MH Daily Bulletin: September 13

News relevant to the plastics industry:

At M. Holland

• M. Holland has announced expanded access to 3D printing filaments from Braskem, a global chemical company, providing clients with access to polyethylene (PE) and glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP) filaments. Click here to read the full press release.
• Are you attending the North American Detroit Auto Show this week? We invite you to join our networking reception at the Detroit Athletic Club on Thursday, Sept. 15, at 4 pm. To RSVP for our reception or set up a meeting with our Automotive team, please contact Mike Gumbko, Strategic Account Manager.
• Market Expertise: M. Holland offers a host of resources to clients, prospects and suppliers across nine strategic markets.

Supply

• Oil prices rose over 1% on Monday as supply concerns mount ahead of winter.
• In mid-morning trading today, WTI futures were down 2.8% at $85.36/bbl, Brent was down 2.9% at $91.30/bbl, and U.S. natural gas was down 0.2% at $8.23/MMBtu.
• U.S. gasoline prices have fallen for 13 weeks in a row, the longest slide in three years. At $3.74 a gallon, the average price is 25% lower than June’s peak above $5.
• U.S. oil output will rise in the coming months on record production levels in the Permian Basin, according to the EIA.
• U.S. emergency oil stocks fell 8.4 million barrels last week to a total of 434.1 million barrels, the lowest level since 1984.
• Cheniere Energy, the U.S.’s largest LNG exporter, raised its earnings outlook and laid out plans for higher dividends as its export margins soar.
• China’s oil demand is poised to shrink for the first time in two decades this year as Beijing’s zero-COVID policy keeps people at home, reducing fuel consumption. 
• Western governments are growing pessimistic about the revival of a nuclear deal that would have brought more Iranian oil to the global market.
• OPEC member Kazakhstan’s crude output plunged 13% from July to August due to maintenance at several key oilfields.
• More oil news related to the war in Europe:
  • The EU’s executive European Commission will unveil historic intervention in energy markets today, which could include price caps on renewable electricity, funding for power firms facing a liquidity crunch, unlocking pandemic dollars for use in energy markets and a potential 33% windfall tax on bumper profits at fossil-fuel firms.
  • A Western price cap on Russian oil exports is set to take effect Dec. 5, according to the U.S. Treasury. 
  • Fitch Ratings does not expect Europe to get any more natural gas via pipelines from Russia this year.
  • Germany paid 10% more for 46% fewer exports by volume from Russia in July, a reflection of the soaring price for oil and gas.
  • Italy’s main business lobby is in talks with the government about gas rationing; the Netherlands is spending $150 million to help residents with energy bills; and Paris is shutting the lights off early at its iconic Eiffel Tower — all examples of EU nations scrambling to devise their own strategies to deal with an energy crunch. 
  • Gazprom’s newest LNG plant will start sending cargoes to Greece, which is at odds with Europe’s plan to cut its Russian gas dependency by two-thirds this year.
  • Russia began shelling Ukrainian power plants Monday, forcing blackouts across Ukraine’s northeast.
• More energy suppliers are exercising cancellation clauses in long-term contracts to free up shipments to sell into the more lucrative spot market.
• The U.S. administration is tightening offshore oil-and-gas safety requirements rolled back under the previous administration that analysts say can help prevent catastrophes like 2010’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
• Dozens of energy and auto companies have announced plans to move forward with new projects after the passage of the latest energy and healthcare bill, which contained billions of dollars in climate-related incentives. 
• Interest groups are slowing the U.S. government’s plans to sell two offshore wind regions in California by the end of the year.
• Wyoming will be home to the world’s largest carbon removal facility, “Project Bison,” by the end of next year.

Supply Chain

• Major U.S. freight railroads began rejecting shipments of hazardous materials and other chemicals Monday, a bid to avoid leaving cargoes unattended in the event of a work stoppage this Friday — the deadline new contracts with tens of thousands of unionized workers. The White House is stepping up pressure on negotiators, while some passenger services started canceling routes that travel on freight tracks. 
• Four thousand people were evacuated from west-central Oregon yesterday after the six-week-old Cedar Creek wildfire exploded to 87,000 acres with 0% containment.
• Typhoon Muifa will make landfall on China’s east coast Wednesday, threatening disruption at Asia’s largest container shipping hub of Shanghai and Ningbo.
• Over $1 billion in secondhand ice-class tankers, used for long-haul voyages, were bought and sold from May to August, up fivefold from a year ago.
• The U.S. Postal Service will hire 28,000 seasonal workers this year to expand holiday processing capacity to 60 million packages per day, up from 53 million last year.
• The U.S. administration plans to broaden curbs on U.S. shipments of computer chips to China, according to reports, as officials work to formulate regulations from a plethora of company-specific restrictions.
• Top U.S. computer chip maker Micron Technology broke ground on a $15 billion factory in Boise, Idaho, on Monday.
• Nestle executives say the U.S. baby formula shortage should begin to ease by October. 
• In the latest news from the auto industry:
  • U.S. wholesale prices for used cars fell 4% in August, the sixth decline in seven months.
  • Nissan extended a production stoppage at its plant in St. Petersburg, Russia, until December. 
  • GM’s self-driving Cruise unit plans to expand ride-hailing service to Phoenix by December.
  • China’s auto sales rose 32.1% in August from a year ago, led by a recovery in electric-vehicle sales.
  • Mexico’s auto production rose 7.9% in the first eight months of 2022 but will remain below pre-pandemic levels until late 2024, industry groups say.
• The Pentagon will need an extra $42 billion next fiscal year to account for soaring procurement costs, an industry group said.
• Aviation regulators in Europe approved the first design for converting large passenger aircraft to carry light cargo in the cabin, a freighter “shortcut.”
• Medical device maker Equashield says new artificial-intelligence technology helped smash the firm’s previous record for order fulfillment this year. 
• Google parent Alphabet may move some smartphone production from China to India to avoid disruption from Beijing’s zero-COVID policy.

Domestic Markets

• The U.S. reported 60,185 new COVID-19 infections and 328 virus fatalities Monday. The daily average for new cases is down 24% from two weeks ago to the lowest level since May, though a lack of home testing reporting could skew the data. 
• Only 10 states continue to maintain COVID-19 restrictions after New York said it is ending its state of emergency.  
• COVID-19 cases fell 16% in New York last week as the state began giving out its first Omicron-tailored vaccines to the public.
• Just 51.9% of Wyoming’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the lowest in the nation.
• The Detroit Auto Show returns this week after a three-year pandemic hiatus. 
• Over 15,000 Minnesota nurses went on strike Monday over pay and working conditions, the largest-ever strike of private-sector nurses in the U.S.
• New York Times and NBC employees have vowed to work from home in protest over back-to-office requirements that began this week.
• Inflation eased less than expected in August, with the Consumer Price Index up 0.1% compared with the prior month and 8.3% over the prior year, sending stock futures lower in premarket trading. U.S. online prices jumped 2.1% in August after declining in July for the first time in two years, according to Adobe.
• Mastercard says U.S. spending growth this holiday season will likely slow to 7.1% from 8.5% last year as inflation reduces demand. Deloitte shares similar forecasts.
• The U.S. workforce hit 164.7 million people in August, topping 2019 levels for the first time of the pandemic.
• U.S. consumers are lowering their multi-year forecasts for inflation, according to recent surveys by the New York Fed. Year-ahead expectations fell from 6.2% in July to 5.7% in August. 

• The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise its key interest rate by another 75 basis points next week.
• JPMorgan Chase says a “soft landing” is likely where inflation eases without a full-blown U.S. recession this year or in 2023, though analysts expect slowing third-quarter corporate earnings growth. 
• Deposits at U.S. banks fell by a record $370 billion in the second quarter, the first decline since 2018, even as banks continue to sit on more deposits than needed after a two-year influx of pandemic cash savings.
• Manhattan home sales under $1 million fell by double-digit percentages this summer compared to pre-pandemic levels, reflecting higher borrowing rates.
• San Francisco’s median home price was 7% lower last month than a year ago as remote work hits demand in what was recently the hottest U.S. housing market.
• U.S. Bancorp says its mortgage revenue will plummet as much as 35% from the second to the third quarter as the housing market slows.
• Goldman Sachs will start cutting hundreds of jobs this month after pausing the annual practice for two years during the pandemic.
• Oracle met quarterly financial targets after strong demand for its cloud services pushed segment revenue up 45%.
• Pandemic darling Peloton Interactive began losing senior leaders Monday as the firm undergoes massive changes to trim losses and win back investor confidence.

International Markets

• COVID-19 cases in Ukraine are expected to peak in October, the WHO said, putting further strain on the nation’s already overstretched hospitals.
• European medicine regulators backed new COVID-19 boosters tailored to the latest subvariants of Omicron, BA.4 and BA.5, just days after approving shots for the BA.1 strain. 
• Japan approved Omicron-tailored COVID-19 boosters Monday.
• Australia is losing $3.6 billion of output per year due to long-COVID’s impacts on the labor market, data suggests.
• Britain’s teetering economy could be pushed into recession this quarter from the impact of Queen Elizabeth’s death on productivity, economists say. Still, the U.K. jobless rate hit a near-50-year low of 3.6% in the second quarter.

• Canadian households saw a 6.1% decline in net worth last quarter, the biggest drop on record led by shrinking value in home equity and financial assets.
• Top U.S. delegates concluded a high-level meeting with their Mexican counterparts Monday in a bid to bring cross-border trade in line with multibillion-dollar plans to boost regional production of semiconductors and renewable energy.
• India’s consumer prices rose a higher-than-expected 7% in August, led by increases for food and fuel. 
• China’s government will continue rolling out policies meant to stabilize the national economy by reviving consumption and boosting investment, officials said Monday.
• JPMorgan Chase slashed its forecast for developing-world corporate debt issuance by one-third Monday, the latest sign of the economic pressure facing poorer countries. 
• Japan’s central bank is expected to maintain its low interest rates despite the yen’s fall to a 24-year low.
• Home prices held up across most of the globe in the second quarter, new data shows. Of the seven markets that saw price declines, six were in the Asia-Pacific region, while prices in Canada and Australia saw the steepest declines.
• Lufthansa pilots will delay striking until the middle of next year after reaching partial agreement on new contracts Monday.
• Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport asked airlines to cancel flights Monday evening due to worker shortages at one of Europe’s busiest travel hubs.
• Lufthansa executives predict ticket prices will never return to pre-pandemic levels.
• Air India plans to expand its fleet by 25% with new leases for 30 Boeing and Airbus jets. 

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