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On May 20th, Futures News reported that the domestic urea market maintained a relatively strong trend from January to April. While price reductions were anticipated in advance of May, the actual decline far exceeded industry expectations, with some producers lowering their ex-factory prices by as much as 100 yuan/ton from their April highs. Amidst this continued weakening trend, a wait-and-see attitude prevailed, with a strong "buy high, sell low" mentality, resulting in generally weak purchasing activity among traders. As of May 19th, the average price of small and medium-sized urea granules in China in May was approximately 1873.68 yuan/ton, down 0.78% from April and down 2.05% year-on-year. In terms of supply, the overall daily output of domestic urea is mainly 210,000-220,000 tons, higher than the same period in previous years. Manufacturer inventories fell to a relatively low level in April, but increased due to slower sales in May, easing the tight supply situation. Currently, demand is in a temporary off-season, with agricultural demand not yet fully released. A moderate rebound in industrial and agricultural demand is expected in June. In addition, exports remain one of the important factors affecting the mentality of business operators. Due to the expectation of increased export quotas in the later period, there may be a slight downward exploration in the short term to find the bottom, and some areas may gradually stabilize and wait and see.On May 20th, at the Alibaba Cloud Summit, the Qwen 3.7-MaX model was released, which has improved the basic performance of the model in terms of language understanding and generation, logical reasoning and calculation, knowledge reserve and common sense, instruction compliance and alignment, and supports multiple Harness frameworks.On May 20th, data from the Securities Industry Association of Japan showed that overseas investors net sold 81.3 billion yen (approximately $512 million) of ultra-long-term Japanese government bonds in April, marking the first net outflow since December 2024. Following the Bank of Japans normalization of monetary policy, overseas investors have gained increasing influence in the bond market. Rising borrowing costs have kept policymakers on edge, with Finance Minister Katayama hinting at monitoring market conditions in May while considering supplementary budgets. Shinichiro Kadota, head of foreign exchange and interest rate strategy at Barclays Japan, stated that the foreign sell-off "highlights the vulnerability of the Japanese bond market." " Coupled with concerns about fiscal expansion and the central banks lagging curve, the sell-off is pushing up yields." This week, the yield on Japans benchmark 30-year government bond climbed to its highest level since its inception in 1999. Meanwhile, traditional investors in ultra-long-term bonds, life and property insurance companies, were net buyers of 327.2 billion yen of ultra-long-term bonds last month, becoming net buyers for the first time since July of last year.Futures News, May 20th - According to foreign media reports, palm oil futures on the Malaysian Derivatives Exchange fell slightly in early trading on Wednesday, ending a three-day winning streak, dragged down by weaker crude oil prices and supported by stronger competing edible oils. In the energy market, international oil prices subsequently declined after US President Trump reiterated his claim that the war with Iran would end "very quickly." However, investors remain cautious about the final outcome of peace negotiations as the ongoing conflict continues to disrupt energy supplies in the Middle East. Regarding policy and supply-demand fundamentals, media reports citing sources indicate that Indonesia plans to strengthen controls on commodity exports, including coal and palm oil.On May 20, President Xi Jinping held a ceremony at the East Gate Square of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin on his visit to China.

Phillips 66 Trademarks Mark Lashier will Succeed Greg Garland as CEO

Haiden Holmes

Apr 13, 2022 09:44

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Lashier, a chemical engineer who joined the firm three decades ago in the chemicals division, was named president and chief operating officer a year ago after leading Chevron Phillips Chemical Co, the company's joint venture with Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX), since 2017.


Garland has considered refining as a mature company and has concentrated its efforts on expanding its energy infrastructure, chemicals, and establishing a presence in electric vehicle battery components. It spent around $150 million last year for a 16.5% share in Novonix Ltd, an Australian provider of lithium-ion battery materials.


Garland "built a market-leading diversified energy manufacturing and logistics organization while investing for the future and producing solid financial returns," according to Glen Tilton, lead independent director of Philips 66.


Although the Houston company's non-refining initiatives have generated great shareholder returns, its shares have lately underperformed bigger competitors that benefitted from increasing gasoline margins during pandemic lockdowns.


Lashier is expected to pursue Garland's diversification approach, which includes biofuels, hydrogen, and battery components. However, he must demonstrate that he can match competitors Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC) and Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO), which increased shareholder returns by selling off retail operations and diversifying into renewable diesel, analysts said.


Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) traded at $81.97 on Tuesday, up 13% year to date, compared to 34% year-to-year gains at Marathon and Valero and around 96% year-to-date gains at PBF Energy (NYSE:PBF).


"Lashier's task is to increase the company's value," Matthew Blair, an analyst at Tudor Pickering Holt & Co., said. "He will face inquiries regarding the company's non-refining businesses' value and what he can do to boost stock price performance and capitalize on the potential valuation."

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