements — to say nothing of chaotic policy determination. The S&P 500's recent 5% intraday swings suggest volatility that is more structural than seasonal.
Analysts at both Morgan Stanley (MS) and Citigroup (C) have cut their year-end forecasts for U.S. stocks, pointing to rising risks from such unpredictable policy moves and ongoing geopolitical tensions.
Heading into a packed week of corporate earnings in which major banks, healthcare companies, and consumer-facing platforms such as Netflix (NFLX) will report results, each release could either steady or rattle investor nerves.
Apple bites back
Apple stock jumped 2.3% on Monday morning, lifted by hopes the company will be temporarily exempt from new electronics tariffs.
Separately, Apple reclaimed the top spot in global smartphone shipments for the first quarter 2025, thanks to strong demand for the iPhone 16e in markets such as Japan and India. Even alongside valid fears of disruptions to Apple’s supply chain, its product suite and global brand power remain unmatched.
Goldman Sachs opens the earnings floodgates
Goldman Sachs (GS) reported a robust 15% increase in first-quarter profit, reaching $4.74 billion, or $14.12 per share, driven by strong trading performance amid market volatility. Goldman stock rose 1.9% Monday.
But it’s not just about one earnings beat. Goldman is a bellwether for how corporate America is handling volatility, providing a real-time pulse check on capital flows and investor sentiment in a year that’s been anything but normal. On Monday, it’s a reminder that Wall Street firms may make money whether times are good or bad.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stocks-rise-apple-jumps-goldman-121600681.html
India’s wealthiest are having a rough 2025. In the first few months alone, the combined fortunes of the country’s richest business leaders have plunged by $30.5 billion, or Rs 2.63 lakh crore, according to the latest data on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The net worth of Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Shiv Nadar, and others has taken a massive hit amid a sharp correction in equity markets, fuelled by foreign investor exits and escalating global trade friction. All thanks to US President Donald Trump’s tariff shock.
Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has lost $3.42 billion this year. He now sits at 17th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $87.2 billion. While Reliance Industries has held steady, Jio Financial Services has slumped 24%.
Gautam Adani, who is India’s second-richest person and closely behind Ambani, has faced a $6.05 billion drop in net worth this year. It may be noted that the flagship Adani Enterprises has dropped 9% in 2025, as investor caution over leverage and market volatility weighs on the group.
However, tech billionaire Shiv Nadar has taken the hardest hit so far. The HCL founder’s net worth has cratered by $10.5 billion, making him the hardest-hit Indian billionaire in 2025.
Among other Indian billionaires, Savitri Jindal, matriarch of the Jindal Group, has seen her fortune shrink by $2.4 billion, while Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi is down $3.34 billion.
Shares of Sun Pharma are down nearly 11% this year, dragged by regulatory pressures and weak earnings in the pharma sector.
Trump's tariffs have also battered retail investors, with the Sensex and Nifty down about 4.5% year-to-date, while midcap and smallcap indices have plunged over 14% and 17%, respectively.
The Sensex and Nifty are down around 4.5% year-to-date, while midcap and smallcap indices have nosedived by over 14% and 17% respectively.
A wave of foreign institutional investor (FII) outflows has intensified the decline, triggered by high valuations and concerns over a global slowdown. Trump’s tariffs have only added fuel to the fire.
Published By: Koustav Das Published On: Apr 14, 2025
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) reported a beat on first quarter earnings Tuesday, even as concerns linger about how President Trump's tariffs will impact its medical device business, as well as how a probe into pharmaceutical tariffs will impact its business.
J&J reported first quarter revenue of $21.9 billion, beating Wall Street estimates by 1.4%. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.69, beating Wall Street by 6.7%. Despite the beat, J&J's stock traded down less than 1% Tuesday.
The company raised its 2025 sales guidance Tuesday by $700 million, putting the new target at 3.3% to 4.3% growth, or a midpoint of $92 billion. That is despite a decline in sales after the patent expiry of Stelara, the company's blockbuster inflammatory condition treatment, this year.
On an earnings call Tuesday, executives said that China, Canada, and Mexico are where the company has the most exposure on tariffs.
CFO Joe Wolk estimated about $400 million in tariff impact, saying it would primarily hit the medical devices business.
"It would include, to some small degree, some of the steel and aluminum tariffs that impact some of our products. It includes the China tariffs, as well as the China retaliatory tariffs — and that is probably the most substantial out of all the tariffs," Wolk said.
He told Yahoo Finance that up to 70% of the tariff impact is from the products exported to China from the U.S.
The hit from tariffs is being taken on as cost of goods and will "sit on the balance sheet ... in future periods," Wolk said.
Asad Haider, Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research head of the healthcare business unit, told Yahoo Finance that the company reduced its research costs and also has a lot more leverage, due to its size, to whether the current tariff confusion.
"We don't really know line items...it speaks a little bit to the leverage they have across the P&L to make these types of investments," Haider said.
The Johnson & Johnson logo displayed on a smartphone screen, with the company's latest stock price performance and candlestick chart in the background. (Cheng Xin/Getty Images) · Cheng Xin via Getty Images
The industry is also bracing for the impact of the investigation into pharmaceutical tariffs, which the Trump administration announced Monday.
However, CEO Joaquin Duato said, "It is also important that companies in healthcare partner with the administration to look to mitigate some of the vulnerabilities that exist today in our healthcare supply chain so as to avoid any continuity of supply effect."
J&J has also faced some of the same industry pressures as its peers in recent years, including the Inflation Reduction Act's Medicare price negotiations. But it is also pressured by the ongoing talc litigation and recently faced a major setback in the courts, with a judge rejecting a potential $10 billion settlement.
Bloomberg / Getty Images
Key Takeaways
Netflix (NLFX) shares jumped Tuesday following a report company executives laid out ambitious targets at a business review meeting last month.
Executives said the streaming giant aims to double the $39 billion in revenue Netflix brought in last year, with a global ad sales target of $9 billion by 2030, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The streaming giant also aims to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion by 2030, the report said, up from roughly $419.2 billion. The only U.S. companies with a market cap above $1 trillion today include Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B).
Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shares were up more than 5% in recent trading Tuesday, leading gains on the S&P 500. They've added about 60% of their value over the past 12 months. (Read Investopedia's live coverage of today's market action here.)
Last week, Morgan Stanley analysts named Netflix a “top pick,” arguing the company could be well-positioned to withstand the current tariff landscape. The streaming giant has shown "momentum” in its core subscription business, the analysts said. That momentum lowers the company’s overall risk, the bank added, even if the advertising market struggles amid rising trade tensions.
Netflix is set to report its first-quarter results after the market closes Thursday.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/netflix-stock-pops-report-streaming-160434535.html
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The US Government will investigate the imposition of new tariffs on all critical minerals imports under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (section 232) to determine if they pose any risk to national security, under a new executive order issued by US President Donald Trump.
Trump’s executive order requires Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to report his findings within 180 days, which may include recommendations for tariffs on critical minerals that would override existing reciprocal tariffs set earlier this month.
The review will examine US vulnerabilities in processing critical minerals such as cobalt, nickel, rare earths and uranium. It will also look into market distortions by foreign actors and strategies to enhance domestic supply and recycling.
The order stated: “Critical minerals, including rare earth elements, in the form of processed minerals are essential raw materials and critical production inputs required for economic and national security.
“Critical mineral oxides, oxalates, salts and metals (processed critical minerals), as well as their derivative products – the manufactured goods incorporating them – are similarly foundational to United States national security and defence.”
Currently, the US has limited capabilities to extract and process these minerals, with only a few mines and processing facilities.
China, a leading producer of many critical minerals, has recently reduced its exports, raising alarms about US dependency and potential risks to national security and economic resilience, reported Reuters.
The initiative is part of Trump’s broader efforts to boost US minerals production and processing, which include expediting the approval of US mines and identifying federal lands for minerals processing.
However, the lengthy timeline required to establish new mines and facilities is a concern for securing minerals in the short term.
The recent export restrictions by China on rare earths, in response to Trump’s tariffs, have heightened supply concerns among US officials.
The White House also highlighted Trump’s focus on closing tariff loopholes and exemptions in the supply chain, which involves multiple countries, thereby reinstating a genuine 25% tariff on steel and increasing the tariff on aluminium to 25%.
The new executive order follows a pause on tariffs imposed by Trump on 75 countries, which initiated discussions regarding new trade agreements, except China, which responded with retaliatory measures.
As a result of the measures, China now faces tariffs of up to 245% on its imports to the US.
https://www.mining-technology.com/news/trump-critical-minerals-tariff-investigation/
The government has passed a bill that allows it to force companies to keep operations going at loss-making steel businesses in England. That or their executives will face criminal penalties. The bill was approved in what was just the sixth Saturday sitting of parliament since the second world war. The move was made necessary by the apparent breakdown of talks with British Steel 's Chinese owners, which threatened to provoke the works' furnaces going out and the loss of thousands of jobs. - Guardian
US activist investor, Elliott Management, may oppose the re-election this week of Murray Auchincloss as BP's boss. A revolt would follow BP chairman Helge Lund's decision earlier during the same month to step down in 2026. Panmure Liberum analyst, Ashley Kelly, is of the opinion that in markets there was a growing sense that the oil major needed to replace both its chief executive and chairman.- The Financial Mail on Sunday
Google is asking the Competition and Markets Authority to move with haste to avoid Microsoft dominating the cloud storage space in the UK. The move follows an independent inquiry that provisionally found that Microsoft had leveraged its position in software to make it more difficult for competitors to compete for cloud customers. Google backed those findings, but Microsoft said that they were flawed. - The Sunday Times
Former Monetary Policy Committee member, Andrew Sentance, thinks that inflation in the UK may be headed back above 5.0% by autumn. Last summer it was running at 2.0% and more recently at 2.8%. Signs of potentially higher prices were there already before Trump, but now the US President's tariffs had added a layer of uncertainty, he said. Yet should trade conflicts become too extreme, then central banks the world over may yet be called on to lower rates in order to buttress growth. So for now his advice to the Bank of England is to hold its fire and wait for greater clarity. - The Financial Mail on Sunday
By Irina Slav - Apr 13, 2025, 6:00 PM CDT
Crude oil is set to end another week with substantial losses as markets reel from President Trump’s tariff offensive, despite the fact he pulled the punch at the last second. With one notable exception: China. As Beijing and Washington take turns to up the ante, the outlook for oil and energy in general has gone from bright to really dim.
Brent crude is about to end this week relatively unchanged but down by $6 per barrel from a month ago. West Texas Intermediate has slipped below $60 per barrel and might spend some time there. The drop is all a result of the sudden change in the outlook for oil demand—because of Trump’s tariff war.
“We are going into a recession,” Renaissance Macro Research’s head of economic research, Neil Dutta, wrote in a note cited by Bloomberg. “I don’t think it is especially controversial to say so.” The statement sums up the dominant sentiment among economic forecasters as well as, it seems, the majority of market players. Warnings of a recession have multiplied at bacterial-growth speed, and now even the Energy Information Administration at the U.S. Department of Energy is warning of the negative impact that the tariff war would have on oil demand.
Bloomberg noted that oil prices have been trending down since Trump took office. At the time, the reason was the overwhelming expectation that the new U.S. president would somehow convince oil and gas producers to boost output even faster than they were already. When the industry made clear it had no intention of doing so, attention turned to Trump’s trade policies, which were a lot more controversial than his “Drill, baby, drill” dream.
The logic of all the warnings and all the grim demand predictions is simple enough: tariffs would supercharge inflation, leading to an overall drop in spending. This, in turn, would destroy oil demand. The basis of that argument is sound—which is why Trump took all the forecasters by surprise when he instituted a 90-day pause on the massive tariffs he had announced earlier in the week in anticipation of their eagerness to negotiate new trade deals with the United States. The risk of a deep global recession just became a lot smaller.
However, the tariff exchange between the U.S. and China has not stopped. A series of retaliatory tariff announcements had Trump in the lead with a tariff total of 145% on Chinese imports. China first raised the tariff to 85%, but has since upped its game and is now trailing him with a grand total of 125%. While traders and analysts processed the exchange, some observers were quick to comment that either Trump or China blinked first after both sides signaled they were open to a trade deal to replace the tariff race to the bottom. Trump himself said he would love to do a deal with Beijing. Beijing, for its part, said that it was open to negotiations, but they had to be based on mutual respect.
This suggestion that the two sides were open to negotiations has done nothing for oil prices—yet. And there is a reason for that. China has been reducing its intake of U.S. crude since January when Trump took office. Indeed, U.S. oil exports to China have shrunk considerably since the start of 2025, amounting to just 1% of total oil imports by the world’s second-largest consumer. It bears noting that the U.S. has never been a top supplier of oil to China, with the 2024 total at a little over 200,000 barrels daily. Still, any negative trends in imports are inevitably going to affect prices, which is exactly what these trends did.
“With China imposing 84% tariffs on goods from the US, the cost of US crude would be almost double — $51 a barrel more expensive, based on $61 WTI,” Ivan Mathews, head of APAC analysis for Vortexa, told Bloomberg this week. “This makes running US crude uneconomical for Chinese refiners.”
This is not good news for U.S. producers, even though they were not shipping millions of barrels of crude to China. The oil market these days runs on perceptions rather than hard data, and the perception is that the tariff war is killing oil demand, so the outlook for oil demand is dimming. It may not remain dim for long, though.
“I'm sure that we'll be able to get along very well,” President Trump said on Thursday, referring to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. “In a true sense he's been a friend of mine for a long period of time, and I think that we'll end up working out something that's very good for both countries,” Trump said, quite likely creating some confusion among followers of current political events.
If both sides in a tariff spat are willing to end the spat with a deal, then this greatly improves the chances of such a deal being done. If such a deal is indeed done, fears of a global recession and market crashes should dissipate—and so should any major worries about oil demand. If it takes nothing less than a global recession to stem growth in oil demand, then it’s safe to say that demand is quite solid.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Oil-Outlook-Takes-a-Beating-from-Trade-War-Jitters.html
MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. OPEC+ countries participating in the oil production limiting deal increased its production by 5,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March 2025 and were producing 99,000 bpd above the target with consideration of voluntary cuts and compensations, according to data presented in the OPEC report for April.
OPEC+ countries produced 35.512 mln bpd not including Libya, Iran and Venezuela that are exempted from the deal performance. The countries were to produce 35.413 mln bpd with consideration of all the voluntary cuts and compensation schedules for March. Thus, the alliance was producing 99,000 bpd above the target.
Kazakhstan was 422,000 bpd above its production commitments as part of the OPEC+ agreement. The country was to produce 1.43 mln bpd in March, while actual production totaled 1.852 bpd. Iraq was 97,000 bpd above the target; 3.981 mln bpd against the quota of 3.884 mln bpd.
Certain countries have their production lower than the target provided by OPEC+. These are South Sudan (44,000 bpd lower), Sudan (37,000 bpd), Congo (18,000 bpd) and Equatorial Guinea (9,000 bpd). Nigeria was 15,000 bpd above its quota in March.
Among the countries not participating in OPEC+ deal constraints, Libya lowered its production by 22,000 bpd to 1.262 mln bpd. Iran increased oil production by 12,000 bpd to 3.335 mln bpd. Oil production in Venezuela declined by 2,000 bpd to 911,000 bpd.
Coal
Weak demand and domestic prices at four-year lows led to a 6% annual decline in Chinese coal imports in March.
China imported 38.73 million metric tons of coal last month, down from 41.38 million tons in March 2024. Lower domestic prices and high inventories at ports contributed to the decline.China remains a leader in renewable energy capacity installations and coal-fired power, driving record-high global coal demand. Thermal power generation rose by 1.5% in 2024 to 6.34 trillion kWh. Coal remains the baseload of China’s power system amid increasing electrification of homes and transport.
Oil
G7 and the UK are considering reducing the price cap on Russian oil exports to impact oil revenues. The cap has been deemed "meaningless" in the current oil price context. Russia has adapted by using domestic and Asian insurers and shipping operators, reducing the cap's effectiveness.
Goldman Sachs has reduced its oil price outlook for the third time since April, citing weaker-than-expected demand growth. The bank predicts Brent crude averaging $63 this year and $58 in 2026. Risks to this forecast include potential OPEC policy changes and recession impacts.
Oil market volatility continued with prices initially declining and then rebounding early Monday. China's recent hike of tariffs on U.S. imports to 125% in response to Trump's tariff increase adds to uncertainty. Economic data from China and potential U.S. actions on Iranian oil exports further influence market dynamics.
The Donald Trump administration has asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy to hand over a critical natural gas pipeline to the US.
The pipeline is a key infrastructure transporting Russian gas supplies to Europe. It runs from western Russia's Sudzha to Ukraine's Uzhorod near the Slovakian border.
Since January 1, the pipeline stopped operating after a five-year contract between Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine came to an end. The expiry of the deal has also suspended transit fees for the natural gas that was shared by Ukraine and Russia.
Now, a US proposal draft demands that the control of the pipeline should be given to a US federal agency called International Development Finance Corporation, reported Reuters.
This move would give the US access to Ukrainian mineral deposits, including rare earth elements. If Zelenskyy inks the agreement, Ukraine will be required to deposit all revenues generated from these resources in a joint investment fund.
However, this deal does not provide any US security guarantees for Ukraine against external actors like Russia. Trump is seeking the control of pipeline as well as rare earth minerals as "payback" for the military and financial aid supplied by the Joe Biden administration.
It is not clear whether Zelenskyy will agree to a "50:50" split of revenue as demanded by Trump's team. Last week, the Ukrainian president said the deal should be beneficial for both the US and Ukraine.
Following the Oval Office showdown between Zelenskyy and Trump in February, the US paused military aid for Ukraine. During the disastrous meeting at the White House, Trump cancelled the signing ceremony and called off a joint press conference with Zelenskyy. The US president also turned down the Ukrainian leader's request for a one-on-one meeting. Zelenskyy and his team was later asked to exit the White House.
Oil and gas stocks are plummeting after OPEC+ revealed plans to slowly eliminate voluntary production cuts this month.
OPEC+ includes all members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus 10 non-OPEC oil-producing countries. The group said it will gradually remove the cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day.
Analysts said OPEC+ production cuts have been a major factor supporting oil prices. Following the group's announcement, there was a decline in forward strip prices for both 2025 and 2026, according to Investing.com. Oil-weighted equities dipped by more than 6%.
The world is moving away from dirty fuels and toward a cleaner economy. The Guardian reported that global oil consumption for cars and trucks will drop by 50% over the next 30 years. The decline is motivated by a booming electric vehicle market and other clean energy resources. Still, experts have concerns about the impact of shipping, aviation, and industry.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there are more than 3,400 dirty fuel power plants in the nation. The burning of oil, coal, and natural gas contributes to polluting gases that are causing the overheating of the planet. Air pollution from the dirty energy sources can be harmful to human health and trigger various health conditions, including asthma and respiratory infections.
Oftentimes, companies deceptively claim to support the environment while still causing damage to the planet — otherwise known as greenwashing. Some oil companies have been overstating their commitments to achieving net-zero pollution in the next 30 years, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. For example, while BP said it was going to slash emissions — it also said it would increase oil and gas production through 2027.
Despite misleading marketing, the future seems to be leaning in a greener direction. The International Energy Agency reported that clean energy added around $320 billion to the world economy in 2023. There has also been a positive impact on employment. Per the IEA, there were more jobs in clean energy than dirty fuels in 2021. Experts said that trend will likely continue.
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/opec-plus-oil-production-cuts-stocks-investing/
Europe faces a delicate balance in ensuring energy security following the Russia-Ukraine conflict. While U.S. LNG temporarily offset the loss from Russian gas, European executives are reconsidering limited Russian imports amid diversification challenges. The geopolitical landscape and trade tensions underscore the need for strategic energy diversification.
In the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Europe's energy security has become increasingly precarious. The energy crisis of 2022-2023 saw U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) fill the void left by Russian supplies to Europe. However, shifting U.S. policies under President Donald Trump have left European businesses wary of over-reliance on American energy.
As tensions persist, EU executives are contemplating the return of Russian gas imports, a notion previously deemed untenable. Although pledging to end Russian energy imports by 2027, Europe's limited options and the stalled gas talks with Qatar have prompted considerations of importing once again from Russia, including via Gazprom. Executives stress the importance of diversified energy routes to enhance security.
In Germany, the dependence on Russian gas, especially in industrial hubs like Leuna Chemical Park, has led to job cuts and calls for cheaper energy solutions. Political and economic stakeholders are urging the federal government to explore reliable energy partnerships while remaining cautious of the potential geopolitical implications of over-reliance on U.S. gas.
(With inputs from agencies.)
AAA reports the average gas price in Georgia decreased at the pumps compared to a week ago. Georgians now pay an average price of $2.98 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline, which can change overnight. Monday’s state average is 6 cents lower than a week ago, 8 cents higher than a month ago, and 45 cents lower than last year. It costs drivers an average of $44.70 to fill a 15-gallon tank of regular gasoline. Georgians are paying almost $7.00 less to fill up at the pump than a year ago.
“Several factors contributed to the drop in gas prices,” said Montrae Waiters, AAA-The Auto Club Group spokeswoman. “Lower crude oil prices, demand has tapered off now that Spring Break has ended in Georgia, and a hefty gasoline supply in the U.S.”
The most expensive metro markets in Georgia are Athens ($3.04), Atlanta ($3.03), and Savannah ($2.98). The least expensive metro markets in Georgia are Catoosa-Dade-Walker ($2.86), Augusta-Aiken ($2.85), and Hinesville-Fort Stewart ($2.84).
Since last Monday, the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline has decreased by 7 cents to $3.18, subject to change overnight. Prices at the pump are coming down even though this is the time of year when gas prices go up. Supply and demand are the main reasons for the dip. After OPEC+ announced its increasing oil production for next month by more than 400,000 barrels a day – much more than expected – the price of crude oil has been falling. Oversupply and tepid gasoline demand are resulting in lower pump prices.
According to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), gasoline demand decreased from 8.49 barrels a day last week to 8.42. Total domestic gasoline supply decreased from 237.6 million barrels to 236.0. and gasoline production decreased, averaging 8.9 million barrels per day.
At the close of last Wednesday’s formal trading session, WTI rose $2.77 to settle at $62.35 a barrel. The EIA reports that crude oil inventories increased by 2.6 million barrels from the previous week. At 442.3 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 5% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Meanwhile, the national average per kilowatt-hour of electricity at a public EV charging station remained at 34 cents today. Drivers can find electric charging prices along their route using the AAA TripTik Travel Planner.
https://wnegradio.com/georgia-gas-price-average-makes-a-u-turn-at-the-pumps/
Russia's revenue from sales of crude oil and oil products in March declined by 21% from a year earlier to $14.29 billion as oil prices fell, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday.
It also said Russian oil exports dropped by 390,000 barrels per day (bpd) from March 2024 to 5.06 million bpd last month. Fuel exports were down 210,000 bpd.
Overall, Russian oil and oil products exports fell 600,000 year-on-year last month.
"The widening price discounts on Russian grades versus global benchmarks since 10 January added to overall price weakness," the IEA said. "But strong sour crude demand sustained Urals discounts versus Dubai delivered to the west coast of India at their narrowest level since last December."
In early January, Washington introduced its broadest package of sanctions yet against Russian oil companies and tankers carrying Russian oil, over Moscow's conflict in Ukraine.
According to the IEA, Russia's crude oil production last month edged down to 9.07 million bpd from 9.08 million bpd in February but was still above the country's OPEC+ quota of 8.98 million bpd.
However, OPEC data on Monday showed Russia's crude oil output dropped 10,000 bpd in March to 8.963 million bpd.
Kazakhstan's output was unchanged in March from the previous month, but some 390,000 bpd over the target set by the OPEC+ group of leading oil producers, IEA said.
In 2024, Kazakhstan pumped 60,000 bpd above its quota but output jumped further in February as Tengizchevroil's expansion ramped up towards full capacity.
Over half of current Kazakh production is operated by Western integrated oil companies, according to IEA.
The European Union is looking for legal ways to tear long-term natural gas supply contracts with Russia’s Gazprom without having to pay sizable penalties, the Financial Times has reported, citing three officials from the European Commission as saying the leading option was declaring a force majeure.
“If the whole idea is not paying Russia, then [paying compensation] would undermine the whole purpose,” one of these officials, who were not named, told the FT.
The European Union has found it quite difficult to stop importing Russian gas. While pipeline gas flows have been decimated, especially after the bombing of the Nord Stream and the expiry of the transit deal with Ukraine, LNG imports from Russia have soared, despite EU officials’ efforts to reduce them and eventually stop importing any Russian hydrocarbons into the bloc.
The FT report comes as business leaders in Europe begin to hint at not being opposed to actually boosting Russian gas supply to the continent. Reuters cited several executives this week as making suggestions to that effect.
“If there is a reasonable peace in Ukraine, we could go back to flows of 60 billion cubic metres, maybe 70, annually, including LNG,” Engie executive vice president Didier Holleaux told the publication.
“Europe will never go back to importing 150 billion cubic meters from Russia like before the war ... but I would bet maybe 70 bcm,” TotalEnergies’ chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said. He also said, “We need to diversify, many routes, not over-rely on one or two,” suggesting the EU’s celebration of U.S. LNG coming to replace Russian pipeline gas was indeed rather premature.
“Reopening pipelines would reduce prices more than any current subsidy programmes,” the head of one of Germany’s largest chemical hubs told Reuters, referring to the Russian pipelines. “It's a taboo topic,” Christof Guenther added, noting that a lot of fellow executives agreed that a return to cheap Russian gas was urgently needed.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
This acquisition marks the largest single acquisition in the company’s 45-year history. Credit: FreezeFrames/Shutterstock.
U.S. Energy Development Corporation (USEDC) has expanded its presence in the Permian Basin by acquiring approximately 20,000 net acres in Reeves and Ward Counties, Texas, for $390m.
The acquisition significantly enhances USEDC’s portfolio, adding a substantial proved producing component and a multi-year drilling inventory to its existing holdings in the region.
USEDC plans to operate a dedicated drilling rig on the newly acquired acreage.
This acquisition is a key component of USEDC’s 2025 plan to invest up to $1bn in US oil and gas properties. It also marks the largest single acquisition in the company’s 45-year history.
In 2024, the company deployed around $850m in operated and non-operated projects in the basin, continuing to seek opportunities aligned with its investment strategy.
USEDC CEO and chairman Jordan Jayson said: “This transaction greatly enhances the overall quality and resilience of our portfolio, supplementing our reserves with additional proved producing assets, adding years of multi-bench drilling inventory, and expanding our operated economies of scale.”
RBC Richards Barr advised on the acquisition process, while Willkie Farr & Gallagher provided legal counsel to USEDC.
Concurrently, USEDC increased its syndicated revolving credit facility, led by Citibank, from $165m to $300m, offering significant financial flexibility for growth.
The credit facility, with a maximum amount of $500m, was arranged by Citibank with TCBI Securities, US Bank National Association, Washington Federal Bank and KeyBank as joint lead arrangers.
Sidley Austin served as legal counsel to USEDC on the credit facility.
USEDC chief financial officer Brandon Standifird said: “The upsize of our revolving credit facility in connection with our recently completed acquisition underscores our lenders’ confidence in USEDC’s disciplined strategy and positions us to capitalise on future growth opportunities.
“We are pleased to have strong support from our banking group as we continue our trajectory of strategic expansion.”
Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, USEDC has invested in, operated and/or drilled around 4,000 wells in 13 states and Canada. The company has deployed more than $3bn on behalf of itself and its partners.
https://www.offshore-technology.com/news/u-s-energy-development-extends-permian-footprint/
Shale boss Bryan Sheffield, the son of Pioneer Natural Resources founder Scott Sheffield, appears to have called on America’s shale drillers to cut drilling immediately, as Brent crude flirts with prices below $60 and WTI falls to $57/barrel.
Sheffield, who controls Formentera Partners LP, told Bloomberg he is planning to delay drilling in some cases, shift focus to existing short-term drilling contracts, and return to expanding the company’s uncompleted wells once the market stabilizes, given the chaos and oil price plunge caused in part by Trump’s tariff warfare.
Sheffield reportedly told Bloomberg that the situation right now is a “blood bath”.
“The industry needs to cut immediately and hunker down to let the tariff war play out,” Sheffield was quoted as saying.
Earlier this week, during a Permian basin golf tournament, American shale drillers let their frustrations with the Trump administration be known, according to a Bloomberg report. The industry is frustrated over its high level of support for the new administration, which has since caused a severe oil price plunge despite promises of a future where shale drillers could “drill baby, drill”.
Shale drillers contributed significantly to Trump’s election campaign and were responsible essentially for “making America great again” by catapulting the country to the status of top crude producer in the world. The betrayal is now being felt as prices continue to tank.
On April 2, Trump announced a sweeping 10% tariff on all imports, effective April 5, with further tariffs targeting specific countries to take effect on April 9. This move reverberated across the global economy, leading to an unprecedented market reaction. In just two days—Thursday and Friday—U.S. stock markets suffered their largest losses ever, erasing a staggering $6.6 trillion in value before the weekend break. Bloomberg puts total global equity value losses at $10 trillion, equivalent to 10% of global GDP. For shale drillers, this translates into a dangerous loss of demand for crude oil that will not be able to support current drilling, let alone any expansion.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
New chair for Humber Marine & Renewables
Marine lawyer Andrew Oliver has been reappointed chair of Humber Marine & Renewables, marking an “exciting new era” for the sector.
A partner at Andrew Jackson Solicitors and chair of Grimsby Fish Dock Enterprises, Oliver brings decades of experience in marine law, fisheries and regulation, as well as environmental expertise.
He originally helped steer the merger of Team Humber Marine Alliance and Grimsby Renewables Partnership in 2020 and now returns to lead the board once again.
Andrew said: “This is an exciting time for Humber Marine & Renewables, having successfully secured funding to employ a business development manager to drive the organisation forward.
“We want to ensure companies on our patch make the very most of the opportunities that lap at our shores, rely on our ports and define our economies.
“With the skyline dominated by the impressive Wind Peak jack-up vessel in recent days as the latest offshore wind farm for our remarkable cluster is now built out, we’re buoyed by the knowledge we are still far from peak wind when it comes to the region.”
Joining Andrew on the board is Lee Blanchard, director of Grimsby-based Rix Renewables, who has been appointed to strengthen the organisation’s pan-Humber voice.
Lee added: “I am honoured and excited to join the board of Humber Marine and Renewables.
“I look forward to collaborating with my fellow board members and stakeholders to ensure the Humber region remains a leader in the UK’s green energy journey.”
The appointments come ahead of the Offshore Wind Connections conference on April 30, which will close with the Humber Renewables Awards on May 1.
https://bdaily.co.uk/articles/2025/04/13/new-chair-for-humber-marine-renewables
State legislators in Maryland have proposed an ambitious plan to overhaul the state's energy usage by 2025.
This plan, according to Public News Service, includes a bill called the Abundant Affordable Clean Energy Act.
It would require Maryland electric companies to submit plans for obtaining energy storage devices to the Public Service Commission. This would essentially increase the state's battery capacity on the regional energy grid.
The AACEA would also require the commission to work toward harnessing offshore wind energy for Maryland.
This plan includes the Empowering New Energy Resources and Green Initiatives Toward a Zero-Emission Maryland Act as well. ENERGIZE Maryland would deliver Gov. Wes Moore's campaign promise to use 100% clean energy in Maryland by 2035.
ENERGIZE Maryland would accelerate the state's journey toward clean energy. Under current law, only 52.5% of the state's energy production would have to be clean in 2030. With ENERGIZE Maryland, clean energy production would have to constitute 75% of Maryland's energy, a 22.5% increase.
This legislation would benefit many people in Maryland both economically and environmentally.
ENERGIZE Maryland would create solar grants and loans to make clean energy available to low- to moderate-income and underserved communities. Similar property tax credits and exceptions would also be made for solar under the AACEA.
"We can create a model of economic growth and clean energy adoption that other states can follow," said Rebecca Rehr, climate policy and justice director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, to Public News Service.
Rehr continued: "We can really lead here, especially in the face of federal rollbacks. You can have economic growth and a growth of the clean energy industry here in Maryland at the same time. These go hand in glove."
Using more clean energy means less pollution, which could improve the mental and physical health of Maryland residents.
If you live in Maryland, reaching out to your legislators to express support for these bills could ensure that they eventually pass into law. If you live outside the state, or even outside the U.S., consider looking for environmental legislation on the table in your own backyard. The more people who have faith in these plans, the more likely they are to succeed.
Although the tax credits in this legislation aren't available now, you may be able to take advantage of other tax credits that currently exist under the Inflation Reduction Act.
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/energize-maryland-renewable-energy-legislation/
By Felicity Bradstock - Apr 12, 2025, 2:00 PM CDT
The United States utility-scale battery storage sector has been projected to grow dramatically in 2025, as renewable energy companies look for ways to make their clean energy operations more stable and reliable. However, the recent introduction of tariffs on countries worldwide by the Trump administration, with particularly high tariffs on China, is expected to have a knock-on effect on the energy sector. It could delay the deployment of batteries as companies reconsider spending decisions in the face of higher prices.
The U.S. Energy Information Organization (EIA) said in February that it expects the U.S. to add 63 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric-generating capacity to be added to the grid in 2025. This is 30 percent higherthan the 48.6 GW of capacity added in 2024, which was the best year for capacity installation since 2002. Solar and battery storage are expected to account for 81 percent of this year’s capacity increase. However, the Trump administration’s introduction of sweeping tariffs on the import of foreign goods on 3rd April could halt clean energy progress amid economic uncertainty.
Certain U.S. states, such as Texas and Arizona, have been rapidly developing their battery-storage sectors, by installing multiple lithium-ion cells the size of shipping containers, to support renewable energy projects and reduce the reliance on fossil fuels for power during high-demand hours. However, most U.S. states are only just beginning to develop their battery storage capacity, with plans to import huge volumes of batteries to improve the grid over the coming years.
Around 69 percent of U.S. lithium-ion battery imports came from China in 2024, where Trump has imposed some of the highest tariffs. When combined with previous trade decisions, the Trump administration is imposing a 64.5 percent tax on grid batteries from China, a figure that is set to increase to 82 percent in 2026. The vice president of policy and strategy at the battery developer GridStor, Jason Burwen, said “This will throttle U.S. energy storage deployment.”
The recent tariff rollout has brought the average U.S. tariff up to 23 percent, the highest rate since the 1930s. Trump also introduced high tariffs on several Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam at 46 percent, Thailand at 36 percent, Taiwan at 32 percent, Cambodia at 49 percent, Malaysia at 24 percent, and Indonesia at 32 percent.
Energy companies across the U.S. were expected to install 18.2 GW of grid battery capacity in 2025. This move was supposed to help make clean energy operations, such as wind and solar power, more reliable, helping to balance out the production and delivery of clean energy 24 hours a day. It would also help reduce reliance on natural gas for power during peak demand and non-production hours, as well as help to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of power if power plant equipment were to fail.
The price of lithium-ion technology has fallen sharply in recent years, making utility-scale battery installation more financially viable. However, the recent introduction of tariffs could make them more expensive and deter companies from investing in storage solutions. The head of trade and supply chains at BloombergNEF, Antoine Vagneur-Jones, explained, “Batteries are the only major cleantech sector where imports still overwhelmingly come from China… So, the impacts of these tariffs are going to be a lot bigger for batteries than they are for other technologies.”
The tariffs are expected to help revive the U.S. manufacturing sector, making it more competitive to produce goods domestically. However, several U.S. battery producers have voiced concern over the tariffs. The San Francisco-based lithium-sulphur battery producer Lyten sources over 80 percent of its core components domestically, meaning that it does not have to be worried about the rising cost of imported components. The company has plans to commence production at the old Northvolt facility this year, with plans for a larger gigafactory in Reno, Nevada in 2027. However, scaling operations will depend heavily on the cost of construction materials, which will be affected by Trump’s tariffs.
Lyten’s Chief Sustainability Officer Keith Norman explained, Lyten is “a hard tech company that needs to build a lot of infrastructure… The building of physical factories, those materials, the infrastructure to do that, the equipment to do that, a lot of that is coming through international trade.” Norman added, “The reality is the energy transition is a manufacturing transition… There’s nothing in the energy transition that doesn’t require pretty significant investments in manufacturing and build out.” This means that the Trump administration’s tariffs will likely make the expansion of U.S. manufacturing operations more expensive and complicated.
While the high costs of imports could encourage U.S. companies to expand their lithium-ion battery production capacity, the high costs associated with construction and other sectors could also deter companies from increasing their manufacturing capacity. Meanwhile, many energy companies are likely to pause imports of battery storage units as they assess the spending increase required to achieve their grid plans.
If Elon Musk continues to lead DOGE, the automaker's "brand issues would create permanent brand destruction," warned Dan Ives, a prominent analyst at Wedbush Securities, recently.
However, Ives added that he believes that Tesla's (TSLA) "base valuation" is poised to eventually reach "$2 trillion or more."
Tesla, Inc. (TSLA): AI Vision Versus EV Weakness - Goldman Balances Long-Term Hopes with Near-Term Risks
The Dichotomy of TSLA
Tesla's "brand issues have been front and center, and that's something that needs to be rectified," Ives stated, adding that "only Elon" can solve the problem.
On the other hand, there are "so many great things ahead for Tesla...autonomous robotics, and unsupervised full-self driving in Austin," the analyst said.
EVs "set the stage for what's really the gold at the end of the rainbow, autonomous and robotics," according to Ives. "That's why this is such an important period for Musk," he added.
More Information About TSLA Stock
Analysts on average expect the company's earnings per share to advance to $2.55 this year and $3.42 in 2026 from $2.42 in 2024.
In the last month, the shares have climbed 14%, while they are down 35% in the last three months and have jumped 63% in the last 12 months.
While we acknowledge the potential of TSLA, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than TSLA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/brand-issues-could-permanently-damage-162928542.html
Tesla insurance premiums are increasing at more than twice the rate of the rest of the US auto market due to higher repair costs and amid increased instances of vandalism on Tesla vehicles.
Insurance on Tesla vehicles has always been fairly high, so much so that it encouraged Tesla to launch its own insurance product to try to mitigate the issue.
However, most Tesla owners still use insurance from other providers.
Insurance premiums in the US have been increasing across the board over the last year, and especially over the last few months, as the market fears the tariffs will increase auto industry repair costs.
A new study from Insurify shows that the average cost of full coverage has increased by 10% year over year, from $2,102 to $2,302.
The study also points to insurance premiums on Tesla vehicles increasing at about twice the rate of the rest of the market, and the Model Y premiums increased by almost 3 times the rest of the market increase:
Three Tesla models saw the sharpest increase in full-coverage insurance costs between 2024 and 2025, with the rates for the Tesla Model Y rising 2.9 times faster than the national average.
In fact, the study ranked the top 10 vehicles that saw the highest premium increases in the US:
By Irina Slav - Apr 17, 2025, 2:45 AM CDT
The Department of the Interior has ordered the suspension of construction works at the Empire Wind offshore project in New York, saying the project may have been approved by the previous administration without an appropriate environmental assessment.
The news follows an earlier report that construction of the Empire Wind installation offshore New York had begun “quietly”. In it, Canary Media said the project leader, Equinor, had not responded to requests for comments, but multiple sources told the publication that construction at the offshore site was underway.
“There’s a bit of hesitancy to be out in front,” Hillary Bright, executive director of Turn Forward, an offshore wind advocacy outlet, told Canary Media. ?“It’s about not wanting to stick their heads up and drawing more attention, potentially, from the administration, which is already giving quite a bit of attention to offshore wind.”
It seems, however, that attention has been drawn and action has followed. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to “immediately halt all construction activities on the Empire Wind Project until further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”
The Empire Wind project has a price tag of $5 billion, with Equinor saying in January it had secured a financing package of $3 billion. The installation was planned to power 500,000 New York homes and was expected to reach its commercial operation date in 2027. With a contracted capacity of 810 megawatts, Empire Wind 1 was going to be the first offshore wind project to connect to the New York City grid. Now, its future is in question as President Trump and his administration crack down on the technology.
Even without Trump, the offshore wind power business has been in trouble for a while now, with higher borrowing costs, more challenging supply chains, and an overcapacity that is driving down the price of wind electricity generated by wind installations.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Trump-Axes-Equinor-Wind-Project.html
Kyushu Electric Power 9508 shut the 1,180 megawatt (MW) No.3 reactor at its Genkai nuclear power station in southern Japan on March 28 for scheduled maintenance and refuelling, a company spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The utility plans to restart the reactor in early June, the spokesperson said.
As of Wednesday, Japan has 11 reactors in operation, with a combined capacity of 10,377 MW.
Many companies are undergoing a re-licensing process to meet stricter safety standards implemented after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Prior to the disaster, they operated 54 reactors.
Other closures over recent weeks include Kansai Electric Power's 9503 shutting of the 870 MW No.3 reactor at its Takahama nuclear power station in western Japan on February 22 for scheduled maintenance, also with plans to restart in early June, a company spokesperson said.
Kansai additionally shut the 826 MW No. 3 reactor at its Mihama nuclear power station in western Japan on March 2 for scheduled turnaround, with a restart planned for late May, the spokesperson added.
The regional utilities are: Chubu Electric Power 9502, Chugoku Electric Power 9504, Hokkaido Electric Power 9509, Hokuriku Electric Power 9505, Kansai Electric Power 9503, Kyushu Electric Power 9508, Shikoku Electric Power 9507, Tohoku Electric Power 9506 and Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) 9501.
Japan Atomic Power Company (Japco), a nuclear energy company, owns two reactors.
After being hit by a barrage of storms recently, including heavy rain and strong winds, people in Florida are being told to expect up to two weeks of droughts as a result of the adverse weather.
Residents of the Sunshine State have been told to buckle down for some severe weather as experts predict up to two weeks of drought after a series of thunderstorms hit.
Florida was once again on the receiving end of a backlash from mother nature which saw numerous thunderstorms hit on Friday evening. It came due to a cool boundary of weather coming from up north moving across the east coast.
People living in the state were hit by power outages, pockets of hail and strong gusty winds. There was also a lot of heavy rainfall in the peninsula which came in short, quick bursts.
It didn't take long for the usually stunning Florida weather to get back to normal, with sunny skies, few clouds and fairly warm temperatures to return. A local weather station said the clouds were fair and temperatures weren't too hot or cold.
Now, weather experts have predicted the fallout from the thunderstorms and that the future weather is becoming quite unpredictable and models show there isn't expected to big shot of rain anytime soon.
High pressure stretching westward across the Atlantic will make its way into Florida and provide residents with nothing more than just sunshine.
ClickOrlando experts added: "Dew points and humidity may try to come up some, but with a lack of a solid trigger to form showers or storms we’ll be looking at a scarcity of rain for the next 7-14 days.
"Our different computer models to include; the GFS, the Euro, the National Weather Service blend of models, all pinpoint the next likely hit of rain to occur as we prepare to enter the last several days of the month."
This means people living in the Sunshine State will get just that - until around April 23 or 24 at least. People are being told to expect drought conditions to continue to rise, with many feeling the effects of recent droughts brought on by the thunderstorm weather.
Experts also made sure to warn others to be extra careful when doing mundane tasks such as putting out cigarettes as this could lead to wildfires.
They added that people should also take care when dealing with electrical equipment, leaving any flames unattended or dealing with smothering smaller wildfires.
It's predicted that in the near future, the summertime heat will also have people in Florida cooking not this upcoming week but the following. But some good news is that when there’s heat there’s usually a storm system that comes along shortly afterwards.
https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/florida-weather-sunshine-state-rocked-35046229
We recently published a list of 10 Firms Defy Market Slump, Record Double-Digit Gains Last Week. In this article, we are going to take a look at where IAMGOLD Corporation (NYSE:IAG) stands against other firms that defied the market slump and recorded double-digit gains last week.
The stock market may have taken a beating for most of the week, but it was able to recover losses on Friday, as investors gobbled up shares while weighing the impact of the US-China trade war.
Among all major indices, the tech-heavy Nasdaq registered the highest gain, up 7.29 percent, followed by the S&P 500 with 5.7 percent, and the Dow Jones by 4.95 percent.
Ten companies, predominantly in the gold and biopharmaceutical sectors, were the week’s top performers as investors sought haven from their stocks amid market uncertainties.
In this article, we have identified last week’s 10 highest gainers and detailed the reasons behind their gains.
To come up with the list, we considered only the stocks with a $2 billion market capitalization and $5 million trading volume.
The week-on-week prices were based on the companies’ closing prices on Friday as against on April 4, or a week earlier.
Aerial view of the Rosebel gold mine in Suriname with its open pits spanning across the landscape.
IAMGOLD Corporation (NYSE:IAG)
IAMGOLD Corp. surged by 28.2 percent this week to close at $7.22 each on Friday versus the $5.63 last week, as the company continued to benefit from the rally in gold prices.
During a generally pessimistic trading week, IAG defied the market slump, rallying for five consecutive days, as investor funds continued to flock to gold miners to mitigate risks from the escalating trade war between the US and China.
Additionally, investors appeared to have snapped up shares in the company ahead of its first-quarter earnings release on May 6.
IAG is a leading gold producer with assets across Canada and West Africa. The company fully owns the Westwood project in Quebec, holds a 60 percent stake in the Côté Gold project in Ontario, and controls 90 percent of Essakane in Burkina Faso.
For this year, it targets gold production to hit between 735,000 and 820,000 ounces, focusing on maximizing Côté Gold’s potential.
Overall, IAG ranks 5th on our list of firms that defied the market slump and recorded double-digit gains last week. While we acknowledge the potential of IAG as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as IAG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-iamgold-corporation-iag-soared-224552771.html
The Cachorro copper deposit is located at an altitude of 1,500 metres, in northern Chile. (Image provided by Antofagasta PLC.)
Chilean miner Antofagasta (LON: ANTO) has earmarked $200 million over seven years for a new exploration phase at its Cachorro copper project in the country’s north.
The move follows the submission in January of an Environmental Impact Statement (DIA) for the project, which sits between the company’s Centinela and Antucoya operations. This proximity could create synergies with existing infrastructure and processing facilities, the largest pure-play copper miner listed in London said.
If regulators approve the DIA, Antofagasta will move ahead with surface and underground exploration to better define the deposit. The work will include over 700 drill holes, infill drilling to improve geological modelling, and construction of a horizontal tunnel reaching 300 metres deep.
As part of the environmental assessment process, Antofagasta will conduct baseline studies to protect nearby ecosystems, monitor groundwater, carry out archaeological surveys, and promote local employment and procurement.
Cachorro is located in the western Atacama Desert at an elevation of 1,500 metres, 100 km north-east of the city of Antofagasta. It is also situated 1,100 km north of the capital, Santiago. Since exploration began in 2017, Antofagasta has outlined a mineral resource of 255 million tonnes grading 1.26% copper, with silver as a by-product at 4 grams per tonne.
S&P Global Market Intelligence lists Cachorro as one of the largest greenfield copper discoveries of the past decade and one of the most significant manto-type deposits in Chile’s coastal belt.
https://www.mining.com/antofagasta-to-invest-200m-advancing-cachorro-copper-project/
The gold that flooded into US futures exchange warehouses in a tariff-driven arbitrage trade is now slowly trickling out.
The risk that precious metals could be caught up in trade duties pushed prices on New York’s Comex into a large premium over global benchmarks in recent months. That created an incentive for traders to ship gold to the US to take advantage of the unusual price gap.
Tens of billions of dollars’ worth of bullion flowed into the country — so much so that it distorted US trade data in the process and pushed Comex inventories to an all-time high.
But the arbitrage opportunity ended when Washington earlier this month confirmed that bullion would be exempt from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Without an incentive to hold metal in US warehouses, that gold may now end up going to other trading hubs. Comex stockpiles fell each day last week, with Friday’s outflow the biggest in more than a year and worth about $700 million.
The price difference between front-month Comex futures and spot gold in London — which blew out to more than $50 an ounce at times in the past few months — narrowed to about $15 on Monday. Adjusting for the different delivery dates, the two markets are trading almost exactly level.
Friday’s decline in inventories was mainly the result of a drop in stocks for Comex’s “enhanced delivery” contract, which, unlike its main contract, allows delivery of 400-ounce bars — the kind also found in the London market. Inventories of gold deliverable against the main Comex contract, which allows 100-ounce and kilobars, have also seen a decline in the past week.
While millions of ounces of gold trade on the Comex every day, only a small fraction of that typically ends up being physically delivered, with most positions being rolled over or closed out before they expire.
Storage costs in New York could also encourage some traders to move their gold back to the dominant physical market in London, or to trading hubs in Asia if premiums there are attractive enough.
Spot gold was down 0.9% at $3,208.93 an ounce as of 3:09 p.m. in New York, after earlier hitting a fresh record above $3,245. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was down 0.3%. Silver was little changed, while platinum and palladium rose.
(By Jack Ryan)
https://www.mining.com/web/gold-that-flowed-into-us-in-tariff-bet-now-slowly-trickles-out/
Canadian gold mining company B2Gold has announced plans to cut approximately 300 jobs in Namibia as it begins the phased downscaling of operations at its Otjikoto gold mine, following the depletion of open pit reserves, reported Reuters.
The Otjikoto mine, operational since March 2015, has been a significant contributor to B2Gold’s total output, producing a record 198,142oz of gold last year.
The mine has also reported a record profit, supported by high gold prices. Despite the cessation of open-pit mining expected this year, B2Gold will continue processing stockpiles until at least 2032.
The current underground operations at the Otjikoto mine are expected to continue until 2027, with the potential for an extension if further exploration reveals additional mineral deposits.
The process of reducing operations in Namibia began in the first quarter of 2024, with 130 employees already laid off.
B2Gold Namibia country manager John Roos said: “For 2025 we will go down from a permanent head count of 700 to 400 employees. That means 300 employees will be impacted during 2025.”
The Otjikoto mine’s gold production forecast for this year is estimated to be between 165,000oz and 185,000oz.
In addition to its operations in Namibia, B2Gold also operates gold mines in Mali and the Philippines.
The company is developing the Goose project in northern Canada and is involved in numerous development and exploration projects in countries including Mali, Colombia and Finland.
In January 2025, B2Gold moved forward with its plans to invest $10m (C$14.39m) in exploration at the Fekola gold complex in Mali.
The decision comes after a settlement was reached with the Malian Government regarding its 2023 mining code, which has mitigated the risk of disruption.
https://www.mining-technology.com/news/b2gold-otjikoto-gold-mine-jobs/
South Africa’s benchmark stock index extended gains for a fifth consecutive session on Wednesday as soaring gold prices pushed precious metals miners to multi-year highs.
The FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index climbed as much as 1.1 percent and is now on track to close at a record level following strong demand for haven assets.
The rally was led by gold and platinum producers, which responded positively to a fresh surge in bullion prices.
Gold reached a new all-time high on Wednesday, driven by a weaker US dollar and mounting global trade tensions.
The dollar fell to a six-month low against major currencies following new US restrictions on semiconductor exports to China, including curbs on Nvidia Corp.
Harmony Gold Mining Company and AngloGold Ashanti gained over 7 percent while Gold Fields rose as much as 9.4 percent.
The precious-metals mining subindex advanced by 7.2 percent to hit its highest level on record.
Platinum-group metals miners also rallied with Impala Platinum Holdings up more than 5 percent and Sibanye Stillwater climbing 8 percent.
Analysts at Scotia Capital Inc. expect the sector to benefit further from the rally in gold.
They forecast return on invested capital for producers could rise to 15 percent at spot prices of $3220 per ounce.
If gold prices remain elevated, South African miners could see continued earnings expansion and enhanced shareholder returns.
All Weather Capital portfolio manager Chris Reddy attributed the gains to a flight to safety as investors rotate away from tech equities and risk assets.
He noted that the broad weakness in the dollar has supported commodity-linked sectors, including gold and platinum.
The JSE is up more than 7 percent in dollar terms in 2025 compared to a 1.4 percent decline in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and an 8.3 percent fall in the S&P 500.
The local index has now fully erased a nearly 10 percent slide triggered by recent US tariff announcements.
With ongoing global uncertainty and rising interest in hard assets, analysts expect South African resource stocks to remain resilient in the near term.
Investor focus will remain on commodity price trends and US-China policy developments, which continue to shape equity flows in emerging markets.
By ZeroHedge - Apr 16, 2025, 9:00 AM CDT
Ahead of tonight's grand unveiling of what Beijing wants the world to think about its economy, the market was active with Gold soaring at the China open for the third day in a row...
...and the Yuan fix notably lower again...
Ahead of the GDP print, we saw both new and existing home prices released by the statistics bureau for March showing price drops have slowed on a month-on-month basis...
Of course, tonight's data tsunami is pre-Liberation Day Tariffs so no excuses (aside from the 10% tariffs that Trump put on China at the start of February).
However, GDP was expected to show the economy slowing ahead of the tariffs given March's unevenness.
In reality, it didn't... China GDP growth beat expectations, rising 5.4% (+5.2% exp)...
The growth was in line with China’s growth rate in the fourth quarter and exceeded Beijing’s full-year growth target for 2025.
In the first quarter China’s trade surplus was over $270 billion, just below the record in the final three months of last year and almost 50% larger than a year ago. The record surplus last year of almost $1 trillion drove a third of China’s growth and the boost last quarter is likely to have been large.
Beijing has set a target of 5 per cent growth for this year and has backed this up with pledges to increase stimulus measures, setting a record budget deficit target for the central government.
And just like the GDP figure, the rest of the data beat (or met) expectations too
Presumably these much better than expected data are due to tariff front-running.
“The most pleasant surprise is retail sales which shows that consumption subsidies are working,” said Michelle Lam, Greater China economist at Societe Generale SA.
“Industrial production was a beat but understandable after the strong export data. But that’s all in the past now.”
China is the world’s largest importer of oil, natural gas and coal, and Beijing has been putting pressure on energy firms in recent years to boost output and reduce the nation’s dependency on imports.
Diggers and driller responded in March, with output rising 9.6% for coal, 5% for natural gas and 3.5% for crude oil. Output increases in coal and oil are particularly higher than expected.
Of course, it's what happens next that really matters as US tariffs on China are now high enough to wipe out Chinese shipments to the US, according to Bloomberg estimates.
“Even with temporary exemptions, US duties will still be high enough to crush most of China’s exports to the US,” said Chang Shu and David Qu at Bloomberg Economics.
UBS this week cut its China GDP forecast with the most pessimistic outlook forecast among major banks, predicting the economy will expand just 3.4% this year as US tariffs choke exports.
Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are among global banks that cut their outlook for China in recent days, with most economists doubting Beijing can achieve the official target of about 5% growth this year.
“With the trade war with the US escalating sharply, the economy will face stronger headwinds. We expect policymakers to expedite stimulus," said Shu and Qu.
The NBS struck a note of caution even as it released the upbeat data, emphasizing the need for greater support for the economy.
“We should be aware that the external environment is becoming more complex and severe, the drive for growth of effective domestic demand is insufficient, and the foundation for sustained economic recovery and growth is yet to be consolidated,” the bureau said in a statement.
“We must implement more proactive and effective macro policies.”
Beijing is placing high hopes on domestic demand - particularly consumption - to drive economic growth this year, as external pressures mount under Donald Trump's second presidency.
In a bid to spur spending, leading bodies of China's state apparatus and the ruling Communist Party issued a 30-point plan aimed at stimulating consumer demand.
https://oilprice.com/Metals/Gold/Gold-Surges-on-Chinas-Economic-Data-Release.html
If baseball’s three strikes and you’re out rule was applied to diamonds the industry would be walking back to the dugout and plans to sell De Beers, the diamond industry leader, quietly shelved.
Tariffs on diamonds imported into the U.S. are the third strike for an industry already reeling from sales lost during the Covid pandemic, followed by market share sacrificed to cheap laboratory-grown gems.
That cocktail of trouble has crashed prices for natural, or mined diamonds, which are estimated to have fallen by 50% over the past two years.
Lab-grown diamonds, a novelty 10-years ago, are being produced at a fraction of the cost of mined material at around $10 per carat versus more than $90/carat for material mined in countries such as Russia and Botswana.
The squeeze on the traditional diamond industry has forced the London-listed miner, Anglo American, which owns 85% of De Beers, to progressively write down the value of the business which has dominated diamonds for more than 100 years.
Valued at $12.75 billion in 2012 when Anglo American paid $5.1 billion for a 40% stake in De Beers owned by the Oppenheimer family a series of asset value write downs ($1.6 billion last year and $2.9 billion earlier this year) has substantially reduced the book value of De Beers which is 15% owned by the government of Botswana to around $2.5 billion.
Falling Profits
The combination of competition from lab-grown diamonds and rising costs saw De Beers annual profit fall from $72 million in 2023 to a loss of $25 million last year.
The earnings decline was matched by a fall in the production of diamonds from 31.8 million carats in 2023 to 24.7 million carats last year.
Now comes the tariff hit in the U.S., the world’s biggest diamond market, complete with a warning in London’s Financial Times newspaper that business in the $82 billion a year global diamond trade has “ground to a halt” with an initial 10% U.S. tariff in place but with the threat of higher rates to come.
Zijin Mining Group (HKG:2899) First Quarter 2025 Results
Key Financial Results
All figures shown in the chart above are for the trailing 12 month (TTM) period
Zijin Mining Group Earnings Insights
Looking ahead, revenue is forecast to grow 7.5% p.a. on average during the next 3 years, compared to a 5.4% growth forecast for the Metals and Mining industry in Hong Kong.
The company's shares are down 2.4% from a week ago.
In its initial phase (stage one), the refinery is expected to have a production capacity of 3,000tpa of cobalt. Credit: RHJPhtotos/Shutterstock.
Australian mining company Cobalt Blue has signed a pre-final investment decision (pre-FID) consortium deed with Iwatani Australia (IWA) to move the Kwinana Cobalt Refinery (KCR) project in Western Australia (WA) towards FID by 31 December 2025.
This collaboration is expected to culminate in Australia’s first cobalt sulphate refinery designed to produce high-quality, battery-grade cobalt sulphate, which is essential for the precursor cathode active material (pCAM) industry.
Under the terms of the deed, Cobalt Blue must produce cobalt samples at its Broken Hill Technology Centre that meet customer quality specifications using commercial-scale processes.
The Broken Hill Technology Centre has been piloting the KCR flowsheet since early 2024, with Tetra Tech appointed for detailed engineering works in July 2024 and Green Values handling permit applications later that year.
The companies plan to establish an incorporated joint venture (JV), with Cobalt Blue holding a 70% ownership stake and IWA holding a 30% stake, subject to positive FID.
The JV will be responsible for the construction, commissioning and operation of the KCR.
Furthermore, the companies will finalise key agreements covering JV structure and operational plans, raw materials (feedstock) supply and product offtake, and licensing of intellectual property.
Technical reviews, financing and regulatory approvals will also be obtained under the deed.
The proposed refinery will be situated on IWA’s property within the Kwinana-Rockingham industrial precinct, leveraging the existing infrastructure of IWA’s fused zirconia operation.
Its proximity to Fremantle port facilitates the import of third-party feedstock and the export of finished products.
In its initial phase (stage one), the refinery is expected to have a production capacity of 3,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of cobalt, either in the form of cobalt sulphate or metal.
Since December 2023, Cobalt Blue and IWA have been working closely on technical due diligence, project evaluation and the establishment of commercial partnerships.
Cobalt Blue, soon to be renamed Core Blue Minerals, continues to focus on its global portfolio of mining and mineral processing projects including the Halls Creek Project in WA, the Broken Hill Cobalt Project in New South Wales and ReMine+.
In September 2022, Cobalt Blue secured a grant from the Australian Government for the Broken Hill Cobalt project.
https://www.mining-technology.com/news/cobalt-blue-iwatani-australia-kwinana/
Shares of Kenmare Resources plc (LON:KMR) crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Friday. The stock has a 200-day moving average of GBX 340.34 ($4.45) and traded as high as GBX 384.59 ($5.03). Kenmare Resources shares last traded at GBX 382.50 ($5.01), with a volume of 76,462 shares changing hands.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Separately, Berenberg Bank reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a GBX 580 ($7.59) price target on shares of Kenmare Resources in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th.
Kenmare Resources Price Performance
The business's 50-day moving average price is GBX 356.43 and its 200 day moving average price is GBX 340.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 5.63. The stock has a market capitalization of £422.85 million, a PE ratio of 5.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.03 and a beta of 0.58.
Kenmare Resources Increases Dividend
The business also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 8th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 8th. This is a positive change from Kenmare Resources's previous dividend of $0.15. This represents a yield of 3.1%. Kenmare Resources's payout ratio is presently 59.17%.
About Kenmare Resources
Kenmare Resources plc is an Ireland-based mining company. The Company operates the Moma Titanium Minerals Mine, located on the northeast coast of Mozambique. The Moma Mine contains deposits of heavy minerals, which include the titanium minerals ilmenite and rutile, as well as the zirconium silicate mineral, zircon.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has taken a decisive step towards unlocking its immense mineral wealth through responsible, sustainable, and inclusive development, as the two-day Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2025 (PMIF25) concluded in Islamabad.
Organized by the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), with support from the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and the Government of Pakistan, the summit featured several high-level sessions, including a Reko Diq-focused discussion. The forum brought together over 300 delegates from around the world, including government leaders, mining experts, investors, and academics. The forum was aimed at boosting local and foreign investment in Pakistan’s mineral sector, which holds immense untapped potential.
The conference served as a comprehensive platform for policy dialogue, investment facilitation, and knowledge sharing—setting the stage for Pakistan to emerge as a competitive player in the global minerals market. Participants from China, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey, Kenya, Finland, and other countries joined local investors and stakeholders to explore investment opportunities and sign agreements and memorandums of understanding across various segments of the mining value chain.
The National Minerals Harmonisation Framework 2025 was also launched at the event. The framework is a comprehensive reform package designed to streamline investment policies and create a more investor-friendly regulatory environment.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir, Federal Minister for Energy (Petroleum Division) Ali Pervaiz Malik, and Federal Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan and provincial chief ministers also attended the event.
MD/CEO OGDCL Ahmed Hayat Lak and MD/CEO GHPL Masood Nabi held a productive meeting with a delegation from China’s Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd. The discussion focused on exploring investment opportunities, strategic partnerships, and the application of innovative mining technologies to advance sustainable mining practices in Pakistan.
On day two of the forum, Russell Howard Owen, Mineral Resources Manager at RekoDiq Mining Company, along with Engineering Manager Daniel Nel, unveiled the findings of the project’s recently completed feasibility study in a session titled “Deep Dive – Unveiling RekoDiq’s Feasibility Study: Technical Insights & Innovations.” They shared details about the mine’s geology, water supply strategies, modern processing infrastructure, and the use of sustainable technologies for long-distance mining. The session also highlighted Balochistan’s potential in renewable energy and the integration of environmentally responsible mining practices.
https://www.brecorder.com/news/40357442/pmif25-lays-groundwork-for-new-era-of-mining
Canada’s First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM) is acquiring a 15% stake in Prospect Resources (ASX: PSC), a battery and electrification metals developer based in Australia, as it deepens its presence in Zambia’s copper belt.
The deal sees First Quantum invest A$15.2 million ($9.7m) in a share placement at A$0.15 per share — a 36% premium to Prospect’s last closing price. The investment also gives First Quantum a seat on Prospect’s board and a role as technical partner.
Shares in Prospect soared on the news, closing 32% higher in Sydney at A$0.14 each, capitalizing the junior at A$83 million ($53m).
Prospect’s Mumbezhi copper project is 25km (15 miles) east of First Quantum’s Trident project, which includes the Sentinel and Enterprise mines. The funds will help accelerate exploration at Mumbezhi, aligning with Zambia’s push to triple annual copper output to 3 million tonnes by 2031.
Prospect recently secured two mining licences covering its entire 356 km² landholding at Mumbezhi for an initial 25-year term. It has announced a maiden mineral resource estimate of 514,600 tonnes of contained copper for the project.
In a parallel move, Prospect has entered a placement agreement with long-time shareholder Eagle Eye, subject to shareholder approval. The A$2.8 million raise, also at A$0.15 per share, allows Eagle Eye to maintain its 15.3% stake.
“This investment in Prospect supports our exploration strategy in Zambia and signals our continued commitment to the country,” First Quantum’s Zambia Director, Anthony Mukutuma, said. “With the upcoming launch of the Kansanshi S3 expansion, we’re reinforcing our long-term presence.”
Prospect chief executive Sam Hosack said the deal offers “considerable funding runway and serious regional exploration expertise” to advance the Mumbezhi program.
First Quantum has operated in Zambia for nearly three decades. It runs the Kansanshi mine and smelter in Solwezi, and the Sentinel and Enterprise mines in Kalumbila.
The $1.3 billion Kansanshi S3 expansion, set to open later this year, will boost ore processing by 25 million tonnes annually— up from 30 million — and extend mine life by over two decades.
First Quantum, with assets in Zambia, Spain, Mauritania, Australia, Finland, Turkey, Panama, Argentina and Peru, produced last year 431,004 tonnes of copper, 139,040 ounces of gold and 23,718 tonnes of nickel.
https://www.mining.com/first-quantum-buys-into-aussie-explorer-to-boost-zambia-copper/
The ongoing tariff wars and economic turbulence will help domestic zinc producers, as the user industry, including global steel and auto manufacturers, is increasingly looking to source the metal from India.
India’s importance as a metal exporter could receive a further boost, as global producers of the metal—such as Nyrstar NV and Teck Resources—are slashing output by 20-25 per cent in this calendar year.
Exports from China have become more expensive due to tariff overhang, production cuts, rising operational costs, and stringent environmental regulations.
In terms of its future expansion plan, Korea Zinc posted a net loss in the fourth quarter of last year, the first ever in its 50-year history.
These developments have positioned India as a key alternative hub for sourcing zinc, a critical metal extensively used by the steel, automobile, battery, and construction industries, among others.
Being the fourth-largest producer, India plays a significant role in the global zinc market.
Ambareesh Baliga, an independent analyst, said zinc is primarily used in galvanising, which increases the life of steel products multi-fold.
The demand will also emerge from fast emerging Zinc-Ion technology for power storage solutions.
In fact, a forecast of surplus output for 2024 ended up with a deficit.
“I will not be surprised if a similar trend follows in FY25 too which could push up the price,” he added.
SUPPLY SQUEEZE
Due to declining zinc ore grades, zinc production from Canada-based Teck Resources’ Red Dog mine in Alaska is expected to be slashed to 430,000–470,000 tonnes this year from 555,600 tonnes recorded in 2024. Similarly, Belgium-based Nyrstar has planned a 25 per cent cut in output in Australia.
Trafigura has already cut production by a quarter at its zinc smelter in Australia.
Demand for refined zinc consumption is expected to grow by 2.5 per cent in 2025 and 2.6 per cent in 2026, as per Wood Mackenzie, a leading global data and analytics solutions provider.
Global zinc demand is projected to rise steadily through 2026, driven by European manufacturing recovery despite US market headwinds from steel and aluminium tariffs.
India stands to gain from global zinc supply constraints, with domestic demand projected to grow at 6.4 per cent in 2025 and 7 per cent in 2026, it said.
According to the International Zinc Association, India’s zinc consumption is estimated to increase to over 2 million tonnes in the next 10 years.
The safeguard duty on steel imports could serve as a tailwind for domestic production, indirectly benefiting Indian zinc producers, including Hindustan Zinc, which commands over 75 per cent of the Indian market.
Published on April 15, 2025
US industry is suggesting export controls over tariffs to boost local copper output. Credit: Phawat/Shutterstock.
Chile, Canada and Peru, top copper suppliers to the US, have submitted letters to the US Commerce Department stating that copper imports from their countries do not threaten US security interests and should not be imposed with potential tariffs, reported Reuters.
The potential tariffs, which are being evaluated under the national security provision of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, have raised concerns among the countries, which together supply 94% of the US’ refined copper and copper alloys.
The debate over US copper import tariffs comes amid an escalating tariff war and concerns over China’s influence in the global copper market.
With the Section 232 investigation due to be completed by November, the industry awaits the administration’s decision on the matter.
Freeport-McMoRan, a significant copper producer, has echoed the sentiments of the supplier nations. The company, with operations in the US, Chile, Peru and Indonesia, has advised against tariffs, suggesting they could harm the global economy.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Chile highlighted the economic benefits of Chilean copper imports to the US and warned that tariffs could inadvertently benefit China, the world’s largest copper consumer.
Canada’s Government and the country’s top mining group have similarly noted that free trade in copper supports US security efforts and that tariffs could give China a competitive advantage.
Peru’s Foreign Trade Ministry has also requested that the US exclude Peru from any restrictions, citing no security risks from its copper imports.
Meanwhile, US industry players have proposed alternatives to import tariffs, such as export controls on copper concentrate and scrap metal, to encourage domestic production, reported Bloomberg.
Rio Tinto and Southwire have called for regulatory reform and export restrictions as primary tools to grow the industry.
The Copper Development Association has sought exemptions from import tariffs for raw materials.
Trafigura, the world’s largest copper trader, has suggested imposing tariffs on manufactured copper products such as wire rod, tube and strip, but keeping refined copper imports tariff-free until new US mining and smelting capacity is developed.
Imports of steel, aluminium, copper and specific minerals not available in the US were exempt from the reciprocal tariff, effective from 5 April 2025.
https://www.mining-technology.com/news/us-copper-tariff-probe/
(Ecofin Agency) - In 2024, First Quantum Minerals relied on Zambia for 93% of its copper production, with the Kansanshi and Sentinel mines delivering 402,000 tonnes and anchoring the company’s copper portfolio.
On April 15, Prospect Resources announced it had reached a deal with First Quantum Minerals to raise A$15.2 million (about US$9.5 million) for the Mumbezhi copper project in Zambia. First Quantum will receive a 15% stake in the project, deepening its presence in the country.
First Quantum, based in Toronto, is a major player in Zambia’s mining sector. Last year, the firm’s two main mines, Kansanshi and Sentinel, produced 402,000 tonnes of copper–nearly half of Zambia’s annual output of 829,670 tonnes.
This deal comes as Zambia grows more important in First Quantum’s portfolio. After the company suspended operations at Cobre Panamá at the end of 2023, Kansanshi and Sentinel accounted for 93% of its copper output in 2024, up from 49% the year before.
The Mumbezhi project gives First Quantum a fast-growing asset to support its Zambian operations. Prospect’s initial estimate for Mumbezhi shows 107 million tonnes of ore at 0.5% copper, based on the Nyungu Central and Kabikupa deposits. A second exploration phase will start by June to strengthen the project’s resources.
However, exploration success alone will not guarantee a new mine at Mumbezhi. The company must prove the project’s economic viability in dedicated studies before construction begins. This step will be crucial for both the project and its stakeholders, including First Quantum.
This article was initially published in French by Aurel Sèdjro Houenou.
Edited in English by Ange Jason Quenum
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSE:IVN) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the eight analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$22.50.
Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Ivanhoe Mines from C$24.00 to C$20.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Raymond James lowered their price objective on Ivanhoe Mines from C$25.00 to C$24.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Ivanhoe Mines from C$21.00 to C$19.00 in a research note on Friday, February 21st. TD Securities cut their price target on shares of Ivanhoe Mines from C$22.00 to C$17.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their target price on Ivanhoe Mines from C$21.00 to C$20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 9th.
Ivanhoe Mines Stock Down 0.2 %
Shares of TSE:IVN opened at C$12.03 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 20.86, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.48. Ivanhoe Mines has a fifty-two week low of C$9.79 and a fifty-two week high of C$21.32. The stock has a market cap of C$11.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.73 and a beta of 1.94. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is C$13.96 and its 200 day moving average price is C$16.73.
Ivanhoe Mines Company Profile
Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. engages in the mining, development, and exploration of minerals and precious metals primarily in Africa. It explores for platinum, palladium, nickel, copper, gold, rhodium, zinc, silver, germanium, and lead deposits. The company's projects include the Platreef project located in the Northern Limb of South Africa's Bushveld Complex; the Kipushi project located in Haut-Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo; and the Kamoa-Kakula project located within the Central African Copperbelt.
POSCO Group is reportedly considering financial investment in the construction project of a steel mill in Louisiana, the U.S., which is being pursued by Hyundai Steel. If successful, it will be the first time for the nation's No. 1 and No. 2 steel companies to join hands and respond with local production against the steel tariffs that began under the leadership of U.S. President Donald Trump.
According to the steel industry on the 13th, POSCO Group is considering Hyundai Motor Group's investment in an electric furnace integrated steel mill in Louisiana.
Last month, Hyundai Steel announced its plan to build an integrated steel mill in Donaldsonville, Luiziana, which will invest about $5.8 billion (about 8.5 trillion won) to produce 2.7 million tons of steel. The target time for commercial production of the integrated steel mill is 2029, and Hyundai Steel has set a policy of raising half of this investment with equity capital and borrowing the remaining 50% from outside.
POSCO Group is likely to participate as a financial investor in Hyundai Steel's U.S. steel mill project because there is no clear breakthrough from President Trump's 25% steel tariff without U.S. production.
POSCO Group has also been exploring ways to produce in the U.S.
In his 57th anniversary speech on the 31st of last month, POSCO Group Chairman Jang In-hwa said, "We should promote local complete investment and new projects centered on future materials in high-growth and high-yield steel regions such as the United States and India." The local complete investment is interpreted to mean that it will have a commercial process of extracting molten metal from the local area. This is because it is necessary to have a complete steel production system through investment in commercial processes that directly extract iron as well as lower processes that make semi-finished products the final product to respond more effectively to local demand.
If POSCO and Hyundai Steel, Korea's No. 1 and No. 2 steelmakers, join hands in the process of building a steel plant in the U.S., it could be the first time that the competing companies will respond to the U.S. 25% steel tariff as their original teams.
However, there are still variables. Considering POSCO Group's actions so far, it seems that it is considering receiving a portion of its crude steel production, not just investing in funds. In fact, it takes part of the production line. However, Hyundai Steel needs to attract outside investment, but it may feel burdened to cross the production line.
An official from POSCO Group declined to say, "We are considering various strategic measures regarding U.S. investment, but nothing has been confirmed at this time."
[Reporter Woo Je Yoon]
The equipment will be supplied by Italian Danieli
Australian steelmaker Greensteel Australia has announced a $1.6 billion investment in a new steel plant. This is stated in the company’s message.
The facility will be equipped with a direct reduced iron (DRI) plant, two electric arc furnaces, and rolling mills for the production of structural steel and rebar. The equipment will be supplied by Italian Danieli.
In October 2024, Greensteel Australia ordered a rebar rolling mill from Danieli. The delivery of two EAFs and a DRI unit is expected by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
The location of the new plant has not yet been determined, but it is likely to be in Wyalla.
Greensteel President and CEO Mena Ibrahim emphasized the company’s commitment to creating a state-of-the-art steel center in Australia while contributing to the decarbonization of heavy industry. According to him, the company has agreed with Danieli on an accelerated delivery schedule. This will launch Greensteel’s steel capacity within two years, creating more than 1.5 thousand permanent jobs and 2.5 thousand jobs during construction.
The new plant’s capabilities include the production of extra-long sections required for high-speed rail, which are not currently produced in Australia, as well as hydrogen-based DRI operations.
As GMK Center reported earlier, Australia is launching a new investment fund, Green Iron, worth A$1 billion ($636 million). In this way, the government is consolidating the country’s position as a major producer of green iron. The fund will promote the development of environmentally friendly iron production and supply chains by supporting such projects and stimulating large-scale private investment.
https://gmk.center/en/news/greensteel-australia-to-invest-1-6-billion-in-new-steel-plant/
Dozens of businesses have rallied to help British Steel with offers of managerial support and raw materials
Government officials and British Steel staff are in a desperate race to save its blast furnaces after what ministers believe was a plot to sabotage the Scunthorpe plant by its Chinese owners.
A crucial meeting is scheduled for Monday between the firm’s staff and civil servants aimed at rescuing Britain’s last primary steelmaking plant from permanent closure, costing thousands of jobs.
The government dramatically took control of the company on Saturday, kicking off a frantic hunt for the securing essential raw materials, including coking coal and iron ore, needed to keep the two blast furnaces at the Scunthorpe plant operational.
British Steel needs to secure raw materials for its blast furnaces to prevent its Scunthorpe facility from shutting down irrevocably (Danny Lawson/PA)
Once the furnaces are turned off, it is practically impossible to bring them back online, and officials believe British Steel’s Chinese owner Jingye had been planning to let the raw materials run out in a bid to sabotage the plant, shuttering the blast furnaces and making the UK reliant on Chinese exports of so-called virgin steel.
Luke de Pulford, executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, warned: “It is an explicit strategy of the Chinese Communist Party to undermine the industrial base of foreign countries.”
On Sunday, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Chinese firms should be barred from investing in some sectors, including those vital to national security and key infrastructure.
“I wouldn’t personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector,” he added, noting that British Steel fell into Chinese hands under Boris Johnson.
Mr Reynolds was unable to guarantee the furnaces could be saved, but said taking over the plant had given the government “a chance” to save it.
Treasury minister James Murray on Monday said Jingye had behaved “irresponsibly” and “accelerated” the crisis officials are now trying to avoid.
He said civil servants on the site are trying urgently to get raw materials to the Scunthorpe steelworks to keep the blast furnaces running.
Mr Murray confirmed the materials needed at the British Steel works were in the UK, and that government staff had been at the plant in North Lincolnshire since Saturday.
Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Murray said: "Their role is to make sure we do everything we can to make sure we get those raw materials to the blast furnaces in time and to make sure they continue operating."
He refused to guarantee the furnaces will continue running, claiming the plant's Chinese owners, Jingye, had "accelerated" the shut down of one furnace.
He said: "The raw materials, the shipments have arrived, they're in the UK, they're nearby. There were questions about getting them into the blast furnaces, that is what the officials are focused on right now."
He added: "We know that the Government needed to do everything possible on Saturday to protect the future of steelmaking in the UK.
"We're not just going to step aside and let the industry fail with the blast furnaces closing. We've been negotiating in good faith with Jingye but when it became clear they were accelerating the plans to close the blast furnaces, we had to step in."
Dozens of businesses, including Tata and Rainham Steel, have rallied to help British Steel with offers of managerial support and raw materials following the Government’s takeover.
Mr Reynolds said: “When I said steelmaking has a future in the UK, I meant it.
“That’s why we’ve passed these new powers to save British Steel at Scunthorpe, and that’s why my team are already hard at work on the ground to keep jobs going and furnaces burning.”
Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, GMB union national officer, said she is "wholly reassured" that the coking coal bound for the furnaces at Scunthorpe will be "paid for and unloaded over the next couple of days" at Immingham Bulk Terminal as part of efforts to avert the permanent shutdown of Britain's last primary steelmaking plant.
She told BBC Breakfast: "I spoke to British Steel late yesterday evening and was wholly reassured, actually.
"I've (been) told that the coke that's at Immingham Bulk Terminal will be paid for and unloaded over the next couple of days and that Government are working at pace to secure the rest of the raw materials that are currently on the ocean."
And the national secretary of GMB said he is "hopeful" that materials needed to keep furnaces at the Scunthorpe steel plant burning will be delivered in the next 48 hours.
Andy Prendergast said: "Where we are at the moment is that we're confident that the deal being done with the raw materials, and the steps being taken will get there on time, and ultimately that has the potential to preserve the future for the plant.
"There still needs to be... a deal to be done for the future. Whether that's our preference - which is nationalisation of what is a key national asset - or whether that's a genuine private investor who's willing to come in and put the money.
"I think for us the key thing is that we keep this plant going and keep virgin steel-making capacity in the UK."
The need to secure raw materials and prevent the blast furnaces cooling was the primary reason for the Government recalling Parliament on Saturday to pass emergency legislation to keep the site open.
Jingye, British Steel’s Chinese owners, had not only stopped ordering raw materials but had begun selling off existing supplies, sparking concerns the plant could close within days.
Officials from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), along with British Steel staff, will spend Monday working to bring nearby materials on to the site, as well as ensuring staff continue to be paid, the department said.
The Prime Minister took the unusual step of recalling Parliament from recess on a Saturday to pass emergency legislation allowing the Government to take control of British Steel (Peter Byrne/PA).
The offers of support from other businesses also mean that British Steel is reassessing its options.
This includes possibly reversing Jingye’s decision to take one of the blast furnaces temporarily offline as early as Monday using a “salamander tap”, a procedure said to be dangerous.
Ministers remain hopeful that a private investor can be found for British Steel, with the cost of modernising the Scunthorpe plant expected to run into billions of pounds.
But over the weekend, Mr Reynolds admitted that full nationalisation remained the most likely option in the short term.
He said: “Steel is vital for our national security and our ambitious plans for the housing, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors in the UK.
“We will set out a long-term plan to co-invest with the private sector to ensure steel in the UK has a bright and sustainable future.”
However, the Conservatives have accused the Government of acting “too late” and implementing a “botched nationalisation” after ignoring warnings about the risk to British Steel.
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said: “The Labour Government have landed themselves in a steel crisis entirely of their own making. They’ve made poor decisions and let the unions dictate their actions.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-steel-scunthorpe-jingye-group-b2732572.html
Back in November 2024, Britain’s eco zealot Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband banned new coal mines to send a “clear signal” to the world. But now, with officials scrambling to buy millions of pounds of foreign coal with taxpayer cash just to keep the country’s last primary steel manufacturer running, it seems the real message Britain has sent is how chaotic Europe’s push for Net Zero has become.
Parliament passed emergency legislation on Saturday, giving ministers control of British Steel following concerns that its Chinese owner, Jingye, was preparing to shut its unprofitable furnaces in Scunthorpe. This would have left Britain—as Bloomberg pointed out, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution—as the only Group of Seven nation without primary steel-making operations.
Writing in The Times, Jim Armitage noted that this and other crises in what remains of Britain’s industrial sector “all trace back to that one factor: the high price of British electricity.”
By killing off cheap, coal-fired electricity generation, successive governments focused on meeting net-zero emissions targets have crippled energy-intensive manufacturers.
Further proof, if ever it was needed, that Europe cannot go ‘green’ and ‘go for growth’ at the same time.
Indeed, in the hope of saving the steelworks in Scunthorpe, ministers spent the weekend offering to buy thousands of tons of coking coal shipped all the way from Japan at taxpayer expense, resulting—of course—in increased CO2 emissions.
Tory MP Neil O’Brien said it was “totally mad that just a few months ago Ed Miliband banned coal and coke production in the UK and boasted about sending a signal to the world, yet now the government are going round the world with a begging bowl trying to get enough coal to keep the last blast furnaces going.”
Although his own Conservative Party’s record is not much better on this front.
If the government is not able to source materials, such as coking coal, soon enough, the furnaces could cool, causing serious damage to the machinery. Officials say a confirmed shipment will arrive “in the coming days,” though voters are bound to be less confident.
As of Monday, April 14, the CSP is $930 per short ton (st), a $5/st decrease from the previous week. It was $935/st two weeks ago and $930/st one month ago.
Nucor lowered its weekly consumer spot price (CSP) for hot-rolled (HR) coil this week after holding prices steady for the past two weeks.
The HR coil base price for Nucor subsidiary California Steel Industries (CSI) also declined $5/st this week, now at $990/st. It was at $995/st for each of the three prior weeks and $990/st one month ago.
The Charlotte, N.C-based steelmaker noted that lead times of 3-5 weeks continue to be offered, and customers should contact their district sales manager for availability. Published extras will apply to all spot transactions.
SMU’s April 8 market check had HR coil spot prices ranging from $840-970/st, averaging $905/st. Our HR index was down $10/st from the prior week and has declined $45 across the last four weeks. We will update our indices tomorrow evening.
https://www.steelmarketupdate.com/2025/04/14/nucor-lowers-hrc-csp-to-930-ton/
Posted on 14 Apr 2025
China's demand for construction steel is expected to recover continuously during the traditional peak season for steel consumption in April, while the pace may be slower than the market has expected considering the risk aversion across various asset markets amid the ongoing tariff war between the world's two largest economies, according to Mysteel's latest monthly survey released on April 10.
The prediction was chiefly based on actual volumes of construction steel bought by domestic end-users in March and their purchase plans for this month.
Mysteel's regular tracking of over 200 construction enterprises in China showed that they purchased a total of 5.14 million tonnes of construction steel products in March, up 23.6% from the tonnage bought in February.
Despite the seasonal rise, the actual procurement volume last month was 8.4% lower than the planned amount, as the persistent weakness in domestic steel prices constrained buying appetite among end-users.
For this month, their planned buying volume is estimated at 5.91 million tonnes, indicating a growth of 15% compared to the actual procurement volume in March, the survey results showed.
April is still the traditional peak season for construction steel consumption in China thanks to the pleasant weather across most regions of the country, and downstream demand is likely to recover further with the improvement of project funding.
For the first ten days of this month, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses nationwide under Mysteel's regular tracking averaged 120,374 tonnes/day, higher by 12,636 t/d or 11.7% from the average for March.
However, the increase in demand may be limited, as most downstream steel users are cautious about restocking, except buying some products to fulfil their immediate needs amid the rising market volatility.
The U.S. President Donald Trump has kept adding tariffs on imported Chinese goods lately, with the cumulative tariff rate being hiked to as high as 145% on Thursday. In response, China has also taken countermeasures to protect its legitimate rights and interests, raising its levies on U.S. goods to 125% on Friday. These trading tensions have heightened the uncertainty in the Chinese steel market, causing swings in steel prices, Mysteel Global learned.
China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,297/tonne ($450/t) including the 13% VAT as of April 10, slipping by Yuan 42/t from the end of March.
Source:Mysteel Global
In particular, the country chose to buy rebar and wire rod
Some countries have already exhausted part of the EU’s steel import quotas in the second quarter of this year for a number of items. This is reported by SteelOrbis.
Thus, as of April 11, according to the EC, Turkey has exhausted its quotas for rebar (94,398 tons), wire rod (98,054 tons), hollow sections (83,949 tons) and some types of flat products. Among other things, the entire quota of 20,955 tons for metal-coated sheets (4B) allocated to this country in the category “other countries” was also used. In addition, 99.6% of the quota for gas pipes (49,432 tons) was selected.
Vietnam has exhausted its quota for metal-coated sheets (4B) – 20,955 tons, and South Korea – for tin products (16,105 tons). India also chose to allocate volumes for organic coated sheets (78,591 tons) and stainless bars and light profiles (31,733 tons).
The European Commission has confirmed that it will tighten restrictions on steel imports starting in April this year to protect the European steel industry. In particular, new supply limits were introduced for residual quotas (quotas of “other countries”) for 16 product categories – 13-30% per country, depending on the imported product.
The EU also reduced the annual liberalization rate (annual increase in tariff quota) from 1% to 0.1%, further limiting the total amount of steel that can be imported into the bloc duty-free. In addition, countries will no longer be able to rely on the entire volume of unused quotas from other countries, including Russia and Belarus. The EC decided to keep only 35% of the sanctioned volumes for certain categories of imports.
https://gmk.center/en/news/turkey-exhausts-a-number-of-eu-steel-import-quotas-for-q2/
Posted on 15 Apr 2025
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), Taiwan’s largest steelmaker, yesterday announced that it would keep domestic product prices unchanged for next month to help stabilize the market amid US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
The decision follows similar moves by China’s Baowu Steel Group Corp (寶武鋼鐵集), the world’s largest steelmaker, which said it would maintain prices for hot-rolled and cold-rolled plates, while Vietnam’s Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp (台塑河靜鋼鐵興業) raised prices for hot-rolled products by US$3 to US$5 per tonne, CSC said in a statement.
Hot-rolled plates are typically used in construction, such as house and bridge building, while cold-rolled steel plates are primarily used in vehicle manufacturing.
Meanwhile, ArcelorMittal SA, Europe’s leading steelmaker, last month announced that it would raise prices for hot-rolled coils by US$22 per tonne, as iron ore and coking coal were persistently trading at high prices, the statement said.
“Considering the uncertain market sentiment for the impact of new US tariffs on our downstream industries, CSC is holding on prices for all products for May to stabilize the market sentiment,” CSC said.
Trump last month invoked Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports, citing national security concerns.
As a result, hot-rolled coil prices in the US have remained above US$1,000 per tonne, CSC said.
In addition, the US administration’s so-called “Liberation Day” 32 percent levy on Taiwanese goods — although postponed by 90 days — has also fueled uncertainty in the market, it added.
“Since some of our downstream customers are negatively affected by the uncertainty of US tariff policies, we will continue to pay attention to the latest developments and roll out support measures to help them secure orders,” CSC said.
If Trump’s 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs remain in place over the long-term, Taiwan’s GDP growth could be reduced by at least 1.5 percent, putting downward pressure on the current 3.14 percent growth estimate released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics in late February, the company added.
Source:Taipei Times
SEOUL, April 15 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Steel Co., South Korea's second-biggest steelmaker, said Tuesday it has signed a wage deal with its labor union for the year of 2024 following multiple strikes and the temporary suspension of a production facility.
The company has agreed on an increase of 101,000 won (US$71) in monthly basic salary and 4 1/2 months of salaries plus 10.5 million won in bonuses, a company spokesperson said.
The union said it signed what it called an "unsatisfactory" deal as an ongoing global trade war, a prolonged downturn in the steel industry and the company's emergency management mode are expected to further weigh on unionized workers' lives.
On March 14, Hyundai Steel entered an emergency management mode to cope with growing challenges, including the imposition of 25 percent tariffs on steel imports by the U.S. government and continued strife with unionized workers.
The company temporarily suspended its cold-rolled steel facility in Dangjin, about 80 kilometers southwest of Seoul, from Feb. 24 to March 31 in the wake of a monthslong strike by its workers demanding pay hikes.
The pickling line/tandem cold mill (PL/TCM) facility is a key part of the company's integrated steel mill in Dangjin.
Moreover, one of its three domestic steel reinforcement bar (rebar) plants will be closed for the entire month of April due to an oversupply in the market, the company said earlier.
In response to Trump's tariffs, Hyundai Steel recently announced a plan to invest $5.8 billion and build an electric arc furnace-based integrated steel mill in Louisiana by 2029, with an aim to start production in the same year.
This file photo provided by Hyundai Steel shows its integrated steel mill in Dangjin, about 80 kilometers southwest of Seoul.
kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
BEIJING: Iron ore futures prices dangled in a tight range on Tuesday, as investors and traders were awaiting a raft of more economic data from top consumer China for clarity of demand outlook and stimulus prospects.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) was 0.85% higher at 712 yuan ($97.41) a metric ton, as of 0316 GMT.
The benchmark May iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was, however, 0.29% lower at $97.85 a ton as of 0310 GMT.
China is scheduled to release a batch of more economic indicators and industrial metals output data on Wednesday. Mixed market signals have blurred demand outlook for the key steelmaking ingredient, leaving prices swinging back and forth in a narrow range.
Relatively high hot metal output underpinned near-term ore demand, arresting a potential price slump amid the escalating trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
But it’s hard to see hot metal output surpass 2.45 million tons without substantial good news for the steel sector, analysts at Maike Futures said in a note.
Moreover, while China’s steel exports in March beat expectations to exceed 10 million tons, outbound shipments in the second half of the year will likely feel the pain from the intensifying trade frictions fueled by the heightened tariffs by US President Donald Trump, said analysts.
UBS has downgraded China’s GDP growth forecast to 3.4% in 2025.
A potentially slower economic growth indicates weaker demand for industrial metals products.
Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE advanced, with coking coal and coke up 0.17% and 0.72%, respectively.
Most steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange retreated.
Rebar dipped 0.26%, hot-rolled coil shed 0.28%, wire rod languished 0.24% while stainless steel nudged up 0.12%.
Rio Tinto Plc (NYSE:RIO) on Wednesday reported a decline in Pilbara iron ore production of 10% year-over-year (Y/Y) to 69.8Mt.
Pilbara iron ore shipments (consolidated basis) decreased 8% Y/Y to 62.5Mt in the quarter.
Severe weather conditions impacted both production and shipment, with four cyclones collectively causing an estimated loss of approximately 13 million tonnes.
Meanwhile, production of Bauxite rose 12% Y/Y to 15.0MT and Alumina upped 3% Y/Y to 1.9Mt in the quarter.
Outlook: For FY25, Rio reiterated guidance for Bauxite production of 57 to 59MT and Alumina production of 7.4 to 7.8MT.
The company now projects Pilbara iron ore shipments to reach the lower end of the previously issued guidance of 323-338MT, primarily due to the losses sustained from four cyclones in the first quarter.
To address about half of this shortfall, the company has implemented mitigation strategies that will require an additional investment of roughly A$150 million ($95.5 million), covering rectification efforts and contracted mining services.
Moreover, the company continues to anticipate its share of capital investment of ~$11 billion in 2025.
Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said, "We continued to see strong operational improvement with the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine and our bauxite operations delivering record months for production in March. Production was affected, however, by extreme weather events that impacted our Pilbara iron ore operations."
"We achieved first iron ore at Western Range in the Pilbara and the Simandou high-grade iron ore project in Guinea remains on track. After successful completion of the Arcadium acquisition in March, we are advancing to establish a world-class lithium business."
Last month, the company invested $1.8 billion to develop the Brockman Syncline 1 (BS1) mine in Western Australia's West Pilbara.
Investors can gain exposure to the stock via VanEck Steel ETF (NYSE:SLX) and NEOS ETF Trust Mast Global Battery Recycling & Production ETF (NYSE:EV).
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cyclones-impact-rio-tinto-q1-125457000.html
BEIJING: Iron ore futures prices slid on Wednesday, as a further escalation of trade tension between China and the United States heightened fears on demand outlook while doubts mounted on stimulus prospects following a batch of upbeat Chinese data.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) recouped some earlier losses to end daytime trade 0.14% lower at 708 yuan a metric ton.
The benchmark May iron ore on the Singapore Exchange slipped 1.28% to $97.45 a ton, as of 0717 GMT.
China’s economy grew 5.4% year-on-year in the first quarter, data showed on Wednesday, surpassing estimates, underpinned by solid consumption and industrial output.
Also, China’s new home prices were unchanged in March from the prior month, signaling a slight improvement from February, when prices fell 0.1% month-on-month.
Hopes that Beijing will unveil aggressive stimulus to counter U.S. tariff shocks to achieve its annual growth target somewhat dimmed, putting downward pressure on the ferrous market.
The weakness in prices came despite signs of lower supply and resilient demand.
Rio Tinto reported its lowest first-quarter iron ore shipments since 2019 and warned that more weather disruptions could lead to a 2025 forecast miss.
Brazilian miner Vale produced 67.7 million metric tons of iron ore in the first quarter of 2025, down 4.5% from a year earlier.
China’s crude steel output in March climbed 4.6% from the prior year, incentivised by higher margins and robust exports.
Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE were mixed, with coking coal down 0.77% and coke up 0.26%, respectively.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange lost ground. Rebar fell 1.06%, hot-rolled coil shed 1.05%, wire rod lost 0.72% and stainless steel nudged down 0.08%.
“Steel demand has shown signs of softening from last week; the impact of trade tensions on exports will probably not show up until May,” said Zhuo Quiqiu, an analyst at broker Jinrui Futures.
“Eyes are all on potential stimulus, the timing and scale.”
India has launched an auction of three coal bed methane blocks and 55 small discovered fields for exploration and production, said Pallavi Jain Govil, head of upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, on Tuesday at an event in Delhi.
Two of the coal bed methane blocks are in the state of West Bengal and one in the western state of Gujarat. India also signed contacts for oil and gas blocks, offered under a licensing round earlier this year, Govil said, as the world's third largest oil consumer seeks to boost its local output.
The country imports over 80 per cent of its over 5 million barrels per day of oil needs. India's top explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp signed contracts for exploration of 11 blocks, while Oil India signed for six blocks. ONGC also signed an exploration contract for one block in tie up with BP and Reliance Industries, and teamed up with Oil India for three blocks. Vedanta signed contracts for seven blocks and Hindustan Oil Exploration Company for one block.
