The Corridor Sheet, 25 August
Four routes carried the day's news. Read them as freight, not as geography. Kasumbalesa to Solwezi Congo's transport minister, Jean-Pierre Bemba, spent Monday reviving a project th…
Ombogo Jr / The Digest
The Digest
Newsroom notes
Six Questions, 24 August
Monday's prints came in strange shapes, so the desk put the questions to itself. Why did petrol fall eight per cent on a day crude rose? RBOB gasoline printed 2.9872 USD/gal agains…
The Sunday Letter, 23 August
Sunday, and the screens did most of the talking. Four things worth your attention before Monday, and one number that moved without anybody claiming credit for it. Chicago Wheat was…
Wire Brief, 22 August
Six items off the overnight desk, in the order they will cost or make money. GRAIN / BLACK SEA Chicago wheat settled at 699.25 US cents a bushel, up 3.6% from 674.75, roughly 257 U…
By When It Bites, 21 August
Sorted today by when each file actually lands on a book, nearest first. This week Wheat did the work. CBOT settled at 700 US cents a bushel, 257 dollars a tonne, up 3.7 per cent on…
Three Files, 20 August: Islamabad's Sugar, Zambia's Missing Tonnes, Riyadh's Handshake
Three files worth the ink today, and a sugar market that moved 5.9% while nobody was looking at it. Pakistan wants to sell India 1.2 million tonnes of sugar A senior figure at the…
Figure First, 19 August
2% in 2027, rising to 10% by 2037: Brazil legislates a floor under its own fertilizer Brazil's Senate passed Profert (PL 699/2023) on 11 August and the bill now sits with President…
Ranked by Shock, 18 August
Ordering the day by how far each print travelled rather than by how loudly it was reported. The grain board wins by a distance. 1. Wheat, 6.2% in one session Chicago wheat went fro…
Ask the Desk, 17 August: Five Questions, Answered With Prints
Five questions the desk put to itself on Monday, answered only with what printed. Wheat added 5.1% in one session. What moved? CBOT wheat closed at 686 US cents a bushel against 65…
Notebook: Five Places, 16 August
A grain pit that moved nearly ten per cent, a refinery under drone attack, a count suspended, and two tyre stories pointing in opposite directions. Chicago Wheat did the thing it d…
Wire Brief, 15 August: The Pump Falls, The Barrel Doesn't
Friday's tape split the oil complex in two, put seven per cent on Chicago wheat and left a London warehouse fight running into the weekend. Gasoline sheds 7.4 per cent while crude…
Paired Off: Sixty Million Tonnes Behind One Strait
Five pairs of numbers today, each one arguing with the other half of itself. The tape was quiet in fertilizer and loud in gasoline, which is roughly the opposite of what the foreca…
Letter: Two Berths at Novorossiysk
Novorossiysk did most of the talking this week, and it did it by going quiet. Two grain terminals at Russia's main Black Sea outlet suspended operations after overnight Ukrainian d…
Three Things: Two Coastlines and a Ballot
East Africa acquired a second refining plan this month, Zambia votes tomorrow with copper at the edge of its record, and Indonesia has just asked the phosphate market for nearly a…
Ranked: The Day in Percentage Points
Some days the story is in the ranking. Monday's screen sorted itself into an odd order: a soft commodity on top, the barrel splitting in two directions, and the metal everyone is w…
Five Questions on a Ten Per Cent Day
One market moved almost ten per cent on Friday and it was not copper, wheat or crude. Below, the five questions the tape asked, answered in the order they mattered. Sugar rose 9.9…
Day Book, 7 August: Wheat Walks Away From Its Own War
Five entries in the book today, in the order the desk took them. A shipping war that the wheat price refuses to price, a Congolese decree with real tonnages behind it, and a gasoli…
Acid Test: Kolwezi Is Paying $1,300 a Tonne
The bottleneck in copper this quarter is not a pit wall or a permit. It is a tanker of sulphuric acid arriving late in Katanga, and the price of that arriving late is now printed:…
Long File: North of Bab el-Mandeb Is Not Sanctuary
The long file: the war-risk map moves 1,200 miles north Houthi forces say they hit the Saudi-flagged product tanker NCC Wafa (IMO 9688348) with ballistic missiles off Yanbu, in the…
Wire Brief: Uranium in the Cobalt Bags
Tuesday, 4 August 2026 KINSHASA A study circulating this week says cobalt shipments leaving the Democratic Republic of Congo for China may have carried up to 5,000 tonnes of uraniu…
Three Files and a Tape: India Comes Back for 1.7 Million Tonnes
Nitrogen buyers have spent eight weeks staring at a flat screen. India has just given them something to do, and the price panel has barely blinked. India is back in the market for…
Desk Note: A Cordon Around the Copperbelt
Three of the desk's nine prints moved on Sunday, and the two that moved hardest were oil and copper. Brent went from 84.09 to 90.12 dollars a barrel, a 7.2% session. COMEX copper a…
Five Questions: Who Owns the Cobalt Company by Christmas
Saturday, 1 August. A cobalt producer buys itself four months, the Gulf reminds tanker owners who sets the route, and the exchange that lists metal brands wants to do it twice as f…
Stock Check: 102,000 Tonnes and Falling
The copper that is no longer in the warehouse Available copper in London Metal Exchange sheds has halved inside a fortnight. On-warrant stocks fell to 102,000 tonnes, the lowest si…
Six Prints: Grain Puts On Armour Plating
Thursday's tape, read through six numbers. 683 cents Chicago wheat closed at 683 US cents a bushel, up 3.5% from 660 the session before, and the reason is floating in the Sea of Az…
Corridor Notes: Bedi Port to the Copperbelt
Wednesday 29 July 2026. DAP $800/t, up 1.9%. Brent $88.11, down 9% on the day. Wheat 660 c/bu. Bedi Port, Gujarat India has suspended exports of elemental sulphur, with no publishe…
Wire Brief: Lusaka Wants an Exchange, Katanga Wants a List
Tuesday 28 July 2026. Copper 6.336 USD/lb, cobalt unchanged at 56,290 USD/t, Brent 83.86. LUSAKA, A continental metals exchange enters a manifesto Jito Kayumba, adviser to Presiden…
Column: India Would Rather Build Its Own Urea
Tuesday, 28 July 2026 The biggest fertilizer number of the week came out of a cabinet room in Delhi, and it will be read in Ruwais, Mesaieed and Sohar long before it is read in Ind…
Dossier: Kinshasa Borrows Dollars at Eight Percent
The file: Kinshasa sells dollars to itself The Democratic Republic of Congo goes to its own investors tomorrow with a dollar-denominated Treasury bond. The finance ministry is aski…
Q&A: Kinshasa Takes the Pen, Lloyd's Takes the Exit
What exactly did Kinshasa hand itself on Saturday? The power to legislate alone for the length of the parliamentary recess. Senators voted the enabling bill in second reading on 25…