2024-09-24 04:12

JAKARTA, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Indonesia's President Joko Widodo launched a $941 million smelter-grade alumina refinery run by state miner Aneka Tambang (Antam) and state-owned aluminium producer Inalum in the country's West Kalimantan province on Tuesday. The production capacity of the refinery is 1 million metric tons of alumina per year, which would absorb 3.3 million tons input of bauxite. Resource-rich Indonesia is keen to develop its domestic mineral processing industries instead of exporting raw ores. It has successfully attracted massive investment for nickel processing plants since it banned exports of unprocessed nickel in January 2020. Indonesia banned the export of bauxite, the raw material for aluminium, last year in hopes of emulating the success in nickel. "The domestic aluminium demand is 1.2 million tons, 56% is imported while we have the raw material. When these are all completed, we can stop the import," Jokowi, as the president is commonly known, said in his remarks. The companies are planning to expand the plant's production capacity by another 1 million tons and build an aluminium plant to further process the alumina output, according to Hendi Prio Santoso, chief executive of MIND ID, the parent company of both Inalum and Antam. The second phase of the alumina plant may cost around another $900 million in investment, while the future aluminium plant is estimated to cost $2 billion, Hendi added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/indonesia-launches-941-mln-smelter-grade-alumina-refinery-2024-09-24/

2024-09-24 04:08

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Delivering on a goal set at last year's COP28 climate summit to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 is feasible, but countries need to move quickly to deploy more electric grid connections and battery storage, according to the International Energy Agency. An IEA report released on Tuesday said favorable economics, "ample" manufacturing potential and policies make the goal achievable. But in order to fully execute, it said countries need to build 25 million km (15.5 million miles) of transmission lines and add 1,500 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage capacity by 2030, a 15-fold increase on today's level. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT The report is the first to outline the specific actions that need to be taken to meet the COP28 goal and comes as world leaders convene in New York for the U.N. General Assembly as well the business-focused Climate Week series of events. On Tuesday, world leaders will speak at a Global Renewables Energy summit about meeting the goal of tripling renewable energy capacity. KEY QUOTE "Further international cooperation is vital to deliver fit-for-purpose grids, sufficient energy storage and faster electrification, which are integral to move clean energy transitions quickly and securely," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. KEY FIGURES The report said if done correctly, tripling renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade would reduce the world’s greenhouse gas emissions by 10 billion metric tons compared with what is otherwise projected. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/battery-storage-grids-needed-deliver-un-goal-triple-renewable-energy-iea-says-2024-09-24/

2024-09-24 03:01

MUMBAI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee is expected to open little changed to slightly higher on Tuesday amid a dovish Federal Reserve outlook, though the upside is seen largely capped following the price action in the previous session. The 1-month non-deliverable forward indicated that the rupee will open at 83.53-83.55 to the U.S. dollar compared with 83.5525 in the previous session. On Monday, the rupee reached an intraday high of 83.4350 —the best level in nearly three months — before dollar buying by interbank and corporates pulled it back. "It may be a bit early to say with much confidence, but yesterday was the kind of a day that indicated that the downtrend (on dollar/rupee pair) has run its course for now," a currency trader at a bank said. The rupee on Monday closed at its worst level for the day which "is not a good sign", he said. Momentum indicators that suggested that rupee was overbought and the significant support the pair has at 83.40 means that downside risks on the dollar/rupee is fairly limited, a treasury official at a bank said. FED RATE CUTS SUPPORT The likelihood of one more 50 basis points rate cut by the U.S. central bank at their next meeting in November is expected to be supportive of rupee and other Asian currencies. Odds of 50 bps rate cut at that meeting have now climbed to 54% from 30% a week back, per the CME FedWatch Tool. The odds were just 10% a month back Fed officials on Monday backed more rate cuts to protect the labour market, though the pace at which they will slash borrowing cost remained uncertain. Focus now turns to Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks on Thursday. Powell will likely reiterate the Fed’s recalibrated stance that a further loosening of the labour market was unnecessary to bring inflation down to the 2% target, DBS Bank said in a note. KEY INDICATORS: ** One-month non-deliverable rupee forward at 83.65; onshore one-month forward premium at 11 paise ** Dollar index at 100.94 ** Brent crude futures up 0.6% at $74.3 per barrel ** Ten-year U.S. note yield at 3.75% ** As per NSDL data, foreign investors bought a net $1,818.3 mln worth of Indian shares on Sep. 20 ** NSDL data shows foreign investors bought a net $60.2 mln worth of Indian bonds on Sep. 20 Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/rupees-upside-seen-largely-capped-current-level-2024-09-24/

2024-09-23 23:57

Sept 24 (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi, in an interview published early on Tuesday, said the situation remained serious around Russia's Kursk nuclear power plant, but his agency planned no permanent mission at the site. Ukrainian troops remain in Russia's southern Kursk region after pouring over the border last month, but remain some 40 km (25 miles) from the facility. "(The situation) is serious in that a military incursion has taken place and that incursion has reached the stage that it is not that distant from a nuclear power station," Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Russia's RIA news agency. Grossi visited the Kursk plant, made up of four reactors, last month and said it would be "extremely exposed" if it came under attack as the facility had no containment dome. In his comments to RIA, made in New York ahead of debates at the U.N. General Assembly, he said he hoped favourable circumstances would mean he would not have to visit the plant again. "I hope there will be no need to return to the Kursk station as that would mean that the situation has stabilised," he said. The IAEA, he said, had no plans to station observers permanently at the station - as it has at Ukraine's four plants, including the Zaporizhzhia station, seized by Russian forces in the early days of Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Grossi said the situation remained tense at Zaporizhzhia, where each side regularly accuses the other of planning to attack the station. "My experts continue to report on military action near the station," he told RIA. Grossi has visited the Zaporizhzhia station five times since the invasion and urged both sides to show restraint to guard against any nuclear accident. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/iaea-chief-says-situation-tense-around-russias-kursk-plant-no-permanent-mission-2024-09-23/

2024-09-23 23:50

Sept 23 (Reuters) - U.S. oil producers on Monday were scrambling to evacuate staff from Gulf of Mexico oil production platforms as forecasters predicted the second major hurricane in two weeks could tear through offshore oil producing fields. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said a potential Tropical Cyclone System Nine near the western tip of Cuba was expected to develop into a hurricane on Wednesday and intensify in the next 72 hours as it moves across the eastern Gulf of Mexico. It could become a major hurricane when it reaches the northeastern Gulf Coast on Thursday, bringing the "risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging hurricane-force winds" to the northern and northeast Gulf Coast, according to the NHC. Storm path attribution: LSEG Some major oil companies operating in the region said they have begun evacuating staff from offshore facilities. Chevron (CVX.N) , opens new tab said it began evacuating all personnel and shutting down facilities, including the Blind Faith and Petronius platforms, due to the forecast of potential Tropical Cyclone Nine. Chevron has also evacuated non-essential workers from four of its other Gulf of Mexico oil platforms, including Anchor, Big Foot, Jack/St. Malo, and Tahiti, but said production remains at normal levels. Equinor (EQNR.OL) , opens new tab said it was evacuating non-essential staff from its Titan platform. Shell (SHEL.L) , opens new tab said it had shut in production at its Stones platform and curtailed production at its Appomattox facilities as a precautionary measure, along with evacuating non-essential staff from its assets in the Mars Corridor. Equinor and Shell said that these decisions had not yet impacted their production. The next name on the list of named storms is Helene, and according to private weather forecaster AccuWeather, it could make landfall later this week as a Category 3 hurricane and potentially strengthen into a Category 4. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/energy-firms-shut-output-evacuate-non-essential-staff-gulf-mexico-hurricane-risk-2024-09-23/

2024-09-23 22:46

PUERTO ESCONDIDO, Mexico, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Hurricane John hit Mexico's southern Pacific coast late on Monday as a major category 3 storm, with authorities warning residents to protect themselves against potentially deadly storm surges and torrential rain. The storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (193 kph) made landfall south-southwest of Marquelia in the state of Guerrero, at about 9:15 p.m. Central Standard Time, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in a statement. Although slow-moving it had strengthened rapidly during the day, and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged coastal dwellers to seek higher ground as the top disaster agency called a red alert in parts of Guerrero and neighboring Oaxaca state. "Don't forget that life is the most important thing - material things can be replaced," the president wrote on social media. The storm could bring "extraordinary" rainfall to parts of Guerrero and Oaxaca, in excess of 250 mm (10 inches), said national water commission Conagua, which forecast more than 150 mm (6 inches) to drench the southernmost state of Chiapas. The Miami-based hurricane center warned that the storm could bring life-threatening storm surges and flash flooding before moving inland over southern Mexico on Tuesday and weakening rapidly over the region's high terrain. In the typically laid-back surfer getaway of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, residents hurried on Monday to tow in boats and put away beach chairs. "We're very concerned," said restaurant owner Paula Sanchez, adding that hurricanes in the area had become stronger in recent years. Education officials ordered schools to close in parts of Oaxaca and Guerrero as the storm neared, and state power firm CFE said it was moving worker convoys to Oaxaca ahead of John's arrival. A hurricane warning has been declared for areas from the famous beach resort of Acapulco, which is still recovering from last year's Hurricane Otis , opens new tab, to as far east as the Oaxacan tourist hub of Huatulco. A tropical storm warning covered areas further east from Huatulco to the major port of Salina Cruz, home of Mexican state-run oil company Pemex's (PEMX.UL) largest domestic refinery. The NHC warned that heavy rainfall from John may cause "significant and possibly catastrophic, life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides," in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and southeast Guerrero through Thursday. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/storm-john-become-hurricane-it-speeds-toward-mexicos-pacific-coast-2024-09-23/