Offshore Capitalist

Category Archives: Commodities

With resources in the driver’s seat, it could be a bumpy ride

April 25, 2010 in Commodities, Metals by Roy

The Australian: THERE comes a point in every resources boom when the sector moves into the driver’s seat of the national economy.
In this most recent upswing, that happened this week as the resurgent resources sector was blamed in part for the Reserve Bank’s interest rate rise, credited with a spate of mining takeovers and cited [...]

China’s credit curbs pose mounting risk to commodities

April 25, 2010 in China, Commodities by Roy

Telegraph:  The big global banks are quietly preparing for a slide in commodity prices over coming months as China clamps down on excess lending and the US Federal Reserve takes away the liquidity pot.
“We believe overheating risks in China are escalating,” said Michael Lewis, commodities chief at Deutsche Bank. “Heading into the second quarter, we [...]

China mining industry made $50 billion worth of overseas M&A – People’s Daily Online

April 25, 2010 in Mining by Roy

The Chinese mining industry has carried out overseas mergers and acquisitions worth more than 50 billion U.S. dollars in the last decade, according to statistics from Ernst & Young.
In 2008 and 2009, the industry’s mergers and acquisitions totaled 40 billion U.S. dollars, which accounts for 80 percent of the total number in the past 10 [...]

Lower returns predicted from international mining giants

April 25, 2010 in Mining by Roy

FORMER BHP Billiton chief executive Chip Goodyear predicts shareholder returns from international mining giants will fall in the next decade.
He says the global mining sector will fragment with entrants such as China’s state owned-enterprises forcing major miners to loosen their grip on individual commodities. But the man who steered the group to its position as [...]

World Bank, Donors Take Long-Term View on Food Security

April 25, 2010 in Agriculturals by Roy

April 22, 2010-Across the globe, more than 1 billion people go to bed hungry each night—a number exacerbated by the 2007-08 food price crisis.
While the global price spike is abating, grain stocks remain low and food prices are forecast to be, on average, 10-20% higher through 2018, compared to the 1997 – 2006 average. Food [...]

Chinese Demand Impact On Agri-Food Prices

March 22, 2010 in Agriculturals by Roy

The incremental demand for Agri-Food created by the largest migration of people in China into the middle class in all of history can be observed in the prices for Agri-Food. Chinese demand has changed the pricing environment for Agri-Food as has never been done in peace time. They now consume a quarter of the world’s [...]

A Severe Energy Crisis Threatens Eastern Europe

March 22, 2010 in Eastern Europe, Energy by Roy

A Severe Energy Crisis Threatens Eastern Europe
“The World Bank has warned that Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia will be threatened by a severe energy crisis in five or six years, if billion-dollar investments are not immediately made for tapping into new gas and oil sources, for retrofitting an ailing pipeline and for reducing waste [...]

An ETF to track global agribusiness – Powershares Global Agriculture (PSGA)

December 21, 2009 in Agriculturals, Charts, ETFs, Funds by Roy

Invesco Powershares Global Agriculture is an ETF domiciled in Ireland with a principal listing on the London stockmarket. As of 17-Dec-09, the fund has delivered almost 70% performance year-to-date in US dollar terms.
The fund replicates the NASDAQ OMX Global Agriculture Index, which track the performance of the largest and most liquid companies engaged in agriculture [...]

Australia Increases Benchmark Interest Rate to 3.75%

December 1, 2009 in Commodities, Economics by Roy

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — Australia’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point for an unprecedented third straight month as evidence mounts that the nation’s economy is strengthening.
Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens increased the overnight cash rate target to 3.75 percent from 3.5 percent in Sydney, as forecast by 19 of [...]

Factors that favour the crude oil bulls

November 18, 2009 in Energy by Roy

Commodity Online — Several factors contributed to the recent rally in oil prices including tighter physical oil supply and demand fundamnetals, loose monetary policy and a weaker US dollar.The global economy is bouncingback after the sharpest recession in the post World War II period. According to a Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BofAML) analysis GDP growth [...]

Global recovery threatens food price surge

November 17, 2009 in Agriculturals by Roy

Conditions are ripe for a fresh surge in food prices as the global economy recovers, says the senior United Nations agriculture official.
Jacques Diouf, director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), believes that the world is not doing enough to avert another food crisis. His warning comes as leaders are expected to gather in [...]

Nestlé chief hits at ‘well-fed activists’

November 15, 2009 in Agriculturals by Roy

FT.com — The chairman of Nestlé, the world’s biggest food company, has hit out at “well-fed activists” whose hostility to new food technologies was exacerbating a global food crisis by holding back agricultural productivity.
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who is a high-profile critic of the European Union’s common agricultural policy, said that since 1990 the rate of global [...]

Australia’s resources boom set to grow: central bank

November 7, 2009 in Commodities, Economics by Roy

Australia’s resources boom is set to grow as Asian economies lead the global economic recovery, the country’s central bank said Friday as it lifted growth forecasts.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said resources-driven exports had held up during the financial crisis and had been buoyed by strong expansion in the mining sector. The bank lifted [...]

A monthly rebalanced commodities trading fund

November 3, 2009 in Commodities, Funds, Specialist by Roy

The CFP Funds SAV Fund (Strategy & Volatility) is a blend of two different multi-manager commodity trading funds, one with relatively high volatility (IQS fund) and one with lower volatility (CFL).  By rebalancing the 25%/75% blend each month, the objective of the SAV Fund is to obtain optimised growth in respect of lower volatility compared [...]

Rio to double spending in 2010

November 1, 2009 in Mining by Roy

LONDON (Commodity Online): Signs of economic recovery were visible in mining companies’ plans for the coming year with mining giant Rio Tinto doubling its planned capital spending for next year to at least $5-billion.
Capital spending in 2010 was due to be cut to $2.5-billion, just enough to sustain current mines, but current plans were for [...]

A fund to invest in a basic human need: Food

October 25, 2009 in Agriculturals, Funds by Roy

DWS Global Agribusiness
“That’s not new, but our idea to invest along all parts of the agribusiness chain is unique. We are the first to look all the way from the farm to fork. The global agribusiness industry is one of the fastest growing market segments and the potential of this global megatrend is enormous.
“As the [...]

Economic crisis exposes fragile global food system, new UN report says

October 25, 2009 in Agriculturals, Sector & Specialist Reports by Roy

The economic turmoil sweeping the globe has lead to a sharp spike in hunger affecting the world’s poorest, uncovering a fragile global food system requiring urgent reform, according to a report issued today by two United Nations agencies.
The combination of the food and economic crises have pushed more people into hunger, with the number of [...]

Food Experts Worry as World Population and Hunger Grow

October 25, 2009 in Agriculturals by Roy

ROME — Scientists and development experts across the globe are racing to increase food production by 50 percent over the next two decades to feed the world’s growing population, yet many doubt their chances despite a broad consensus that enough land, water and expertise exist.
The number of hungry people in the world rose to 1.02 [...]

A Fund For Mining, Metals and Energy Natural Resources

October 20, 2009 in Energy, Funds, Gold, Metals, Mining by Roy

JP Morgan Natural Resources (a UK OEIC) is a highly respected fund managed by Ian Henderson, with colleague Stuart Connell.  With an overall Morningstar 4-Star rating, the fund’s objective is long term growth by investing primarily of shares in companies throughout the world engaged in the production and marketing of commodities.
As at today’s date, the [...]

Ian Henderson on China driving commodity prices

October 16, 2009 in China, Commodities by Roy

With China consuming 50% of the world’s iron ore and at least 20% of the world’s other commodities the country is set to be a leading driver of the natural resources sector, according to JP Morgan manager Ian Henderson.
Henderson, who manages the JPM Natural Resources fund, said that the region is well on track to [...]

Commodity Boom Will Thrive on Shortages, Rogers Says

October 10, 2009 in Commodities by Roy

Commodity supplies will lag behind demand during the next 10 to 20 years, further fueling a rally in raw materials, according to investor Jim Rogers.
“I don’t see any adequate-supply situation in any commodity market over the next decade or two,” Rogers, the chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, said today in an interview in New York. [...]

Oil Flows Around The World – FT

October 5, 2009 in Energy by Roy

Here is a useful map to get a quick global view of where oil is produced and consumed (2008 data).
Click the image to view full size.  Click the link below to see the full interactive graphic.
via FT.com / Video & Audio / Interactive graphics – Oil: Key players and movements.

EIA – Short-Term Energy Outlook – Natural Gas

October 4, 2009 in Energy by Roy

U.S. Consumption – EIA (Energy Information Administration of the US Government) projects that total natural gas consumption will likely decline by 2.4 percent in 2009 and remain flat in 2010. Despite low relative prices for much of the year, industrial natural gas consumption declined by 12 percent in the first 6 months of 2009 [...]

FAO: Increased investment in agricultural research essential

September 28, 2009 in Agriculturals by Roy

Producing more food will largely depend on increasing crop yields, not farming more land – UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

25 September 2009, Rome – Boosting agricultural production to the levels needed to feed an expanded world population will require sharply increased public investment in research and development and widespread adoption of new technologies, farming [...]

Oil prices risk rebounding above $100, says Total chief Christophe de Margerie

September 22, 2009 in Energy by Roy

Oil prices risk rebounding far above $100 a barrel unless there is greater investment in energy exploration, the head of French oil giant Total said in an interview broadcast on Monday.
But he also told the BBC that oil prices at their current level of about $70 were too low to support long-term investment by his [...]

Video: Why the oil price will rise

September 22, 2009 in Energy, Videos by Roy

Sunday Telegraph Economics columnist Liam Halligan tells Robert Miller that sustained demand from the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries will underpin the recent oil price hikes.

via Video: Why the oil price will rise – Telegraph.

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