AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 12/27/24

American Dollar to Canadian Dollar = 0.773621; American Dollar to Chinese Yuan = 0.145760; American Dollar to Euro = 1.001626; American Dollar to Japanese Yen = 0.007314; American Dollar to Mexican Peso = 0.0050235.

Faced with dramatic increases in the cost of Azo intermediates and related raw materials, Sun Chemical Performance Pigments will raise its global prices on Azo pigments, specialty pigments and their pigment preparations, effective January 1, 2018. “The cost of Azo intermediates and other key raw materials have increased significantly and continue to do so, impacting the pigment industry,” said Chris Weighill, Vice President and Global Classical Pigment Product Manager, Sun Chemical Performance Pigments. “The expectation is that there will be no short-term relief in sight for these rising costs—forcing us to increase our prices. While we regret the necessity to take this action, current market conditions dictate that we must adjust our prices. We will continue to explore other cost reduction opportunities and productivity gains to offset the rising costs of raw materials.”

Oil prices eased on Thursday, dragged down by rising output, although strong demand and a drop in U.S. fuel inventories provided the market with some support. Prices were pulled down by another rise in U.S. oil production , which hit a weekly record of 10.9 million barrels per day (bpd) last week, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday. U.S. crude output has risen by almost 30 percent in the last two years, and it is now close to top global producer Russia, which produced 11.1 million bpd overall in the first two weeks of June. Click Read More below for additional information.