PG shipping rates have seen what can only be called a dramatic start to the year. The steep gains, followed by the freefall have dwarfed the volatility seen in 2020. As we move deeper into 1Q21, and China comes back into the picture after a long holiday, we do expect rates to find some floor. Meanwhile, the stock prices which…
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KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign direct investment (FDI) fell 27.4 percent in the seven months of this fiscal year, hurt by dropping investor confidence in the economy due to the stalled International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme and slippage in global growth amid the coronavirus pandemic. Data issued by the central bank showed on Monday that the country attracted $1.145 billion in…
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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: The Israeli and Egyptian energy ministers have agreed to build a pipeline to connect Israel’s offshore Leviathan natural gas field to liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in northern Egypt, the Israeli minister said on Sunday. Yuval Steinitz hosted a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart, Tarek El Molla, as both countries look for new ways to expand the development…
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Global natural gas demand is set to return to pre-crisis levels as early as this year and will continue to rise in the coming years, thanks to the coal-to-gas switch in Asia, particularly China. The growing gas demand will drive more liquefied natural gas (LNG) consumption and trade, and producers are gearing up for a new cycle of final investment…
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Economic policy is four actions that governments take in the economic field: tax, government spending, interest rates and money supply. Our national debt is now growing at the rate of Rs18 billion a day. Our electricity sector now loses nearly Rs2 billion a day. Our State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) collectively end up losing Rs1.8 trillion a year. In the natural…
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After a prolonged suspension of close to 14 months in the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $6 billion extended fund facility (EFF) to Pakistan, a staff-level agreement to release the third tranche of $500 million was reached this week. The resumption in the facility comes after the PTI government, after having resisted at first, was forced to hike power tariffs, energy…
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CPEC projects not only bring electricity to us, but also train professionals, and contribute to the well-being of local people for Pakistan, said Muhammad Muneeb, a senior official of Sahiwal Coal-fired Power Station, who awarded the Outstanding Pakistani Employee of CPEC Project by the Chinese Embassy, according to a report published by Gwadar Pro on Saturday. The Sahiwal project, initiated…
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Energy security appears to be the biggest challenge confronting the country since long. The following paragraphs are an attempt at a quick health check of Pakistan’s energy supply chain and recommending the way forward. Despite all of our cash flow issues and heavy debt, we have somehow ended up with a highly lethal energy mix which compels us to spend…
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With dwindling gas resources and lack of discovery of new oil and gas resources, energy dependence will increase unless dedicated efforts are made to discover new resources and increase the utilisation of existing resources. Pakistan has one of the largest lignite (brown coal) resources, which can be termed almost limitless (185 billion tons). Despite this, coal imports have been increasing…
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The neighbouring countries are treating hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plugged-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) in the same fashion. While creating a base for future autonomous connected vehicles and the related infrastructure, Pakistan should not be too off the mark if it wants to promote environment-friendly vehicles. This was the concluding remark by Indus Motor Company (IMC)…
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