Links of the day

U.S. Utilities ‘Stealth’ Nuclear Revival..."Utilities have been using power uprates since the 1970s as a way to increase the power output of their nuclear plants. As of July 2004, the NRC has completed 101 such reviews resulting in a gain of approximately 12,548 MWt (megawatts thermal) or 4,183 MWe (megawatts electric) at existing plants. Collectively, an equivalent of about four nuclear power plant units has been gained through implementation of power uprates at existing plants"...nuclear power needs to be revived in the US; it's nice to find that some increase in nuclear capacity has been taking place...

Oil Trading Volume Surge: Desperation Of The Roaches...Phil Davis says "look at the monthly NYMEX volume on the last link - the majority of trading goes through the ICE, who just reported energy futures volume was up 69% this March. 11.5M contracts, representing 11.5Bn barrels of oil were exchanged on the ICE, while the NYMEX rolled about 9Bn barrels during the month. The reason traders prefer ICE is because it is far less regulated so they can play games (like taking both sides of a trade just to churn barrels higher) more easily than on the NYMEX, which has rules.

Still 20Bn barrels of oil represents some pretty active turnover for a country that "only" consumes 20M barrels a day but I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why there would be a 69% increase in activity this year on the ICE alone when, back in 2003, when there was just the NYMEX and oil was $30 (and this was AFTER 9/11), the whole country got by just fine trading 3M contracts in a month"...intriguing thoughts worth deeper investigation...reminds me of realtors who want to represent both parties in a home sale...you just can't represent both sides of a negotiation and have the best interests of either client at heart...

What's Next for the Global Steel Industry?...I worked in the steel industry for six years; the analysis in the linked story is good...the gist is that the global consolidation of the industry will continue which makes sense given that steel manufacturing is capital intensive and benefits from economies of scale...

New study of the determinants of oil prices...Econbrowser discusses an analysis that can be found here; the gist is that oil price increases in the last six years are in fact attributable to global demand growth. That doesn't square with the link above from Phil Davis whose thesis is that speculative trading is driving oil prices...

Toyota Continues To Gain U.S. Market Share At Expense of Big 3...not a big surprise here...Toyota's figures were a 12% YoY sales gain for March, with a sales increase to 242,675 vehicles. The company sold 61,635 hybrids, up 68% from last year's first quarter...