🔹Germany 🇩🇪- Wittenberg's District Administrator warns of far-reaching consequences of SKW Piesteritz shutting down its ammonia plants. SKW Piesteritz also produces the 'Diesel Exhaust Fluid', Ad-Blue.

🔹In a crisis meeting at SKW on September 1, a report emerged that nationwide AdBlue stocks can enter an acute shortage if no immediate solution is found.

🔹Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF), ⛽️ the emissions control liquid required by modern diesel engines. Electronics send the vehicle into emergency mode at bicycle speed if DEF is missing. It is injected into the exhaust stream to remove harmful nitrogen oxide emissions.

🔹DEF is a urea-based solution. Sanctions on the world’s #1 urea exporter 🇷🇺 Russia, and China’s 🇨🇳 restrictions on urea exports 🚢 has contributed to supply chain issues.

Video- BR24 Germany. Auto-translated with sentences missing.

🔹Kremlin 🇷🇺 says West must lift sanctions for gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 (NS1). Gazprom says NS1 remains closed indefinitely.

🔹Russia's Deputy PM blamed the EU’s 🇪🇺 for violation of conditions of the repair contract & equipment shipping.

🔹European gas prices was up 23% today. 📈 Russia is still sending gas to Europe via pipelines through Ukraine 🇺🇦 & the South Stream via Turkiye 🇹🇷.

Background:

💠 During maintenance 🔧of gas compressors feeding Nord Stream 1, oil leaks were discovered.

💠 Ongoing problems for servicing 🇷🇺 Gazprom's gas turbines for Nord Stream 1 by Germany's Siemens.

💠 German 🇩🇪 Chancellor claims one turbine is ready to be shipped from Germany.

💠 Gazprom claims declare 'force-majeure' on Nord Stream 1. 📉

💠 Gazprom 🇷🇺 stopped the operation of a second Siemens turbine for servicing.

💠 Gazprom was awaiting the full volumes of function testing/safety/legal documents 📂.

💠 Western sanctions 🇨🇦 have been stalling the return of the turbine.

🔹Gazprom 🇷🇺 says they will move payments for gas exports to China 🇨🇳 away from USD/Euros and shift to rubles & yuan (split evenly). This will take effect immediately for its contract with China's National Petroleum Corp (CNPC).

🔹Russia started pumping gas to China through the 3,000-km (1,865-mile) Power of Siberia gas pipeline in late 2019. Power of Siberia 2 feasibility study completed (photo).

Recent developments for the ruble:

💠 Türkiye 🇹🇷 to pay Russia for gas partly in rubles.

💠 Iran 🇮🇷 and Russia unifying banking systems for trade in ruble/rial currency pair.

💠 Russia 🇷🇺 designates exported grain 🌾 and sunflower oil under ruble only payments.

💠 Ruble gold interchangeability mechanism helped ruble to become Q2 2022 world's best performing currency & is a strategy to keep gold inside of Russia 🇷🇺.

💠 Ruble-yuan 📈 trade up 1067% in Q2 of 2022.

💠 Bulgaria 🇧🇬, Poland 🇵🇱, Finland 🇫🇮, The Netherlands 🇳🇱, & Denmark 🇩🇰 Russian gas cut for failure to pay in rubles.

🔹USA 🇺🇸 - California power 🔌 usage surged to a record high on Sept 6th, raising the emergency status of the state’s electrical system to the highest possible level amid a blistering heat wave (photo-right) 🌡. Power Co., PG&E Corp., said it had notified about 525,000 customers that they could lose power for up to two hours.

🔹There are more than a million EV’s registered in the state, & in the last week, utility officials requested EV owners not to charge their vehicles due to grid limitations.

🔹Grids across the country will be under extreme duress in the future of increased EVs on roads, leading to instability issues & frequent blackouts 🔦.

Recent posts on US grid:

💠 Utility co.’s face delays & high costs 📈 for transformers.

💠 A surge in decommissioning fossil fuel power plants 🏭 has outpaced new clean energy generation 🔌 capacity.

💠 Utilities are warning of supply constraints for equipment🔋.

💠 The💡NERC report from June warning of unreliable sections of electricity grid.

🔹One of Russia’s 🇷🇺 top banks, VTB has become the first lender in the country to launch money transfers to China in yuan, sidestepping the global financial messaging system SWIFT.

🔹“The new reality is leading to a massive abandoning of the use of the US dollar and the euro in international payments,” VTB CEO said. “We are the first Russian bank to install an alternative cross-border bank transfer service with China 🇨🇳 & plan to increase the volume of these transactions by five times by next year,”.

🔹VTB plans to maintain presence on the markets of China, India 🇮🇳, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, Vietnam 🇻🇳 & other friendly countries.

Recent posts on bypassing SWIFT:

💠The System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), 🇷🇺 Russia's replacement for SWIFT, is open to banks from the BRICS nations.

💠Iran 🇮🇷 proposed a new currency for trade with China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

💠Alternative payment systems 💵 to SWIFT available to Russia.

🔹The EU 🇪🇺 proposed a price cap on Russian gas. Russia has warned that such a move can result in gas flows cut-off. The EU also plans a ceiling on the price paid for electricity 🔌 from generators that do not run on gas.

🔹Electricity prices 📈 in Germany 🇩🇪 have skyrocketed more than 600% this year. Germans are cutting back on oil-fueled modern luxuries in hopes that rationing today can help prevent blackouts down the line.

🔹Banks 🏦 across Europe are preparing for possible power outages this winter by stress-testing backup generators.

🔹France 🇫🇷 will send gas to Germany in exchange for electricity should the energy crisis worsen. Germany is more dependent on Russian 🇷🇺 gas than France, which generates most of its electricity in nuclear power stations.

Background:

💠Nord Stream 1 gas to Germany 🇩🇪 shut off.

💠French 🇫🇷 electricity futures contracts for next year up 10X in the past year.

💠Waiting lists, sky rocketing prices and export bans on firewood 🪵 across European countries

BRICS+ role, grows in new multipolar world.

🔹Chairman of Russia's 🇷🇺 Federation Council, states “initiatives aimed at the creation of an international reserve currency based on a basket of the national currencies of BRICS+ are promising”.

🔹South Africa’s 🇿🇦 National Assembly speaker, calls for a collective solution from BRICS+ to mitigate the global food, 🌾 fuel 🛢 & financial crisis.

🔹Chairman of China’s 🇨🇳 top legislature, urged BRICS+ legislative bodies to play an active role in providing legal guarantees & policy support for cooperation.

Recently:

💠Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦, Turkey 🇹🇷, and Egypt 🇪🇬 plan to join BRICS+.

💠The System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), 🇷🇺 Russia's replacement for SWIFT, is open to banks from the BRICS nations

Video- Eastern Economic Forum ongoing this week in Russia.

🔹USA - 🇺🇸 Egg-laying farm in Ohio has started euthanizing all of its flock, roughly 3 million chickens, due to bird flu (avian influenza). Approx. 43 million chickens and turkeys 🦃 this year has been culled across the U.S.

🔹UK - All poultry & captive birds to be culled at farms in Cornwall & in Essex. England -New virulent strain of bird flu reported killing seabirds. Lots of reports of dead gannets on land in the past few days. Wales - Protection zone set up in Gwynedd, restricting bird 🐓 movements & gatherings (Photo).

🔹France 🇫🇷 - Thousands of seabirds perished along France's western shores in past weeks reportedly due to bird flu. French farmers now concerned because they were forced to cull more than 19 million birds between November '21 & May '22.

Earlier bird flu reports:
💠 Death of seabirds in Canada 🇨🇦 linked to bird flu.

💠 US egg 🥚prices increase due to culling of hens across US.

💠 Quebec, Canada duck-farming 🦤 operation face financial ruin due to bird flu outbreak.

🔹Evergrande’s Hong Kong 🇭🇰 headquarters has been seized by a lender after Evergrande defaulted on a loan and twice failed to sell the building. The lender, appointed a receiver to take charge of the property that is valued at $1.2bn and force a sale.

🔹Evergrande 🇨🇳 has exited its investment in Shenyang-headquartered Shengjing Bank, selling its remaining 14.57% stake for 7.3 billion yuan (US$1.04 billion). The buyer was a seven-member consortium comprising three state-owned companies from Shenyang, & four private firms from Beijing.

🔹10 days ago, global funds that invested in Evergrande bonds came up with their own debt restructuring plan & demanded that its chair repay liabilities with his own fortune. Evergrande holds over $300 billion 💰 in liabilities.

Previously reported on this channel:

💠 Evergrande's CEO & CFO resigns after loan diversion investigation. China’s Banking regulator 🏦 may intervene into the ongoing mortgage boycott.

🔹EU energy ministers clash over a plan to put a price cap on 🇷🇺Russian gas. EU 🇪🇺 energy commissioner, said “nothing is decided” but defended the cap plan as reasonable. Power prices & Dutch TTF continue correcting after recent spike (Photo)

🔹10 EU members want the price cap to be placed on all suppliers of gas via pipelines, so the EU wouldn't be seen as singling out Russia.

🔹EU countries supported a proposal to offer emergency funds 💰to power 🔋firms. The possible EU's windfall plan will skim off excess revenues from coal/nuclear/hydro/wind power producers.

🔹Greece 🇬🇷 opposes a cap on the supply of Russian natural gas favouring the solution to set a maximum price in the Dutch TTF.

Previous developments for price cap.

💠 Russia 🇷🇺 warned that a price cap can result in gas flows cut-off.

💠French 🇫🇷 electricity futures contracts for next year up 10X in the past year.

💠Waiting lists, sky rocketing prices and export bans on firewood 🪵 across European countries.

🔹India 🇮🇳 banned exports of broken rice and imposed a 20% duty on exports of various grades of rice, in hopes of calming local prices after below-average monsoon rainfall curtailed planting. Rice 🌾 prices in key exporters India, Thailand, Vietnam & Myanmar are set to rise 📈. India accounts for more than 40% of global rice shipments.

🔹China, 🇨🇳 one of the biggest importers of Indian broken rice for use in animal feed, is expected to shift to corn 🌽. Speculation arises about an alliance of Thailand 🇹🇭 & Vietnam 🇻🇳 planning to increase export prices.

🔹India's neighbour Bangladesh 🇧🇩 has cut import duty on rice from 25% to 15.25%, sending rice up 5% in West Bengal, India.

Recent rice reports on this channel:

💠 India's 🇮🇳 planting areas of rice decline by 13%.

💠 China 🇨🇳 is virtually self-sufficient in rice. Imports of rice only account for 3% of the nation's total demand.

🔹Several thousand people yesterday (Sept. 9th) rallied near the palace of President Maia Sandu in the Moldovan 🇲🇩 capital Chisinau. Moldovans have been subjected to high price increases 📈 for energy. The organizers said that many buses with protesters were not allowed into the capital by the police. Protesters gathered and burned 🔥 their bills in front of the presidency to protest the inflated prices for gas, electricity, water & other utilities.

🔹State-backed gas distributor Moldovagaz failed to fulfil wholesale payments to its sole gas supplier, Russia's 🇷🇺 Gazprom. This has happened several times since last November. Russia's Gazprom had accepted a request by Moldovagaz last month, to postpone a deadline for the payment of an advance.

🔹President Sandu at a briefing on Moldova’s status as a candidate member of the EU🇪🇺, refuses to admit management mistakes, preferring to blame “pro-Russian forces” for destabilizing the situation in the country.

Video compilation sourced from social media.

Steel market developments while Europe de-industrialises:

🔹Steel prices expected to recover after it's recent slump, as China 🇨🇳 announces a stimulus package of $4 billion for infrastructure spending.

🔹Nov. deliveries of hot rolled coil will see a 13% price hike, & commodity-grade long steel will rise by $150 per ton. ArcelorMittal has idled blast furnaces at its Asturias plant in Spain 🇪🇸 & its Dunkirk plant in France 🇫🇷.

🔹Outokumpu, the largest producer of stainless steel in Europe🇪🇺, announced that it would delay the restart of one of its ferrochrome furnaces.

Recently reported steel news on this channel:

💠ArcelorMittal, shut down one of the two blast furnaces at the Bremen, Germany 🇩🇪. It's Hamburg long steel plant will be shut down from Q4.

💠Stainless steel producer Aperam is shutting down its production facility in Genk, Belgium 🇧🇪

💠Chinese 🇨🇳 iron ore port 🚢 inventories in May registered their sharpest decline of the past year.

🔹Chinese exports to Russia 🇷🇺 soared in August despite Western sanctions. Shipments 🚢from China to Russia last month reached roughly $7.9 billion, an increase of 26.7% from last August.

🔹According to data for July (Aug. unavailable), 36% of Chinese exports to Russia consisted of equipment, mechanical devices, and various machinery ⚙️.

🔹Chinese 🇨🇳 imports of Russian goods also jumped significantly last month, reaching $11.2 billion, 58% higher than in August 2021. Crude oil and petroleum 🛢 products accounted for more than half of Russian exports.

🔹Trade 🏗 turnover between Russia and China amounted to $97.7 bln from January to July 2022, while imports from China gained 49%.

Recent Sino-Russian developments:

💠 One of Russia’s 🇷🇺 top banks, VTB launches money transfers to China in yuan, bypassing SWIFT.

💠 Gazprom move payments for gas exports to China 🇨🇳 away from USD/Euros and shift to rubles & yuan (split evenly).

🔹Russia 🇷🇺 is selling LNG from the Sakhalin-2 project at a 50% discount & the operating company, is still making a profit. In August, China's 🇨🇳 imports of Russian LNG rose to the highest level since at least 2019, buying volumes that were previously going to Japan and South Korea.

🔹Russia's largest privately held gas producer, Novatek, may become the 2nd largest shareholder in the Sakhalin 2 project as bidding is ongoing for 🇳🇱 Shell’s 🇬🇧 former 27.5% stake. Novatek fulfills the pre-requisites to be a potential bidder.

Sakhalin-2 developments recently reported on this channel:

💠 Moscow approved Japan’s 🇯🇵 Mitsubishi participation in the Sakhalin-2 LNG project. Tokyo Gas & JERA signs long term LNG contracts.

💠 President Putin 🇷🇺 ordered the re-organization of the Far Eastern Sakhalin-2 LNG project, transferring ownership to a new domestic company.

💠 Japan lacks viable alternatives to Russian LNG, 🚢 which it buys relatively cheaply under long-term deals, to secure its baseload 💡power.

🔹USA - 🇺🇸 Freight railroads 🚂 & their unions are facing increasing pressure from business groups & the White House to settle their contract dispute before Friday’s possible strike action. A strike would shut down 30% of the country’s freight and halt many passenger and commuter trains.

🔹The coalition negotiating on behalf of the nation’s biggest freight 🚂 railroads — including Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, BNSF & Kansas City Southern — has announced eight of the 13 tentative agreements needed to avert a strike by some 115,000 rail workers.

🔹The two biggest unions representing 🚋 conductors & engineers have been holding out because they want the railroads to go beyond offered bonus💰payments & address strict attendance policies & working conditions.

🔹Lumber 🪵 prices are already reacting to the possible strike, due to shipment concerns. Futures contracts rose 9.6% today 📈 in Chicago to reach the exchange limit of $559.80 per 1,000 board feet.

🔹Most EU 🇪🇺 states are experiencing shortages & pellet prices have multiplied by around 2.5 times in countries like Germany and Belgium. In July 2022, a ban on importing Russian 🇷🇺 pellets came into force.

🔹N.B. The German 🇩🇪 gov't has a 45% of costs subsidy to citizens that replace an oil heating system with a heating system that uses biomass – including wooden pellets is increasing demand for firewood 🪵.

🔹Centuries old forests 🌳such as in the Gurghiu mountains (Photo) in Romania, are being exploited for firewood as demand soars.

🔹The Dutch 🇳🇱 National Hotline for Internet Scams is warning consumers about new fake online stores, claiming to sell firewood and wood burning stoves.

Recent firewood report on this channel:

💠 Firewood / wood pellet prices & demand drastically increase in Sweden 🇸🇪, Estonia 🇪🇪, Belgium 🇧🇪 & UK 🇬🇧. Polish 🇵🇱 politicians advise stocking firewood. Hungary 🇭🇺places firewood export ban. Germany 🇩🇪 google searches for firewood skyrockets.

🔹USA - 🇺🇸 Amtrak 🚋 has cancelled all long-distance trains nationwide starting tomorrow Sept. 15, as it prepares for a possible freight-rail strike that would impact its service. While the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington is unaffected, many other major routes will not run.

🔹Amtrak has started to preemptively suspend service because its track will be affected if freight rail 🚂 workers go on strike. “Amtrak operates almost all of our 21,000 route miles outside the Northeast Corridor (NEC) on track owned, maintained, and dispatched by freight railroads,”.

Reported 2 days ago on this channel:

💠 Freight railroads 🚂 & their unions are facing increasing pressure from business groups & the White House to settle their contract dispute before Friday’s possible strike action. A strike would shut down 30% of the country’s freight and halt many passenger and commuter trains.

Germany's 🇩🇪 largest importer of Russian 🇷🇺 gas, Uniper, need gov't aid to survive:

🔹Uniper says the gov't might increase its stake above 50% in the co. as it seeks further aid, paving the way for a what could result in a full nationalisation of the firm. For nationalisation, Uniper’s Finnish 🇫🇮 parent co. Fortum Oyj would have a say in that decision.

🔹Uniper, burned through its cash 💶 reserves sourcing gas on the expensive spot market, triggering 19 billion euros a rescue package with Berlin agreed in July.

🔹VNG AG, a subsidiary of German utility EnBW AG & another major gas importer, submitted an application for government aid last week. The German 🇩🇪government's primary concern is avoiding a 'Lehman-style' collapse of its energy industry.

Recently covered on this channel:
💠 German gov't attempted to pass new gas tax 💰to help Uniper.

💠 Uniper increasing debt 📈& gov't bailout.

💠 Uniper using winter ⛄️ gas storage.

Photo: Uniper's CEO says this is a good crisis with opportunities.

Iran 🇮🇷 makes in roads to the multi-polar world at the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan 🇺🇿.

🔹Iran 🇮🇷 has signed a memorandum paving the way to transition from its current observer status to full membership in the SCO. Iran's FM declares - "we have entered a new stage of diverse economic, commercial, transit, energy, etc. cooperation".

🔹Iran & Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 have signed a total of 17 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) as the two countries seek to expand their bilateral ties.

🔹President Putin 🇷🇺 says volume of trade 🚢 between Moscow & Tehran had grown 81% in annual terms last year. President Putin announces that a Russian delegation of 80 large companies are set to visit Iran next week

🔹Iran’s ministry of trade 🏗 says trade with Russia was in surplus for a first time in July-August amid a surge 📈 in sales of manufacturing products to Russian customers.

🔹Iran has announced its readiness to mediate between Armenia 🇦🇲 & Azerbaijan 🇦🇿.