Make, buy or buybackโ€ฆ.?

In any extractive industry this is a revolving question for shareholder, boards & managers once stable cash flows & a strong balance sheet have been established.

๐Ÿงต

1/n
Make (develop) has significant potential to create value (something out of nothing) but comes with significant delay between cash-outflows & returns (15+y) & at risk of total capital loss. Which is why the market does not reward it.

2/โ€ฆ
Take MMG & the Las Bambas project in #Peru. The market gave zero credit to MMGโ€™s share price until the mine produced #copper. But it is true for the entire mining or resource SECTOR.

3/n
What about buying (not building)? There is less risk as cash outflows (payment) & cash inflows overlap somewhat. However, there is significant information asymmetry as sellers know more about the risks (perhaps off B/S) than the buyers.

4/n
Meanwhile, do NOT buy synergies ยซas soldยป by a management teams without a significant capital allocation track record. Most managers want to build an empire & believe their own lies about synergies. Charlie explains that best with his 60+ years of experience.

5/n
And share buybacks? They are superior to both build or buy choices as they deliver immediate shareholder rewards. Nor do they carry litigation risk for boards (from angry shareholders) as they represents an acquisition of assets of identical quality to those already held.

6/n
To extent that buying or building assets represents an addition of new units of supply that are of a lower quality โ€“ both from a financial & a technical perspective โ€“ to assets that already exist in the portfolio, it is always better to simply buy back your own shares. Thx

7/7

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More from @BurggrabenH

Apr 9
Nvidia sold a lot of new AI chips over the past 18 months and is forecast to grow its unit sales aggressively.

But does everybody understand what such forecast would mean for electricity demand in the West?

A ๐Ÿงต

1/n #AI
Step by step:

The average Swiss household consumes 4000-5000kWh of power pa. It is similar for most Western HH.

Letโ€™s assume a 4-person household consumes 5000kWh per annum.

That translates into 570 Watt per hour (5000 x 1000 / 365 days / 24h)โ€ฆ

2/n Image
The latest version of Nvidiaโ€™s processors for AI purposes is called H100 SXM.

How much power does it consume?

Answer: 700 Watt (per hour).

In other words, one processor will consume 20% more power than a 4-person household consumes pa!

3/n Image
Read 10 tweets
Mar 12
India likes a "GOOD" deal - also in crude oil - and is about to teach Russia a lesson what that means.

Spoiler 1: it's not a pretty one!
Spoiler 2: China & Turkey will learn quickly..!

Let's look at the Indian-Russo crude oil bromance.

1/x Thread
Before the invasion in Feb 2022, Russia exported some 2.8mbpd (55%) of its 5.5mbpd crude to Europe by way of pipeline (Druzhba) & sea transportation (seaborne).

But not just crude oil...

2/x Image
Russia also sold products such as diesel or jet to Europe for a total of 1.4mbpd in petroleum product exports.

In other worlds, G7 sanctioned as introduced in Dec 2022 required 4.2+mbpd of crude & products to be re-shuffeled in globally. Big numbers!

3/x Image
Read 18 tweets
Jan 16
For now, Red Sea disruptions due to Houthi attacking commercial vessels randomly remains a ton-mile story, not a crude oil story.

Within different shipping segments the picture of diverting cargo around the Suez Canal remains a Container Vessel story, to a less extent also a Product Tanker & Crude Oil tanker story.

1/5 Some high frequency data...!
Container Vessels owners have been the most consequent in diverting cargo.

Since Nov, the number of container vessels crossing the Suez Canal has collapsed by 80% in both directions.

2/n Image
Crude Oil tankers from the Middle East (Saudi Arabia; UAE; Iraq; Kuwait; Qatar or Oman) to Europe are also lower but our high frequency data does not yet show a similar collapse.

It also nicely illustrates how changing Russian crude flows (Urals diverted to India & China and away from Europe) have increased traffic through the Suez Canal - good for Egypt as Russian dark fleet vessels will or cannot seek an alternative route to ship oil from the Baltics to India.

3/n @OKalleklevImage
Read 5 tweets
Jan 7
Brazil is is an interesting microcosm to study in the oil industry.

It's a large, growing consumer of petroleum products. It's the 8th largest producer of crude oil in Dec 2023 as well as a large producer & consumer of biofuels.

Most importantly, it's energy agency reports the data in detail & timely (unlike most countries globally).

1/n
Brazil's resource wealth (mainly offshore) is well documented but it struggled for years to follow through.

Finally, it does with an exit rate of 3.9mbpd of oil production in 2023. Only the US, SA, RUS, CAD, IRQ, CN & IRN (incl condi; in this order) produced more that month. That's 50% growth since Jan 2018!

2/nImage
Better still, most such production growth reaches the international market. In Dec 2023, Brazil exported 1.7mbpd of crude oil - an ATH.

Remember, in oil net exports is the key number to measure.

3/n @UrbanKaoboy Image
Read 4 tweets
Nov 8, 2023
Shall we look at the European NatGas market together?

Will Europe have to freeze this winter, after much mild weather luck last winter?
Will TTF drag coal prices up as last winter?

Thread
1/n
Our rolling forecast upfront for those of you with a little ADD:

Best-estimate today, Europe will exit the winter 23/24 in March at or around 40% storage levels (red line) which suggests TTF doesn't have to spike, ceteris paribus. Is it a bear? Neither.

Let me explain.

2/n Image
Natgas has unique characteristics for a commodity:

Supply is inelastic while demand is highly ELASTIC: Colder temps >> demand goes up exponentially & vice versa.

Not all demand is equal but heating buildings (HH & retail demand) is 65-70% of winter demand (Oct-Mar).

3/n Image
Read 16 tweets
Sep 24, 2023
Are you monitoring Chinese gasoline consumption, metals demand or Battery Electric Vehicles sales?

I don't care, pay close attention to what @BYDCompany is doing. They are the real thing. Charlie & Buffett explained it many years ago.

1/n A thread
x.com/BYDCompany/staโ€ฆ
In 2023, BYD will sell some 3 million passanger cars, of which 1.5m will likely be Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) & the rest Plug-in Hybrids (PHEV). At least that is what we see coming from tracking monthly figures.

2/n Note: table incomplete due to poor company breakouts Image
BYD's Chairman shared somewhat bigger sales targets recently. He hopes to "double last year's sales to 3.6 million units".

3/n
asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Elecโ€ฆ
Read 11 tweets

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