Good morning, everyone. We have another packed issue for you, with the big story this morning being that purchasing managers’ indices from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt tell different stories of business sentiment, demand and inventory levels across non-oil private firms in March.

^^ We have chapter and verse on the story in this morning’s news well, below.

We’re sorry to be a few minutes late this morning — we had a small glitch in the machine that has now been fixed.

HAPPENING TODAY-

WATCH THIS SPACE-Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly wants to form a committee to study proposals for incentives and service offerings in freezones, according to a statement from the General Authority for Freezones and Investment (GAFI). The aim is to drum up investment across a range of sectors, create jobs, enhance competitiveness in foreign markets, as well as attract FX by boosting Egyptian exports, Madbouly said.

DATA POINT- Turkey’s trade deficit widened 3.7% year-on-year in March, growing to USD 8.57 bn from USD 8.27 bn, as “record exports failed to offset rising imports of gold and vehicles,” Bloomberg reports, citing preliminary data from Turkey’s Trade Ministry. Gold imports, which rose 63% y-o-y to USD 1.7 bn, are used to hedge against inflation and the falling value of the TRY. The trade deficit in 1Q 2023 rose to 31.5% y-o-y to USD 34.9 bn, as exports rose 4.4% y-o-y to a USD 23.6 bn, while imports rose 4.2% y-o-y to USD 32.2 bn.

Mwani Qatar, the country’s seaport and shipping terminal operator, handled 30% more cargo in 1Q 2023 compared with the same period last year, it said on Twitter. The authority handled 617.6k tons of general and bulk cargo during the quarter, while livestock volume surged 161%, vehicles rose 9%, and vessels 1% y-o–y.

MARKET WATCH-

Earnings at container shipping lines could fall 80% y-o-y this year amid global trade slowdown: Shipping firms could earn some USD 43 bn in net income this year, which would mark a drop of nearly 80% from their record net income in 2022 as they face a glut in capacity, Bloombergreports, citing a note from an industry analyst. Look for earnings to dip in successive quarters this year, Blue Alpha Capital’s John McCown wrote.

Record flows of Russian diesel poured into the Middle East in March, as traders looked to benefit from low prices at the UAE’s Fujairah hub and Saudi Arabia, Reuters reports. The story is a follow-on to a report on Monday that noted Russia’s diesel exports had risen 12% month-on-month in March. At least 500k tons of Russian diesel were unloaded at ports in the UAE and Saudi Arabia throughout the month (three-fifths of it in the UAE), the newswire reported, citing data from Refinitiv, Kpler and Vortexa. Restrictions on Western ins. for Russian oil has led traders to opt for storing the oil at hubs such as Fujairah before re-exporting it.

Middle Eastern countries are stepping up + boosting diesel exports: “Middle Eastern exports [of diesel] to Asia rose to 150k barrels a day in March, filling some of the void left by slower Chinese exports,” Energy Aspects analysts said in a note picked up by Reuters. Saudi Arabia ramped up diesel exports from Yanbu and Rabigh to Europe, the data showed.

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