Temile, Hyundai sign contract to build new shipping vessel
Temile Development Co., an indigenous company with a visible presence in the engineering, transportation and instrumentation field of the maritime industry has signed a contract with the South Korean shipping giant Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) for the construction of its second 23,000 cubic meters LPG/NH3/VCM carrier vessel.
The construction of the vessel is to be supervised by the Nigerian Shipping Management Limited (NSML), the shipping arm of the Nigerian LNG Limited.
The contract signing which took place at the ongoing World Gas Conference (WGC 2022) in Daegu, South Korea signifies how far both companies have played an important role in the development of the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.
The vessel which is expected to be delivered on July 26, 2026, will become the second vessel after the first vessel which was delivered in 2020 and a part of a two-vessel-building project valued at over $120 million.
The vessel according to Alfred Temile, Chief Executive Officer of Temile Development Co., “is a high-end specification vessel which has been designed by NSML in accordance with bespoke requirements using HMD’s highly efficient eco-design.”
This achievement according to Temile, shows how committed and dedicated the company is towards building the local content capacity of the Nigerian Local Content Act and “establishes their confidence in the local capacity to deliver international acceptable standards.”
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Japanese shares rise after Fed minutes
The Japanese-Nikkei 225 Index recovered some of the losses it recorded in the past two trading sessions by gaining exactly 0.6 percent to close at 26,830 basis points, while the broader Topix index gained 0.7 percent to close at 1,890 basis points.
The US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes of the meeting had a positive impact on the Nikkei 225 and Topix Index forcing both to respond positively to a broad consensus decision about a rate hike.
According to analysts at the tradingeconomics, the minutes showed that the Fed is prepared and expectant of a 50 basis point increase for the next two meetings in June and July to curb inflation.
Accordingly, the market will be looking forward to an expected announcement from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to resume accepting foreign tourists in June, further relaxing border controls after the unprecedented increase in COVID-19.
Analysts at the tradingeconomics believe that companies that stand to gain the most from the reopening and complete relaxation of the restriction led the gainers’ chart, Toyota Motor (2.5 percent) led, followed by Fast Retailing (2.9 percent), Kobe Bussan (8.1 percent), Japan Airlines (1.9 percent) and East Japan Railway (2.2 percent).
South Korea raises interest rate by 25 Bps to 1.75%
The Bank of Korea, the bank responsible for making interest rate decisions have this morning raised the interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.75 percent, which according to it is the highest level since June 2019.
The bank just like other central banks all over the world making decisions about interest rates said that the increase was a response to the rising cost of food, energy, and general increase in living cost.
This increase signifies the third rate hike taken as an immediate response to inflationary pressure caused by the Russia-Ukraine war. This follows an earlier 25 bps increase carried out in January and April, and also according to tradingeconomics the fifth rise since August, 2021.
The bank of Korea’s new governor, Rhee Chang-Yong who assumed office on March 23, 2022, made raising interest rate as a way to fight inflation as a priority.
Meanwhile, the bank cut the 2022 GDP outlook to 2.7 percent from 3 percent, citing global uncertainty and compared to an estimated 4 percent in 2021
Aramco boss calls for more investment in production capacity
Amin Nasser, Saudi Aramco, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has advised companies in the crude oil industry to invest more in production as a way to meet rising demand despite the temporary stability currently being experienced in the market now. This he believes is to prevent price volatility in the future.
According to a television interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the CEO, Amin Nasser, told Bloomberg, that the current emergency stock of 2 million barrels a day is only capable of meeting 2 percent of global consumption.
“That’s very low,” he said. As OPEC+ continues to gradually increase production each month, “very soon you will have a world with basically no spare capacity.”
Taking a holistic view of the price of crude oil, he agreed with analysts that the price of Crude oil was raised beyond reasonable expectation because of the Russia-Ukraine war. A jump by 50 percent this year to over $110 a barrel making it the first time crude oil prices will experience this rise in more than 5 years.
The decision by the West and its allies to take their minds off Russian oil, gas, and financial assets is driving the price of crude oil, especially as sanctions on Moscow bite harder.
UACN, AIRTEL drive NGX into green zone
The Nigerian stock market recovered some of its previous session losses following investors’ buy trade on shares of UACN and AIRTEL. The domestic bourse closure of trading activities on Wednesday with an all-share index of 52,591.41 basis points showed a 1.23 percent growth or 641.77 basis points added to the previous day’s all-share index.
Zenith Bank and FBNH led the decline of the total volume traded as it fell by 46.9 percent or 338 million units driving the value of equities traded to N4.23 billion traded.
Meanwhile, the market capitalization gained N352 billion from its previous day’s session of N28 trillion to close at N28.352 trillion at the close of trading.
Airtel was the most traded stock by value with N647.69 million translates into 15.30 percent of the shares traded, while UACN dominated the volume section with 48 million units or 12.6 percent of the shares volume traded.
The market breadth was negative as 38 companies’ stocks lost relative to 11 that gained.
The gainers’ chart was dominated by Charms and Airtel who recorded an N0.02k and N138 gain or 9.52 percent and 9.39 percent respectively, while Champion and PZ dominated the loser chart with 10 percent and 9.92 percent or N0.38k and N1.25 respectively.
