AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 12/09/22

UPM Plywood, Arctic Astronautics and Huld announce today a joint mission to launch the first ever wooden satellite, WISA WOODSATTM, into Earth’s orbit by the end of 2021. WISA Woodsat will go where no wood has gone before. With a mission to gather data on the behavior and durability of plywood over an extended period in the harsh temperatures, vacuum and radiation of space in order to assess the use of wood materials in space structures. WISA Woodsat is a nanosatellite designed and built by Arctic Astronautics, and it is based on the Kitsat educational satellite. The satellite measures roughly 10 x 10 x 10 cm and weighs one kilogram. A suite of on-board sensors, including two cameras will be used to monitor the specially coated WISA®-Birch plywood.

Futures dropped as much as 2.8 percent even after U.S. data on Thursday showed the nation’s crude stockpiles dropped by 6.3 million barrels, three times as much as expected. Investors remain doubtful that OPEC-led production cuts will clear a global glut, after Russia ruled out deepening the measures and Saudi Arabia showed less commitment than earlier in the year. “Oil remains volatile, unable to hold onto gains even after strong inventory draws in the U.S.,” said Jan Edelmann, an analyst at HSH Nordbank AG in Hamburg. “While the strong draws are a step in the right direction, multiple weeks of the same are now needed for the rebalancing.” Click Read More below for additional detail.

Drewry’s World Container Index (WCI) tracking ocean freight rates declined 2.6% this week, marking the fifth consecutive week of decreases.  The analyst in an update said that the trend indicates a significant shift in market dynamics following a volatile period induced by increased U.S. tariffs in April, and a subsequent China-U.S. tariff pause. Although the tariffs initially caused a lagged market reaction that saw rates climbing in May and surging into early June, this upward trajectory has not been sustained as rates have steadily dropped since mid-June. Trans-Pacific spot rates have also felt the impact, with prices from Shanghai to Los Angeles currently down by 4% to $2,817 per forty foot equivalent unit (FEU). Similarly, rates on the Shanghai to New York route have declined by 6%, to $4,539 per FEU.  Drewry said that despite these decreases, rates on both lanes remain higher than levels observed 10 weeks ago when tariff anxieties were initially escalating. Rates from Shanghai to Los Angeles are still up 4%, while those to New York have climbed by 24% compared to the figures on May 8.