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Colin Bennett

USA and China stimulus spending on water and transport - 0 views

www.globalwaterintel.com/...less-than-stimulating.html

trends copper water availablity transport stimulus

shared by Colin Bennett on 20 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Water and wastewater utilities won’t be getting any more free money, however – the new package has been directed largely at transport projects. Instead, those wanting to finance water projects will have to wait for details of the new National Infrastructure Bank that the president is backing. The American Water Works Association put out a press release to express its concern that water projects might not be eligible for finance from the new bank. * China’s economic stimulus has brought about some interesting unintended consequences. Until the stimulus was announced in 2009, municipalities relied on project finance companies known as Chengtous to raise capital for projects. These bodies have raised RMB 7.66 trillion ($1.12 trillion), but they are now discovering the municipalities don’t need the funds because they can get the money via central government grants. 23% of the capital they have raised is now regarded as “high risk”. This is going to have significant implications for the future of project finance in China.
xxx xxx

Nanosolar outshines the competition with a $300M financing - 0 views

venturebeat.com/...petition-with-a-300m-financing

solar

shared by xxx xxx on 12 Sep 08 - Cached
  • xxx xxx on 12 Sep 08
     
    Thin-film solar company Nanosolar has been sitting on a big secret for much of this year, it turns out: The company took a $300 million financing this March, and has remained mum ever since, only detailing it on the company's blog this morning after VentureWire reported the funding. While Nanosolar hasn't been entirely secretive about its technology, with chief executive Martin Rosencheisen showing off a rapid manufacturing technique early in summer, but apparently it didn't want details leaking on this giant-sized investment until necessary. Word slipped out in April about $50 million of the total, but at the time, Nanosolar didn't want to talk - and it's now clear why. The race for funds, and ever-larger production targets, is definitely on for thin film. Secretive thin-film silicon company Optisolar has raised over $200 million this year, and Nanosolar's thin-film CIGS competitor Miasole is trying to close on a similar amount. And while dozens of other startups are also on the hunt, large companies like Oerlikon Solar and Applied Materials are pouring money into ventures of their own. In many ways, it looks like an overheated sector. But on the other hand, Optisolar's recent deal with PG&E to provide 550 megawatts of electricity suggests that the potential for thin film panels is larger than previously expected, even when considering one analyst firm's prediction earlier this year that the sector will grow at 45 percent annually. That figure could now be much higher, especially for a few big winners - of which Nanosolar will likely be one. The company will be doing some utility-scale projects of its own, Rosencheisen tells us, with experienced partners. It also has a panel built specifically for use by utilities. And one of the backers of this funding, AES Corp., is also one of the world's biggest power companies. At the moment, Nanosolar is still working toward a gigawatt of annual manufacturing capacity, but it will grow be
Wade Ren

The end of Bretton Woods 2? - 0 views

blogs.cfr.org/...the-end-of-bretton-woods-2

2008-crisis economics

shared by Wade Ren on 29 Oct 08 - Cached
  • The Bretton Woods 2 system – where China and then the oil-exporters provided (subsidized) financing to the US to sustain their exports – will come close to ending, at least temporarily. If the US and Europe are not importing much, the rest of the world won’t be exporting much.
  • And rather than ending with a whimper, Bretton Woods 2 may end with a bang. In some sense Bretton Woods 2 has been on life support for a while now. China’s recent export growth has depended far more on Europe than on the US. US demand for non-oil imports peaked in 2006. One irony of the past year is that the US was borrowing far more from China that it was buying from China. Campaign rhetoric that the US was paying for Saudi oil with funds borrowed from China isn’t far off – though it leaves out the fact that the US also borrows from Saudi Arabia to pay for Venezuelan, Mexican and Nigerian oil.
  • If Bretton Woods 2 ends in 2009 – if US demand for imports falls sharply in the last part of 2008 and early 2009, bringing the US trade deficit down – it won’t have ended in the way Nouriel and I outlined back in late 2004 and early 2005. We postulated that foreign demand for US debt would dry up – pushing up US Treasury rates and delivering a nasty shock to a housing-centric economy. As Brad DeLong notes, it didn’t quite play out that way. The US and European banking system collapsed before the balance of financial terror collapsed. Dr. DeLong writes: All of us from Lawrence Summers to John Taylor were expecting a very different financial crisis. We were expecting the ‘Balance of Financial Terror’ between Asia and America to collapse and produce chaos. We are not having that financial crisis. Instead we are having a very different financial crisis. Catastrophic failures of risk management throughout the entire banking sector caused a relatively minor collapse in housing prices to freeze up global finance to a degree that has not been seen since the Great Depression. The end result of this crisis though could be rather similar: a sharp contraction in credit, a fall in US economic activity, a fall in US imports and a fall in the amount of foreign financing the US needs.* The US government is (possibly) trying to offset the fall in private demand by borrowing more and spending more — but as of now there is realistic risk that the fall in private activity will trump the fiscal stimulus.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Or, to put it more succinctly, Bretton Woods 2, as it evolved, hinged both on the willingness of foreign central banks to take the currency risk associated with lending to the US at low rates in dollars despite the United States large current account deficit AND the willingness of private financial intermediaries to take the credit risk associated with lending at low rates to highly-indebted US households.
  • But now US financial institutions are neither willing nor able to take on the risk of lending even more to US households. For a while the US government was able to ramp up its lending to households (notably through the Agencies) and in the process effectively take over the function previously performed by the private financial system (over the last four quarters, the flow of funds data indicates that the Agencies provided around $800 billion of net credit to US households). But now the US government is struggling to keep the financial system from collapsing. It doesn’t seem like it will able to avoid a sharp fall in the overall availability of credit.
  • It is now clear how the financial sector kept profits up: it took on more risk, as it shifted from borrowing short to buy safe long-term assets (Treasuries and Agencies) to borrowing short to buy risky long-term assets. Leverage in the system also increased (and for some broker dealers that seems to be an understatement), as more and more financial institutions believed that the US had entered into an era of little macroeconomic or financial volatility. The net result seems to have been a truly explosive concentration of risk in the hands of a core set of financial intermediaries in the US and Europe. Securitization – it seems – actually didn’t disperse risk into the hands of institutions able to handle it.
  • I hope that the process of adjustment now underway isn’t as sharp as I fear. The US economy gradually can shift from producing MBS for sale to US investors flush with cash from the sale of safe securities to China and Saudi Arabia to producing goods and services for export – but it cannot shift from churning out complex debt securities to producing goods and services overnight. Indeed, in a slowing US and global economy, improvements in the US deficit will likely come from faster falls in US imports than in US exports – not from ongoing growth in US exports.
  • But right now it looks like there is a real risk that the adjustment won’t be gradual. And it certainly looks like the flow of Chinese (and Gulf) savings to US households over the past few years has produced one of the largest misallocations of global capital in recent history.
  • US taxpayers are going to be hit with a large tab for the credit risk taken on by undercapitalized financial intermediaries. Chinese taxpayers may get hit with a similar tab for the losses their central bank incurred by overpaying for US and European assets as part of its policy of holding its exchange rate down. The TARP is around 5% of US GDP. There are plausible estimates that China’s currency losses will prove to be of comparable magnitude. Charles Dumas puts the cost at above 5% of GDP: “Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research estimates that China makes 1-2 per cent on its (largely) dollar reserves. It then loses up to 10 per cent on the exchange rate and suffers a Chinese inflation rate of 6 per cent for a total real return in renminbi of about minus 15 per cent. That is a loss of $270bn a year, or a stunning 7-8 per cent of gross domestic product.”
  • Jboss — if some of the Chinese inflow could be redirected into investment in alternative energy, that would indeed be a win/ win. Some infrastructure bank style ideas have promise in my view — basically, the flow that used to go to freddie/ fannie could go to wind farms and the like. I would rather see more adjustment in china (i.e. more investment in Chinese infrastructure) but during the transition, if there is one, to a lower Chinese surplus, redirecting chinese financing toward new energy tech would be offer real benefits.
  • China likes 3rd generation nuclear power. Safe, lower cost than NG or coal, very much lower cost than coal with carbon sequestering, and zero carbon footprint. Wind is about 4X more expensive than our electric costs now. That’s in an area with consistent wind. Solar is worse. I don’t know if we can sucker them into investing in our technical fairy tales. Here’s a easy primer on 3rd gen nukes. http://nuclearinfo.net/Nuclearpower/WebHomeCostOfNuclearPower
    • Wade Ren
      Wade Ren on 29 Oct 08
       
      is this true?
  • btw, solar thermal installations are so easy & affordable to retrofit onto existing structures, it’s amazing that there aren’t more of them here…until you realize that they work to decentralize energy. cedric — china is already doing it in china. they are way ahead of the curve over there. my partner brought back some photos of shanghai — rows of middle class homes each with a small solar panel on top. and that’s just the tip of the iceberg — an architect friend just came back from beijing and wants to move to china (he’s into designing self-powering structures and is incredibly frustrated by the bureaucracy and cost-prohibitive measures in the US).
  • I went to engineering school right after the Arab Oil Embargo, and alternative energy was a hot topic then. All the same stuff you hear of nowadays. They even offered entire courses on it , which I took. Then my first mini career was in the power plant biz, before Volker killed it with interest rates and the Saudies killed any interest in alt. energy with their big oil field discovery. For the last 5 years I’ve been researching what’s changed, and it is frighteningly little. Solar cells are still expensive and only have a 15% conversion efficiency. They developed the new cost reduced film technology, but that knocks down efficiency to 7%. Wind power works where there is wind constantly. Generators are mature technology and are already 90 some percent efficient. Geothermal, tidal, ect. work where they are available. Looks like coal gasification and synfuel is out because it makes too much CO2. Good news is 3rd gen nuclear is way better than 1st gen plants. Hybrid cars are good, and battery technology is finally getting barely good enough for all electric cars to be practical.
  • According to news report today, Japan’s trade surplus is less than 1 billion $ in September 08, a whopping 94% decrease compared to September 07. Does it imply that going forward Japan can not buy as much treasury as before?
Colin Bennett

China may raise deposits, tighten rules for copper financing, market says - 0 views

www.metalbulletin.com/...per-financing-market-says.html

trends copper China

shared by Colin Bennett on 30 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • China’s banking regulator may change the rules around letters of credit used for copper financing in a way that could affect the volume of such business, market participants said.
Brian Butler

GloboTrends Wiki / FrontPage - 0 views

globotrends.pbwiki.com

business crisis trend trends finance credit globotrends global international

shared by Brian Butler on 12 Feb 09 - Cached
  • Brian Butler on 12 Feb 09
     
    Top Trends for 2009: On our GloboTrends wiki homepage, we will keep an updated list of global macro trends that we think are the most important to keep an eye on. Some of this list are statistically unlikely to occur, but if they did, it could cause global disruption. These unlikely events were dubbed Black Swan's in a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb , or might be called the "fat tail" probability in statistics. Others trends we are watching in the GloboTrends wiki are currently ongoing right now (such as our coverage of the credit crisis, deleveraging, margin calls, etc), and we will talk about how they happened, and predict their likely outcome. The format of a wiki makes the document dynamic, so any of our community is welcome to help shape our views of these important developments. Please log in to our wiki, and feel free to comment... In no particular order, here are the global macro trends that we think will be most significant in the coming year (2009): 1. credit crisis of 2007/08 will continue on into 2009...this one is clear...but, how long will it last? how will it fundamentally change international finance? Add your comments to our wiki... 2. fiscal stimulus and crisis recovery 2009 3. deleveraging of Financial markets will continue. In my opinion, this is the most destructive of all the trends. 4. Risk of deflation in the US as Fed Funds target rate approaches zero (other analysts see the opposite risk of potential hyper inflation). Add your comments.. 5. more... add to this list.. Predictions-for-2009
Colin Bennett

Aluminum Could Be New King of Industrial Metals - 0 views

www.wallstreetdaily.com/...aluminum-replacing-copper

trends copper substitution

shared by Colin Bennett on 29 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • Nexans (NEX.PA), a French company that makes electrical wiring and cables, says that the switch from copper to aluminum is inevitable. Its corporate purchasing director, Christophe Allain, told the CRU Group’s World Copper Conference in April that “the switch will come; the big question is when and what size it will be.” As Nexans told the Financial Times, one reason is that aluminum cables currently cost about 40% less than copper ones – even though more insulation is required for aluminum cabling. For countries in the developing world that are still building out a power grid, that price difference is a huge deal.
Colin Bennett

Japan's top trading houses to compete for more copper assets - 1 views

www.reuters.com/...-traders-idUSL3E7ME1G420111117

trends copper financing

shared by Colin Bennett on 17 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Japan's six big trading firms, which derive up to 80 percent of their profit from commodities, plan a combined 2.76 trillion yen ($36 billion) investment, a record high, in the year to March 2012 on the back of strong earnings growth in the past few years largely due to gains in oil and other commodity prices.
Colin Bennett

Australian government pulls the plug on household solar - 2 views

www.smh.com.au/...old-solar-20150712-gian0u.html

trends copper solar photovoltaic

shared by Colin Bennett on 14 Jul 15 - No Cached
  • Colin Bennett on 14 Jul 15
     
    "As a storm raged over the government's directive to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to no longer back wind energy projects, it emerged that it has also put a stop to solar investments other than the largest industrial-scale projects."
Colin Bennett

JP Morgan revealed as mystery trader that bought £1bn-worth of copper on LME - 0 views

www.telegraph.co.uk/...bn-worth-of-copper-on-LME.html

trends copper Finance

shared by Colin Bennett on 06 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • A source close to the situation said that JP Morgan had bought the copper contracts, adding that amount is closer to the "lower portion of the range" disclosed by the LME.
xxx xxx

July 28, 2008: Pennsylvania Creates $500 Million Alternative Energy Fund - Breaking New... - 0 views

www.achrnews.com/...-5-2006_A_10000000000000386371

policy renewable energy technology

shared by xxx xxx on 28 Jul 08 - Cached
  • xxx xxx on 28 Jul 08
     
    Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell has approved a bill that establishes a $500 million fund to support alternative energy projects. Special Session House Bill 1 authorizes the Commonwealth Financing Authority to borrow $500 million, most of which will be split into six funding sources relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy: $80 million in grants and loans for solar energy projects; $100 million in grants, loans, and rebates for up to 35 percent of the cost of solar energy projects at residences and small businesses; $165 million in grants and loans for alternative energy projects, excluding solar energy, at businesses and local government facilities; $25 million for wind and geothermal energy projects; $40 million to help start-up businesses involved in energy efficiency technologies; and $25 million in grants and loans to improve the energy efficiency of new and existing homes and small business buildings.
xxx xxx

GE, Abu Dhabi firm in $8 billion joint venture - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...idUSN2219290620080722

energy

shared by xxx xxx on 22 Jul 08 - Cached
  • xxx xxx on 22 Jul 08
     
    BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Abu Dhabi investment agency Mubadala Development Co said on Tuesday they have entered into an $8 billion joint venture with an initial focus on providing commercial finance in the Middle East and Africa.The two companies also plan to work together in the clean energy and water, aviation, and oil and gas sectors, they said."This partnership is consistent with our global growth initiatives and builds on our long-term relationships in a high-growth region like the Middle East," said Jeff Immelt, chief executive of GE, the second-largest U.S. company by market value.The companies said Mubadala "plans over time" to become one of the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company's ten largest shareholders, by acquiring shares in the open market.They also aim to establish a clean energy technology center in Masdar City, a new city in Abu Dhabi that aims to be carbon neutral. GE plans to commit up to $50 million for Masdar's second clean-tech fund.Growth in the Middle East has been a major thrust for GE in recent years. Last year the company generated $5 billion in revenue in the region, up 50 percent from the prior year.
xxx xxx

Inmet's Bid for Petaquilla Copper - 0 views

seekingalpha.com/...et-s-bid-for-petaquilla-copper

copper

shared by xxx xxx on 18 Jul 08 - Cached
  • xxx xxx on 18 Jul 08
     
    There is no consensus among the analysts on Inmet Mining Corp.'s (IEMMF.PK) C$345-million hostile bid to take out its junior partner Petaquilla Copper Ltd. (PTQLF.PK). On the positive side, Raymond James analyst Tom Meyer wrote that by moving its stake in the Petaquilla copper project from 48% to 74%, Inmet would gain "important strategic flexibility" and lower the risk profile on the project. If Petaquilla Copper was bought out, Inmet and Teck Cominco Ltd. (TCK) would be the sole remaining partners and the legal action between Petaquilla Copper and Teck would presumably end. In a note, Mr. Meyer wrote: With two shareholders in the project as opposed to three, we believe it is safe to say that rational decision-making may likely become less of a bottleneck and the project can move forward at a faster rate. He added that by going to a 74% interest, Inmet could be in a position to potentially buy Teck Cominco's stake as well. Analyst Greg Barnes from TD Newcrest presents the negative view. He wrote that the economics of the Petaquilla project are "marginal" and figures that it would need a long-term copper price above $2.25 a pound for it to work. He also noted a "lack of clarity" on how Inmet could optimize value from the project. He wrote: Until Inmet is able to verify improved project parameters, we feel that the company is overpaying for a project that has less than compelling economics. Over at UBS Securities, analyst Onno Rutten's opinion is a little more mixed. He thinks that Inmet's C$2.00-a-share offer for Petaquilla Copper is "a steep premium," but would accelerate the project's development if it is successful. That could unlock value for Inmet. However, Mr. Rutten shares Mr. Barnes' concerns about the risks of the project; he pointed out that Inmet, a C$3-billion company, is trying to build a project that costs close to C$4-billion. He also said that Petaquilla needs strong copper prices to be economic. But he wrote that the financi
xxx xxx

End of easy carbon trading? - 0 views

www.renewableenergyfocus.com/...080812_nef.html

china

shared by xxx xxx on 13 Aug 08 - Cached
xxx xxx liked it
  • xxx xxx on 13 Aug 08
     
    LONDON, UK, August 12, 2008. Analyst New Energy Finance says the days of easy carbon trading may be over as the low hanging fruit of the cheap carbon credits in the developing world have now been harvested. To date, the cheapest way of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have come from projects eliminating high global warming potential (GWP) gases in developing countries, notably China. These projects involve the destruction of two waste gases from industrial facilities: the hydrofluorocarbon HFC-23 and nitrous dioxide, or 'laughing gas' (N2O), both of which are several thousand times more potent in terms of global warming that CO2. The size of the emissions reductions achievable from these projects relative to the scale of the investment required, that these carbon credits are so cheap - around €1/tCO2e. In comparison, costs claimed by project developers of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects are €5-15 per tonne and the global market price for carbon countries from developing countries are around €20/tCO2e.
xxx xxx

Emerging Energy News: PetroVietnam sets up biofuel arm - 0 views

www.energycurrent.com/index.php

shared by xxx xxx on 11 Aug 08 - Cached
  • xxx xxx on 11 Aug 08
     
    HO CHI MINH: PetroVietnam is setting up a new company to manage its biofuel production and distribution, according to local media reports. The new company, PetroVietnam Biofuel Joint Stock Co. will have an initial capital of about US$2.7 million. PetroVietnam General Services Joint Stock Corp. (Petrosetco) will hold 51 per cent of the company. PetroVietnam Oil Corp. will hold 29 per cent, Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co. Ltd., 15 per cent, and PetroVietnam Finance Joint Stock Corp. (PVFC), five per cent. The new company will produce ethanol from cassava. The output will be blended with gasoline sold at the local petrol pumps to help reduce the country's fossil fuel dependence.
xxx xxx

Clean-tech investment doubles to $6 billion in strong quarter - 0 views

www.marketwatch.com/...Story.aspx

renewable energy

shared by xxx xxx on 05 Aug 08 - Cached
  • xxx xxx on 05 Aug 08
     
    Venture-capital and private-equity investments in the clean-technology sector more than doubled to nearly $6 billion across the globe in the second quarter, just as oil traded at record levels near $150 a barrel and the stock market moved lower on economic woes. Money for companies in the business of cutting carbon-dioxide emissions totaled $5.8 billion, up from $2.6 billion in the year-ago period, according to a report from research firm New Energy Finance, released Tuesday.
xxx xxx

Nanosolar grabs $300 million for utility solar - 0 views

media.cleantech.com/...illion-utility-solar-thin-film

solar

shared by xxx xxx on 29 Aug 08 - Cached
  • xxx xxx on 29 Aug 08
     
    Manufacturer joins pack of thin-film companies securing big bucks to take innovations to production stage. San Jose, Calif.-based Nanosolar has raised $300 million in equity to expand production of its thin-film panels for solar power plants, Nanosolar CEO Martin Röscheisen told the Cleantech Group today. The financing-a combination of supply deals, partnerships and funding-pushes Nanosolar to nearly half a billion dollars of capital, securing the six-year-old company's position as one of the leading thin-film producers.
xxx xxx

Shanghai copper down 2 pct, LME bounces - 0 views

www.forbes.com/...0_MARKETS-METALS-UPDATE-1.html

china copper

shared by xxx xxx on 08 Sep 08 - Cached
  • xxx xxx on 08 Sep 08
     
    SINGAPORE, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Shanghai copper fell around 2 percent on Monday but it lagged behind a 4.5 percent slide in London prices after big jumps in inventories on Friday. But prices in London bounced on Monday, lifted by gains in other other commodity markets as the dollar lost ground against the euro after the U.S. government on Sunday seized control of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM - news - people ) and Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE - news - people ), which own or guarantee half of all U.S. mortgages. LME copper rose $75 or 1.1 percent, to $6,975 at 0232 GMT, while Shanghai November copper dropped 1,030 yuan to 55,630 yuan ($8,130) and earlier touched a nine-month low.
Colin Bennett

Alarm bells ring over German renewables - 0 views

www.ft.com/...09-11dd-93e5-000077b07658.html

trends copper renewables

shared by Colin Bennett on 15 Dec 08 - Cached
  • Colin Bennett on 15 Dec 08
     
    German renewable energy companies and bankers will meet officials in Berlin on Monday to discuss ways of preventing the financial crisis from casting a storm cloud over a vital domestic growth industry. Up to 30 companies and organisations are expected to outline the problems facing the renewables sector, whose bullish projections have been overshadowed by concerns about project finance, falling prices and delayed orders.
Panos Kotseras

Europe - Bruker HTS and Nexans announced the completion of cable project - 0 views

www.nexans.com

Bruker HTS Nexans cable project

shared by Panos Kotseras on 17 Oct 08 - Cached
  • Panos Kotseras on 17 Oct 08
     
    Nexans and Bruker HTS announced that a high temperature superconducting distribution level cable project has been successfully completed. The project, called Super 3C, commenced in June 2004 and was finalised in December 2008. It was financed by the European Union and the investment amounted to 5.2 million euros. The cable achieves power transmission of 17 megawatts and it features second generation high temperature superconducting tapes.
Colin Bennett

Energy, utilities & mining - US power utilities - 0 views

www.ft.com/...bb-11de-a555-0000779fd2ac.html

trends copper utility USA

shared by Colin Bennett on 10 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Colin Bennett on 10 Mar 09
     
    Unable to retrench like their unregulated counterparts, utilities are investing more than they were just a few years ago while paying record spreads over risk-free rates for financing. At the same time, revenues are under pressure due to softening power prices and an economically driven drop in demand. The past three months have seen a 1.8 per cent drop in US power usage versus the same period a year ago, according to the Edison Electric Institute. Adding insult to injury, Macquarie Research reckons regulators might become less generous when setting rates since compressed Treasury note yields may be used to justify a lower regulated return on equity.
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