Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 1/26/18

With increasing demand in the printing industry for equipment that enables more frequent and faster job changes on press, Flint Group officially launches the new rotec® ULW Bridge to join the lightweight family of sleeves and adapters. The rotec® ULW Bridge is an ultra lightweight polyurethane adapter offering up to 65% reduction in weight compared to similar products in the market – a significant weight decrease improving safety and handling for press operators. Developed together with customers, this new generation adapter has been validated in applications on plate-mounting equipment and on presses running up to 450 m/min for the last 1-2 years. Ralf Venema, Flint Group General Manager explains: “Our Product Development Team is focused on developing products to help the customer work smarter, faster and easier. The rotec® ULW Bridge is an excellent solution for improved safety and easier handling at the printer.” The rotec® ULW Bridge is suitable for all press widths and offers particular benefits where higher wall thicknesses are most commonly used, such as in cantilevered mounter applications and unusually large print applications, including corrugated pre-print. Click Read More below for additional information.

UPM Energy answers to the urgent need for power flexibility with a revolutionary energy optimisation and trading service, Beyond Spot, helping industrial businesses thrive in the energy market disruption. The service helps industrial companies solve the most common pain points of energy management: energy cost optimisation and risk management. At the same time, it answers the growing need for flexible power to balance the power grid due to the fast increase in the supply of renewable energy. The energy market is in the middle of disruption. Tightening climate goals push countries to shift towards renewable energy, which pushes the power prices down and shakes up the market dynamics. The increase in renewable energy creates dramatic fluctuations in energy supply, posing significant financial risks for large energy consumers and causing new challenges for electricity grids. In order to cope with the volatile renewable energy supply, investments in electricity grids are required, but part of the solution lies in more efficient use of flexible consumption assets through energy optimisation. Regulators and transmission system operators also aim for better balancing of supply and demand with the help of new regulation such as the fifteen-minute imbalance settlement coming in 2023 in the Nordics.

Oil last week rose to levels last seen in 2014 amid growing geopolitical risks, with investors anticipating that retaliation against Assad would threaten production in the region, while tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed rebels in Yemen also added to concerns. Still, surging U.S. output continues to weigh on investor sentiment even as the International Energy Agency says the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is close to reaching its target of eliminating a global crude glut. Meanwhile, in the U.S., working oil rigs rose by seven last week to 815, the highest since March 2015, according to data from Baker Hughes. The rig fleet has expanded in 10 of the past 12 weeks. The expansion came after the Energy Information Administration data showed that American oil production rose to a fresh record of 10.5 million barrels a day. Click Read More below for additional information.