Iron ore price rises as China’s imports hit record
The Iron ore price rebounded on Tuesday from a seven-month low after data showed China’s imports in August picked up for the first time in five months, rising 10.1 percent over July. China imported iron ore worth a record $20 billion in August, despite steel production curbs in the world’s largest producer. Total volumes were 97.5 million tonnes. According to Fastmarkets MB, benchmark 62 percent Fe fines imported into Northern China were changing hands for $137.97 a tonne, up 4.2 percent from Monday’s closing. It was also a record month for the value of China’s overall imports from Australia, with much of that likely coming from shipments of the red metal. The most-traded iron ore contract for January 2022 delivery on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange ended daytime trading 1.1 percent higher at 763 yuan ($118.18) a tonne, recovering from losses that brought it to as low as 718.50 yuan earlier in the session, its weakest since February 4.
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Cotton prices decline in Punjab, Sindh
Cotton prices have fallen by Rs200 to 300 per maund in Pakistan, local media reported on Thursday. According to the quoting the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), the prices of cotton have dropped in both Punjab and Sindh and is currently being sold at Rs13,900 per maund and Rs13,700 per maund, respectively. The PCGA chairman said that the downward trend is being witnessed due to recession in the international markets. Earlier in February, the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) in a report had warned of a shortage, saying that the country’s cotton production fell by 34.35 per cent to 5.571 million bales up to Jan 31 against 8.487m bales produced in the same period of last year.
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25PC rise in rice output by 2050
The government has targeted a 25 percent increase in rice production by 2050 by combining the efforts of farmers, rice scientists and agricultural officials to feed the additional population. A group of researchers has prepared the “Rice vision for Bangladesh: 2050″ calculating the projected population by 2050, assessing the state of cultivable land, annual rise in rice production and climatic condition. Production of the staple will be increased by raising genetic gain,cultivating uncultivated land, mechanising agriculture and ensuring fair price of crops, said researchers. At a seminar yesterday in the capital, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) presented a strategic paper on how to increase rice production.
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Ditch 90pc of world’s coal and 60pc of oil and gas to limit warming to 1.5°c
Global mean surface temperatures reached 1.2°C above the pre-industrial average in 2020, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in its recent report that Earth could hit 1.5°C in as little as a decade. The 0.3°C separating these two temperatures make a world of difference. Scientists believe that stabilising our warming world’s temperature at 1.5°C could help avoid the most serious effects of climate change. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas are the source of just over 80 percent of the world’s energy. Burning them accounts for 89 percent of human-derived CO2 emissions. To avert catastrophic warming, the global community must rapidly reduce how much of these fuels it extracts and burns.
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OPEC member urges oil producers to focus more on renewable energy
The finance minister of Iraq, one of the founding members of the global oil cartel OPEC, has made an unprecedented call to fellow oil producers to move away from fossil fuel dependency and into renewable energy, ahead of a key OPEC meeting. Ali Allawi, who is also the deputy prime minister of Iraq, has written in the Guardian to urge oil producers to pursue “an economic renewal focused on environmentally sound policies and technologies” that would include solar power and potentially nuclear reactors, and reduce their dependency on fossil fuel exports. Along with the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, he wrote: “To stand a chance of limiting the worst effects of climate change, the world needs to fundamentally change the way it produces and consumes energy, burning less coal, oil and natural gas … If oil revenues start to decline before producer countries have successfully diversified their economies, livelihoods will be lost and poverty rates will increase.”
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Russia cuts 2021 wheat crop forecast
Sovecon cut its forecast for Russia’s 2021 wheat crop to 75.4 million tonnes from 76.2 million tonnes because of low spring wheat yields, Reuters said. Russia has experienced dry weather in several regions this year. Urals and Volga were particularly hurt by a very dry and hot summer, with Urals possibly harvesting the lowest crop since 2012 and Volga since 2014. Precipitation in both areas was 50 percent to 80 percent of what it normally receives and temperatures were 3°C to 5°C above average, Reuters said. Exports are expected to decline to the lowest level in five seasons due to the smaller crop, slow pace of exports and tough competition with other suppliers.
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India’s sugar production may decline to 30.5 million tonne next season
India’s sugar production is likely to decline marginally to 30.5 million tonne in the next 2021-22 season as more sugarcane will be diverted for ethanol making, a senior government official said on Monday. Sugar production is estimated to have reached 31 million tonne in the 2020-21 season (October-September), he said. India is the world’s second biggest sugar producer after Brazil. “Sugarcane crop by and large is good this year. We are expecting diversion of more cane for ethanol making and as a result sugar production will be slightly lower at 30.5 million tonne during 2021-22 season,” Joint Secretary in the Food Ministry Subodh Kumar Singh told. In the current season, cane meant for production of 2 million tonne sugar was diverted for ethanol making, while in the 2021-22 season cane meant for production of 3.5 million tonne of sugar will be diverted, he said.