Surging soybean and corn costs throw a spotlight on China’s food security 🇨🇳

China depends on overseas supplies to feed itself 👇

🌱 Imports 85% of soybean supplies
🌽 Largest corn importer
🌾 A top wheat importer
🛢 2nd largest palm oil importer

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
China’s local consumption of soybeans is almost as large as the entire US harvest (!) 🇨🇳

📈 Soybean prices have doubled in the past two years with little sign of slowing down

🚨 “Soybeans carry the biggest inflationary risk,” said Huang at China-America Commodity Data Analytics
For a long time, China didn’t buy much corn overseas

Not anymore! China recently emerged as the world’s top importer, driven by the need to replenish inventories and feed a rapidly expanding hog population

🐷 🐖 🐽 🌽 🌽 🌽

#oink
China buys quite a bit of corn from Ukraine, supplying about 30% of shipments last year, its second-biggest supplier 🇺🇦🌽

But that trade has been throttled by the Russian invasion, and is one of the possible reasons behind an expected decline in imports in the coming year
While China’s dependence on wheat imports is low at ~7% of consumption, that still makes it one of the world’s top buyers 🌾

There is concern over production in China, and at one point a top official said it could face the worst crop conditions in history after floods last year
So what’s China done to make sure it can feed its citizens? 🇨🇳

➡️ Built huge stockpiles of wheat, rice and corn
➡️ Called for stronger measures to stabilize production, with two priorities: new seeds and protection of arable land

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More from @SStapczynski

May 23
The world won't have enough energy supplies when sweltering heat boosts power demand this summer🔌

Blackouts threaten over 1 billion people, with grids already stretched by war, drought and fuel shortages

Via @danmurtaugh @rajeshsing13 @naurtorious

bloomberg.com/news/features/…
🇮🇳 Asia’s heatwave has already caused hours-long daily blackouts across India, Pakistan, Myanmar
🇺🇸 At least a dozen US states are at risk of outages this summer
🇨🇳 Power supplies will be tight in China and Japan
🇿🇦 South Africa is poised for a record year of power cuts
🇮🇳 In India, power shortages in many states are already nearing levels from 2014, when they were estimated to have shaved about 5% (!!) off the country’s gross domestic product

Check out this chart 👇

India's peak power demand is outpacing recent years by a lot Image
Read 6 tweets
May 21
Australia’s Labor Party is set to take power for the first time since 2013, a shift that will likely to bring greater action on climate change 🇦🇺 👋

Environmental issues helped, with climate-focused independents/Green party getting once-safe seat

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Why this matters?

🚢 Australia is a major exporter of LNG and coal

🙅A more environmentally conscious government may delay expansion of export projects with regulations and reviews
Albanese, who is poised to become Australia’s next leader, promised to do more to fight climate change in a nation that exports more fossil fuels than any country apart from Russia and Saudi Arabia 🌲
Read 8 tweets
May 20
European natural gas prices slumped to the lowest level since the start of the war in Ukraine
📉📉📉

🚢 Strong LNG imports help to replenish stockpiles
🇨🇳 Demand is pretty weak in both Europe and Asia
🇷🇺 ...and Russian gas still largely flowing to the EU

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Much of the world is still buying Russian natural gas despite the war in Ukraine 🇷🇺❤️

🇨🇳 In fact, China imported 463,000 tons of Russian LNG in April, an 80% surge from the same time last year
🇮🇳 India is also snatching up Russian LNG shipments

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
UPDATE: Russia plans to cut supplies to Finland on Saturday, as Gasum has refused to pay for gas in rubles, which Moscow has demanded 🇫🇮

Still, in Finland, the impact is expected to be minimal since it makes up just 5% of its energy mix

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Read 4 tweets
May 20
Qatar could supply LNG to Germany by 2024, a tad earlier than planned
🇶🇦🤝🇩🇪

🇺🇸 The Golden Pass LNG plant in Texas (where Qatar holds a stake) can supply Germany as early as 2024, Handelsblatt reports, citing Deputy Prime Minister Abdulrahman Al-Thani

handelsblatt.com/politik/intern…
Germany will need a whole lot of LNG to reach its goal to reduce the share of Russian gas it imports to 10% by mid-2024 (compared to ~35% right now)

🚢 The nation rented four floating LNG import terminals so that it can quickly begin receiving shipments of the fuel
Qatari and Germany officials will meet today to discuss a potential long-term LNG deal
🤝🤔

Negotiations have encountered difficulties due to disagreements on its duration, price indexation and the rerouting of Qatari gas from Germany to other countries

foreignbrief.com/daily-news/qat…
Read 8 tweets
May 19
Britain’s nuclear future may lie on a Welsh island
🇬🇧☢️

➡️The Wylfa site in North Wales is a top contenders to host a small modular reactor
➡️ Should the technology work out, an SMR would bring hundreds of well-paid jobs to Anglesey

Via @charlie_ryan1

bloomberg.com/news/features/…
The outpost in the Irish Sea is where the UK’s urgent need to redefine energy policy and the government’s political agenda of reviving neglected regions

Should the plans come to fruition, Anglesey would turn into a sort of laboratory for Britain 2.0
🇬🇧🤖

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
The site on Anglesey is a relic of more industrious times for the island off Wales’s northwest coast. The reactors began decommissioning seven years ago 🏭

Hundreds of jobs disappeared and Anglesey was left to rely on tourism, its port and agriculture, including cattle rearing
Read 6 tweets
May 18
China is shopping around for spot LNG cargoes on speculation that easing virus restrictions will boost gas demand 🇨🇳🚢

👀 After a hiatus, China's buyers again seek cargoes for delivery from August
💰 Still, spot prices remain too high for the importers

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Shanghai is starting to unwind stringent pandemic curbs that have been in place since March

China’s LNG imports fell almost 20% in the first four months of 2022 due to the government’s dogged adherence to zero tolerance policies for Covid, as well as high overseas spot rates 📉
Northern China (which includes Beijing) is still grappling with virus flareups, and LNG traders expect demand to remain subdued through August

While the demand outlook looks better in Southern/China by end summer, traders are still cautious since consumption hasn’t rebounded 😟
Read 6 tweets

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