Latest News
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L&T Joins Hitachi Energy to Support TenneT’s 2GW Offshore Wind Grid Scheme
India’s EPC contractor Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has been hired to deliver High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) converters in support of the Dutch-German transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT’s 2GW offshore wind grid program in the North Sea.Collaborating with Hitachi Energy, a global technology leader in electrification, L&T has been nominated by TenneT to deliver HVDC converter stations, as part of the initiative that aims to accelerate the integration of large-scale renewable energy into the European power grid, particularly across the German and Dutch sectors of the North Sea.The collaboration brings together complementary strengths in advanced technology, engineering excellence, and end-to-end project execution.“Partnering with TenneT and Hitachi Energy for this pioneering program underscores the confidence our customers place in L&T’s growing capability to execute complex, technology-intensive infrastructure projects,” said S N Subrahmanyan, Chairman & Managing Director - L&T.To remind, TenneT recently terminated Petrofac’s cope for the 2 GW offshore wind grid project, that was supposed to be delivered in collaboration with Hitachi Energy.Petrofac’s scope included the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) of offshore platforms and elements of the onshore converter stations.Shortly after, Petrofac filed for administration.Petrofac Goes into Administration after TenneT’s OW Contract Termination
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FLOWRA, ClassNK to Collaborate on Floating Offshore Wind Technology Development
The Floating Offshore Wind Power Technology Research Association (FLOWRA) of Japan and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore technology development cooperation in the field of floating offshore wind. FLOWRA is a technical research association that works with overseas organizations to research and develop common basic technologies for floating offshore wind to reduce costs and risks.ClassNK is an independent, non-profit international classification society, ensuring maritime safety and environmental protection through comprehensive inspection and certification services across a global network.
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Dollar to rise for third consecutive month as Fed caution on rate increases boosts gold
Gold prices fell Friday as the dollar strengthened on fears of further Federal Reserve rate reductions, but bullion is still on course for its third consecutive monthly gain. As of 0240 GMT, spot gold was down 0.5%, at $4,004 an ounce. Bullion is up 3.9% this month. U.S. Gold Futures for December Delivery remained unchanged at $4,016.70 an ounce. Tim Waterer, Chief Market Analyst at KCM Trade, said that the Fed Chairman's hawkish stance this week did not do gold any favors. The prospect of a December rate cut is now much less certain than previously believed, which has helped boost the dollar and made things more difficult for gold in terms of yield. Dollar index nears its highest level for three months compared to its rivals. This makes bullion expensive for holders of other currencies. The U.S. Central Bank cut interest rates on Wednesday by a quarter percentage point, for the second consecutive time in this year. This brings the benchmark overnight rate down to a range of target of 3.75%-4.00%. After comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, traders reduced their bets on the Fed cutting rates again in December at its next policy gathering. According to CME Group's FedWatch, the markets now price in a probability of 74.8% for a 25 basis-point reduction from the Fed by December. This compares with a chance of 91.1% a week earlier. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, said that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to reduce tariffs against China in exchange for Beijing crackingdown on illicit fentanyl trafficking. He also stated that the U.S. would resume its soybean purchases as well as continue exporting rare earths. SPDR Gold Trust is the largest gold-backed ETF in the world. Its holdings increased 0.42% on Thursday to 1,040.35 tonnes from 1,036.05 on Wednesday. Spot silver remained at $48.94 an ounce. Platinum rose 0.2% to 1,614.53, and palladium increased 1.7% to $1469.63. (Reporting and editing by Subhranshu sahu, Mrigank dhaniwala in Bengaluru)
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Sources say that Indian Oil purchases Russian crude oil from entities not sanctioned by the United Nations.
Indian Oil Corp, the top refiner in India, has purchased five cargoes from non-sanctioned companies for delivery in December. Traders said that India had resumed purchases despite Washington's pressure to stop purchasing Russian oil. Washington imposed sanctions last week on Rosneft, and Lukoil - the two largest Russian oil companies - in an effort to increase pressure on President Vladimir Putin for the end of the war in Ukraine. Since then, Indian refiners, including the state-run Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd., HPCL Mittal Energy Ltd. and Reliance Industries (the operator of the largest refining facility in the world) have stopped buying Russian oil. Anuj Jain is the head of finance at IOC. He has stated that his company will buy Russian oil as long as it is in compliance with the sanctions. The European Union (EU), the United Kingdom (UK) and the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia, including those that affect shipping, for its involvement in the Ukraine conflict. The sanctions forced Russia to offer its oil at steep discounts. India is now the largest buyer of Russian crude oil by sea. One of the sources in the trade said that IOC had purchased about 3.5 millions barrels of ESPO for delivery to an eastern Indian port by December at a price similar to Dubai's. One of the sources said that they did not know who the sellers were. IOC didn't immediately respond to an outside-of-working hours request for comment. The majority of Russian ESPO crude oil exports from Kozmino, a port on the Pacific coast, are usually shipped to China. The demand for ESPO crude from China has decreased after U.S. sanctioned state refiners stopped purchasing, and independent Chinese refineries have used up their import quotas. The price of ESPO has dropped, which makes it more attractive to Indian buyers.
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Iron ore prices fall on rising stocks and falling demand; weekly and monthly gains are expected
Iron ore futures fell on Friday due to dwindling Chinese demand and increasing inventories. However, hopes for a trade agreement between the two largest economies in the world kept prices on course for weekly and month gains. As of 0148 GMT on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange, the most traded January iron ore contract fell 0.93% and was trading at 797 yuan (111.89 dollars) per metric ton. This is a rise of 3.3% for this week. As of 13.8 GMT, the benchmark December iron ore price on the Singapore Exchange dropped 0.61% to $100.8 per ton. This is a 2% increase for this week. Both benchmarks saw a gain of around 2% in the month of March on optimism for a trade agreement during a Thursday meeting between U.S. president Donald Trump and his Chinese equivalent, Xi Jinping. After the meeting, Trump stated that he and Xi had agreed to lower tariffs against China in exchange for Beijing crackingdown on the illicit fentanyl traffic, resuming U.S. soya bean purchases, and maintaining rare earths exports. First Futures analysts said that the macro-driven driving forces have receded since the Trump-Xi summit. Investors shifted their focus to the weakening fundamentals in the steel-making ingredient, as the macro boost was fully priced. Data from Mysteel revealed that the average daily hot metal production, which is a measure of iron ore consumption, dropped 1.5% on a week-on-week basis to 2,36 million tons by October 30. Portside inventories increased 0.8% during this period. A Friday official survey revealed that the decline in China's manufacturing activity for the seventh consecutive month, October, was also pushing up prices. Coke and coking coal, which are used to make steel, both rose by 1.04% apiece. The Shanghai Futures Exchange saw a decline in most steel benchmarks. Rebar fell 0.19%, while hot-rolled coils dropped 0.21%. Stainless steel dropped 0.43%. Wire rod gained 0.12%.
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Australian shares snap a three-day losing streak as Banks and miners drive the Australian share price upwards
Australian shares rose Friday, ending three consecutive sessions of losses. Banks and miners saw gains, while Origin Energy shares fell to a new two-month-low after the company reported a sequential decline in its first quarter revenue. By 0004 GMT, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had risen 0.5% to 8,930.80. The benchmark closed Thursday 0.5% lower. Origin, a power producer, was one of the biggest losers in the benchmark index after it reported a 12% decline in revenue from its stakes in the Australia Pacific LNG Project. This was due to lower LNG prices and volumes. The firm's shares fell 6.3% to A$11.81 in their lowest trading session since April 7. Separately shares of insurance broker Steadfast Group were the biggest losers on the benchmark index, dropping up to 18.9% to A$5.03, their lowest level since November 16, 2022. After the company's bell rang on Thursday, Robert Kelly, its CEO and managing director, announced that he would temporarily step down from his position while an investigation was conducted by an outside party into a complaint lodged against him. On the local stock exchange, the banks rose 0.8% while the "Big Four", which includes the four largest banks, rose between 0.1% to 1.3%. Gold miners rose on the backs of higher gold prices, which boosted their gains by 1.2%. The shares of gold miners Evolution Mining (up 3.5%) and Northern Star Resources (up 3.8%) rose respectively. JB Hi Fi continued to fall for the second consecutive session. The firm had posted on Wednesday a dramatic sequential decline in sales growth for its Australia and New Zealand segment in the first quarter. Shares of Mayne Pharma, a potential acquirer, fell to their lowest intraday performance ever after it was revealed that Australia's Treasurer would block the A$672 ($436.67$) takeover. The benchmark S&P/NZX50 index in New Zealand rose 0.4% to 13,509.0.
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Hastings, Australia, to negotiate an offtake agreement with Ucore on Yangibana Project
Hastings Technology Metals, an Australian company, announced on Friday that its Yangibana joint-venture project in Western Australia had agreed to negotiate a possible offtake agreement with Ucore Rare Metals Inc. of North America. The Yangibana project for rare-earths, niobium, and other metals is a joint-venture with Wyloo Metals of Andrew Forrest, who holds 60%, and Hastings Rare-Earths, which has the remaining 40% via its subsidiary Yangibana Jubilee. Hastings CEO Vince Catania said, "The joint assessment of a downstream Hydromet facility in the U.S. shows the efforts made by Wyloo Ucore and Hastings for accessing the financing and commercial opportunity arising from a rare-earths agreement recently announced by the U.S. government and Australian government to support jointly "ready to go "projects." The deal could cover up to 37,000 tonnes of high-grade rare earth concentrate per year, while both parties evaluate the feasibility of building an downstream hydrometallurgy facility in Louisiana. Hastings stated in a press release that the parties would work to execute a definitive agreement. This is expected be finalised by June 2026. If the current momentum continues, shares of the Australian developer of rare-earths could rise as high as 19.3% and reach A$0.68. This would be their best session in over a week.
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SK Innovation expects Q4 margins to be resilient
SK Innovation Co Ltd, the owner of South Korea’s largest refiner SK Energy said on Friday that it expects the refining margins to remain stable in the fourth-quarter amid global supply disruptions as well as the onset winter peak demand. The company reported an operating loss of 423 billion won in the period July-September, but a profit of 573 trillion won for that same period. This compares to an analyst's average forecast of 304 billion dollars in profit. The third-quarter revenue increased 16.3%, to 20.5 trillion won, from the same period last year. SK On, a battery supplier to Ford Motor Co., Volkswagen and Hyundai Motor, among others, increased its operating loss from 66.4 billion won to 124.8 billion in the third quarter. This was due to a slowdown in EV batteries shipments. SK Innovation stated in a press release that the performance of its battery unit in the third quarter was affected by lower sales of batteries, which were affected by the phase out subsidies for battery powered vehicles in the United States. In September, SK On entered into a contract with U.S. based Flatiron Energy Development for the supply of lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP) for energy storage systems. This was its first order to use LFP batteries in ESS. SK's agreement echoes a growing trend of EV battery manufacturers expanding into energy storage to hedge against the slowdown in EV batteries demand. On Thursday, LG Energy Solution, SK On’s rival across the street from it in South Korea said that they expect U.S. EV batteries sales to decrease this year compared to a year earlier. After the earnings announcement, shares of SK Innovation rose 0.2%, compared to the benchmark KOSPI which grew by 0.3%.
Brazil's Gerdau saw its adjusted Q3 profit fall due to domestic market.
The Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau reported on Thursday a 23.9% drop in its adjusted quarterly net profit compared to the same period a year ago, as its booming business in North America has been offset by poor results in its home market.
In the quarter July-September, Gerdau's net profit adjusted fell to 1,09 billion reais (201.71 millions).
The company's adjusted earnings before taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), which is a measure of its profit, came in at 2,74 billion reais. This was down 9.2% from the previous year, but in line with what analysts expected in a LSEG survey.
The company stated that the results were impacted heavily by steel oversupply, which drove prices down despite constant production. Its second largest market is Brazil, just behind North America.
The domestic market's gross profit fell 70.1% from a quarter earlier, to 403 millions reais. This is despite the fact that the steel production was only down 0.4% during the same period.
Gerdau's gross profits in North America jumped 48.9% from the previous year to 1.5 billion reais during the third quarter.
The total revenue for the quarter was 18 billion reais. This is up 3.5% compared to a year ago and higher than analysts' expectations of 17.6 billion. $1 = 5.4039 Reais (Reporting and editing by Brendan O'Boyle).
(source: Reuters)