Energy

The Collapse of Commodities in One Simple Chart

Published

8 years ago

November 18, 2015

Jeff Desjardins

The Collapse of Commodities in One Simple Chart

This chart from Macquarie puts the year in perspective for commodity investors. It covers various asset classes including equities, FX markets, bonds, and commodity prices, and charts them YTD in terms of US dollars and expressed as a percentage.

For a simple chart, there is a lot of information here to consider.

For starters, on the far right is the prime culprit in stymying commodity markets: the Dollar Index. The US dollar, which commodities are priced in, has had a big year with close to a 10% return YTD. While the US economy is still suspect at best, it has served as a safe haven for investors this year over markets such as Europe, China, and Japan. As a result, the USD has had the best performance of all of these asset classes listed on the chart.

The other market on the right worth noting is the Nasdaq, home to many of the tech stocks that have kept the US economy chugging along. While some are skeptical of the true value of some of the companies in Silicon Valley, it cannot be denied that the Googles, Facebooks, and Amazons of the world are the key to keeping US growth intact in any capacity.

To the left of the zero mark, things get dire fast.

Precious metals such as gold and silver are down, but this can be mostly attributed to the strength of the dollar. Energy and industrial metals, on the other hand, have been thoroughly routed due to a combination of dollar strength and slowing Chinese growth. Many agricommodities have struggled as well.

The biggest losers of the bunch include rhodium, nickel, iron ore, and lean hogs, all which are down more than 30% YTD.

Related Topics:base metals nickel dollar USD commodities collapse

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Energy

The World’s Biggest Nuclear Energy Producers

China has grown its nuclear capacity over the last decade, now ranking second on the list of top nuclear energy producers.

Published

2 days ago

April 17, 2024

Pallavi Rao

A cropped chart breaking down the biggest nuclear energy producers, by country, in 2022.

The World’s Biggest Nuclear Energy Producers

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on Apple or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Scientists in South Korea recently broke a record in a nuclear fusion experiment. For 48 seconds, they sustained a temperature seven times that of the sun’s core.

But generating commercially viable energy from nuclear fusion still remains more science fiction than reality. Meanwhile, its more reliable sibling, nuclear fission, has been powering our world for many decades.

In this graphic, we visualized the top producers of nuclear energy by their share of the global total, measured in terawatt hours (TWh). Data for this was sourced from the Nuclear Energy Institute, last updated in August 2022.

Which Country Generates the Most Nuclear Energy?

Nuclear energy production in the U.S. is more than twice the amount produced by China (ranked second) and France (ranked third) put together. In total, the U.S. accounts for nearly 30% of global nuclear energy output.

However, nuclear power only accounts for one-fifth of America’s electricity supply. This is in contrast to France, which generates 60% of its electricity from nuclear plants.

Rank	Country	Nuclear Energy Produced (TWh)	% of Total
1	🇺🇸 U.S.	772	29%
2	🇨🇳 China	383	14%
3	🇫🇷 France	363	14%
4	🇷🇺 Russia	208	8%
5	🇰🇷 South Korea	150	6%
6	🇨🇦 Canada	87	3%
7	🇺🇦 Ukraine	81	3%
8	🇩🇪 Germany	65	2%
9	🇯🇵 Japan	61	2%
10	🇪🇸 Spain	54	2%
11	🇸🇪 Sweden	51	2%
12	🇧🇪 Belgium	48	2%
13	🇬🇧 UK	42	2%
14	🇮🇳 India	40	2%
15	🇨🇿 Czech Republic	29	1%
N/A	🌐 Other	219	8%
N/A	🌍 Total	2,653	100%

Another highlight is how China has rapidly grown its nuclear energy capabilities in the last decade. Between 2016 and 2021, for example, it increased its share of global nuclear energy output from less than 10% to more than 14%, overtaking France for second place.

On the opposite end, the UK’s share has slipped to 2% over the same time period.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has heavily relied on nuclear energy to power its grid. In March 2022, it lost access to its key Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station after Russian forces wrested control of the facility. With six 1,000 MW reactors, the plant is one of the largest in Europe. It is currently not producing any power, and has been the site of recent drone attacks.