The Daily Sprout
Katie Fehrenbacher - Misc
Are Brazilian Biofuels the Answer to High Gas Prices?: The U.S. slaps a $0.54 per gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol. Brazilian biofuel makers and U.S. Senator Richard Lugar say if the tariff comes off, cheap Brazilian ethanol can help with U.S. drivers’ gas price sticker shock Wall Street Journal.
Web Site Lets You Buy Gas at Todays Prices in the Future: A new website called MyGallons.com enables users to buy gas on a debit card at today’s prices, betting that future prices will only go up — PCMag.
Duke Energy to Offer Carbon Offsets for Customers: Duke Energy’s Carolinas division and nonprofit NC GreenPower have launched a carbon offset program for North Carolina customers — release.
Auto Lobby Complain About Fuel Economy Increase: A group of automakers said the government is underestimating how much it will cost and how long it will take to implement new fuel economy standards — release.
India Says More Attention to Clean Power, But No Set Plans: The Indian government will devote more resources to “the country’s first-ever climate change plan,” but didn’t set any hard goals — International Herald Tribune.
Where's the Solar Stock Rally?
Kevin Kelleher - Big Green
Solarfun Power Holdings (SOLF) said Tuesday that it signed a long-term supply deal with Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon. It also said it bought out Jiangsu Yangguang Solar.
So overall, two pretty positive business deals for Solarfun. And how did the stock react? It fell nearly 8 percent.
Wading into the solar sector is like dating a manic-depressive. Day-to-day events matter less than the prevailing, protean mood. And these days the mood among solar investors is dark, indeed.
Shares of all the major solar cell and panel makers closed lower Tuesday: Solarfun, Sunpower (SPWR), Suntech (STP), Yingli Green Energy (YGE), Trina (TSL) and JA Solar (JASO) saw declines of between 6 percent and 8 percent. And with the exception of First Solar, stocks are significantly down from their 200-day moving averages as well: Shares of Hoku (HOKU), for example, are down 45 percent from their trading average, Yingli is off 35 percent and Suntech is down 30 percent.
What’s going on? For one, there are reports that Spain is considering cutting the subsidies for solar installations by 35 percent. Many of the companies whose stocks are tumbling today have a higher exposure to Spain than First Solar or Evergreen.
Many of them are also based in China, and there are concerns emerging about Chinese stocks in general, which have been tumbling of late, as well as cash flows and debt financing at many Chinese solar companies.
In a research note Tuesday, American Technology analyst John Hardy said he’s “concerned about SOLF’s reliance on high interest rate, short-term Chinese bank debt” needed to buy polysilicon. China’s heated economy is at risk of inflation, which could drive interest payments at Solarfun and other companies even higher.
It’s a little ironic that one of the few growing, investible alternatives to petroleum is in a stock slump just as oil prices continue to climb. Such are the interesting times — and, for now at least, times that are short on capital gains — that we live in.
The Summer We Stopped Buying SUVs
Kevin Kelleher - Misc
We all knew surging gasoline prices would hurt auto sales. But it’s happening a lot faster than many had guessed.
Automakers are reporting their June sales figures today, and if red is your favorite color you may like what you see. Ford’s sales were down 28 percent from a year ago, and GM’s were off by 19 percent. The big surprise was Toyota, down 21 percent. It seems Toyota’s overall sales were less dependent on its highly coveted Prius cars than on its trucks.
Since February, gas has risen from $3 a gallon on average to more than $4, where it has lingered for much of June. So a lot of the hottest, low-mileage models of recent years are baking in the sun on car lots, while hybrids and other fuel-efficient cars are in hot demand.
The two manufacturers who saw their sales increase, Honda and Volkswagen, are the same passenger-car makers that have seen their market share dwindle in the age of the SUV. Both saw one-percent gains.
Then there’s Ford. Its F-Series pickup truck, which gets about 15 miles a gallon on city streets, managed to sell 38,789 units in June. But that figure is down 41 percent from June 2007. The F-Series, long America’s best selling vehicle, was outranked last month by the Corolla and Camry from Toyota and the Civic and Accord from Honda. Only two of Ford’s 20 or so models gained on year: the Ford Fusion, up 18 percent, and the Mercury Milan, up 8 percent.
The problem for automakers is, demand has changed in a matter of a couple of months, while automakers need a year or so to increase or decrease supplies. They might have seen this shift coming a year or so again, but they didn’t act.
Even Toyota failed to keep up with changing demands. It sold 17,806 hybrids in June, two thirds of them Priuses. But it sold three times as many light trucks: 53,957 of them. Even so, light-truck sales were down 32 percent in June. Toyota may market itself as a maker of fuel-efficient hybrids, but it’s just as exposed to America’s shunning of SUVs as any carmaker.
Toyota’s performance in June was so disappointing that General Motors was able to cling onto its title as the largest U.S. automaker. Only because GM’s 19-percent decline wasn’t as steep as Toyota’s, it still wears the crown.
That’s hardly a silver lining, it’s more like a string of tinsel. But in this economy, automakers will take good news where they can get it.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment