2025-06-05 23:38

June 5 (Reuters) - British Columbia's Environmental Assessment Office has determined that work on the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission natural gas pipeline project has been substantially started, the provincial government said on Thursday. The decision means a 2014 environmental assessment certificate for the project will remain in effect indefinitely, unless suspended or cancelled under the Environmental Assessment Act, the B.C. government said in a press release. Sign up here. The 900-kilometre PRGT project will run from Hudson's Hope in northeastern B.C. to Lelu Island near Prince Rupert on Canada's Pacific Coast. It was acquired from TC Energy (TRP.TO) , opens new tab by the Nisga'a First Nation and the Western LNG in March 2024 to supply natural gas to the proposed 12 million tonneS per annum Ksi Lisims liquefied natural facility. The 2014 environmental assessment certificate required that the project show substantial progress by November 25, 2024. The B.C. Environmental Assessment Office launched a review process late last year to examine whether work had started, considering site inspections, documentation from PRGT and input from local First Nations. The government statement said compliance and enforcement officers will continue to monitor the PRGT project throughout construction and operation to ensure it meets all environmental requirements. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/canadian-regulator-says-prince-rupert-gas-transmission-pipeline-project-has-2025-06-05/

2025-06-05 23:24

NAPERVILLE, Illinois, June 5 (Reuters) - If anything can wreck the party for U.S. corn exporters, it’s Brazil. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has sky-high goals for U.S. corn exports in both the current and upcoming marketing years, but the overall potential may be confined by Brazil’s current harvest success. Sign up here. As of May 29, U.S. corn exporters had sold 99% of USDA’s full-year export outlook for 2024-25, which ends August 31. That is the fullest coverage by this point in a decade, and the figure would generally indicate that the current export target is too low. But by how much? U.S. corn has recently been able to maintain competitive pricing versus Brazil, and 2024-25 U.S. export sales over the last several weeks have been safely above average. However, Brazil just began harvesting its heavily exported second corn crop, and some production estimates have risen notably over the last week or so. Ever since Brazil’s second corn output – and exports – exploded in 2011-12, U.S. exporters’ ability to make corn sales in the final quarter of the marketing year has been somewhat limited whenever Brazil’s crop is strong. Conab’s May estimates showed Brazil’s 2024-25 second-corn harvest up 11% from last year. Similar past years might imply that the next three months could feature an additional couple million metric tons of U.S. corn sales for 2024-25. USDA pegs 2024-25 U.S. exports at 66 million tons, second to the 69.8 million shipped in 2020-21 when China was a major player. The platform for 2024-25’s success started building in the prior year, which boasted a record U.S. corn harvest. But the urge to compare this year with last year should come with extra caveats. Not only was corn cheap and plentiful a year ago, but Brazil’s second crop shrank 12% on the year, facilitating above-average sales at the tail end of the 2023-24 U.S. season. Some analysts have surmised that tariff fears caused U.S. corn customers to stock up early on purchases, which cannot be confirmed or denied but could be another possible short-term limitation on U.S. corn sales. BUMPER EXPORTS, BACK-TO-BACK? USDA’s aspirations for U.S. corn exports in 2025-26 are even bigger than in 2024-25, but the feasibility is unclear given that the big 2024-25 Brazilian crop will be hogging global business through the next several months. As of May 29, U.S. exporters had sold just over 3 million tons of corn for export in 2025-26, slightly more than in the last two years but nothing special. Like old-crop sales, new-crop U.S. corn sales are also limited just prior to the start of the marketing year whenever Brazil’s second-corn output is solidly up on the year. This can be extended to the other corn exporters, too. Combined 2024-25 corn output in Brazil, Argentina and Ukraine is set to rise 2% on the year, which could keep a lid on 2025-26 U.S. corn sales over the next three months. Apart from Brazil, U.S. exporters’ potential success in 2025-26 depends on what happens at home. Although things are not perfect, the 2025-26 U.S. corn crop is off to a promising start with mostly benign weather expected for the first half of June. Over the last two decades, U.S. corn exports have almost never disappointed from initial expectations whenever production meets or exceeds the initial expectations. This offers a chance for U.S. exporters to retain control of their destiny despite ample Brazilian offerings if they can get cooperation from one very finicky source: Mother Nature. Karen Braun is a market analyst for Reuters. Views expressed above are her own. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/bumper-brazilian-corn-crop-could-spoil-us-exporters-fun-braun-2025-06-05/

2025-06-05 23:14

Sao Paulo, June 5 (Reuters) - Brazil's Brava Energia (BRAV3.SA) , opens new tab signed a $65 million deal to sell a 50% stake in midstream natural gas infrastructure assets in the state of Rio Grande do Norte to PetroReconcavo (RECV3.SA) , opens new tab, the companies said in separate filings. The assets include two natural gas processing units, the Livramento/Guamare pipeline, and equipment used to store liquefied natural gas. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/brazils-brava-energia-signs-65-million-deal-with-petroreconcavo-natural-gas-2025-06-05/

2025-06-05 23:06

LONDON, June 6 (Reuters) - Britain's first industrial strategy for eight years will be undermined unless the government also announces measures to reduce sky-high energy costs faced by companies, lawmakers and business leaders said on Friday. Ministers have been working on the strategy, which will be presented along with a multi-year spending review due on Wednesday and highlight key sectors of priority to drive the Labour government's growth ambitions. Sign up here. "High electricity prices in the UK are deterring investment and hurting the ability of UK industries to compete internationally and decarbonise," the lawmakers on parliament's business and trade committee said in a report. "We recommend that the industrial strategy must include measures that level the playing field with our international competitors on industrial energy prices." On Monday, industry body Make UK said Britain needed to cut industrial energy bills that are the highest among major advanced economies if its aspirations for a healthy manufacturing sector are to succeed. It has proposed cancelling climate levies on industrial energy costs and said the committee's report was further evidence of the hard realities facing British industry. "Government has one moon shot to give companies the certainty and stability they need with a robust Industrial Strategy," said Stephen Phipson, CEO of Make UK, adding failure to deliver on high expectations would be "wholly unacceptable". In a speech late on Thursday, Confederation of British Industry CEO Rain Newton-Smith also called on the government to remove "policy costs" from electricity bills. She said that while a divisive political debate between cheaper energy or pursuing net zero was a "false choice", energy-intensive businesses were finding it harder to stay in the UK and needed support to decarbonise. "We cannot deliver economic security without action on energy," she said. "Without it, any industrial strategy, any serious plan for economic security will fall flat on its face." A spokesperson for the business ministry said the industrial strategy would create "the best possible conditions for the private sector to thrive" in order to boost growth, adding it had consulted extensively with hundreds of businesses. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/britain-urged-lower-energy-costs-ahead-industrial-strategy-2025-06-05/

2025-06-05 22:48

June 5 (Reuters) - Argentine analysts cut their inflation forecast for the end of the year to 28.6%, the central bank's monthly market expectations survey showed on Thursday. The revised estimate is 3.2 percentage points lower than last month's forecast. Analysts also ticked up their 2025 economic growth outlook by 0.1 percentage point to 5.2%. Sign up here. The improved inflation outlook follows a landmark $1 billion, peso-linked bond sale last week, Argentina's first major issuance in seven years, which attracted demand 1.7 times the offering size. Annual inflation has fallen from over 270% a year ago to around 50% today, helping rebuild confidence among investors and the International Monetary Fund, which recently approved a $20 billion loan package. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-inflation-seen-slowing-286-by-year-end-2025-06-05/

2025-06-05 21:48

June 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department said on Thursday that no major U.S. trading partners manipulated their currencies in the four quarters through to the end of December but it has expanded its monitoring list to nine countries. The release is the first semi-annual currency report since Donald Trump's return to the White House and the last one pertaining to Joe Biden's time as president. Sign up here. Two countries, Ireland and Switzerland, joined Germany, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam, which were already being monitored at the time of the November report from the Biden administration. The November report had found that no major U.S. trading partners manipulated their currencies in the 12 months ending June 2024 and during Biden's full four-year term there were no currency manipulation declarations. Under former President Barack Obama, the U.S. had started a foreign exchange "monitoring list" of countries with high external surpluses or currency market interventions in April 2016 after the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. The Treasury uses three criteria to determine currency manipulation and countries meeting two of the thresholds are automatically added to the monitoring list. The three items are: 1) a trade surplus with the U.S. of at least $15 billion, 2) a global account surplus above 3% of GDP, 3) persistent, one-way net foreign exchange purchases. Countries currently being monitored: ** CHINA - The biggest U.S. trading partner was listed for monitoring in the latest report, which said it stands out among trading partners for lack of transparency on exchange rate practices and policies. The Treasury Department said that a lack of transparency will not preclude it from designating China in the future if evidence suggests it is intervening through formal or informal channels to resist yuan appreciation. A lack of transparency was also noted in the November 2024 report. China has been in every report since 2016. While Trump had told the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator in August 2019, the designation was dropped in January 2020 as Chinese officials arrived in Washington to sign a trade agreement with the U.S. ** SWITZERLAND - Due to a large bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. and a large global current account surplus, Switzerland was added back in as a country that needed monitoring in the latest report. The U.S. had removed Switzerland from its list in November 2023. In 2022, the U.S. had found Switzerland continued to exceed all three thresholds for possible manipulation, but stopped short of calling it a manipulator. The U.S. had said at that time that it would continue an engagement with Switzerland, which began in early 2021 to discuss options for addressing its external imbalances. This was after the Treasury in December 2020, the final full month of Trump's first term, had labeled Switzerland as a currency manipulator. ** IRELAND - Ireland was added to monitoring due to a large bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. and its large global current account surplus. It has been on and off the monitoring list in recent years. It was included on the watch list in both 2021 reports after being removed in December 2020. It was put on the list of countries being watched in May 2019. ** VIETNAM - Vietnam was kept on the U.S. list of countries for monitoring in the latest report. In December 2021 the U.S. had said Vietnam continued to exceed its thresholds for possible currency manipulation but refrained from branding it as a manipulator. In December 2020, the U.S., under Trump, had labeled Vietnam as a currency manipulator. ** SOUTH KOREA - South Korea was kept on the U.S. list of countries for monitoring in the latest report. In November 2024 South Korea was added to the U.S. monitoring list due to its large global current account surplus and its sizable goods and services trade deficit with the U.S. In November 2023, South Korea was removed from monitoring for the first time since 2016. ** TAIWAN - Taiwan was kept on the list for monitoring. In December 2021 the U.S. had said Taiwan continued to exceed its criteria for possible currency manipulation but did not formally label it a manipulator. Taiwan was first added to the monitoring list in 2016. ** JAPAN - In the latest report, Japan was kept on the monitoring list. In November, it was already being watched because of its trade surplus with the U.S. and an increase in its global current account surplus to 4.2% of GDP. Japan intervened three times since April 2024 to shore up the yen's value. The Treasury report said Japan was transparent but that intervention should only happen in "exceptional circumstances without prior consultations." It had been added to the list of countries monitored in 2016. ** GERMANY - It was on the list of countries being monitored in the latest report. Germany was also under monitoring in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 reports. ** SINGAPORE - Singapore was already on the monitoring list in both 2024 reports. It was also on the watch list in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020. In the December 2020 report the U.S. said Singapore had intervened in the forex market in a "sustained, asymmetric manner" but did not meet other requirements to be labeled a manipulator. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-finds-no-currency-manipulators-adds-ireland-switzerland-monitoring-2025-06-05/