US Refining Margins Fall To A YTD Low, Clean Energy Shows Pimples – A Pirate Looks At Forty, Another Looks At Puberty

Daily Chemical Reaction

US Refining Margins Fall To A YTD Low, Clean Energy Shows Pimples – A Pirate Looks At Forty, Another Looks At Puberty

Key Points

• The development of clean energy globally faces considerable risk if the cost of deployments rises while fossil-fuel alternatives get cheaper – we discuss a few trends worth considering.
• Crude oil strength has lifted feedstock costs and cut profit across downstream product chains that are not showing similar price support – US refining margins reached a YTD low this week.
• China’s export limitations on graphite are a significant concern, as any supply issues in critical battery materials pose a risk to many clean storage developments and global net-zero targets.
• Ex-US natural gas and crude oil increased, while US natural gas declined this week, a notable benefit for North American petrochemical producers relative to those in Asia and Europe.
• We discuss falling global inflation, a positive for consumers amid other headwinds such as higher interest rates, and a few near-and-long-term developments in global agriculture.

See PDF below for all charts, tables and diagrams