The Ledger, 14 October
RECEIVABLE
Kinshasa's Treasury went looking for 60 million dollars on Monday and came back with 76.8 million, a 128% cover ratio on two-year dollar bonds carrying an 8% coupon and a weighted average price of 99.04%. Six bidders showed up and all were filled. The appetite for Congolese paper sits oddly against the central bank's own numbers: international reserves slipped to $7.65 billion on 1 October, down 2.1% in two weeks and covering just 2.92 months of imports, though still 3.5% higher than a year ago.
WRITE-DOWN
The Baltic Dry Index fell for a seventh straight session, dropping 134 points to 2,667, a 4.8% one-day slide on top of the week-long run down. Cheaper dry bulk tonnage is good news for anyone fixing grain or fertilizer cargoes into Q4, less good for owners watching a run that shows no sign of bottoming yet.
SURPLUS
The International Copper Study Group now expects the refined copper surplus to more than triple by 2027 as new smelting capacity comes online faster than demand. That forecast landed the same day Glencore's shares began trading on the ASX, and the same week BHP's main union at Escondida accepted a tentative deal while the mine's supervisors rejected a separate contract, one that reportedly asked them to share biometric data with third parties, and will now walk out instead. COMEX copper closed the day at $14,773 a tonne, up 0.9%.
COLLATERAL
Electra Battery Materials has secured financing from WMC to restart its Ontario cobalt sulfate refinery, North America's only one, more than a year after the early-works program began. Cobalt itself ticked up to $39,345 a tonne, a 0.3% gain on the day.
Net position
- ZCCM-IH shares rose nearly 6% on the Lusaka exchange this week; Zambeef fell over 2%.
- Urea firmed to $450 a tonne, up 2.3% on the day, while DAP held flat at $802.5.
- An air strike near Sudan's disputed border with Egypt killed at least 72 at the Jabal al-Uqaydat gold mining site, rights groups said.