Trump waives shipping law

AFP | Paris

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President Donald Trump temporarily waived a century-old shipping law to help ease energy costs that have surged since US-Israeli strikes on Iran plunged the Middle East into war.

Trump’s move to issue a 60-day Jones Act waiver would lift a ban on foreign-flagged vessels transporting cargo between US ports over this period.

It is a step to mitigate “short-term disruptions to the oil market” from the conflict, said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “This action will allow vital resources like oil, natural gas, fertilizer, and coal to flow freely to US ports for sixty days.”

South Korea secures UAE oil

South Korea said it would receive an additional 18 million barrels of oil from the United Arab Emirates through alternative supply channels, bypassing the need to use the Strait of Hormuz. The presidential chief of staff declined to elaborate on the route. About 70% of South Korea’s oil imports normally pass through the strait.

Iraq exports via Turkey

Iraq announced it had resumed limited oil exports through the Turkish port of Ceyhan, using a pipeline that avoids the under-fire Strait of Hormuz. The state-owned North Oil Company said it was sending an initial 250,000 barrels a day from its fields in the northern Kirkuk province through the pipeline, well below the 3.5 million barrels a day it has shipped from its southern Basra fields via Hormuz.

Asia petrochemical output slows

The Middle East war is forcing petrochemical giants in key Asian economies to cut production as the conflict rattles supplies of naphtha, a crucial oil-derived component used to make a range of plastic goods. Mitsubishi Chemical and Mitsui Chemicals have cut output, Shin-Etsu Chemical said it would raise prices, and LG Chem warned it may not be able to fulfil some orders