Via Metal Miner   At a time when analysts expect the global demand for aluminum to rise, a new development in China may significantly impact both aluminum market demand and the country’s internal consumption. That said, market watchers know that any announcement around metals coming out of Beijing these days also has to be looked at through the lens of the ongoing tariff war with the United States. It’s a pivotal moment for China’s aluminum industry, even as the nation’s production capacity nears its government-imposed…

Oil prices were largely holding steady Wednesday afternoon, waiting for the other shoe to drop on the prospect of a failed nuclear deal with Iran that could lead to military conflict, and as the Trump administration gears up to make a big market-rattling tariff announcement in the afternoon. At 2:47 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading up 0.66%, at $74.98, while the U.S. crude benchmark, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), was trading up 0.80% at $71.77. Most market attention at the moment remains focused on Trump’s plan to announce sweeping…

Nature abhors a vacuum, or so they, or potentially Aristotle, once said. During weeks like this, it feels more accurate to say it’s the news which is doing the abhorring. Speculation has been, understandably, rampant as to the nature, variety, and impact of the tariffs the US President Donald Trump is expected to introduce on Wednesday, and just how they might affect everything from Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ fiscal headroom and the price of your supermarket shopping, to Tesla stocks and fears of a global recession. Trump has already…

For decades, the idea that Germany’s gold reserves - some of the largest in the world - might not be safe in the vaults of the New York Federal Reserve would have seemed like the stuff of conspiracy theories. But as the political landscape shifts in Washington - and questions have been raised as to what's actually in US vaults, some German lawmakers are beginning to wonder aloud: Is their gold still secure? Germany holds the second-largest hoard of gold on the planet, surpassed only by the United States itself. Roughly 37 percent of that…

US lawmakers and experts at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing underscored a rare bipartisan consensus -- preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons as a top priority. However, divisions remain over how far Washington should go in applying pressure versus pursuing diplomacy. Republican lawmakers strongly supported the Donald Trump administration’s decision to reinstate the “maximum pressure” campaign that defined his Iran policy during his first term as US president. “The maximum pressure campaign devastated Iran’s…

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright is reinstating the so-called Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) to incentivize employees to leave voluntarily before layoffs begin as part of the Trump Administration’s push to reduce the federal workforce and bureaucracy. “This is a difficult but necessary effort to make government more efficient and accountable. In conducting any such exercise, it is important to consider how optimization initiatives could impact DOE personnel,” Secretary Wright wrote in a memo to staff obtained by POLITICO’s…

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright is reinstating the so-called Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) to incentivize employees to leave voluntarily before layoffs begin as part of the Trump Administration’s push to reduce the federal workforce and bureaucracy. “This is a difficult but necessary effort to make government more efficient and accountable. In conducting any such exercise, it is important to consider how optimization initiatives could impact DOE personnel,” Secretary Wright wrote in a memo to staff obtained by POLITICO’s…

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright is reinstating the so-called Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) to incentivize employees to leave voluntarily before layoffs begin as part of the Trump Administration’s push to reduce the federal workforce and bureaucracy. “This is a difficult but necessary effort to make government more efficient and accountable. In conducting any such exercise, it is important to consider how optimization initiatives could impact DOE personnel,” Secretary Wright wrote in a memo to staff obtained by POLITICO’s…

Crude oil inventories in the United States saw a large increase of 6.2 million barrels during the week ending March 28, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration released on Wednesday. Crude oil prices were trading up prior to the crude data release by the U.S. Energy Information Administration after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a build of 6.037 million barrels in U.S. crude oil inventories amid a small gasoline draw. The Brent benchmark was trading up 0.01% at 10:28 a.m. ET at $74.50—a…

Russia has ordered a 90-day halt to one of several berths at the port of Novorossiysk, its key Black Sea oil export route, a day after it ordered the temporary shutdown of two of three moorings at the key export terminal for Kazakhstan’s oil. Transneft, the Russian pipeline monopoly, announced on Wednesday that the ongoing safety checks from Russia’s transportation authority resulted in an order for a 90-day halt to oil loading at berth 8 at the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP). Russia’s Federal Agency for Transport Supervision…

Russia has ordered a 90-day halt to one of several berths at the port of Novorossiysk, its key Black Sea oil export route, a day after it ordered the temporary shutdown of two of three moorings at the key export terminal for Kazakhstan’s oil. Transneft, the Russian pipeline monopoly, announced on Wednesday that the ongoing safety checks from Russia’s transportation authority resulted in an order for a 90-day halt to oil loading at berth 8 at the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP). Russia’s Federal Agency for Transport Supervision…

Global seaborne crude oil flows rose in March from February, just ahead of the supply increase coming from OPEC+ in April, oil flows tracking data by Bloomberg showed on Wednesday. Global crude exports averaged 39.92 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, up by 119,000 bpd from February levels, according to the observed shipments tracked by Bloomberg. Flows from Brazil, Canada, and Russia jumped last month from a month earlier, while crude flows from the United States and the North Sea saw large decreases. Shipments from the world’s top…

Energy ministers of the OPEC+ producers will discuss in a Thursday call the importance of sticking to the oil production quotas under the deal, delegates from the alliance told Bloomberg on Wednesday. In every press release for years, the OPEC+ group has been stressing how important sticking to the quotas is. Overproduction has partly negated the bullish effects of the cuts on the oil market. The alliance is beginning the easing of the cuts this month, adding 138,000 barrels per day (bpd) to combined production. However, all OPEC+ calculations…

Energy ministers of the OPEC+ producers will discuss in a Thursday call the importance of sticking to the oil production quotas under the deal, delegates from the alliance told Bloomberg on Wednesday. In every press release for years, the OPEC+ group has been stressing how important sticking to the quotas is. Overproduction has partly negated the bullish effects of the cuts on the oil market. The alliance is beginning the easing of the cuts this month, adding 138,000 barrels per day (bpd) to combined production. However, all OPEC+ calculations…

Energy ministers of the OPEC+ producers will discuss in a Thursday call the importance of sticking to the oil production quotas under the deal, delegates from the alliance told Bloomberg on Wednesday. In every press release for years, the OPEC+ group has been stressing how important sticking to the quotas is. Overproduction has partly negated the bullish effects of the cuts on the oil market. The alliance is beginning the easing of the cuts this month, adding 138,000 barrels per day (bpd) to combined production. However, all OPEC+ calculations…

As Saudi Arabia pushes ahead with its ambitious Vision 2030 plan to build huge futuristic cities and resorts, the world’s top crude oil exporter will need to borrow more money on the debt markets as oil prices continue to linger at levels of about $20 per barrel lower than the Saudi fiscal breakeven oil price. The Kingdom, the leader and main architect of the OPEC+ production cuts, is starting to ease a small part of these cuts on April 1, per the group’s latest plan to add 138,000 barrels per day (bpd) to supply this month. Rising…

The global rollout of 5G wireless networks over the past five or so years has been a bit of a mixed bag of success. On one hand, 5G has achieved significant advancements, notably in faster speeds, lower latency, and increased network capacity, enabling new applications like enhanced streaming, gaming, and remote medical services, as well as supporting industries like smart cities and autonomous vehicles. While 4G usually tops out at ~100 megabits per second (Mbps), 5G pushes that to a sizzling 10 gigabits per second (Gbps), with latencies of 1…

Uranium purchases in the United States have slowed considerably as power utilities process the effect of President Donald Trump’s tariff offensive in the market—and that offensive may yet transform that same market. Bloomberg reported this week that uranium purchases by U.S. power utilities had dropped by 50% ahead of the 10% import tariff that Trump imposed on Canadian energy exports. The publication noted that those power utilities source more than a quarter of their uranium from Canada, which makes the potential impact of the tariffs…

I have said in recent posts that the world economy is hitting resource limits of many kinds. These limits include oil, coal, and other sources of energy, including uranium, used as a fuel for nuclear power generation. Because of these limits, the world economy is being forced to shrink back. In my opinion, the direction it is headed in is toward smaller, mostly less-advanced, more independent, economies. This change is also likely to lead to various types of financial collapse for many of today’s Advanced Economies. Per-capita…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 6.037 million barrels for the week ending March 28, after a 4.6 million barrel drop in the prior week. So far this year, crude oil inventories have climbed nearly 23 million barrels, according to Oilprice calculations of API data. Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) climbed 0.3 million barrels again to 396.4 million barrels in the week ending March 28.…