Shandong Province has been China's predominant oil refining region for decades, surviving multiple government crackdowns and stiff competition from larger state-run refiners, to establish a niche in the global oil market.

Battery chemistry has once again come into the spotlight, largely thanks to Tesla, which has dramatically pivoted from its position of removing cobalt from its batteries, to becoming one of Glencore’s largest cobalt customers, signing a long term agreement to source 6,000t of cobalt per year from the miner.

Australian public energy company Origin Energy has resumed appraisal activity in the Kyalla 117 well, described as the “Well to Watch”, located in the Beetaloo Shale Gas Project area near Daly Waters, Northern Territory.

The start of the 2020s will be a very exciting period for global LNG development with huge increases in supply and trading, numbers of exporters and importers, and final investment decisions (FIDs) for a host of new projects; plus the emergence of new business models, and changes in price formation.

Climate activism and shifting investor sentiment towards carbon emissions has seen mining companies set ambitious emission targets such as KGHM’s goal to source half of its energy needs from its own generating renewable energy sources by 2030 and Teck Resource’s aim to be carbon neutral by 2050.

With the world’s focus moving to the elimination of non-power usages of coal, steel poses one of the most difficult challenges, as the mainstay of low cost, high volume steel production is based on coal-fired blast furnaces.

Countries have turned on the taps, boosting infrastructure spending to help their economies recover from the damage caused by the pandemic—this means good news for zinc demand.

Since 2019, multiple sources reported that Chinese ports have supposedly imposed a “ban” on all Australian coal imports. This has caused a disastrous impact on the market causing the spot price to fall sharply since the rumours began circulating.

Electric car sales, whilst still trending lower globally amid the pandemic, are expected to rise in the coming decade, driven by supportive government policies to cut emissions, in line with decarbonisation targets.

Historically low oil prices have set long-term LNG supply in northeast Asia on a possible collision course with thermal coal, threatening coal's current cost advantage for power generation and posing a new downside risk to coal prices and demand next winter.

In the space of a year, US based iron ore producer, Cleveland Cliffs has gone from being a pellet maker, to purchasing its two largest customers—ArcelorMittal USA and AK Steel—and becoming the second largest steel producer in the US and largest blast furnace operator in the country. The main advantage for Cliffs from this consolidation, now means that 90% of its iron ore production will now be sold to its own business, but does this move to firm up its customers make financial sense, or is the company paying to guarantee its long term future?

Beyond the sheer abundance of the bauxite resources Guinea finds itself with, the mineral content of its gibbsitic ore with a high available alumina and very low silica content, makes it ideal for low temperature, low cost processing. This is helping to create a significant investment interest in the country.

Twenty years ago, when gold was at US$290/oz and very much traded by appointment, the Chinese authorities embarked upon a programme of economic reforms that were to change the physical gold market. The GLOBEX SGE contract is the culmination of this programme and reflects the fact that the Shanghai Gold Exchange (“SGE”) has grown from inception in 2002 to now be the largest physical gold exchange in the World.