A little-known metal called Antimony rallied 300% this year, overtaking gold, silver, and even Bitcoin.  And there is something that the algorithm gods haven’t noticed. You see, Western powers have embarked on a $100 billion spending spree to restock their armories.  Cruise missiles, artillery shells, javelins, bullets, and armored vehicles. They ALL contain antimony, and the worst news is that the U.S. doesn’t produce an ounce of it.  This huge price spike that followed China’s decision to cut antimony supply to…

Europe is depleting its natural gas reserves at the fastest rate in six years as still winter weather and low temperatures combine to challenge the continent’s transition away from hydrocarbons—and delay it. Since the start of official winter season—October 1—gas in storage levels in the EU and the UK have declined by 83 terawatt-hours, energy analyst John Kemp reported last month. This is the fastest rate of withdrawals since 2016, he said, adding that the rate of withdrawals was over four times faster than the average…

After years of abusing Iranian sanctions and flooding China's economy with cheap Iranian oil, China’s larger independent refiners are set to shun Iranian oil “imminently” because of their exposure to the US banking system, said Energy Aspects, which expects sanctions to tighten under Trump. These plants only started buying Iranian crude this year after receiving guidance from the US State Department that sanctions wouldn’t be enforced by the Biden administration, according to a note from the industry consultant, which didn’t…

Agricultural land in Central Asia and the Caucasus is degrading at an alarming rate. Officials did a lot of handwringing about the issue during a roundtable at the recently completed COP29 environmental conclave. But in highlighting urgent needs, participants didn’t proffer many ideas about how to mitigate the myriad challenges.  Globally, about 40 percent of agricultural land is vulnerable to degradation, Azerbaijan’s agriculture minister, Majnun Mammadov, stated in his opening remarks at the roundtable, adding as much as 12 million…

Panama will cancel the registration of six ships sailing under its flag after they were sanctioned by the UK last week. The delisting comes after Panama’s maritime authority in October pledged to penalize vessels sanctioned by the U.S., European Union, UK and United Nations. Moscow continues to export large volumes of crude despite sanctions by the West. “Safeguarding the prestige of our flag is a top priority for this administration. The state has a fundamental responsibility to protect the integrity of the Panamanian ship registry,…

Panama will cancel the registration of six ships sailing under its flag after they were sanctioned by the UK last week. The delisting comes after Panama’s maritime authority in October pledged to penalize vessels sanctioned by the U.S., European Union, UK and United Nations. Moscow continues to export large volumes of crude despite sanctions by the West. “Safeguarding the prestige of our flag is a top priority for this administration. The state has a fundamental responsibility to protect the integrity of the Panamanian ship registry,…

Panama will cancel the registration of six ships sailing under its flag after they were sanctioned by the UK last week. The delisting comes after Panama’s maritime authority in October pledged to penalize vessels sanctioned by the U.S., European Union, UK and United Nations. Moscow continues to export large volumes of crude despite sanctions by the West. “Safeguarding the prestige of our flag is a top priority for this administration. The state has a fundamental responsibility to protect the integrity of the Panamanian ship registry,…

Anticipating that President-elect Donald Trump will fulfill his promise of a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada and an additional 10% tariff on imports from China, importers are frontloading freight before the tariff wall takes effect in less than two months. Bloomberg reports that international cargo flights out of the world's second-largest economy are ramping up to new records in the weeks after the presidential election.  According to the Ministry of Transport data, there were 3,485 international cargo flights in or out of…

A Chinese company that owns a California manufacturing plant has sent hundreds of shipments of restricted dual-use electronics to Russia since the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine, including to sanctioned companies with ties to the Russian military. At least one component manufactured by the company, Yangzhou Yangjie Electronic Technology Company Limited, was found in a Russian weapons guidance system recovered from the battlefield in Ukraine, according to a public database maintained by the Ukrainian military. Yangjie Technology, located in Yangzhou…

Oil and commodities trading powerhouse Trafigura Group and three other defendants went on trial on Monday in Switzerland's top criminal court over allegations of bribery. According to Reuters, Trafigura has been charged for failing to take all reasonable measures to prevent payment of more than $5 million in bribes to an Angolan oil official in exchange for oil and shipping contracts more than a decade ago. Trafigura said that its former parent company, Trafigura Beheer BV (TBBV), will defend itself, "TBBV's anti-bribery and anti-corruption controls…

Oil and commodities trading powerhouse Trafigura Group and three other defendants went on trial on Monday in Switzerland's top criminal court over allegations of bribery. According to Reuters, Trafigura has been charged for failing to take all reasonable measures to prevent payment of more than $5 million in bribes to an Angolan oil official in exchange for oil and shipping contracts more than a decade ago. Trafigura said that its former parent company, Trafigura Beheer BV (TBBV), will defend itself, "TBBV's anti-bribery and anti-corruption controls…

Cryptocurrency ownership is gaining popularity across Central Asia and the Caucasus, according to a report prepared by a group of financial services companies. Uzbekistan has the highest adoption rate for crypto assets in the regions and ranks 33rd globally. The Russian-language report, titled Digital Assets in Central Asia and the Caucasus, shows that almost 1.5 percent of Uzbekistan’s population, or roughly 512,000 individuals, owns cryptocurrency. The 15 licensed cryptocurrency exchanges and outlets operating in Uzbekistan handled over…

More than 100 years ago, a ship left a Nova Scotia harbor carrying a precious cargo that few today would recognize as valuable. The crew, full of optimism, was bound for Wales hoping that the metal they carried would lead them to riches. Unfortunately, they never made it. A German U-boat lurking in the cold Atlantic waters fired a torpedo and the ship went down, sinking to the ocean floor along with its mysterious cargo. At the time, the metal seemed unimportant, but its true value wasn’t fully realized until later. Fast forward to today…

For years, internationally-sanctioned Iran has used non-internationally-sanctioned Iraq as a front through which it can move whatever it wants wherever it wants whenever it wants to. This includes its sanctioned oil and gas, sanctioned funds, and sanctioned goods and people. This has been enabled by a succession of U.S. governments that granted Iraq waiver after waiver to continue to import Iranian energy which Iraq needs because its own endemically corrupt oil and gas sector has eaten away its ability to meet its own power requirements. The U.S.’s…

On December 1, Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, started supplying natural gas to Slovakia’s Slovenský plynárenský priemysel (SPP), the country’s largest state-owned energy operator. This comes just a month after SPP signed a short-term pilot contract to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan as it prepares for a possible halt to Russian supplies via Ukraine. Last year, Ukraine signaled it has no intention to renew a five-year pipeline transit agreement to supply natural gas to EU countries when it expires on…

On December 1, Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, started supplying natural gas to Slovakia’s Slovenský plynárenský priemysel (SPP), the country’s largest state-owned energy operator. This comes just a month after SPP signed a short-term pilot contract to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan as it prepares for a possible halt to Russian supplies via Ukraine. Last year, Ukraine signaled it has no intention to renew a five-year pipeline transit agreement to supply natural gas to EU countries when it expires on…

Hedge funds and other portfolio managers have been slashing their bearish bets on the European ICE gasoil futures amid falling temperatures and rising natural gas prices in Europe. In the week to November 26, money managers reduced – once again – their short positions on the gasoil futures traded on the ICE, according to data from the exchange quoted by Bloomberg. In ICE gasoil futures, speculators raised their net long position, or the bullish bets, by 3,421 lots to 23,239 lots as of November 26, the weekly report from the exchange…

Gazprom’s natural gas flows via the Power of Siberia pipeline to China have reached full capacity of 38 billion cubic meters annually, the Russian gas giant said on Monday. Gazprom started sending gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline at the end of 2019, and flows have now reached the maximum design capacity. “We see demand for Russian gas on the growing Chinese market and the important role that Russian gas plays in the stable energy supply of China's economy,” Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said in a statement…

Gazprom’s natural gas flows via the Power of Siberia pipeline to China have reached full capacity of 38 billion cubic meters annually, the Russian gas giant said on Monday. Gazprom started sending gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline at the end of 2019, and flows have now reached the maximum design capacity. “We see demand for Russian gas on the growing Chinese market and the important role that Russian gas plays in the stable energy supply of China's economy,” Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said in a statement…

Gazprom’s natural gas flows via the Power of Siberia pipeline to China have reached full capacity of 38 billion cubic meters annually, the Russian gas giant said on Monday. Gazprom started sending gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline at the end of 2019, and flows have now reached the maximum design capacity. “We see demand for Russian gas on the growing Chinese market and the important role that Russian gas plays in the stable energy supply of China's economy,” Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said in a statement…