World

COPPER and aluminum ticked higher — after suffering major declines on Thursday — in response efforts by the US and Israel to ease concerns about the deepening conflict in the Middle East.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces would no longer target energy infrastructure, while President Donald Trump vowed not to deploy ground troops against Iran. The comments came after a torrid few hours for commodities on Thursday as oil prices surged, fears of a global economic slowdown increased and metals slid sharply lower.

The war in the Persian Gulf has roiled metals markets by threatening a wave of supply disruptions, especially in a global aluminum market that gets about a 10th of output from the region. But broader fears about demand have dominated trading this week.

Higher prices for oil and gas will hurt manufacturing and economic activity worldwide, while fueling inflation that forces central banks to take a more hawkish stance on interest rates. This means traders are now closely monitoring crude prices, which eased on Friday. 

The drop in copper prices this month is aiding Chinese demand, however, as fabricators returning after the Lunar New Year holidays buy the metal. Inventories in Shanghai and Guangdong have fallen about 8% from a six-year high on March 9, according to Shanghai Metals Market. 

Copper’s drop on the London Metal Exchange has outpaced declines on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, opening a window for traders to import the metal into China, said Levi Xiao, a trader at Wooray Commodities Pte. Ltd. Imports are expected to pick up for copper arriving in April and May, he said. 

Copper rose 0.8% to $12,240 a ton on the LME as of 7:57 a.m. in London. Aluminum gained 0.8% to $3,277.50. They were both down more than 4% for the week, on track for their biggest weekly declines in almost a year. Iron ore climbed 1.1% to $108.30 a ton in Singapore. –BLOOMBERG

The post Copper and aluminum rise as US, Israel try to reassure on war appeared first on The Malaysian Reserve.

CHINA’S ravenous appetite for silver lifted overseas purchases to an eight-year high at the start of 2026, as importers fed a surge in industrial and investment demand.

The world’s biggest buyer pulled in over 790 tons in the first two months, including nearly 470 tons in February, the highest ever for that month, according to Chinese customs data on Friday. Strong demand has pushed local prices well above international benchmarks, whittling down already-low exchange stockpiles and hoovering up metal from abroad.

Silver prices have never had such a volatile start to a year, soaring about 70% on a wave of speculative buying from China and elsewhere, before abruptly giving up their gains at the end of January. The strong import figures suggest physical consumption in China has been sustained despite shifts in trading flows. 

Demand has come from both retail investors piling into silver bars, an alternative to increasingly pricey gold, and solar manufacturers front-loading production ahead of the removal of export tax rebates on April 1. The solar industry consumes about a fifth of annual supply, and is overwhelmingly located in China.

Demand for physical bars is very strong, and solar cell manufacturers “are going gangbusters,” said Rhona O’Connell, head of market analysis for EMEA and Asia at StoneX Group Inc. “At the same time, inventories in Chinese exchanges have been falling lower and lower, which has its own psychological effect.”

Much of the metal has flowed through Hong Kong, a gateway for precious metals headed to the mainland, as traders sought to profit from an attractive arbitrage opportunity. In the first two months, prices in the territory for the large silver bars traded by banks have attracted a premium of as much as $8 an ounce, when they usually trade at a discount to the benchmark in London, said Stanley Cheung, managing director of AC Precious Metals Refinery Ltd. 

China’s lofty imports have yet to disrupt the London market, thanks to a record inflow of silver into the global trading hub following an historic squeeze last year. Less silver held in exchange-traded funds around the world, which have dropped this year by more than 1,900 tons, has also freed up more metal.

“The London market is behaving very well despite this strong demand for silver in China,” said Daniel Ghali, senior commodity strategist at TD Securities Inc. “For the first time in more than a year, the market can face this scale of demand without resulting in significant price dislocations or disruptions.” 

Looser supply in London has allowed the cost of borrowing silver to ease, although longer-dated leases are still more expensive, due to the volatility in prices and as a precaution against another squeeze.

Visible inventories tracked by major exchanges from New York to Shanghai are either falling or sitting well below their long-term averages, suggesting metal remains scarce in the broader system. And the market has reason to be worried. 

“China is one of the world’s most significant markets for both industrial consumption and silver investment,” said Simone Knobloch, chief operating officer of major Swiss refinery Valcambi SA. “The feedback we receive from the market indicates strong interest in physical products.” 

The developing appetite for silver as a cheaper replacement for gold has made investment bars — ranging from 20 grams to one kilogram — common in the Shuibei market in Shenzhen, the center of China’s retail bullion trade. 

“Silver has been a hit among retail investors and sellers,” said Song Jiangzhen, a researcher at Guangdong Southern Gold Market Academy.  

He said there’s been a change in the mindset of consumers, who increasingly view gold as inaccessible. The white metal is currently trading at about $70 an ounce, while gold has fluctuated around $5,000 an ounce this year after a barnstorming rally.

Bullion dealers welcome the shift, said Song. Cheaper bars mean less pressure on financing. Many dealers have increased their silver stockpiles, tripling total inventory in Shuibei to around 300 tons in recent months, according to his estimate. 

For now, though, markets are breathing a little easier. The Chinese premium on silver has softened and solar demand has slowed as the rebate deadline nears, said Yuan Zheng, an analyst at the Shanghai-based trading arm of Henan Jinli Gold and Lead Group Co. “We’ve moved into a situation of more supply than demand in the near term.” 

That’s showing up in Shenzhen, where the silver bars on display are finding fewer takers. But it’s unlikely to be the end of the story.

“All it takes is just another surge in prices,” said Song. “Retail investors tend to follow rising trends rather than buy dips.”  –BLOOMBERG

The post China pulls silver from global markets to meet surging demand appeared first on The Malaysian Reserve.

AT LEAST a dozen large drugmakers are set to roll out copies of Novo Nordisk A/S’s blockbuster weight-loss drugs in India, crashing prices as soon as the patent expires Friday.

Natco Pharma Ltd. plans to sell an injection for semaglutide —  the active ingredient in both Ozempic and Wegovy — with prices starting from 1,290 rupees ($14) a month, on the first day the generics are allowed. The pen device is expected to launch by April and cost about 4,500 rupees a month, it said in a filing. 

By comparison, Novo’s Wegovy pen starts at about 10,480 rupees ($113) in India and about $199 in the US under the self-pay model. Other companies are likely to price the starting dose between 3,000 rupees ($32) and 5,000 rupees a month, according to people familiar with the matter who did not want to be named as the information is competitive.

While Canada was the first to lose patent protection for semaglutide in January, the Canadian health regulator hasn’t approved any generics so far effectively making India the first major market to see a flood of copycat versions. The ensuing price war will be closely watched as the Danish drugmaker faces patent expiries in key markets including China, Brazil and Turkey.

Bloomberg News parsed company filings and earnings call transcripts to identify at least 12 large drugmakers — Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. and Lupin Ltd. among others — that have plans to sell generic semaglutide soon after patent expiry. But the true scale of competition will be much higher. 

About 42 drug manufacturers, including smaller ones, are expected to launch products under more than 50 brand names this year, said Sheetal Sapale, a researcher at market data firm Pharmarack.

‘Case Study’

India is “an important case-study for the future” loss of exclusivity on this molecule, Jefferies analysts led by James Vane-Tempest wrote in a Feb. 12 note. The brokerage estimates India’s weight-loss market at about $500 million, which “could rise to $1 billion with the right pricing, adoption and government incentives.”

Generic drugmakers are also experimenting with a range of delivery formats, including single-use pre-filled syringes, single-shot pen injectors, vials, and reusable pens with adjustable dosing, the people familiar with the matter said.

These are aimed at giving patients more flexibility, reducing the cost burden and making adoption of these anti-obesity therapies easier. Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Mounjaro in India currently come in a pre-filled pen with four shots.

The tweaked delivery methods can also build brand loyalty. If a patient gets comfortable using a particular device, they usually wouldn’t switch, Pharmarack’s Sapale said.

“The reputation of the company in this therapy category as well as the delivery system will be the differentiators now” since the underlying semaglutide molecule is the same, she added.

Indian drugmakers have also started forging alliances. Zydus Lifesciences Ltd. this week announced a licensing partnership with Lupin and Torrent Pharma Ltd., while Eris Lifesciences Ltd. has tied up with Natco Pharma for the marketing of the drug.  

The generic drugmakers will also focus more on smaller cities where innovator firms have not established a widespread presence, Sapale said. “There will be a lot of noise” in the market as firms fight for share, she added. –BLOOMBERG

The post Ozempic copies to cost US$14 in India as generic GLP-1 era starts appeared first on The Malaysian Reserve.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US is looking to remove sanctions that it has long imposed on Iranian oil in an effort to lower surging energy prices triggered by its war in the Gulf, and could also look at a unilateral release of its own reserves.

“In the coming days, we may unsanction the Iranian oil that’s on the water,” Bessent said on Fox Business Thursday. The US is already allowing Iranian oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and that nation has about 140 million barrels afloat now, the Treasury chief said. “Depending on how you count it, that’s 10 days to two weeks of supply.” 

The possibility of removing sanctions on Iranian oil is a stunning reversal of years of US policy that has used energy sanctions as a way to bring Tehran to the negotiating table over its nuclear program. In yet another u-turn of its stance, the US also earlier loosened sanctions on Russian oil temporarily. 

The scattergun of policy ideas — which also include another unilateral release of US emergency supplies — are a sign of the Trump Administration pulling as many levers as it can to tame oil and gas prices. Benchmarks have skyrocketed to multi-year highs across the world as both sides step up attacks on energy infrastructure and the vital Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed. 

Iran’s supplies have mainly been heading to China up to now, but once sanctions are eased, that can then go elsewhere, Bessent said. “It can flow into Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, India — who have been good actors in this.”

Asia — which depends heavily on crude from producers in the Persian Gulf — faces the greatest exposure to the disruption of supplies from the region. Its refiners are already hunting down alternative supplies from the US and elsewhere.  

“We will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days as we continue this campaign,” Bessent said.

Further Releases

By the time the US takes action on Iran’s floating oil, there will be about 260 million “excess barrels of energy” available, Bessent said — pointing to the co-ordinated release of oil from emergency reserves by a number of countries. 

Traders and analysts estimate the current crisis has knocked out more than 15 million barrels a day of oil flows and as more energy infrastructure comes under attack, prices could surge further. Already US gasoline prices at the pump have surged to the highest since 2022. 

The US could unilaterally do another SPR release to keep the price down, Bessent said, referring to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. 

However, drawing even more oil down could be logistically and physically tricky. The reserve is already poised to fall to its lowest level since 1982 if the administration completes its 172-million barrel release – which will be the second-largest in the reserve’s history.

By law, non-emergency drawdowns are barred once inventories in the reserve fall below 252.4 million barrels, and a 1981 report from the US Government Accountability Office recommended against releases below 250 million barrels outside of a “very severe emergency.”

The reserve, created in the aftermath of the Arab oil embargo of the early 1970s, which consists of a complex network of underground salt caverns, wells, pipelines and pumps — was only designed with a 25-year life span.

The facilities 60 subterranean salt caverns, spread across four sites in Texas and Louisiana, were generally designed for about full five drawdowns and refills, William “Hoot” Gibson, the reserve’s former project manager, said in an interview. The more the system is used, the greater the risk the caverns will dissolve and merge with one another.

No Trading

Bessent noted that there had been some speculation the US Treasury would intervene in the oil futures market, but “we’re absolutely not doing that.”

“We are not going to do a financial market intervention,” he also said. “We’re not intervening in the financial markets. We are supplying the physical markets.”

The US hasn’t been targeting Iran’s energy assets in the war, he said. With regard to Kharg Island, a key Iranian export hub, it mounted a “precision strike” against the military assets.

“The other thing I can tell you, if you’re an oil worker, you don’t want to work there,” Bessent said. “We will see what happens with whether that eventually becomes a US asset.” —BLOOMBERG

The post US weighs removing sanctions on some Iran oil, Bessent says appeared first on The Malaysian Reserve.

MALAYSIA has enlisted a group of banks to arrange a planned $1 billion dollar-bond sale for refinancing, marking its first return to the US currency market in five years.

The Southeast Asian nation, rated A- by S&P Global Ratings, has gathered lenders including CIMB Group Holdings Bhd., HSBC Holdings Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co, to work on the potential issuance, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The banks are preparing to begin the sales process in the coming weeks, the people said, with timing subject to market conditions.

The move signals Malaysia’s return to the dollar debt market as it bets on improved investor appetite for emerging-market sovereign bonds. Malaysia last tapped the dollar bond market in 2021, raising $1.3 billion. 

The government sent a request for proposals to banks for a potential offering, a spokesperson for the nation’s finance ministry said in response to emailed questions from Bloomberg News in January. The proceeds, among others, will be used to the dollar bonds maturing this year, the spokesperson said. –BLOOMBERG

The post Malaysia said to tap banks for first dollar bond sale since 2021 appeared first on The Malaysian Reserve.

STANDARD Chartered plc and BSI Bank Ltd failed in their bids to be part of winding-up applications linked to Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) in Singapore’s High Court.

The banks cannot intervene in the applications brought by four offshore companies as they did not meet the criteria as contingent creditors, Judge Aidan Xu wrote in a ruling on Thursday. 

The four firms are being liquidated in the British Virgin Islands as part of efforts to recover allegedly misappropriated funds from 1MDB. The entities including Brazen Sky and Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners last week failed in their appeal to sue Standard Chartered and BSI in Singapore over transactions allegedly linked to 1MDB.

The 1MDB scandal was one of the biggest financial frauds in history, with stolen funds estimated to have exceeded US$4 billion. It prompted global investigations which led to the imprisonment of ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc executives and a former Malaysian prime minister. Singapore shut BSI’s local unit and fined banks including Standard Chartered for anti-money laundering breaches related to the case. —BLOOMBERG

The post StanChart, BSI lose Singapore court bid in 1MDB-related claims appeared first on The Malaysian Reserve.

ALIBABAGroup Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd lost US$66 billion (RM259.97 billion) of market value in roughly 24 hours, after the market punished the twin leaders of China’s tech arena for failing to lay out clear visions for how to profit off artificial intelligence. 

Alibaba’s US shares fell their most since October, following Tencent’s worst drubbing in almost a year on Thursday. Investors that had piled into the sector’s biggest names over the past week — betting the advent of OpenClaw-style AI agents would galvanise the industry — reversed course after disappointing results, with no clear path to monetization in sight.

The dramatic reaction reflects investors’ anxiety about the increasing amounts that China’s tech leaders are plowing into data centres, talent hires and model development — without a roadmap to actual revenue. 

While those outlays remain a fraction of the US$650 billion that US hyperscalers like Meta Platforms Inc and Amazon.com Inc are spending this year alone, the rising budgets coincide with a Chinese consumer downturn that’s compressing margins. Alibaba reported a 67% drop in quarterly net income, exacerbating those concerns.

“Investors are not pushing back on AI spending itself, but on the lack of near-term visibility on monetization,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Catherine Lim said. “The key inflection will be when companies can show that AI is driving measurable revenue uplift, whether through cloud, advertising, or transaction conversion. Until then, markets will likely stay cautious.”

Tencent held steady after shedding US$43 billion of market value Thursday. Alibaba’s US-listed shares lost US$23 billion overnight, while its Hong Kong stock was down as much as 6.4% in early Friday trade.

The market’s about-face stems in part from a burst of exuberance this month, when Chinese consumers returned from their Lunar New Year breaks to fall head-over-heels for OpenClaw — a viral agentic AI platform that promises to take over a litany of mind-numbing tasks from managing email inboxes to arranging travel itineraries. 

From fledging firms such as MiniMax Group Inc to incumbents like Baidu Inc, companies scrambled to release apps and services to tap that frenzy, feeding optimism around the technology. Tencent’s shares gained more than 10% at one point earlier this month, riding excitement about its OpenClaw products.

China’s most valuable firm is considered well-positioned to build agentic AI because it sits on a trove of user data, and controls access to a universe of domestic apps via WeChat. Such services tend to perform best when granted access to users’ information, like message logs. 

But executives fell short of specifics when plied with questions on post-earnings calls about how the company would turn its built-in advantages into money spinners. They didn’t provide the concrete investment targets or specific products that many investors had hoped for.

“Recent results from Tencent and Alibaba have only added to doubts about the returns and margins from their massive investments,” said Paul Pong, managing director at Pegasus Fund Managers Ltd, who sold Alibaba shares in December last year. “At the same time, Middle East tensions make it extremely difficult to take advantage of dips in Chinese AI stocks.”

Morgan Stanley slashed its target price on Tencent by 11% to HK$650 (RM326.75). “These front-loaded AI investments will likely weigh on near-term margins, driving profit to grow more slowly than revenue in 2026,” analysts including Gary Yu wrote.

In Alibaba’s case, it’s also grappling with a slowdown in its core business.

Alibaba is considered a frontrunner in China’s race toward artificial general intelligence. It’s also the most aggressive in terms of spending: it pledged more than US$53 billion of AI investment over several years. On Thursday, it declared a target of US$100 billion of cloud and AI revenue in five years.

It’s now keen to monetise a growing AI portfolio in part to counter weakness in its e-commerce division, which is grappling with fierce domestic competition. The company this week launched an agentic AI service known as Wukong for company clients, and hiked prices for its cloud and storage services by as much as 34%. 

“At this moment the war in the Middle East is driving funds toward safer investments,” said Vey Sern Ling, a managing director at Union Bancaire Privee. “China tech companies in a spending phase with high uncertainty of returns is not one of them. Of course the narrative can change quickly if the war ends.”

Meanwhile, costs are rising on other fronts. Over last month’s week-long Lunar New Year holiday, Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance Ltd and Baidu Inc gave out billions of yuan in coupons to acquire users for their consumer-facing agentic apps.

“We do share market concerns around the visibility for Alibaba to reach US$100 billion annual cloud and AI revenue in five years,” Barclays Capital Inc analysts including Jiong Shao write in a note after trimming their target on the firm. The market has “no room for anything less than perfect”. —BLOOMBERG

The post Alibaba, Tencent shares lose US$66b as AI vision falls flat appeared first on The Malaysian Reserve.

JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities have banned Eid al‑Fitr prayers at Al‑Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, citing security restrictions imposed amid the war against Iran.

According to Anadolu Ajansi, Palestinians on Friday called on worshippers to gather near the Old City to perform prayers as close to Al‑Aqsa as possible to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Israeli police have previously used batons, sound grenades and tear gas against Palestinians who prayed outside the Old City’s walls in protest against restrictions on Al‑Aqsa during Ramadan.

Occupied East Jerusalem entered the festive period in a sombre mood.

The Old City, which normally fills with Palestinians in the days before Eid, was eerily quiet, resembling a ghost town.

Israel restricted access, citing its assembly ban, while Palestinian shopkeepers were prevented from opening their stores, with only pharmacies and essential food shops permitted to operate.

Palestinian traders, who declined to be named for fear of Israeli reprisals, said the restrictions had left them in severe economic distress. –BERNAMA

The post Israel bans Eid prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque amid security restrictions appeared first on The Malaysian Reserve.

OIL dropped from its highest close since July 2022, as the leaders of the US and Israel sought to reassure investors rattled by damage to major Persian Gulf energy facilities.

Brent crude fell towards US$106 (RM417.53) a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate for May was around US$94. President Donald Trump told reporters he’s “not putting troops anywhere” after being asked about the possibility of deploying US ground forces, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would refrain from more attacks on Iranian energy facilities.

That followed the biggest day of strikes on energy assets since the war started almost three weeks ago, including extensive damage to the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas plant in Qatar that will take years to repair. Brent crude has gained almost 50% this month, outpacing advances in the more regional US benchmark WTI, as the near-complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz hampered supply from the region.

“Price bias for here stays asymmetric, with Brent potentially remaining higher as long as Gulf infrastructure and Hormuz risks are still live,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets in Singapore. “WTI could be choppier and more capped because any spike invites US policy response or direct interventions.”

Prices:

• Brent for May settlement fell 2% to US$106.46 a barrel at 8.19am in Singapore.
• WTI for May delivery declined 2% to US$93.63 a barrel.
• The April contract, which expires Friday, fell 1.6% to US$94.64 a barrel.

On Thursday, Trump tried to downplay the recent spikes in oil prices during an appearance with Japan’s prime minister. 

“I thought there was a chance it could be much worse,” he said. “It’s not bad, and it’s going to be over with pretty soon.”

US efforts to tame prices, including the release of strategic reserves that must be returned with interest at a later date, have widened the discount of WTI to Brent to about US$13 a barrel. That’s set up an unusual situation where Brent is set for a weekly gain of about 3%, while WTI is on a path to a 5% drop.

In other energy markets, European natural gas futures surged to almost double their pre-war level. Fuel prices also climbed, underscoring the wider inflationary risks from the conflict.

Netanyahu told reporters Thursday that Israel acted on its own when its jets bombed Iran’s giant South Pars gas field a day earlier, but that it would hold off from additional strikes on energy. He declined to give a timeline on ending the conflict, but said he could “see this war ending a lot faster than people think.”

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it’s likely Iran’s regime will probably collapse within itself. He also said the US is looking to remove sanctions on Iranian oil in an effort to lower surging energy prices triggered by the war in the Gulf, and could also look at a unilateral release of national reserves.

The White House also doesn’t plan to ban the export of oil and gas, a Trump administration official said Thursday, following a meeting between Vice President JD Vance and oil executives. The industry had warned such a move would only hurt producers.

Offering temporary relief for markets, the International Energy Agency issued details on emergency crude oil commitments by member nations. Japan, Canada and South Korea will be among the biggest contributors to the broad release of stockpiles.

“Until we have an idea of when the Strait of Hormuz will be open, we will continue to have a loss of supply in the market,” Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC said on Bloomberg Television, “And until that timeline becomes clear, or until we have a game plan where those 10 million barrels right now is estimated to not be able to hit the market, the volatility will continue.” —Bloomberg

The post Oil declines as US, Israel seek to ease concerns over Iran war appeared first on The Malaysian Reserve.

The venture aims to establish Africa’s 1st commercial Atlantic salmon farms while helping the country diversify beyond traditional fishery 

by JEMIMA BEUKES 

A NORWEGIAN-LED group is setting up salmon farming operations off the coast of Namibia, which is aiming to become Africa’s first commercial sea-based producer of the increasingly popular food source. 

The cold Atlantic waters off Namibia and South Africa are considered ideal for salmon farming but previous attempts at large-scale production have failed. 

With about one million dollars in investment, the African Aquaculture Co (AAC) is setting itself up for a first harvest in about two years, a company representatives told AFP. 

A second licensed group, Benguela Blue Aqua Farming, is raising funds to begin its own operations. 

“Namibia is poised to become the first African country to introduce industrial-scale Atlantic salmon farming,” senior government official Kaire Mbuende said at a recent industry seminar. 

It was a “bold and forward-looking step” that would create jobs and bolster the government’s diversification drive at a time when the fishing industry — Namibia’s second-biggest exporter after minerals — was facing from declining stocks, he said. 

AAC, a Norwegian-Namibian tie-up, has already brought over a first batch of ova from Europe for “trial acclimatisation” at a freshwater hatchery in South Africa, it said.

If all goes well, the facility is expected to receive 50,000 eggs by the third quarter of this year (3Q26).

More would follow, up to a maximum of 350,000, country director Clement Kaukuetu told AFP. 

In the meantime, work will begin to build floating cages off Namibia’s southern town of Luderitz. 

After several months, the eggs will be transported from the Western Cape hatchery by truck to Luderitz, a journey of around 1,200km and released into the Atlantic waters. 

Norwegian Expansion 

“The projected harvest of salmon for export or consumption will be at 4Q27 or early 2028,” Kaukuetu said. 

“We first aim to satisfy the local/regional market. 

“We are however in negotiations with possible off-takers in the Middle East and Asia.” he said. 

AAC aims to produce 1,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon annually in the pilot phase, reaching 51,000 tonnes at full capacity. 

This is modest compared to Norway’s own production of around 1.5 million tonnes a year, according to industry figures. 

Chile produces around 700,0000 tonnes, followed by Scotland with nearly 200,000 tonnes. 

Promoted as a nutrient-dense, high-protein superfood, salmon is gaining popularity in emerging markets such as China and Brazil, with the US and Europe by far the largest consumers, according to industry heavyweight, Mowi ASA.

Demand is growing at about 7% a year, more than double the 3% growth in supply, it said in its 2025 Salmon Industry Handbook. 

Branching out to Namibia, a largely desert nation of around three million people, offers room for Norway’s crowded industry. 

“Basically, there are no more areas left to increase and extend the production in Norway,” AAC COO Robert Sandslett said. 

“We are operating according to extremely strict regulations. 

“There is no shortage of salmon. There is shortage of available space,” he said. 

Salmon Sweet Spot? 

Cool waters of 10°C to 15°C off the Namibian and South African coast should make it a “sweet spot” for salmon, said aquaculture expert at South Africa’s Rhodes University, Pete Britz. 

However, harsh conditions dashed previous attempts to launch large-scale production in South Africa. 

“Cages were smashed because of the high-energy waves and exposure to high seas. “Strong southeast winds create a major upwelling that pushes up deep water that is full of nutrients but also extremely low on oxygen,” he said.

Further north, Luderitz has more manageable conditions, according to AAC.

Critics accuse salmon farming of creating pollution and disease among crowded fish. Namibian ecologist Peter Cunningham warned of potential downsides to the country’s new venture.

“These farms use insecticides, hormones, growth simulants, antibiotics to keep the fish healthy and all of that is going to go into the system,” he said. — AFP

• This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition

The post Namibia dives into salmon farming with Norwegian know-how appeared first on The Malaysian Reserve.