Iraq will respect the current supply agreement which has been put in place by OPEC and not take initiative to raise production, the ministry said Sunday in a statement published on its website. “Iraq does not take an individual decision to increase production to compensate for the shortage of oil supplies, whatever the reasons, because

The French sugar beet planted area will fall to 455,000 hectares for the October 2019-September 2020 season, down 6.2% on the year, the French Agriculture Ministry’s statistical and analysis unit, Agreste, said Tuesday. The lower planted area could cut European production for the year, particularly combined with a lower UK planted area. Analysts expect total

President Trump is poised to sign two executive orders Wednesday intended to advance energy infrastructure development, including one calling for new guidance on state water quality reviews and a second aimed at shifting approvals of crossborder oil pipelines from the State Department to the president. The first broad order targets an important sticking point for

Chinese steel demand may recover as stimulus and economic reforms carry the market higher following a sharp deceleration in the fourth quarter, with domestic mine cuts boding well for seaborne iron ore demand, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said Wednesday. Iron ore and steel industries in China are restructuring and closing mines in response to increasingly stringent

Chinese traders have offered spot ferrovanadium at $69/kg CIF main Asian port to Asian traders Thursday, the lowest in almost six months, Japanese traders said. The spot prices have decreased by 30% from levels of around $100/kg CIF in the first week of December, and half of $140-$150/kg CIF in early November. “There are talks

Costa Rica has decided not to impose a safeguard duty on imports of bars of steel for the reinforcement of concrete, the country’s Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce said. A ministry investigation was analyzing a possible duty of 15% over the imported products. The investigation started on March 19 and applied to material under

Chinese domestic monoethylene glycol was assessed at Yuan 5,650/mt on Tuesday, amid a supply glut and sluggish demand, hitting a 19-month low since May 11, 2017, when it was assessed at Yuan 5,620/mt, S&P Global Platts data showed. The domestic parity value was calculated to be $657/mt on Tuesday, after deducting tankage storage cost and

Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp. is expected to start its latest 330,000 mt/year methyl tert-butyl ether plant in Mailiao in Yunlin County by the second quarter of 2019. “The plant should be up and running by Q2 of 2019 as of now” a source close to the company said. Formosa had recently concluded its discussions for

China imported around 2.02 million mt of LPG in October, the highest in the past 17 months, the latest data from the General Administration of Customs showed. October LPG imports were up 38.6% from September and 27.2% from a year ago, the data showed. LPG demand from household users typically rises from October, which was

The World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement body on Wednesday agreed to establish panels to rule on whether the US Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports comply with WTO rules, according to a Geneva trade official. The dispute settlement body approved the establishment of the panels at the second request of six WTO members: