.

Today's picture :

Natural gas storage facilities in Germany are half-empty, economy ministry says.

According to the EU statistics agency Eurostat, 42% of the EU’s natural gas imports come from Russia. Mostly via pipelines running through Ukraine. Germany get a large amount of gas from russia with a very low prize. Then they sell cheap russia gas from their own reserves to other EU states (Polan, Ukraine etc.) with a big profit on it! If the current rate of withdrawal is sustained, Europe’s reserves could be fully depleted by the end of winter delivery, it said.
(19/01/2022).

Nuclear power in the EU 2020: 25 percent of the EU's power production came from nuclear power in 2020, Eurostat reports.

At the beginning of 2020, 13 EU Member States with nuclear electricity production had altogether 109 nuclear reactors in operation. France accounted for more than half of nuclear power, ahead of Germany (9 percent), Spain (9 percent) and Sweden (7 percent). 50 billion euros must be invested in existing nuclear power plants by 2030 and 500 billion in next-generation technology, according to EU Commissioner Thierry Breton. (19/01/2022).

Clean Energy :

Will EU propose nuclear & gas climate-friendly, within January 21, 2022, amid wide-spread energy crisis in the region ?
Then the European Parliament and the Council have four months to consider it.

Automaker Rolls-Royce said 2021 was “a phenomenal year” for the company.

“It is very much due to Covid-19 that the entire luxury business is booming worldwide,” the chief executive said. “People couldn’t travel a lot; they couldn’t invest a lot into luxury services … and there is quite a lot of money accumulated that is spent on luxury goods.” The company booked the highest annual sales in its 117-year history of 5,586 vehicles globally. (14/01/2022).

Brussels Airlines has reportedly flown up to 3,000 flights without passengers on board this winter to avoid losing take-off and landing rights at Europe’s major airports.

The airline’s parent company, Lufthansa Group, confirmed that 18,000 flights had been flown empty, including 3,000 carried out by Brussels Airlines. Under the ‘use it or lose it’ regulations in EU. European airlines are normally forced to operate flights in at least 80% of their scheduled take-off and landing slots in order not to lose the right to use them. (14/01/2022).

Head of German supplier Uniper says the pipeline’s certification may come through in the summer.

The newly constructed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, designed to deliver Russian gas to Europe via the Baltic Sea, is awaiting certification from European regulators to start pumping. The project is crucial for the European gas market, which is suffering from a shortage of the commodity and soaring energy prices. Russian gas exporter Gazprom has been fulfilling its contractual obligations in full, as it has stressed on more than one occasion. (13/01/2022).

RCEP : The world’s largest trade pact, spanning 15 countries, took effect on 1. January 2022.

RCEP is a free trade agreement among the Asia-Pacific nations. RCEP account for about 30% of the world's population (2.2 billion people) and 30% of global GDP ($26.2 trillion), making it the largest trade bloc in history. It is expected to eliminate about 90% of the tariffs on imports between its signatories and establish common rules for e-commerce, trade, and intellectual property. (05/01/2022).

World Container Index increased by 1.4% this week, and remains 82% higher than a year ago.

Drewry’s World Container Index composite index assessed by analyst firm Drewry for year-to-date, is $9,477 per 40ft container, which is $6,613 higher than the five-year average of $2,864 per 40ft container. Drewry expects rates to climb higher in the coming week. (13/01/2022).

Will dark stores be the future of retail? Online customers get their goods within 24 hours delivery.

A dark store is a warehouse located in close proximity to high demand areas, full of groceries, where staff called "pickers" select the goods that have been ordered by an online customer. They operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Dark stores can reduce logistics costs by 25%. Is this what we want ? (12/01/2022).

China-Europe cargo train trips exceeded 10,000 at the end of August 2021, up 32 percent year-on-year.

Trade between China and Europe remains robust. During those trips, 964,000 standard (20-foot equivalent) containers were transported. China-Europe trains have carried 12.8 million items and 99,000 tons of epidemic prevention materials to European countries since the outbreak of the epidemic. "A growing number of containers that were formerly delivered by sea are now being diverted to the freight trains due to global shipping disruption.
(27/12/2021).

Global tankers freight recovery likely slow in 2022.

Despite container freight indexes quintupling this year, tanker freights has been essentially stagnant for the past 18 months, pressured by high bunker prices and surplus tankers.
Analysts anticipate that 2022 tanker demand will increase some 5% year-on-year, helping push spot earnings into profitable territory ($21,800 in Q1 2022 vs losses of -$600 in Q3 2021 for a VLCC). The risons are increase in trade of oil and oil products. Source : Analyst firm Arctic Securities, Norway. (30/12/2021).

A Flotilla of U.S. LNG Cargoes Is Headed to Fuel-Starved Europe, Week 51 and 52, 2021.

Cold-stricken Europe is drawing a flotilla of U.S. liquefied natural gas cargoes amid an energy crisis that has sent gas prices to record levels. More than two dozen U.S. LNG cargoes, to be headed to gas-starved Europe, from Sabine Pass LNG export terminal in Louisiana.
U.S. LNG export terminals are operating at or above capacity. Asia is typically the top destination for U.S. LNG cargoes, but that has changed this winter with the significant premium for gas in Europe. (Bloomberg.com. Date 31/12/2021).

OPEC Confident About Oil Demand in 2022 Despite Omicron Cases.

Despite fears of Omicron playing a large role in markets and the media, OPEC raised its global oil demand forecast for Q1 2022 this week, arguing that Omicron would only have a mild and brief impact. Having hiked 2022 annual average, too, OPEC forecasts global crude oil, roughly on par with the pre-pandemic year of 2019. Simultaneously, the December report shows that Saudi Arabia and Iraq continue to lead OPEC in terms of month-on-month production increases, on the back of Nigeria failing to overcome its supply outages. (13/12/2021).

Global crude oil production is expected to drop 30% by the end of the current decade due to underinvestment in oil and gas.

This is according to Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, as quoted by Bloomberg. He warned that falling investment in fossil fuels could result in an “energy crisis.” Oil output may decline by as much as 30 million barrels per day by 2030. He urged energy corporations and investors to ignore “scary messages” about oil and gas. (15/12/2021).

New regulations in trade between UK / Brexit and EU, from year 2022.

"...From 1 January 2022, businesses moving goods into GB from the EU need to submit customs declarations as goods move through ports. They also may need to pre-notify imports of food, plants and plant products from the EU...".
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/brexit-guidance-for-businesses
(23/12/2021).

The China-Laos Railway connecting Kunming in China with Lao capital Vientiane, began operations on 03/12/2021. Speed: 160/200 km/h. 33 stations.

The journey over the 1,000-km-plus railroad takes about 10 hours. The construction began in 2015. A total of 167 tunnels and 301 bridges, accounting for 76.5 percent of the railroad. The railway will boost bilateral trade between China and Laos, better connect Laos with other economies in the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as generate more jobs and attract global investment to the Southeast Asian nation. The railway is a section of the Kunming-Singapore Railway Project, which connects Kunming with Singapore, passing through Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia. https://www.cgtn.com/

Shippers turn to rail and air freight between China and Europe. as container shipping capacity and prices reached its limits.

During the first three quarters of the year the number of sea to rail services for China’s west land sea trade corridor was up 35% year on year. Among which, some 1,493 trains departed from Chongqing, an increase of 77% year on year, transporting 75,000 teu containers. Currently, China’s west land sea trade corridor is connecting with 311 ports from 106 countries. According to Global Shippers Forum GSF and MDS Transmodal. (09/12/2021).

World Container Index increased marginally week 51, but remains 119% higher than a year ago.

Analyst firm Drewry is a leading international provider of research and consulting services to the maritime and shipping industry. DATE : 23/12/2021.

Hundreds of thousands of empty containers are filling marine terminals and truck yards across USA.

The boxes are the result of an import surge in 2020-2021, as consumers switched spending from services to goods during the Covid-19 pandemic. An increase of 30 % compared with earlier years, according to the analyst firm Beacon Economics. The container- ships have been rushing back to Asia, without taking empty boxes in return, because of profit reasons. Now they say they will take empty boxes in return, after political pressure and new expensive terminal storage fees on boxes.(27/11/2021).

Strong air cargo demand from Asia to the U.S. and Europe is expected to continue in 2022.

This results in tight capacity for terminals, trucks, workers and pilots. "The main issue for air cargo is the significant congestion on supply chains. We’ve seen terminal congestion in some airports in Korea, China and Japan which results in long delivery times and delays." The reasons are the extraordinary impact of COVID-19. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released 2021 data for global air cargo markets showing that demand continued its strong growth trend. (30/11/2021).

The DHL Global Connectedness Index is on track to rise in 2021 as TRADE in goods surged to above pre-pandemic levels.

The Index report looked at the impact of the pandemic on globalisation by analysing international flows of trade, capital, information, and people. CAPITAL & INFORMATION flows shrunk more than trade in 2020 but are on track for a full recovery in 2021, the report said. PEOPLE and travel fell 73% in 2020. DHL : "Globalisation proves resilient during Covid-19 crisis". (01/12/2021).

To News Archive ➽