COVID-19 Daily Update: April 1, 2020

Measures to stem the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed the world’s largest economies into near-hibernation. While China shows early signs of re-emergence, the U.S. and Europe aren’t yet at the viral peak. Combined with a collapse in oil prices and record volatility in the markets, creditworthiness around the world is feeling significant pressure.

“Non-financial corporations entered this crisis with enormous debt loads, and that is a vulnerability. They had borrowed excessively,” former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said in a video conference hosted by the Brookings Institution on Monday. The surplus of corporate borrowing “creates risk to the economy. And I’m afraid we’ll see that in spades in the coming months, because it may trigger a wave of corporate defaults. Even where a company avoids default, highly indebted firms usually cut back a lot on investment and hiring, and that will make the recovery more difficult.”

The S&P 500 finished this month with its worst quarterly performance, down 19.6%, since 2008’s fourth-quarter 22% decline. Additionally, long positions in wheat, coffee, and orange juice were the highlights of the agriculture market in March. The S&P GSCI Orange Juice rallied 25.3%, the S&P GSCI Wheat returned 8.4%, and the S&P GSCI Coffee was up 7.4% in the month, as demand for consumer staples surged and top suppliers mulled export restrictions to protect domestic supplies. The longer and more severe the global pandemic, the more likely global food supply chains become stressed and agricultural commodity prices dislocate from the broader commodity complex, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Saudi Aramco said today it was filling 15 tankers with more than 18.8 million barrels of crude as it ratchets up its price war with Russia. Plummeting demand, tightening storage availability, and shrinking refinery margins caused by much of the world protecting against or fighting coronavirus make it a struggle to find buyers. Aramco may have to slash its selling prices further to unload all of its crude.

Worldwide, some 25 million people could lose their jobs because of coronavirus, according to an International Labor Organization estimate. Millions of Americans are newly unemployed as companies increase layoffs. The U.S. is leveraging unemployment insurance and the $2 trillion stimulus package to support its national workforce and economy. European governments are providing billions in funding to companies and wage payments to keep employees on the payroll.

Roughly 920,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide, according to the latest Johns Hopkins University data. More than 206,000 are in the U.S., and approximately 40.6% of those cases are in New York, where the death toll in the region is the highest in the nation.

"We're all in search of the apex and the other side of the mountain," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday. More states announced stay-at-home measures to protect populations from exposure, but the federal government hasn’t yet introduced national lockdowns. Influenced by new models predicting 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from coronavirus, President Donald Trump reversed his plan to reopen the country by Easter on April 12.

“We’re going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel. But this is going to be a very painful—very, very painful—two weeks,” he said. The Centers for Disease Control are considering revising their guidelines to recommend Americans wear masks to protect themselves and prevent spreading the infection. A lack of personal protective equipment and other basic and essential healthcare supplies is plaguing hospitals across the country. Governors are asking the federal government for help procuring equipment and supplies.

Following movement restrictions and closures of large portions of the economy due to COVID-19 and the swift onset of recession, all of S&P Global Ratings' sector outlooks in U.S. public finance are now negative.

Italy and Spain have suffered the highest losses from the COVID-19 outbreak; the combined deaths in both countries total at approximately 22,290. Today, Italy extended its lockdown until April 13, with a freeze on all nonessential economic activity and movement. The number of deaths reported today was the lowest in six days. Spain has recorded more than 102,000 cases and today brought the largest one-day rise in deaths related to coronavirus. Credit conditions across all of Europe are set to worsen.

U.S. intelligence officials have reportedly suggested that China underreported its totals of coronavirus cases and deaths. The alleged lack of transparency around the virus’ real impact, coupled with a new wave of cases rippling across Asia, raises concerns about global preparedness to fight the human and economic implications of the pandemic. Economists, policymakers, government officials, and health experts alike agree that the economic outcome of the outbreak is entirely dependent on the virus’ humanitarian toll and whether its geographic spread can be controlled effectively.

Today is Wednesday, April 1, 2020, and here is essential insight on COVID-19 and the markets.

GLOBAL ECONOMY

Global Credit Conditions: Triple Trouble: Virus, Oil & Volatility

Containment measures to stem the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed the world’s largest economies into near-hibernation. Combined with historical collapse in oil prices, and record volatility in the markets, this puts significant pressure on creditworthiness around the world. Industries most exposed to the dramatic drop in global demand and much tighter financing conditions have experienced the most downgrades so far. S&P Global Ratings expects companies rated 'B-' and below will likely suffer most from rapid rating transitions, while the investment-grade segment is showing some resilience.

S&P Global Ratings estimates a surge in the corporate speculative-grade default rate to above 10% in the U.S. and into the high single digits in Europe. The massive policy response from central banks and governments around the world is likely to soften the blow, particularly with regard to financial market liquidity. Credit pressure is building up on emerging markets from U.S. dollar strength, massive capital outflows, commodity price falls, and the economic and health impact of COVID-19. A severe but relatively short economic contraction (our base case) will mostly affect weaker credits or those in the most directly exposed sectors. But a prolonged recession, beyond our base case, would have broader implications.

—Read the full report from S&P Global Ratings

COVID-19’s Impact on the Capital Markets: Identifier Issuance for Municipal Securities Sinks, but Corporate Requests Stable

While the stock markets show some of the disruption COVID-19 has brought to the financial sector, how are equity and debt issuers reacting to this market shock in terms of issuing of new securities? As a capital markets utility with a window into pre-trade activity, CUSIP Global Services has been tracking the issuance of new securities identifiers closely over the past month to help gauge the impact of COVID-19 on the broader markets.

S&P Global Market Intelligence highlights recent issuance levels in the corporate and municipal segments, as well as resurgent asset classes and a few observations based on broader market news.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Market Intelligence

PODCAST OF THE DAY

The Leading Edge of Infrastructure: A 360 Credit Perspective of The Leisure Industry In Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Episode 3 of The Leading Edge of Infrastructure, a podcast by S&P Global Ratings, provides a 360 degree look at how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the global leisure companies that we rate. Trevor D'Olier-Lees is joined by senior analysts from S&P Global Ratings' Structured Finance, Corporate, and Project Finance sectors.

—Share this The Leading Edge of Infrastructure podcast from S&P Global Ratings

Commodities Marched Downward during Month of Volatility

It is difficult to accurately express the magnitude of the health, societal, and economic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the lens of the commodities markets, the economic impact has been swift and severe. The broad-based S&P GSCI ended March down an extraordinary 29.4%, the largest monthly drop in performance in the index’s nearly 29-year history. While it remains valuable to review past performance during times of such extremes, it is also imperative that market participants identify the longer-term trends that may emerge in the wake of this devastating economic shock. In this sense, commodities markets can offer valuable insight into real-time economic impacts and, as such, may be the first to offer confirmation of conditions in the real economy.

Metals prices outperformed energy but did not escape the high volatility and general risk-off sentiment across all asset classes in March. The S&P GSCI Gold continued to outperform in March, highlighting its safe-haven status, but it likely did not outperform to the extent that many market participants would have expected. A variation on the so-called breakfast trade—long wheat, coffee, and orange juice—was the highlight of the agriculture market in March.Finally, it is worth pointing out that, while the focus of market participants since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic has rightly been on the scale and longevity of demand destruction, supply disruptions will increasingly be a factor in price discovery.

—Read the full article from S&P Dow Jones Indices

Volatile Start to 2020 – What’s Next?

Last year’s prognostications about the events and trends to monitor in 2020 have evaporated as COVID-19 has upended people’s lives and caused massive recalibrations in financial markets. In Q1 2020, we said “goodbye to the bull market”; large market movements became the new normal; correlations and dispersion shifted drastically; quantitative easing returned; and access to liquidity was important for many, in both equity and fixed income markets. Remarkably, all of this took place in little over a month. So much for 2020 foresight!

As COVID-19 dominated headlines, the S&P 500 finished with its worst quarterly total return (-19.60%) since Q4 2008’s 22% decline. Matters would have been even worse had it not been for the S&P 500’s best 5-day total return since November 2008; the benchmark rose 17.4% between March 23 and March 30 to recover some of the prior losses. [Through March 23, the S&P 500’s cumulative total returns since the start of the last bull market stood at the same level as in May 2017.] Volatility goes both ways.

—Read the full article from S&P Dow Jones Indices

Delivering Low Volatility Exposure to High Yield Bonds

The last few weeks have been challenging for business the world over. People working from home and aggressive social distancing have led to business contraction and the expectation of rising default. On March 19, 2020, an S&P report expected that the U.S. trailing 12-month speculative-grade corporate default rate would rise to 10% within the next 12 months, from 3.1% in December 2019.

—Read the full article from S&P Dow Jones Indices

VIDEO OF THE DAY

How 37 Years of Default Data Can Prepare Us for the COVID-19 Fallout

Today, credit assessment matters more than ever. That’s because COVID-19 has been the driving force of disrupting and ending a 10 year benign credit environment. This unprecedented economic shock will reverberate across all sectors of the economy from Corporates to Financial Institutions and from Sovereigns and Local Governments to Infrastructure. How can historical default data prepare companies as we enter into a recession? Watch this vlog to learn more.

—Share this video from S&P Global Market Intelligence

CHART OF THE DAY

S&P Global Ratings has taken 571 negative rating actions on global corporate nonfinancial and financial issuers, including 256 downgrades, 164 outlook revisions to Negative, and 151 placements on CreditWatch with Negative Implications. The majority of actions hail from North America (350), which comprises a sizable portion of the rated portfolio, followed by EMEA (121), and a roughly equal balance between APAC (51) and Latin America (49), the latter of which saw a number of rating actions after the downgrade of the sovereign of Mexico and its knock-on impact on banks and corporate credit.

By sector, hotel and gaming, transportation, retailing, media, and transportation led rating actions on revenue pressure drawn about by the abrupt stoppage of travel and social distancing measures as a result of measures designed to slow the health and human cost of COVID19. Automotive, pressured before the current crisis due to a manufacturing recession, also saw substantive downgrades owing to the sectors’ weakened position combined with low expected demand amidst lockdowns.

—Read the full report from S&P Global Ratings

COVID-19 ventilator shortage kicks global industries into production frenzy

Companies across the global economy are teaming up with the medical world to ramp up ventilator production to meet the spike in demand and shortages at hospitals treating COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. As hospitals around the world are dealing with or preparing for an influx of patients from the coronavirus outbreak, medical companies are either increasing ventilator production on their own or collaborating with other industries, including automakers and academia.

The medical device industry has responded to the ventilator shortage by increasing production across the globe. Data analytics company GlobalData estimated in March that about 880,000 ventilators are in demand worldwide, with a shortage of 75,000 in the U.S. alone. Larger public companies that provide the U.S. with the devices include General Electric Co., Medtronic PLC, Hill-Rom Holdings Inc., ResMed Inc. and Sweden's Getinge AB.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Market Intelligence

NORTH AMERICA

All U.S. Public Finance Sector Outlooks Are Now Negative

Following mobility restrictions and closure of large segments of the economy due to COVID-19 and the swift onset of recession, all of S&P Global Ratings' sector outlooks in U.S. public finance are now negative. At the start of 2020 all sector outlooks were stable with the exception of higher education, ports, and mass transit. The shift in these outlooks to end the first quarter reflects the expectation of sharp decline in the economy through at least the second quarter and uncertainty about the rate of spread and peak of COVID-19 as well as the timing of economic recovery.

Sector outlooks are an indication of credit trends in the year ahead and may be informed by existing outlook distributions or existing and emerging risks that could influence rating actions. By themselves, S&P Global Ratings does not expect that these sector outlook revisions will lead to immediate negative rating actions. However, given the confluence of events from COVID-19 and the ensuing recession, S&P Global Ratings believes that rapid expenditure increases and precipitous revenue declines will generate more negative than positive rating actions across U.S. public finance for the remainder of 2020.

The financial position of governments and not-for-profits was generally healthy at the beginning of the year, which S&P Global Ratings believes provides flexibility to respond to the evolving situation. However, S&P Global Ratings sees real fiscal challenges ahead across all sectors. The rapid onset of the recession with projections of sharp GDP decline, surging unemployment, and decreased consumer spending will pressure credit quality.

—Read the full report from S&P Global Ratings

As coronavirus spreads, NY grid operator employees agree to live at work

Nearly 40 employees of the New York ISO have begun their second week of living onsite amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. The team of volunteers moved into trailers at two NYISO control centers near Albany, N.Y., on March 23. According to a fact sheet provided by the grid operator, the spread of the coronavirus, particularly in and around the state, prompted senior leadership to decide "additional steps were needed to ensure the health and safety of NYISO employees and grid reliability."

The volunteer sequester team living at sites in East Greenbush and Guilderland, N.Y., is made up of 31 grid operators, two managers, two facilities staff and two cafe workers. The trailers in which employees stay during non-work hours have electricity, cooking facilities and entertainment options. Prior to moving in, employees were tested and confirmed not to have the virus.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Market Intelligence

US companies shift to online annual shareholder meetings due to coronavirus

An increasing number of U.S. companies are moving their annual shareholder meetings from in-person to virtual to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic, although many have yet to announce final plans. Publicly traded companies are required to hold annual proxy meetings each year during which investors vote on such matters as new board members and nonbinding shareholder resolutions. While the vast majority of those gatherings in previous years have been in-person, the spread of the coronavirus has prompted an increasing number of companies to consider alternative options.

ISS Corporate Solutions, a subsidiary of proxy advisory firm ISS, surveyed 230 companies. In a March 26 email to clients, the firm said 37% of those companies had opted to hold virtual-only meetings, 4% were planning a hybrid meeting, 47% had yet to make a decision, and 11% either would not change their plans or already held their meeting.

A screen of S&P Global Market Intelligence's database also indicates more companies are going with virtual gatherings or mentioning it as an option for 2020. The screen found that 163 U.S.-based companies and subsidiaries mentioned the phrase "virtual meeting" and the term "COVID-19" or "coronavirus" in proxy-related filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from Jan. 1 through March 30. Duplicate entries for companies were excluded from the total. In comparison, only 51 U.S. companies used the phrase "virtual meeting" in proxy-related filings over the same period in 2019.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Market Intelligence

Interview: Murkowski sees Alaskan oil sector taking major hit from price crash

Alaska's oil producers face the prospect of sharply lower output and investment as they confront the two-pronged crisis of the Saudi/Russian price war and plunging demand from the coronavirus, US Senator Lisa Murkowski said in an interview with S&P Global Platts. "For our state, this is an economic hit that is going to be very, very directly and immediately felt," she said in a Capitol Crude interview.

On top of the effects of the price plunge, Alaska's North Slope producers will also have to scale back operations after a worker tested positive this week for the coronavirus. Oil companies have been taking measures for weeks to keep the virus out of Prudhoe Bay. "There's going to be some decisions that will be made in response to that confirmed case, where activity is going to be greatly reduced," Murkowski said. So far Murkowski is not worried that lower North Slope output will put the Trans Alaska Pipeline in any danger of shutting. The system carries North Slope production to Valdez and has a minimum flow rate needed to keep the oil warm enough to move.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Platts

Coronavirus threatens US plastics recycling as states cancel collections

The coronavirus pandemic has created a wave of complications for the recycled plastics industry and hampered short-term supply of plastic waste, with several US areas suspending recycling programs, and concerns about transmission creating problems for waste processors.

Ten states in the US currently have “bottle bills”, or mandatory container buyback programs. Now, eight of these ten states – Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, New York, and Vermont – have temporarily halted enforcements that require retailers to participate in these container redemption programs. This means that residents in these states are no longer able to redeem their used beverage bottles for deposit value. However, the remaining two bottle-bill states – California and Hawaii– are not immune to disruptions to their redemption programs as more shelter-in-place directives are being enacted across the country.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Platts

Pandemic Affects Canadian Sectors Differently: Evidence from the Information Technology Sector

The S&P/TSX Capped Information Technology Index gained a whopping 62% in 2019, topping all other Canadian equity sectors and beating the broad market S&P/TSX Composite by about 40%. Given the traditionally cyclical nature of the Information Technology sector and its outsized gains during the bull market, the sector might be expected to lag during the COVID-19 downturn. However, Information Technology continued to outperform YTD through March 26, surpassing the traditionally defensive Consumer Staples, Utilities, and Communication Services sectors. In addition, it experienced the second-lowest volatility during the crisis period out of the 11 S&P/TSX Capped Sector Indices.

—Read the full article from S&P Dow Jones Indices

EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST

Credit Conditions Europe: Europe Goes Into Lockdown

Credit conditions in Europe are set to worsen as containment measures to restrict the spread of the coronoavirus have forced the authorities to place economies on life support. S&P Global Ratings expects the second quarter to see the nadir, but the duration of the outbreak and the credit implications are highly uncertain and nonlinear. Top risks include a worsening pandemic despite all efforts, scarcity of financing for indebted corporate borrowers, the re-emergence of global trade tensions including between the EU and U.K., and asymmetric fiscal costs from the pandemic placing renewed pressure on the EU's cohesion. Aggressive measures to ensure that credit remains accessible to business and that employees can remain on the payroll are supporting liquidity and provide some protection to the supply side of the economy. But the demand shock will weaken credit quality, particularly for corporates in consumer discretionary-facing sectors and those with already stretched balance sheets.

—Read the full report from S&P Global Ratings

European Banks' First-Quarter Results: Many COVID-19 Questions, Few Conclusive Answers

While European banks' first-quarter results might be important indicators of the impact of the economic "stop" across much of Europe, S&P Global Ratings expects management disclosures and comments to be more revealing than the results themselves. The COVID-19 pandemic will result in most European banks applying forbearance measures across their loan books, as well as raising questions about the future shape of loan provisioning under IFRS 9—a standard that has not yet seen a full economic downturn.

S&P Global Ratings doesn’t currently see forbearance measures as an indication of a sharp rise in future credit losses, but losses will inevitably rise through 2020 and banks' transparency in reporting will be important to investor confidence. We expect the effect on bank liquidity and capital ratios to be uneven. Having eased buffer requirements, regulators are comfortable seeing ratios start to decline, but for a decade investors have seen ever-increasing ratios and so will want a refreshed view from bank management on how they could develop through 2020. Many market movements that will affect 2020 results may not be visible in first-quarter disclosures, such as further margin pressure from low base rates and likely widening in pension fund deficits.

—Read the full report from S&P Global Ratings

UK banks suspend dividends, share buybacks following regulator's request

Some of the biggest banks in the U.K. suspended dividend payouts and share buybacks until the end of 2020 following a request from the Bank of England to preserve capital to support the economy amid the market disruption brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The BoE's Prudential Regulation Authority said March 31 that banks entered the current operating environment "with strong capital positions, more than sufficient to accommodate the combined simultaneous impact of severe U.K. and global recessions and a financial markets shock." The regulator said it does not expect banks to need the earmarked capital to maintain their capital positions but the extra funds would help them support the local economy through the year.

In response, the biggest banks in the country, including HSBC Holdings PLC, Barclays PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Santander UK Group Holdings PLC, put on hold pending dividend distributions in respect of 2019 and canceled any dividend payout for the rest of 2020. Standard Chartered PLC and Lloyds Banking Group PLC also adopted similar moves. Some smaller players like finnCap Group PLC and International Personal Finance PLC also complied with the Prudential Regulation Authority's request. FinnCap Group added that its board members and some employees waived their salaries for three months to minimize the financial impact of the uncertainty caused by the outbreak, which is expected to have a material impact on the company's performance in the fiscal year ended March 31.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Market Intelligence

As coronavirus hits leveraged loan market, CLOs cast wary eye on downgrades

Further evidence that downgrades are the key concern for CLO managers in Europe has emerged, with J.P. Morgan publishing the latest results of its CLO survey (which has been running since 2009) showing that "almost half (45%) of participants consider loan rating downgrades as the biggest concern and 26% of participants voted for loan defaults." While a savage wave of downgrades has yet to emerge in Europe, those that have are making a difference — and players are aware it is only a matter of time until downgrades gather pace.

CLOs are a critical investor component in both the European and U.S. leveraged loan markets. They have thresholds as to how much lower-rated debt they can hold. J.P. Morgan says the concern among CLO managers makes sense, as "test failures can occur on a majority of CLOs if another 4-5% of loans in portfolios get downgraded, triggering manager trader restrictions." As for other responses on key concerns, J.P. Morgan adds that 11% of its respondents voted for CLO rating downgrades, 10% for liquidations of CLO warehouses, 7% for CLO equity shutoff, and only 1% for a CLO event of default (this survey was carried out March 24–26, using 51 respondents).

—Read the full article from S&P Global Market Intelligence

OIL QUARTERLY: European product prices drop to record lows

Demand for European transportation fuels fell to modern historical lows at the end of the first quarter as people were told to stay at home to combat the spread of COVID-19. European refineries started to significantly cut their run rates due to the disastrous crack spreads of jet fuel and gasoline. With demand expected to fall even further in the coming weeks, some refineries are already mulling a temporary shutdown as their storage capacity reaches its limits. This shows how severe the demand destruction on the oil market has been. Despite crude prices trading close to two-decade lows, refineries are looking to cut runs to survive.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Platts

Saudi Arabia sends armada of crude into an oil market ailing from coronavirus

Released from its OPEC obligations to rein in production, Saudi state-run oil giant Aramco said Wednesday it was filling 15 tankers with more than 18.8 million barrels of crude — its most ever in one day as it ratchets up its price war with erstwhile ally Russia. But plummeting demand, tightening storage availability and shrinking refinery margins with much of the world on coronavirus lockdowns could leave some of those cargoes struggling to find buyers, according to market sources, who say Aramco will have to slash its selling prices further to unload all of its crude.

Many of the tankers that have loaded from Saudi Arabia in recent days have no listed destination or have indicated they are awaiting orders, which could mean their cargoes are unsold, though this information often is not immediately updated on ship tracking services. "Middle East crude grades are cheap in a sense, but it's pointless when you cannot sell the product," one Singapore-based trader told S&P Global Platts, asking not to be named.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Platts

ASIA

Asian gasoline markets to stay subdued as COVID-19 hits demand

The outlook for the Asian gasoline market is set to remain bleak in second-quarter 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic not only buckles seasonal trends, such as increased driving during the upcoming festive season in some countries, but also hampers activity in others due to lockdowns to halt the spread of COVID-19. In India, the country's transition to Bharat Stage VI fuels, which was expected to result in a demand surge for motor fuels with low sulfur content, will likely have a muted impact on demand as the country's recent moves—the 'Janta Curfew' and the nationwide lockdown—will weigh on both market sentiment and consumption.

The positive correlation between gross domestic product and gasoline consumption means that gasoline demand will be in jeopardy amid weakening global macroeconomics in Asia and elsewhere.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Platts

INTERVIEW: Central Asia Metals reviews operations daily amid pandemic:CEO

Copper, zinc and lead producer Central Asia Metals (CAML) continues to be fully operational but is monitoring production on a daily basis amid the COVID-19 pandemic, CEO Nigel Robinson said Wednesday. The governments in Kazakhstan, where CAML's Kounrad copper mine is located, and in North Macedonia, where its Sasa zinc and lead mine is, have both declared states of emergency although borders are still open for trade, Robinson said Wednesday in an interview. There are no specific lockdowns in the mine areas. This means that Kounrad can still export copper cathode via trader Traxys, mainly to a Turkish wire drawer, while Sasa is exporting lead and zinc concentrates to smelters in Bulgaria and Poland, also via Traxys.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Platts

India lockdown: Sugar, edible oil trade take a hit

India's sugar and edible oil trade has taken a hit as the country moved into a three weeks nationwide lockdown until mid April in an attempt to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Indian ports are now allowed to invoke force majeure by the government due to COVID-19. Operations have not completely stopped as ports services such as transportation of goods by water come under the essential services category, but some port activities are affected.

"The delivery of goods is being difficult in this lockdown. The pace of transport is slower and shortage of manpower is making it difficult to operate ports. That is why ports are declaring force majeure," said P. L. Haranadh, deputy chairman of Vishakhapatnam Port Trust.

—Read the full article from S&P Global Platts

Written and compiled by Molly Mintz.