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Argentina relaxes transit regulations along key grain transport river
The Argentinean security minister announced on Monday that the country has loosened the safety regulations for shipments travelling on a river, which is a major grain transport corridor. This move could increase cargo transported through the waterway up to 7%. The Parana-Paraguay river will be able carry more cargo now, said Security Minister Patricia Bullrich on social media site X. She added that it would increase efficiency and lower costs without compromising safety. Argentina is the top exporter in the world of soy oil, flour and corn. It's also a major supplier of wheat. Over 80% of Argentina's agricultural products are transported along the river. In recent weeks, the government has refocused on the Parana River after a scandal involving an auction for maintenance contracts was halted and scrapped after only one company entered the bid. Bullrich stated that "clear rules, predictability, and firm decisions will guarantee a competitive waterway." The Rosario Grains Exchange referred to the change in regulation as "important progress" towards improving efficiency of agricultural exports. The decision of the prefecture to implement the new security measures is welcomed by Gustavo Idigoras the president of Argentina's CIARA CEC grains export chamber. He added that the measure will have "concrete effects" on loading and navigation. He added that it was now more important than ever to continue with the waterway-auction process to benefit from this change. The National Ports Chamber did not respond immediately to a request for comment. After the investigation into possible sabotage of the auction is completed, a new tender will be issued for the contract. The Belgian dredger DEME Group was the sole bidder in the first round. DEME claimed it didn't know why other firms did not bid, but the government is investigating possible "pressure" DEME could have put on its competitors. DEME said, however, that the tender was biased against Jan de Nul. The current concession holder. (Reporting and writing by Maximilian Heath, Kylie Madry, Lincoln Feast, Christian Schmollinger and Natalia Siniawski)
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Brazilian fuel distributor Vibra’s net profit plunges by 85% in fourth quarter
Vibra Energia, a Brazilian fuel distributor, reported a 84.5% drop in its fourth quarter net profit compared to a previous year. The company's final figure was 510 million reais (88.3 millions dollars), which is also lower than the 555,000,000 reais that analysts polled for LSEG estimated. The company has approved the payment of interest on equity of a total amount of 1,07 billion reais in February, August and May 2025. Why it's important Vibra is a major fuel distributor in Latin America. It operates a network of gas stations, and sells fuel to businesses directly. By the Numbers Vibra's adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) was 1.3 billion reais. This is a 44% decrease from the year prior. The adjusted EBITDA has dropped by nearly 43% on an annual basis to 145 reais for each cubic meter. The volume of sales dropped by 1.7% to 9 million cubic metres in the December quarter. Vibra's financial lever - measured by net debt/EBITDA, remained at 0.9 times a year ago. This is down from the previous 1.1 times. KEY QUOTES Vibra's report stated that its fourth quarter sales volume and EDITDA reflect "the company's ability to maintain profitability at a high level even in a challenging environment."
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Andy Home: China tightens its grip on global nickel supplies with Anglo's sale
Anglo American’s sale of its Brazilian Nickel business to China’s MMG Ltd. is a win-win for both companies. Anglo delivers on its shareholders' promise to simplify its portfolio, and pockets up to $500m. MMG, a producer of zinc, copper and cobalt, can diversify and grow its geographical footprint by expanding into Brazil. The market for nickel is one of the few that has shown signs of resilience in the face of a glut. It's not good news for western countries that want to escape China's tightening of the global nickel supply chains. China already controls around 75% the refining capacity of Indonesia, which is rapidly emerging as the world's biggest supplier. China's dominance of the nickel market could grow even more as two other Western producers look to sell their nickel operations because of low prices. Price Devastation Anglo's Brazilian assets include two mines and processing plants, with a combined annual capacity of 40,000 tons of nickel. The two plants produce ferronickel, which is used in the stainless steel industry. This sector consumes the most nickel despite its increasing use in batteries for electric vehicles. The nickel market in this segment was the first to be affected by the Indonesian production boom. This initially took the form of nickel pig iron, a stainless steel competitor. These Class II Nickel products are always sold at a lower price than the Class I high purity refined metal that is traded on the London Metal Exchange. According to MMG's investor presentations on the deal, Indonesia's production boom caused the discount from LME prices to soar from an average of 8.4% in 2001 up to 27.2% by 2023. The LME was also falling, which was bad news for Class II producers. According to Macquarie Bank's Jim Lennon, around half of ferronickel production in the world outside of China or Indonesia has been suspended. CARBON EDGE Anglo-Brazilian operations is among the survivors. The nickel price on the London Metal Exchange has fallen to a four-year low of less than $16,000 per tonne. Anglo's Ferronickel is sold at a higher price than other Class II products because of its superior quality and environmental credentials compared to Indonesian NPI. The carbon footprint has become more important in the stainless steel sector. Carbon Border Adjustment, a tax on imports with higher carbon content, will be implemented by the European Union next year. TURNAROUND The Class II nickel market has turned around, even as the LME Nickel price continues to fall under the weight rising inventories, largely Chinese and Indonesian. According to MMG, the discount on the LME Nickel price has decreased by an average of 25% in the first half last year. The discount for Anglo nickel material has decreased to 15.9%, down from 20.8% by 2023. The closure of large capacity in the West, as well as a shift in product mix in Indonesia have both impacted the supply. Many Indonesian operators switched from producing NPI in the stainless steel sector, to either producing nickel matte or mixed hydroxide in the battery sector. Macquarie’s Lennon believes that the Class II segment was best balanced in the last year, as the surplus Indonesian imported into the Class I segment. This glut can be seen in the LME warehouse stock, which has risen by 30,000 tons this year, bringing it to 192 828 tons. STRATEGIC METAL MMG believes that the glut of stainless steel will not last past this decade. This is when the combination of a steady increase in global production and a surge in demand for batteries will lead to soaring supply deficits. The company would be in a good position to reap the benefits if it did. Anglo's Nickel assets are located on the third largest nickel resource in the world, which could transform MMG into the largest producer of the metal outside of Indonesia. Although the Brazilian operations produce ferronickel at the moment, they could easily be reconfigured into battery components. China still views nickel as a strategic metal, despite its diminished value in the West. Vale, a Brazilian company, has announced a $1.4bn impairment on its Thompson Nickel operations in Canada. Vale also launched a review of their business. Thompson nickel is not the only nickel-related asset that could be acquired by Chinese investors. South32, an Australian miner, also plans to sell off its Cerro Matoso ferronickel operation in Colombia in response to "structural changes in the nickel markets", it stated in its Q4 report for 2024. These structural changes were brought about by Chinese investments in Indonesia. China is now able to double down on the long-term bet it has made that nickel will still be a key metal in the energy transition due to the supply tsunami and price crash. The author is a columnist at
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Senators demand answers about EPA's attempt to claw back $20 Billion in Climate Funds
The U.S. Senate Democrats asked Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin on Monday to stop his campaign of clawing back funds previously awarded for greenhouse gas reduction project, saying that this effort is illegal. The senators who are members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said that Zeldin’s social media campaign, which was widely publicized, to seize the $20 billion allocated through the 2022 inflation reduction act, is against the law and will result in the destruction of jobs across the US. The letter was signed by nine Democrats in the committee headed by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. It stated that "Your announcement is yet another example of Trump Administration officials and their government efficiency experts" using unfounded claims about waste, fraud and abuse to avoid congressional spending authority, ignore court orders, and freeze or terminate programs intended to reduce carbon emissions. Democrats are increasing pressure on the EPA and Justice Department over their illegal attempts to seize funds that Congress had appropriated. Four senators requested that the office of inspector general investigate these attempts last week. Zeldin praised what he called the agency's finding of billions in funds awarded through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to support clean energy projects across the U.S., which he claimed was fraudulently distributed. He also accused the Biden Administration of obligated the money "in haste and with little oversight." Officials in the Trump administration had asked Denise Cheung to launch a criminal investigation into the funding to try and recover the money currently held by Citibank. Citibank has a financial agency contract with the Treasury. Cheung, who resigned last week from the U.S. attorney's office because she felt the request wasn't supported by evidence, said that her belief was that the request had not been supported by any evidence. In their letter, the senators stated that Zeldin’s claim that the Biden Administration rushed to send billions of dollars out the door is undermined by the truth that the agency announced the selection of Citibank for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Grants in a press release seven months prior to the election. The senators requested that Zeldin respond by 3 March to explain the plan to terminate the financial agency agreement between the agency and Citibank, as well as what will be done with funds that Citibank has not yet released to grantees. (Reporting and editing by Sonali Paul; Valerie Volcovici)
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US lawmakers target China's trading practices
On Monday, a bipartisan group is introducing legislation to strengthen U.S. laws on trade enforcement and to address the impacts of Chinese-backed companies shifting portions of their production overseas to avoid American duties. The legislation is being introduced by Republican Senator Todd Young from Indiana and Democratic Sen. Tina Smith from Minnesota. They are joined by more than a dozen other senators. The bill aims to give the U.S. Commerce Department more tools to deal with concerns over China's trading practices and Belt and Road Initiative. This is a Chinese international project that aims to boost trade and connect Asia, Europe and Africa. Young stated in a press release that "China has distorted the free market through dumping products at low prices and subsidizing industries. These actions are designed to harm American workers and businesses." The U.S. House of Representatives is introducing a companion bill. Smith stated that foreign competitors such as China have been engaging in unfair trade practices for too long. This has undermined the domestic industry and threatened national security. The Chinese Embassy at Washington has not yet commented. The American Iron and Steel Institute applauded the bill because it "addresses the growing problem [of cross-border subvention] where foreign governments subsidise industries like steel not only in their home countries, but also in other countries." The bill allows the Commerce Department, through the Countervailing Duty Law, to apply translational subsidies. This law allows the government the ability to target specific products coming from different countries. The law would also strengthen antidumping regulations, set specific deadlines for inquiries into anti-circumvention, and ensure that the law could be applied to currency manipulators. It also aims to tackle imports such as kitchen cabinets from China. Donald Trump raised the tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum to 25% two weeks ago. Tariffs will be implemented on March 4, 2019. In 2000, the U.S. produced 3.7 million metric tons. In 2023, steel imports will account for approximately 23% of American consumption. According to the U.S. government, China is the main source of excess steel production in the world, despite only exporting a small amount of steel to it. American steel companies claim that subsidized Chinese production forces other countries, such as the U.S., to export more steel. This is done to avoid tariffs and trade restrictions. (Reporting and editing by Leslie Adler, Nia Williams, and David Shepardson)
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Putin talks about aluminium and rare earths deals with US
Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, offered to explore rare earth metal deposits with the U.S., and also supply aluminum for the U.S. market. He was laying the foundations of a future deal between the U.S. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, had earlier stated that "major transactions in economic development with Russia" were to take place. Putin convened, within two hours of Trump’s statement, a rare earth metals meeting with his economic advisers and ministers. After the meeting, Putin told state television that he was ready to offer his American partners, "and by 'partners', I do not mean only administrative and government structures, but also companies," if they were interested in working together. "We have undoubtedly, and I would like to stress this, a significantly greater amount of resources than Ukraine," Putin continued. He said that Russia is not concerned about a possible U.S. Ukraine deal on rare earth metals. He said that Russian companies would be able to supply the U.S. with up to 2,000,000 tons of aluminum annually, if the U.S. markets reopened. Before prohibitive duties were introduced, Russia supplied around 15% of U.S. aluminium imports. "This (Russian aluminum supplies) won't have a significant impact on price formation." "However, I believe it will still have a restraint effect on prices," Putin stated. Putin said that Russia and the U.S. can work together on hydropower production and aluminum production at the Rusal base in Russia's Krasnoyarsk Region in Siberia. Putin said that he would like to work with American companies on this project. Putin stated in a transcript published by the Kremlin that rare earths are a sector of priority for Russia's competitiveness and economic development. Putin said that the government aimed to "boost potential" of the domestic industrial sector, extending from "extraction to the manufacture of high-tech goods ready to be sold." He said that based on the results of the project, the output of these goods should be increased several times. (Reporting and writing by Anton Kolodyazhnyy; Maxim Rodionov, Anastasia Lyrchikova. Editing by Cynthia Osterman.
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Vivici, a Dutch startup that produces alternative proteins, receives a $34 million funding.
Vivici, a Dutch startup that produces food ingredients, announced on Monday it had received funding of 32.5 million Euros ($34 million) to increase its production. The company produces a dairy protein using a process known as 'precision fermenting'. This is a refined version of brewing in which microbes multiply to produce animal proteins or enzymes. Vivici believes that the demand for alternative protein will be driven by the need of food producers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to lessen their vulnerability to seasonal agricultural swings. "The whey market, which is closest to us, is already a $13-billion market," Vivici CEO Stephan van Sint Fiet said. We operate in a huge market. "From our perspective, we believe that the market potential is in the hundreds and millions." ABP, the Netherlands largest pension fund and Invest-NL (the Dutch government investment fund) led the investment. Existing shareholders DSM-Firmenich en Fonterra were also involved. Vivici didn't disclose the amounts invested by each individual or the valuation of the entire company. It said that the funding would be used to launch new products, access new markets internationally, and establish long-term production capabilities. Vivici has announced that it recently signed agreements with various food producers to supply its first product which was launched in the United States last year. Van Sint Fiet stated that the protein was identical to that found in milk but made using a more environmentally friendly method, which uses a fraction of water, energy and land. It's dairy without the animal.
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Palliser requests that Rio Tinto seek Australian shareholder approval on dual listing
Palliser Capital, a London-based hedge-fund, urged Rio Tinto on Monday to let the company's Australian investors vote on a proposal that would seek an independent review of Rio Tinto's dual-listing. Palliser, the UK shareholder of the global miner, was set to vote for a resolution that would review its dual-listed structure. Rio Tinto advised its investors to vote no. Documents published by the company in advance of its annual general meetings in London and Perth revealed that the resolution was only put up for vote to its UK shareholders. Palliser wrote in a company letter that this action has denied Australian shareholders the right to vote on an issue of equal importance to them. Rio Tinto has a corporate structure that requires two AGMs: one for the UK listed plc shareholders, and another for the Australian listed limited shareholders. Palliser and over 100 other shareholders requested in December a resolution calling on an independent review of the merits to unify Rio Tinto’s dual-listed corporate structures. Rio Tinto's spokesperson said that Palliser had submitted a request for notice of the annual general meeting for the company's London-based shareholders but hadn't done so for its Australian shareholders. The spokesperson explained: "They've now told us that they want to submit a request notice for Rio Tinto Limited's AGM, and we've shown them how to do it." Reporting by Adwitiya Shrivastava from Bengaluru, and Clara Denina from London; Editing and production by Leroy Leo & Alan Barona
Coterra Energy beats quarterly profit estimates on higher production, raises dividend
Coterra Energy announced Monday that it had beaten Wall Street's fourth-quarter profit estimates and increased its dividend by 5%. The oil and gas company has benefited from a higher production of oil and natural gases liquids (NGLs).
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that the oil production of the United States reached a new record in the last quarter, as improved drilling efficiency helped producers pump out more.
Houston-based company announced a production increase of 681,500 barrels equivalent per day (boepd) in the fourth quarter, exceeding its high-end outlook of 630,000-660,000 boepd. This was driven by improved well performance and cycle times.
The company's mix of oil and NGLs was higher than in the previous quarter but overall, it was lower than the 697.400 boepd that were produced during the quarter.
Coterra forecasts that the total production in 2025 will be between 710,000 to 770,000 boepd with an increased oil mix. Natural gas production, however, is expected to remain relatively flat at midpoint.
Coterra, betting on organic growth for its legacy assets in the Permian and other areas, expects a growth in oil of at least 5% from 2025 to 2027. It also anticipates an annual capital range between $2.1 and $2.4 billion. This includes proforma growth in 2026-2027.
Coterra purchased certain assets from Avant Natural Resources, Franklin Mountain Energy and others for $3.95 billion in November of last year to expand their operations in the Delaware Basin.
The company anticipates that capital expenditures will be 28% higher in 2024 than the $1.76 Billion spent in 2024.
The company also expects capital expenditures for drilling and completion of projects in the Marcellus Basin to be $50 millions higher than they were in November 2011 as it begins activity in the basin in the early second quarter. They could also rise by $50 million during the second half.
According to LSEG data, the company's adjusted profit for the three-month period ended December 31 was 49 cents a share compared to the average analyst estimate of 43 cents a share.
(source: Reuters)