M. Holland will be exhibiting at MD&M West in Anaheim, California, from April 12-14. MD&M West is the largest medtech conference in the U.S. If you’re attending, please stop by Booth #4111 to meet our Healthcare experts!
In case you missed it, watch M. Holland’s Plastics Reflections webinar about the current and future state of the North American plastics industry. Click here to access the recording.
M. Holland’s 3D Printing group offers a rapid response alternative for producing selected parts where resin availability is tight. For more information, email our 3D Printing team.
Market Expertise: M. Holland offers a host of resources to clients, prospects and suppliers across nine strategic markets.
Supply
Oil prices fell over 5% to a three-week low on Wednesday after the International Energy Agency said it would release an additional 60 million barrels of crude reserves in addition to the U.S.’s planned release of 180 million barrels. This marks the second IEA release this year and effectively boosts global supply by 2 million bpd for the next two months.
In mid-morning trading today, WTI futures were up 0.4% at $96.64/bbl, Brent was up 0.2% at $101.20/bbl, and U.S. natural gas was up 2.2% at $6.16/MMBtu.
U.S. crude stocks rose by 2.4 million barrels last week, according to the government, while analysts had expected a drawdown. Output also rose, hitting 11.8 million bpd, the most since late last year.
U.S. consumption of ethane, a key feedstock to produce ethylene, has increased in every year since 2010 and is now greater than that of either jet fuel or propane:
Shell said its withdrawal from Russia will result in up to $5 billion of impairments and warned investors that extreme energy price volatility in the first quarter could hit cash flow.
European coal buyers are scrambling to secure more shipments from across the globe as EU member nations weigh a proposal to ban Russian imports of the fuel.
Hungary, breaking with Europe, says it is willing to pay for Russian gas in rubles. Chinese firms that bought Russian coal in March have paid in yuan, in some cases.
Greece opened a 204 MW solar park yesterday while its government pledged to speed up permits for renewable projects, part of a war-induced acceleration of efforts to wean itself off fossil fuels. At the same time, the nation will boost coal use for the next two years to avoid importing Russian gas.
Supply Chain
Much of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million population remains without power after a fire at the Costa Sur power plant shortly after 9 p.m. last night.
Twenty-five million people in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida faced storms, floods and tornadoes yesterday as a string of extreme weather continued to batter the U.S. southeast.
Cargo operations at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, the nation’s busiest, have ground to a halt.
Contracted ocean-container shipping rates rose 96.7% on average in March from the same time last year, including a 7% gain from February to March, according to Xeneta.
European budget supermarket chain Lidl has registered a new container shipping company with plans to take a sizeable chunk of its transport needs from existing carriers.
A record 61% of all ship orders in the first quarter were for vessels powered by alternative fuels, including LNG — the largest share — as well as methanol, ethane, batteries ammonia and hydrogen.
Toyota lowered its projection for U.S. car sales this year from 16.5 million to 15.5 million due to parts shortages and supply chain constraints.
Autonomous trucking provider Aurora Innovation will expand routes and place new terminals in El Paso, Houston and Fort Worth, Texas, by next year.
Third-party food delivery apps like DoorDash are increasingly looking at grocery stores as their next frontier to maintain surging pandemic growth rates. The shift comes as grocery-centered deliverers, including Instacart, see growth slowing sharply, setting up a fierce competition for market share.
More supply chain news related to the war in Europe:
A third underwater mine was detected Wednesday along Turkey’s Black Sea coast, one of the world’s most important shipping chokepoints.
Russian car sales fell an annual 63% in March, the ninth straight monthly decline spurred by logistics disruption and a major drop in the value of the ruble.
Russian Railways missed a bond repayment worth over $600 million.
Global prices for cooking oils are rising sharply on declining exports from Ukraine.
Domestic Markets
The U.S. reported 40,176 new COVID-19 infections and 1,241 virus fatalities Wednesday.
COVID-19 cases are up 27% in Massachusetts over the past week.
Top U.S. health officials predict the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron will prompt another rise in cases, which may trigger the need for an updated vaccine that targets virus variants. The news comes even as FDA regulators suggest asking people to get frequent booster shots is not sustainable and that the U.S. should develop a long-term strategy to mitigate COVID variants.
U.S. healthcare workers may face combat-like trauma from their experiences over the past two years, new research suggests.
The labor market tightened further last week, with first-time unemployment claims falling by 5,000 to 166,000, well below analyst estimates of 200,000.
Federal Reserve minutes released yesterday show the central bank was planning to raise rates by 50 basis points at its most recent meeting but opted for a smaller hike due to the war in Ukraine. Markets reacted poorly over expectations of more aggressive Fed tightening throughout the year:
Applications for home-purchase mortgages fell 8.48% in February compared with the same time last year, according to Redfin.
The airline industry’s outlook has weakened this year as rising fuel prices force carriers to increase fares.
Wall Street banks, once among the most rigid in their office culture, are becoming more open to permanent remote work as top applicants demand more flexibility.
The U.S. is preparing for 2.5 million weddings this year, the most since 1984, after many ceremonies were delayed by the pandemic. Sales of wedding-related products and services are expected to boom.
Electric vehicle maker Rivian said it is on track to reach its halved production target of 25,000 vehicles this year even after making just 2,553 vehicles in the first quarter.
International Markets
The BA.2 subvariant of Omicron accounted for 94% of new COVID-19 cases across the globe last week.
Poland’s central bank made a surprise move to raise interest rates by a full percentage-point to 4.5% yesterday, a response to the highest inflation in two decades.
Volkswagen plans to cut 60% of combustion-vehicle production by the end of the decade.
Chilean energy company HIF Global secured $260 million, including investments from Porsche, to build an e-fuel plant that uses wind power to produce green hydrogen.
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