Tidbits
Yesterday morning, the USDA announced the sale of 612,000 mts of old crop corn to China. While it is important the US sold that much corn, it is also very important that it was China that bought it because some analysts were saying China had bought so much cheap corn from Brazil, they doubted China needed US corn. Few market analysts remember that 30+% of China was on covid lock-down for nearly three years ending in January. There is a huge pent-up demand for everything money can buy in China.
OPEC said yesterday that China’s crude oil demand will average 15.56 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2023, up 710,000 bpd compared to last year. That projection is 120,000 bpd higher than last month’s OPEC estimate for China.
However, OPEC left its world oil demand growth forecast unchanged from the February estimate, expecting growth of 2.32 million bpd this year as increased Chinese demand will be offset by lower North American and European demand. OPEC has an “expectation of a slowdown in economic activity.”
How about this: China is leading the rush by many buyers to book giant vessels for exports out of the US Gulf Coast and Persian Gulf.