2024-09-24 12:34

LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The governor of South Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo has approved the resumption of all mining activities in the region but said authorities would continue their investigation into the sector. All mining activities in the restive region, which is rich in minerals such as gold, copper, diamond, tin, tantalum and cobalt, were suspended in July when Governor Jean-Jacques Purusi Sadiki ordered companies and operators to leave mining sites to "restore order to mining operations". In August, the suspension was lifted with the exception of gold extraction. A statement published by a government spokesperson said back then that consultations with operators in the industry would continue. Following a preliminary investigation after the ban in July, more than 550 mining operators out of nearly 650 were found to be operating without proper authorisations, a provincial mines minister told Reuters in early September. He added that more than 45 people, including two magistrates, involved in fraud and the illegal exploitation of minerals in the province had been arrested. "Today, we're opening up mining activities throughout the region," governor Sadiki told mining operators during a meeting on Monday. He added that a team would be dispatched to carry out investigations into each mining company to prevent the exploitation of the local population. "If they violate any of our commitments, we'll shut down that company or cooperative and hit them with exemplary fines," the governor warned. Authorities in South Kivu province have previously accused several firms of illegal activities, including mining without permits, dumping chemicals into water sources and underpaying workers. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/congos-south-kivu-governor-clears-miners-resume-operations-2024-09-24/

2024-09-24 12:29

Sept 24 (Reuters) - Oil and gas firms Diamondback Energy (FANG.O) , opens new tab and Kinetik Holdings (KNTK.N) , opens new tab on Tuesday said they acquired a 30% equity interest in the EPIC Crude pipeline system. The companies will each own 27.5% of EPIC Crude, while parent EPIC Midstream will continue to own a 45% stake in the pipeline. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT The consolidation wave in the U.S. energy sector that triggered $250 billion worth of deals in 2023 has stretched into this year, as companies look for opportunities to deploy their cash hoard, boost reserves, and become cost-effective. Earlier this month, Diamondback bought privately held rival Endeavor Energy Resources in a $26 billion cash-and-stock deal, making it the third-largest oil and gas producer in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. The EPIC Crude transaction will ensure a "cost-effective takeaway out of the basin for our expanded crude portfolio," Diamondback Chief Financial Officer Kaes Van't Hof said in a statement. CONTEXT EPIC Crude is an 800-mile crude oil pipeline system that connects the Delaware, Midland Basin, and Eagle Ford supply to EPIC's 3.4 million barrel Robstown Terminal near Corpus Christi. The pipeline system entered full service in April 2020. BY THE NUMBERS EPIC Crude has a capacity of 600,000 barrels per day (bpd), which is expandable up to 1 million barrels per day, and about 7 million barrels of operational storage. Diamondback said it is converting its existing commitment on EPIC Crude into a larger volume commitment of 200,000 bpd to accommodate additional crude barrels from its completed deal with Endeavor Energy. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/diamondback-kinetik-buy-30-stake-epic-crude-pipeline-2024-09-24/

2024-09-24 12:27

MUMBAI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee weakened on Tuesday as outflows related to the rebalancing of some global equity indexes, coupled with dollar demand from importers, pressured the currency even as most of its Asian peers gained. The rupee closed at 83.67 against the U.S. dollar, down 0.1% from its close at 83.5525 in the previous session. Outflows related to a rejig of the FTSE equity indexes, dollar bids from a large Indian conglomerate and routine importer dollar demand pressured the currency on Tuesday, traders said. The pressure snapped the currency's six-day winning streak which had lifted the currency by about 0.5%. On Monday, the rupee had touched an intraday high of 83.4350, its best level in nearly three months. The dollar index was lower by 0.1% at 100.7 on the day while the offshore Chinese yuan rose about 0.4% to 7.03 after the country's central bank unveiled its biggest stimulus since the pandemic. Gains in the yuan likely reflect "both Chinese exporters belatedly hedging dollar receivables, but also a re-rating of the China investment thesis and investors being forced to pare back underweight positions in China," ING Bank said in a note. Most Asian currencies were lifted by the yuan's rally and were last quoted up between 0.1% to 1.2%. Investors now await remarks from Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman later in the day. Bowman was only dissenter to the Fed's decision to cut rates by 50 bps last week and her remarks may offer cues on the size of the Fed's upcoming rate cut in November. Odds of the Fed delivering a 50 or 25 bp rate cut are currently split nearly evenly down the middle, according to CME's FedWatch tool. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/rupee-ends-weaker-outflows-importer-bids-halt-six-day-winning-run-2024-09-24/

2024-09-24 12:26

MAASMECHELEN, Belgium, Sept 24 (Reuters) - In the Belgian province of Limburg, one of the orchards in the country's pear-growing heartland stands out as unusual: a cluster of 12 transparent domes, perched high by a mirrored wall above the surrounding nature park. Inside the domes, researchers are growing pears in a controlled environment that simulates how climate change will affect the region in 2040. Their aim is to see what global warming has in store for Europe's fruit growers. "We expect more heatwaves and less even precipitation, so more droughts and floods as well. And overall, slightly higher temperatures," Francois Rineau, associate professor at the University of Hasselt, said of the simulated climate inside the domes. Early results from the scientists' first harvest in 2023 suggest Belgian pears may be spared some of the worst impacts of climate change - which scientists expect to cut some crop yields and hike growers' costs for irrigation to combat drought. "The effect of climate change at the 2040 horizon on the quality of pears was very minor. However, we found a difference in how the ecosystem was functioning," Rineau said, noting that an earlier growing season in the 2040 simulation appeared to result in the ecosystem absorbing more CO2. Year-to-year variability means that one year alone cannot capture intermittent extreme weather and other changes in the climate which can wreak havoc on crops. The three-year experiment will cover three harvests. This year's harvest of 2040-era pears is being studied at the Flanders Centre of Postharvest Technology (VCBT), to check the fruits' size, firmness and sugar content - and compare them to pears grown in domes simulating today's climate. "If we have a higher temperature on the trees, pears tend to be less firm and have more sugar," VCBT researcher Dorien Vanhees said. That's bad news for growers. Less-firm fruit survives a shorter period in storage, reducing the quantity of pears growers can sell. Floods, hail and drought have already affected European pear growers in recent years, as climate change begins to leave fingerprints on growing patterns. Belgium's pear production is expected to plunge by 27% this year, according to the World Apple and Pear Association, owing to factors including an unusually early bloom and unusually late frost. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/science/belgian-climate-scientists-grow-pears-future-2024-09-24/

2024-09-24 11:46

LONDON, Sep 23 (Reuters) - Fans of Apple's (AAPL.O) , opens new tab titanium-cased iPhones can breathe easy. Russian president Vladimir Putin's suggestion that Moscow should cap exports of titanium in retaliation for Western sanctions won't force Apple to revert to stainless steel casing as its main supplier is China. European policymakers, however, should be worried. The bloc's aerospace sector is still dependent on imports of Russian titanium produced by VSMPO-AVISMA, the world's largest integrated producer. Europe has banned or restricted imports of other Russian metals but not titanium. When Canada imposed sanctions on VSMPO-AVISMA in February, French President Emmanuel Macron intervened personally to persuade Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to grant Airbus (AIR.PA) , opens new tab and other aerospace firms waivers. He did. Europe's problem is that even if it can extricate itself from the arms of its Russian supplier, it risks swapping one dependency for another. THE RIGHT STUFF Airplane makers such as Airbus and Boeing (BA.N) , opens new tab value titanium for exactly the same reason Apple has chosen it for both the 15 and 16 Pro series iPhones. It is lightweight, incredibly strong, has a high melting point and is corrosion resistant. Titanium in alloy form has become one of the major manufacturing inputs for the aerospace sector, used in engines, landing gear and fuselage. The purity standards for such applications must be very high. Titanium ore is abundant in the form of rutile and ilmenite but very little is of sufficiently high quality to make it suitable for processing into aviation-grade sponge - an intermediate product in the metal's processing chain - and then aerospace alloy. That's why titanium metal is considered a critical raw material, while titanium ore is not. Moreover, supply of aerospace-grade titanium is further limited because providers must have their product accredited by airplane makers. Even a paperwork issue can create serious ripples in the supply chain. Boeing is asking suppliers for a 10-year paper trail of their titanium purchases after discovering that some parts may have come with falsified documentation. The number of titanium sponge producers that can meet these high standards is limited to a handful of Japanese and Kazakh companies. And, of course, VSMPO-AVISMA. Indeed, the Russian company, which is unique in processing ore all the way through to alloy, is thought to have supplied up to a third of the global aviation sector prior to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. EUROPE'S DEPENDENCY Europe was the top destination for Russian exports of titanium products in 2019, accounting for 45% of total export value, according to a European Commission briefing note , opens new tab. In turn, Russian metal, mostly in the form of wrought alloy products for the aviation sector, accounted for 16% of European Union imports that year, the Commission added. The European supply chain has been trying to wean itself off Russian titanium but the reaction to Canadian sanctions is proof that the dependency is still there. Europe's problem is that it has no domestic titanium sponge production, limited ingot capacity and virtually no recycling facilities. Even though Ukraine could be a potential future supplier of sponge, Europe doesn't have any way to process it all. The United States has also been almost wholly dependent on sponge imports since the 2020 closure of TIMET Corp's Henderson plant in Nevada. But it boasts a dominant position in the mid-value part of the aerospace titanium chain, mixing imports of Japanese sponge with domestic scrap to produce ingots and transform them into wrought products, according to a July research paper , opens new tab published by think tank Chatham House. Indeed, U.S. processing capacity is expanding with the arrival of new players such as IperionX (IPX.AX) , opens new tab, which is aiming to ramp up output at its new titanium recycling plant in Virginia to 10,000 metric tons per year. BREAKING THE TRANSATLANTIC LOOP The irony for European policymakers is that European scrap is a significant source of U.S. titanium production. Nearly 70% of Europe's titanium scrap goes to the United States, according to the research paper's authors. Europe's recycling loop is transatlantic rather than domestic thanks to buy-back agreements which oblige European machine parts manufacturers to return fabrication scrap to their U.S. suppliers. This, the policy paper argues, locks Europe into "an asymmetric relationship" with U.S. suppliers. That in turn disincentivises investments in domestic recycling capacity, "in effect deepening the problem of European strategic dependency on both Russia and the United States". Does it matter if Europe is dependent on "friend-shoring" for its titanium sector? Yes. The European Union Critical Raw Materials Act, which came into force in May this year, stipulates that by 2030 domestic extraction should account for 10% of the block's annual consumption, processing 40% and recycling 25%. Europe is not even close to any of those targets when it comes to titanium. While Ukraine's titanium sponge production could be integrated into the European supply chain, it's highly uncertain how quickly that could happen. The better short-term solution is to re-shore scrap processing, the authors of the Chatham House report argue. This, however, is going to be a difficult balancing act between the interests of European aerospace companies and the leverage of U.S. suppliers in the context of a limited domestic recycling base. The policy paper calls for government-level talks to renegotiate the current titanium buy-back agreements coupled with a joint agreement on future cooperation, similar to the 2021 deal , opens new tab that ended the long-running dispute between Boeing and Airbus. But, ultimately, breaking the transatlantic dependency loop is a challenge for the future. Loosening VSMPO-AVISMA's chokehold on strategically-important titanium products is the more pressing concern. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/europe-struggles-break-russias-titanium-grip-andy-home-2024-09-24/

2024-09-24 11:28

JERUSALEM, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Israel's ports in the northern city of Haifa were operating at normal capacity despite an escalation in fighting with Hezbollah in nearby Lebanon and the city being targeted by rocket fire, Israeli authorities said on Tuesday. Haifa is Israel's third largest city and handles much of the country's vital seaborne trade. On Monday, sirens sounded across the city for the first time after months of border-area conflict and the military's defence systems fired interceptors at Hezbollah rockets above the Haifa bay. No damage was caused. The government's port authority issued a letter to clarify that no changes had been made at Israeli ports ranging from Eilat on the Red Sea in Israel's far south to the major Mediterranean ports in Haifa and Ashdod. "Following recent events, we find it necessary to reassure that our ports ... are fully open for business and functioning at full capacity," said the letter, which was seen by Reuters. "Israeli ports are considered the safest in the world, thanks to multi-layered security, a high standard of cyber security at all times and also protected by the highly efficient Iron Dome, among other anti-rocket systems both on land and at sea that are assigned specifically to protect our ports." Israel's transportation ministry, which oversees the administration of shipping and ports, gave no details beyond what was in the letter, saying only that all activities were coordinated with the military's home front command. "The security situation is assessed continuously; any change will be communicated immediately," the port administration added in the letter. The letter said Israel would provide war damage compensation for commercial vessels within the country’s economic waters. In August, the Marshall Islands ship registry, one of the world’s biggest flags, maintained its highest security level for Haifa port as well as for Ashdod in the south. "The threat of collateral damage to merchant vessels has increased significantly," the Marshall Islands said in its August advisory. A number of ports operate in Haifa, including Haifa Port led by India's Adani Group, Bayport operated by China's SIPG, and the smaller Israel Shipyards port. Shipping and insurance sources said ships calling at Israeli ports faced the broader threat of being targeted by Yemen’s Houthi militia in open waters in the Red Sea. The Iran-backed Houthis say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's war on Gaza. In more than 70 attacks, the Houthis have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least three seafarers. They have warned that ships with any links to Israel, the UK or the United States will be attacked. Industry sources said additional war risk premiums, paid when vessels sail through the Red Sea to Israel from Asia, were quoted at up to 2% of the value of vessel from around 1.0% in August. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-says-seaports-stay-open-business-despite-lebanon-conflict-2024-09-24/