According to Abdulla Salatt, chairman of the company’s fertilizer unit (QAFCO), Industries Qatar–the country’s largest firm by market cap–will increase production of urea (used as a nitrogen-release fertilizer) and related products to supply growing global demand with a specific focus on South America, and in particular, Brazil.  “We are thinking of sending more products to Brazil because it is a big agriculture country, consuming a lot of urea, and we see their appetite for urea opening up year after year,” Sowaidi told reporters.  The company is currently contemplating a proposed $610 million plant which would increase urea production to 5.6 million tons/year by 2012, up from the current rate of 3 million.  Upon completion the fertilizer unit would hold 15% of global urea production, say analysts.  Urea has the highest nitrogen content of all solid nitrogenous fertilizers in common use (46.7%).

The company overall is still reeling from recession,

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The $300 Trillion “Money Bang” Keith Fitz-Gerald and his team have just produced a groundbreaking report that shows how this historic “Money Bang” is gaining steam. You’ll find out why China is investing $200 billion in one company – and why it’s expected to gain 356%… Why the Dept. of Energy is “backing” one solar company – and why it’s 506% revenue jump is a “smidgen”… And why one recently IPO’d water company is headed for a 600% run. Just go here for details.

It wasn’t long ago that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s decision to nationalize state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) resulted in a failed coup that very nearly cost him his post.

Now, Chavez’s aggressive economic policies are again being called into question, this time as the country slides into what could be a protracted period of stagflation, which is …

Stocks push the currencies higher…Norway pulls out of recession…Jackson Hole boondoggle…Oil helps rally commodity currencies…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day… We had more rain here last night, but the storms have cooled things off and it is starting to feel a bit like fall around here. Chuck flies off to San Francisco today to speak at the Money Show, so I will be bringing you the Pfennig for the next few days. The dollar has rallied just a bit overnight, clawing back some of the losses which occurred mid morning yesterday.

And what, you might asked, caused the dollar to rally yesterday? You can re-read a bit of yesterday’s Pfennig for the answer: “The data cupboard has been emptied out and is looking to get restocked today… So the only thing besides sentiment moving the markets today will be the direction of stocks…” Yes, Chuck was right on in predicting what would

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EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalga has warned against overdramatizing the Russia-Ukraine gas transit issue, following Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin's comments about the risks that remain about guaranteeing gas exports.  Production at Gazprom plummeted to its lowest level in ten years in April this year, whilst oil extraction continues to mount.  The Guardian examines Russia's intention to build nuclear power stations in the Arctic to capitalize upon the region's considerable mineral deposits.  Reuters has a factbox on North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear arms plant.   Expansion at the world's biggest known uranium depositor, BHP Billiton Ltd's Olympic Dam mine in Australia, will be sustained by exports to countries like China, Russia and India.  Kazakhstan should apparently refrain from spending more of its oil revenue to bolster its economy as income flowing into the country's oil fund ...

A new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) concludes that most of the fundamental drivers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region continue to be strong, due largely to oil revenue based reserves ($300bn in cash inflows in 2008), sovereign wealth funds (SWF) and central banks (which combined manage $1.2 trillion of assets across the region) that continue to provide a comfortable cushion for its economies, as well as an overall lack of leverage and limited sub-prime exposure by its banks. Moreover, noted Kamel Maamria, a BCG partner, “the fact that GCC economies are government-driven is a critical stabilising factor in downturns and turbulent times.” BCG is optimistic about the region’s role in the global economy going forward, although realizing any amount of sustainable global economic influence will depend largely on the measures taken by GCC leaders. “Governments of the ...

How bad is it going to get? Our reference point is the 1930’s and the Great Depression. But people in Russia and Asia only have to recall events of a little more than a decade ago. The “Asian Contagion” actually began in Russia in 1998 when the country defaulted on its national debt. The crisis then hit Thailand and within a year had spread to all of Asia with a few exceptions (Malaysia and China being the main ones).

I had a front row seat. At the time, I ran a technology-transfer business in Southeast Asia and our central office was in Jakarta, Indonesia.

For a while it looked like the crisis might skirt Indonesia. But it didn’t. And when it hit, it hit with a vengeance. The economy had been expanding at an 8-10 percent clip for several years. Companies were expanding to take advantage of soaring sales. And banks were

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Russian manufacturing contracted in August for the first time in almost four years as businesses won fewer new orders and companies cut jobs. VTB Bank Europe's Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 49.4 from 50.4 in July, the fifth consecutive monthly decline and the first contraction since November 2004. A figure above 50 indicates growth. Dmitri Fedotkin, an economist at VTB Bank Europe Research, said in his statement that the major factor underpinning the weakening in activity had been a decrease in new orders, which fell for the first time in almost 10 years. According to the lastest data from Rostat, industrial output rose by an annual 3.2 percent in July (following a y-o-y of only 0.9% in June), a much slower pace than would be generally expected given that economic growth had been running at around a 7.5% annual rate....

Russian stocks rose the most in two weeks today as investors bought into an equity market that now has the cheapest valuations in two years. In particular OAO Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil producer, surged as crude oil prices rose for a fourth day. Bank Vozrozhdenie and AFI Development Plc gained after reporting earnings. Crude for October delivery rose as much as $1.74, or 1.5 percent, to $119.89 a barrel in New York as meteorologists forecast Tropical Storm Gustav will be the most damaging since Hurricane Katrina. The ruble-denominated Micex Index climbed 2.6 percent to 1,337.02 at 4:05 p.m. in Moscow, its biggest gain since Aug. 11. The dollar-denominated RTS Index rose 2.4 percent to 1,626.65, a second day of gains. The RTS has retreated more than any other major stock market so far this quarter as Russia sent troops into Georgia, falling oil prices ...