Energy and Natural Resources Market

U.S. Global Investors Weekly (04/17/2009)
Strength
  • China's Customs officials reported record imports of unwrought copper and copper products of 374 thousand metric tons for the month of March. Additionally, iron ore imports gained 11% sequentially in March to 52 million metric tons.
  • Chinese refinery runs and crude oil imports jumped sharply in March. Runs hit 6.9 million barrels a day (mbd), up 0.2 mbd from February and nearly 1.0 mbd from January. It was the first year-over-year increase since last fall. Preliminary crude oil imports for March also came in at an impressive 3.89 mbd, the second highest level ever.
  • The American Iron and Steel Institute said for the week ending April 11 that steel utilization rates increased to 43.3%, up from just 40% in the prior week.
  • Strategic merger and acquisition activity occurred in the uranium sector.
Weakness
  • A Chinese newspaper reports that power demand, which is an indicator of underlying economic activity, has fallen further in the first 10 days of April.
Opportunity
  • In recent months, global nuclear utilities have been aggressively vertically integrating in an attempt to secure supply in response to strong demand for nuclear power generation. As many as 30 reactors are scheduled to be under construction in China by 2011.

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