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Sep 14, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Misa Hama
TOKYO -- Although renewable energy is attracting more investment worldwide, a significant bottleneck has emerged: inadequate power grids. One estimate suggests that solar and wind facilities capable of generating electricity equivalent to 480 nuclear reactors remain unconnected to transmission networks in the U.S. and Europe.
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Jun 27, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Misa Hama
TOKYO -- U.S. hedge fund Citadel will buy its first company in Japan with a move into the country's fast-growing electricity trading market, Nikkei has learned. Citadel will acquire all of Tokyo-based market maker Energy Grid, which was founded in 2021 by Yohei Jozaki, a former energy trader at Enron and Goldman Sachs.
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Apr 17, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Misa Hama
TOKYO -- Chinese prices for pork -- a product that accounts for 60% of the country's meat consumption -- are in a prolonged slump, putting producers at increased bankruptcy risk and forcing the government to take actions including lowering production goals. Pork futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, a key indicator of pork prices in the country, were around 14 yuan ($1.93) per kilogram as of Tuesday.
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Apr 9, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Misa Hama
TOKYO -- The global wheat market has been hit by Chinese buyers cancelling major shipments, seemingly in an attempt to secure better prices and bolster the country's food security. Benchmark Chicago wheat futures are trading at about $5.50 per bushel, up slightly from a three-and-a-half-year low marked in mid-March but down about 10% from the beginning of the year.
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Mar 18, 2024 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Misa Hama
TOKYO -- Record harvests are depressing global grain prices, a trend that likely will discourage farmers already squeezed by higher costs from increasing production and potentially trigger a spike in prices in the coming season. Lead contracts for Chicago wheat futures fell as far as $5.20 per bushel on March 11, the lowest in roughly three and a half years. Corn and soybeans also fell to their lowest points since November 2020 in late February.
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Oct 16, 2023 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Misa Hama
TOKYO -- Global wheat prices have sunk to their lowest level in about three years as Russia pushes exports of a bumper crop, easing food inflation while driving up concerns about an overreliance on Russian grain. Benchmark wheat futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are hovering in the high $5 range per bushel. In late September, the price touched the low $5 range, the lowest since September 2020.
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Sep 29, 2023 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Misa Hama
TOKYO -- U.S. corn prices have slipped to their lowest levels in almost three years as China ramps up imports from Brazil, cutting into demand for American exports ahead of an expected bumper crop. Benchmark Chicago corn futures sank below $5 a bushel in late August and have remained down since. On Sept. 19, they dipped under $4.70 to the lowest since December 2020.
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Sep 24, 2023 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Misa Hama |Iori Kawate
TOKYO/BEIJING -- Pork prices in China have picked up appreciably since the government intervened in the market via bulk purchasing. "Just a little while ago, every cut was affordable," said a company worker in Tianjin of a local food shop. "Now prices have soared, and I have stopped buying them." Pork ribs rose nearly 30% this summer, she said.
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Sep 12, 2023 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Misa Hama |Anna Nishino |Yuki Masuda
TOKYO -- The Japanese government on Tuesday said it will lower the average price of imported wheat it sells to businesses for the first time in three years, as the global market settles from a surge triggered by the war in Ukraine. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said it will lower its selling price of imported wheat by 11.1% from the April-September period to an average of 68,240 yen (around $460) per tonne starting in October.
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Aug 18, 2023 | 
asia.nikkei.com | Shinichi Arakawa |Misa Hama
TOKYO -- Prices of nonferrous metals such as copper and nickel are sliding as the market grows wary of a Chinese economy cooling further, undercutting demand in the construction sector and beyond. Three-month copper futures fell to $8,120 per tonne at one point Thursday on the London Metal Exchange, the lowest in about two and a half months. The price of the metal, an economic barometer, was also down 15% from the year-to-date high marked in January.
