In this week's Market Movers Americas, presented by Marieke Alsguth:
• Elevated Aframax freight weighs on export dynamics
• California Commission to host offshore wind symposium
• US HRC steel prices on downslide to start May
• Mexico to start purchasing corn for September-December
This week, dirty tanker market participants are expecting a higher freight environment to further crunch WTI Midland crude export economics. The market is waiting to see if fixing trends return to the larger VLCC segment for trans-Atlantic runs in order to ease shipping prices for June-delivered cargoes.
The California Energy Commission will host an offshore wind symposium, with state, federal and industry leaders discussing efforts to advance development off the California coast and learn about international experiences in offshore wind. The Commission's goal is 5 GW of offshore wind power by 2030 and 25 GW by 2045.
Starting this week, Mexico will be looking to cover its corn needs for September to December loadings from the northern ports of Brazil. Mexico is typically the largest buyer of US corn, but market participants are expecting a record-high second corn crop in Brazil to be harvested in late July, which has been pushing corn premiums there lower.
In the US hot-rolled coil market, spot prices have fallen since the start of May, but the decline is expected to be limited due to lead time lengths at domestic mills and lower service center inventories. Current lead times for hot-rolled coil stand at 7.3 weeks.
I'm Marieke Alsguth. Thank you for kicking off your Monday with S&P Global Commodity Insights.