Despite the fact that the NYMEX Henry Hub's monthly gas contract has doubled over the past 6 months and is trading at about $ 6 / mn btu (maximum since 2009), gas production in the United States has not returned to its peak levels in 2019 and amounted to an average of about 90 billion cubic meters per day.

The world's largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, has announced that it has begun "maneuvering" production facilities at some of its European plants as rising electricity prices hit the pocket of Europe's largest steelmaker.

The company said it was forced to introduce "short, selective production interruptions" on some of its electric arc furnaces in Europe, which produce so-called "long products" commonly used in the construction sector.

The company said the pauses were "aligned with hourly / daily changes in electricity prices," adding that they were introduced "in response to surges in energy prices that make it difficult to produce steel without a loss."

Matt Watkins, chief analyst at consultancy CRU, said that all European electric arc furnace operators faced high electricity costs and suffered heavy losses as a result.

ArcelorMittal typically produces around 40 million tonnes of steel in Europe per year, of which around 10 million comes from “long products” for the construction industry.

In Spain, European long products leader Sidenor said it was forced to cut production by 30 percent from now until the end of the year due to "overpriced electricity prices."

In the UK, the government is considering a plan to bail out the steel industry, as factories could close without government support when the cold weather sets in.

Several UK steelmakers, including British Steel, will try to impose premiums on certain products from October 1 to mitigate the impact of higher production costs.

Another steel company, Tata Steel, which operates the giant Port Talbot steel mill in Wales, believes that price increases will only make matters worse, people familiar with the matter say.

Analysts who monitor the steel market say the metals industry has already been hit by a global chip shortage that has knocked down the auto industry. Falling demand from European car manufacturers began to affect metal orders. This sector accounts for approximately 20% of steel demand in Europe.

From the end of May 2022, private charging stations located on the territory of residential buildings and organizations will be reconfigured so that charging of electric vehicles is forcibly turned off for several hours on weekdays.

Reason: the fears of members of the government about the emergence of an excessive load on the National Grid and, as a result, possible rolling outages of some network clusters.

According to the rules, which will take effect in May, new chargers in homes and workplaces will be automatically set to be off from 8 to 11 in the morning and from 4 to 22 in the afternoon.

The changes do not apply to public chargers and high-power "fast" chargers on motorways and A-roads, which will still be available 24 hours a day.

In addition to the aforementioned restrictions, in charging stations affected by a government decree, the ability to remotely activate an "additional charging station shutdown" for up to 30 minutes at any other time is activated. The function is required by power supply regulators as a tool to reduce the load on the power grid, if motorists of one territorial region will massively put traction batteries for charging at the same time.

New

1. Sony VLOGCAM ZV-E10
2. Canon EOS R6
3. Canon EOS RP
4. Canon EOS R5
5. Nikon Z 6II
6. Sony α7C
7. Fujifilm X-E4
8. Fujifilm GFX 50S II
9. Nikon Z 5
10. Sony FX3

Used

1. Sony α7 III
2. Sony α7 II
3. Canon EOS 6D Mark II
4. Ricoh RICOH GR III
5. Sony α7R III
6. Sony α7R II
7. Canon EOS RP
8. Canon EOS 5D Mark III
9. Sony α7R IV
10. Nikon D750