The reading room
News
Notes from the desks: markets, routes and the materials that move them. Written plainly, dated, and sourced.
The LME says aluminium calmed down. Your invoice disagrees
The benchmark round-tripped its war spike and sits 15 per cent below the May peak. The premiums that decide what buyers actually pay did not follow it down, and most of them are not built to. Readi...
Fertiliser today is the grain price of next year
Urea has doubled. Corn trades below break-even. One of those prices is wrong, and the direction of the correction is the trade. How to read the gap, and what to do about it, depending on which side...
Your power tariff is indexed to a war. Your roof is not
For factories on European commercial tariffs, the electricity bill has spent 2026 tracking the Strait of Hormuz. The kit that would take you off that index has never been cheaper. That combination,...
Europe has two critical minerals lists. Only one moves money
The Critical Raw Materials Act names 34 critical materials but reserves its binding targets, fast permits and buyer matchmaking for 17 strategic ones. Knowing which list your material sits on now d...
The plastics bill for Hormuz is still being written
Crude has retraced. Resin has not. Five months into the strait crisis, the plastics chain is where the cost compounds.