Shipping group CMA CGM braced for weaker profit before demand picks up in 2024: French shipping group CMA CGM expects container freight demand to improve from next year but the group's profits will continue to ease this year as a slump in freight rates from record highs and a weak economy weigh on results, it said on Friday. The company, privately controlled by the Saade family, reported a second-quarter net profit of $1.3 billion, down from $7.6 billion in the year-earlier period and from $2.0 billion in the first quarter. It expects the first quarter to have been its most profitable this year. CMA CGM is among shipping firms to have posted record profits last year after the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a rush in maritime transport, and the group has poured its earnings into acquisitions to expand its logistics business and enter the media industry. The logistics operations of conglomerate Bollore (BOLL.PA), which CMA CGM agreed to buy earlier this year for an enterprise value of 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion), are expected to join the group early next year, Fernandez also said. Source: Reuters Click

EU to squeeze carbon market cap in 2024 as new climate policies kick in:  The European Union will shrink the supply added to its carbon market next year, as it presses ahead with reforms to strengthen Europe's main policy for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, the European Commission said on Friday. The EU carbon market requires power plants, industrial facilities and airlines to buy CO2 permits when they pollute - providing a financial incentive to emit less planet-warming carbon dioxide.  The EU caps the total number of permits added to the market each year. That cap decreases each year, to make sure emissions gradually decrease. A total of 1,386 billion CO2 permits will be added to the EU carbon market next year, the Commission said, down from the 1.486 billion permits added this year. EU countries agreed reforms to strengthen the carbon market last year to deliver climate change goals, including by shrinking the supply of permits in the scheme faster. The reforms will also impose two extra, one-off cuts to the supply of permits, the first in 2024. Source: Reuters Click

Oil inventory drops set stage for higher prices: Oil inventories are beginning to fall in some regions as demand outpaces supply constrained by deep production cuts from OPEC leader Saudi Arabia, providing support for prices which are expected to rise in coming months. JP Morgan analysts said this month that oil inventories - which include crude and fuel products - now play a bigger role in determining oil prices than the U.S. dollar because Western sanctions on Russia have accelerated oil trading in other currencies. Both the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) expect oil demand to outpace supply this year, leading to overall inventory draws to the tune of 400,000 to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), mostly accounted for by the second half of the year. Although global oil inventories increased in May to their highest since September 2021, according to the IEA, driven by a substantial rise in non-OECD countries, analysts say signs of tightness are appearing, in the United States in particular. Stock declines have been geographically uneven so far, with inventory falls in the United States and Europe offset by increases in China and Japan. The declines have also been skewed more towards fuel than crude, although the supply of sour crude, typically priced lower than sweet crude, has tightened because of the cuts introduced by OPEC and its allies. Source: Reuters Click

Saudi Arabia's Ma'aden to acquire 10% of Brazil base metals firm: Saudi Arabian Mining Company (1211.SE), known as Ma'aden, has agreed to acquire a 10% stake in Brazil's base metals company Vale, it said in a bourse statement on Sunday, as part of a strategy to invest in global mining assets. Ma'aden, through Manara, its joint venture established with the Public Investment Fund, on Thursday signed a binding agreement to acquire the 10% stake in Vale Base Metals, based on an enterprise value of $26 billion. "Manara’s investment into Vale will play a key role in helping it expand the production of copper and nickel across its asset portfolio, which are critical to the development of new technologies that will benefit the global energy transition," the company statement said. The transaction, which will be financed by Ma'aden's own resources, is subject to regulatory approvals and expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2024. Source: Reuters Click