Hot temperature to heat up prices, reduce wheat yield: CRISIL
The hot temperature if persists in March may not only reduce the wheat crop yield but also heat up the commodity prices, said CRISIL. The rabi wheat crop yield will be impacted if the temperature is high in March. The crop yield will be on a par – or marginally lesser – than last year’s low, said CRISIL in a report. According to the report, in Uttar Pradesh, accounting for about 30 percent of India’s wheat production, the eastern part is expected to have relatively good yields on-year because of timely sowing after harvest of Kharif paddy.
Russia’s war upends global natural gas order
Russia’s yearlong – and ongoing – invasion of Ukraine sparked a reordering of global natural gas supply and demand, igniting record calls for U.S. exports of LNG and amplifying the enduring prominence of fossil fuels in the world’s energy mix. Domestic gas production climbed to record highs in response.
The war, whose one-year anniversary is Friday (Feb. 24), punctuated demand for American oil, too, galvanizing production increases of crude and bolstering supplies of associated gas to meet demand.
Price volatility ensued, with New York Mercantile Exchange natural gas prompt month futures surging in 2022 to 14-year highs near $10.00/MMBtu. Prices in Europe jumped exponentially higher after Western sanctions against Russia hastened European countries’ efforts to wean themselves from Kremlin-backed gas that, for years, they relied upon to heat homes and power industrial plants.
Sugar production may decline by 7pc
Sugar production in the 2022-23 season (October-September) is estimated to decline by 7percent to 33.5 million tonne (MT) from the previous year’s 35.9 MT, mainly, due to lower cane yield in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Unseasonal rains during October last year have led to a drop in cane yield in both states.
Maharashtra, the biggest sugar-producing state, has cut the estimate for the sweetener’s production by 9percent to 12.5 MT. Karnataka’s sugar production this year is estimated at 5.5 MT, 14percent less than the previous year.
Industry sources said sugar production in Uttar Pradesh, the second biggest producer, this year is expected to be around 10 MT, almost the same as last year’s output. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Bihar, Haryana, Goa, and Punjab are the other sugar producing states.
South Africa’s Kumba Iron Ore calls on private sector to resolve rail crisis
Kumba Iron Ore Ltd (KIOJ.J) on Tuesday cut its production outlook for the next three years due to a lack of freight trains to carry minerals to ports, and joined calls for private-sector involvement in state-owned logistics firm Transnet.
South Africa’s freight rail capacity has plummeted as Transnet is hobbled by years of underinvestment, a lack of locomotives, and theft of hundreds of kilometres of copper cable from rail lines, costing coal and iron ore exporters billions of rand in revenue.
India and Sri Lanka – new moves aim to support both the tea and coffee sectors
Both India and Sri Lanka are renewing their separate national programs to support the tea and coffee industries. Here’s a summary of their recent initiatives and why they’re important.
The national government in India is rolling out a program that’s structured in ways that will help to realize the potential of Assam, a key State of India, which is based in the country’s northeast.
The program is spending funds in order to increase multimodal connectivity and regional trade with the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – as well as with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.
The national government in Delhi, together with its partners, now believe that Assam’s favorable geo-strategic location offers opportunities to strengthen regional and cross-border trade. Developing economic corridors, which link India to regional neighbors in Southeast Asia, is not an easy effort. But it’s considered to be a national strategic priority in India, both economically and politically.
Iron treatment boosts rice immune system, shows study
Rice is the world’s most widely used cereal for human consumption and the second most produced in the world after maize. However, rice production is seriously threatened by rice blast, a fungal disease that has been reported in more than 80 countries on all continents, including the growing areas of almost all rice-producing regions in Spain (Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalonia, Valencia, etc.).
A study recently published in the journal Rice and led by Blanca San Segundo, CSIC researcher at CRAG, has revealed that exposing rice plants to moderately high levels of iron increases resistance to infection by the pathogenic fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, the agent causing rice blast, the most common disease in this crop and responsible for large production losses worldwide.
Latin America’s enduring new oil landscape
Latin America’s oil sector has experienced tectonic—and likely irreversible—changes during the past decade. Production fell to 7.8 million barrels of oil per day (mb/d) in 2022 from 10.4 mb/d in 2010, with the global market share dropping from 12 percent to 9 percent. Oil is making a retreat from Latin America’s traditional producers, including Mexico and Venezuela. Given current nationalistic policies and excessive reliance on over indebted national oil companies (NOCs), the trend is unlikely to reverse in those countries. But not all oil-producing countries in the region are on this trajectory. Brazil, now the world’s eighth-largest oil producer, and Guyana, one of the world’s poorest countries, are surpassing the traditional producers to become undisputed oil-producing leaders in the region.