(Bloomberg) — The North American steel industry is meeting in Atlanta as the sector grapples with weak U.S. demand, falling prices and an oversupply of Chinese steel. A key Brazilian sugar report will provide insight into the sweetener’s upcoming price trend. And crude oil inventories at a key U.S. transit hub are at their lowest since February.
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Here are five key charts to keep an eye on as the week begins for global commodity markets.
Steel
The North American steel industry is meeting in Atlanta from Monday to Wednesday for the annual SMU Steel Summit. Key topics are expected to include the impact of rising Chinese exports, which have dragged down prices worldwide, and whether weak U.S. demand will recover. The main concern for conference attendees will be the future direction of the market, as steel prices have fallen more than 40% this year and are approaching lows last seen in late 2022.
Sugar
Upcoming sugar production data in Brazil – the world’s biggest exporter – will be crucial in determining whether the global market remains well supplied. The country is halfway through its cane harvest and so far a stronger-than-usual pace of production has helped push prices for the sweetener down almost 12 percent this year. Still, dry weather threatens to hit yields and traders will be looking for clues in a report from industry group Unica due out this week.
oil
Crude inventories at the key hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, have fallen to a six-month low as refineries in the region restart operations after unexpected outages. Falling crude shipments from Canada, which fell to their lowest level since April earlier this month, have also contributed to the supply shortage in storage. The declines in Cushing have helped support the bullish backwardation structure in the U.S. crude futures curve, and time spreads could rise further if the downward streak continues.
dairy
China’s anti-subsidy investigation into milk imports from the European Union last week is the latest development in a trade dispute. The investigation targets several dairy products, including fresh and processed cheese, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce. The latest development escalates the trade dispute between the two countries, where goods such as electric vehicles and pork are threatened by the possibility of higher tariffs. China is the second-largest export market for dairy products from the EU.
Air conditioning technology
According to a recent analysis by BloombergNEF, the US has overtaken China as the leading funder of technologies to combat the climate crisis. Although the US led the way largely due to effective tax credits and incentives, funding for the sector fell by almost 50 percent globally compared to the same period last year. In total, climate technology companies, which include categories such as electric vehicles, batteries and clean energy, raised $22 billion globally in the first half of this year.
– With support from Doug Alexander, Devika Krishna Kumar and Michelle Ma.
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