In this week's Market Movers Asia with Vivien Tang:
- All eyes on China’s loan prime rate decision
- Bangladesh’s crude, India’s gasoline imports may rise
- China’s lithium supplies may rise
- Asian thermal coal demand to sustain at lower prices
This week, a likely downward revision to China's benchmark lending loan prime rate could help bring back market confidence after the government decided to lower its short- and medium-term borrowing costs last week.
Bangladesh crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia and the UAE are likely to increase. Bangladesh successfully installed a single-point mooring system, which will allow the country to handle large volumes of crude oil.
India’s appetite for imported gasoline is expected to rise in the near term amid turnarounds by state-owned refinery Bharat Petroleum.
China's Huayou Cobalt delivered its first spodumene shipment from the Arcadia Lithium mine in Zimbabwe on June 14, a move that could signal the start of large-scale lithium mining in Africa and pressure Chinese lithium prices on expectations of growing supply.
In Asian thermal coal, current lower prices are likely to drive increased demand, but could also encourage production cuts.
Moving to agriculture, the US Environmental Protection Agency will publish its finalized biofuel blending requirements on June 21. A higher biofuel blending mandate would support soybean and oil futures, making soybean imports expensive in Asia.
I’m Vivien Tang. Thank you for kicking off your Monday with S&P Global Commodity Insights.