Aluminium’s Hormuz Shock: When Disruption Became Damage
What began as a freight and logistics shock has become something more serious for aluminium. The Gulf is no longer just a region facing disrupted trade flows. It is now a region dealing with impaired operating rates, damaged assets and a supply chain that has become harder to restart cleanly even if shipping conditions improve. […]
Aluminium’s Hormuz Shock: How a Gulf War Turned Freight Risk into a Metals Rally
Commodity markets have a habit of reminding us that supply chains do not break neatly. When geopolitics disrupts oil and gas, the effects rarely stay confined to energy. This time aluminium has been one of the clearest casualties, as the market confronts the risk that Gulf smelters could struggle both to ship metal out and […]
Coal’s Revenge II: How the Iran Conflict Repriced Indonesian Coal
For much of the past year Indonesian coal had been drifting lower. Then the Iran conflict rippled through oil and LNG markets, and the same old fuel-switching logic reasserted itself: when gas tightens and energy security becomes the priority, coal moves back into favour. At a glance ICI 3 rose from around US$67/t at the […]
Coal’s Revenge: How a Middle East Crisis Put the Black Rock Back in the Energy Mix
Energy markets have a habit of reminding us that fuels do not trade in neat silos. When geopolitics upends oil and LNG, coal can find itself back in fashion faster than many policymakers would like. At a glance Brent crude moved from the mid-US$80s/bbl range to around US$100/bbl as traders priced in Middle East supply […]