Air travel is booming, with the number of air passengers set to double over the next twenty years. Aviation demand is particularly evident in in the Asia Pacific region, where growing economic wealth is opening new travel opportunities. Aviation accounts for around 15% of global oil demand growth up to 2030 in the IEA’s New […]
Authors: Ms. Khushbu Lakhotia, Senior Analyst, Corporate Ratings, India Ratings and Research (Fitch Group) & Mr. Jinesh Rajpara, Analyst, India Ratings and Research (Fitch Group) The recent hike by Rs. 2 per kilogram (kg) in the minimum selling price (MSP) of sugar to Rs.31 per kg could generate an additional income of Rs.30-35 billion for […]
Saudi Arabia has pledged to cover any supply gap that may emerge as Iranian oil goes offline, but how much spare capacity does it really have? The massive reserve of spare capacity located in the Saudi desert is the stuff of legend, taken as gospel in the world of oil. After all, Saudi Arabia is […]
The turbulence in global economic dynamics is playing havoc with precious metals, with gold continuing to be under pressure with prices once again falling below the psychological $1,200 an ounce and silver all but collapsing, touching $14 an ounce. A firmer US dollar, higher US bond yields and importantly a rising US stock market is […]
The devastating floods in Kerala have brought the state’s economy to a standstill, with tens of thousands of farmers clueless about their future, as rainwaters have destroyed yearlong plantations, hitting coffee, spices and rubber. “Preliminary findings show that nearly 1,82,000 farmers are directly affected, and nearly 28,150 hectares of farm land are submerged in flood […]
Twelve months ago, in advance of our full year results for the 2017 financial year, an air of cautious optimism was beginning to permeate commodity markets. On balance, events since have justified that optimism. While many policy and geopolitical challenges remain, some new and others of long standing, happily the global economy has been resilient […]
Is a lack of physical infrastructure holding India back? Yes – and no. While the physical amount of key elements of infrastructure in India benchmark well internationally, the on-the-ground perception for many is that its infrastructure is vastly deficient. To see if this paradox could be resolved, we studied both the quantity of infrastructure in […]
The question most people are asking is that if currently crude oil prices are at $80 or so, then why are retail petrol and diesel prices higher today than in 2013-14 when they were over $100? And why hasn’t the central government that hiked excise on petrol and diesel multiple times as crude oil prices […]
Last year around this time I wrote a blog arguing that growing scrap availability will potentially be a game changer for the future of steelmaking. In this blog, I will try to expand on the expected growth in global scrap availability. Our estimates suggest that global ferrous scrap availability stood at about 750 Mt in 2017, 630 Mt […]
The escalation of Sino-US tariff war is likely to hurt India, forcing it to look for alternative markets as the trade growth globally may get adversely affected. Despite the apparent perception of improving relations with the United States, India is now worried as the US has slapped 25 per cent tariff on steel and 10 […]