* Philippines suspends use of AstraZeneca shot in under 60s
* African Union drops plans to buy AstraZeneca shot amid shortages
* Indonesia seeks Chinese vaccines to make up for AZ delays
* Australia recommends Pfizer vaccine for under 50s (Adds GAVI/WHO statement, AstraZeneca CEO comment)
April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Australia and the Philippines limited use of AstraZeneca&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, while the African Union dropped plans to buy the shot amid global shortages, dealing further blows to the company&#8217;s hopes to deliver a vaccine for the world.
The vaccine &#8211; developed with Oxford University and considered a frontrunner in the global vaccine race &#8211; has been plagued by safety concerns and supply problems since Phase III trial results were published in December, with Indonesia the latest country forced to seek doses from other drugmakers.
The Philippines suspended the use of AstraZeneca shots for people under age 60 after Europe&#8217;s regulator said on Wednesday it found rare cases of blood clots among some adult recipients, although it still believes that the vaccine’s benefits outweighed its risks.
Australia recommended people under 50 should get Pfizer&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine in preference to AstraZeneca&#8217;s, a policy shift it warned would hold up its inoculation campaign.
AstraZeneca&#8217;s shot is sold at cost, for a few dollars a dose. It is by far the cheapest and most high-volume launched so far, and has none of the extreme refrigeration requirements of some other COVID-19 vaccines, making it likely to be the mainstay of many inoculation programmes in the developing world.
But more than a dozen countries have at one time suspended or partially suspended use of the shot, first on concerns about efficacy in older people, and now on worries about rare dangerous side effects in younger people.
That, coupled with production setbacks, will delay the rollout of vaccines across the globe as governments scramble to find alternatives to tame the pandemic that has killed more than 3 million.

&#8216;EXTREMELY RARE&#8217;
Italy on Wednesday joined France, the Netherlands, Germany and others in recommending a minimum age for recipients of AstraZeneca&#8217;s shot, and Britain said people under 30 should get an alternative. South Korea also suspended use of the vaccine in people under 60 this week, while approving Johnson &amp; Johnson&#8217;s one-dose vaccine.
AstraZeneca has said it is working with British and European regulators to list possible brain blood clots as &#8220;an extremely rare potential side-effect&#8221;.
South Africa also paused AstraZeneca vaccinations last month after a small trial showed the shot offered minimal protection against mild-to-moderate illness caused by the dominant local coronavirus variant.
AstraZeneca is grappling with production issues that have led to shortfalls of its vaccine in several countries.
Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Thursday the country was in talks with China on getting as many as 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to plug a gap in deliveries caused by delays in the arrival of AstraZeneca shots.
India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of AstraZeneca&#8217;s shot made by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine-maker, as domestic infections rise.
That has affected supplies to the GAVI/WHO-backed global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility through which 64 poorer countries are supposed to get doses from SII, the programme’s procurement and distributing partner UNICEF told Reuters last month.
GAVI and the World Health Organisation said in a statement on Thursday that the facility had delivered nearly 38.4 million doses to more than 100 countries and economies across six continents, and expects to deliver doses to all participating economies that requested vaccines in the first half of the year.
AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot was quoted in the statement as saying more than 37 million doses of the company&#8217;s vaccine had been delivered through COVAX.
&#8220;We continue to work 24/7 to deliver on our unwavering commitment to broad, equitable and affordable access,&#8221; he said.
The African Union is exploring vaccine options with Johnson &amp; Johnson, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said. It dropped plans to buy AstraZeneca&#8217;s shot from SII to avoid duplicating efforts by COVAX, which will continue to supply the vaccine to Africa.
Britain is slowing its vaccine rollout due to delays in a shipment of AstraZeneca shots from India and is at loggerheads with the EU over exports of the vaccine. Australia has also blamed delays in its immunisation campaign on supply issues in Europe.
AstraZeneca has cited reduced yields at a European factory for the supply shortfall to the European Union.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux worldwide; Writing by Kirsten Donovan; Editing by Nick Macfie and Bill Berkrot)
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WRAPUP 2-AstraZeneca woes grow as Australia, Philippines, African Union curb COVID-19 shots

LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Two Indian IOC tenders mopped up some cargoes on Thursday while the spot market remained subdued.

* India&#8217;s IOC awarded two tenders for west African crude loading in early June. Shell won with four cargoes while Glencore and Equinor won with two cargoes each, traders said.
* Equinor would supply end-May Agbami and Forcados loading May 23-24, while Glencore won with Gabonese Oguendjo and Nigerian Akpo, traders said. Details on Shell&#8217;s cargoes did not immediately emerge.
* Pertamina did not award a tender that closed earlier this week, and was expected to reissue a new one for May barrels.
* About 10 Angolan May-loading cargoes were available from equity holders. Eni was offering Cabinda at dated Brent plus 30 cents loading in late May.
* Chevron was offering a cargo of Nemba at dated Brent minus 80 cents, CLOV was on offer at dated Brent plus $1.00 and Dalia at minus 10 cents.

RELATED NEWS
* Angolan state oil firm Sonangol has launched a tender for gasoline and diesel imports for one year starting July 1, the company said in a statement. A source familiar with the process added that the submission deadline for bids was April 14. (Reporting by Julia Payne Editing by Mark Heinrich) ))
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W. Africa Crude-IOC takes large volume in tenders

By Pilar Olivares
MAGE, Brazil, April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; A ray of hope reached a community descended from runaway slaves outside Rio de Janeiro this week as it received its first doses of COVID-19 vaccine after a long fight for recognition at a time when Brazil has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
The community in Mage, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Rio, is known as a &#8220;quilombo,&#8221; a settlement founded by people who escaped from slavery and now inhabited by Brazilians of African heritage who maintain traditions stemming from their roots.
&#8220;It was a constant, daily fight, without sleep,&#8221; Ana Beatriz Bernardes Nunes, vice president of the Association of Quilombola Communities in Rio de Janeiro, said of the struggle to get the government to include the communities among priority groups for vaccination, alongside Brazil&#8217;s indigenous peoples.
&#8220;Today, after many deaths, we are vaccinating our community,&#8221; she added.
Under a thatched roof, by an open patch of grass used for religious ceremonies, a doctor drew vials from a cooler and inoculated the masked group that gathered.
Across Brazil there are over 3,000 quilombos, according to the Palmares Cultural Foundation, which promotes Afro-Brazilian history and culture. Brazil&#8217;s vaccination plan estimates there are more than 1 million people living in these communities.
Brazil was the last place in the Americas to abolish slavery, eradicating it in 1888. By then, at least 4 million people had been taken from Africa and forced to work on sugar plantations and throughout the economy.
Most of their descendants in quilombos still live below the poverty line, with difficult access to healthcare, making them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.
The latest COVID-19 wave driven by more contagious coronavirus variants is ravaging Brazil, with daily deaths exceeding 4,000 for the first time this week. The total death toll in Latin America&#8217;s largest country has risen above 340,000 and may eventually pass the United States to become the world&#8217;s highest, according to some experts.
President Jair Bolsonaro has opposed lockdowns, saying the cost to jobs is worse than the lives lost to the virus, but has recently come around to show more support for vaccines.
Brazil&#8217;s mass vaccination program got off to a slow start after the country failed to move quickly to secure vaccine supplies. Less than 15% of the adult population has received a first dose.
The country has vaccinated about 12% of the priority population living in quilombos under the national immunization plan, according to the Health Ministry.
For Paulo Jose dos Reis, leader of the Mage quilombo, the vaccinations mean the worst might be over.
&#8220;It gives us hope that there are better days ahead,&#8221; he said. (Reporting by Pilar Olivares Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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Vaccine reaches descendants of runaway slaves as COVID-19 ravages Brazil

ABIDJAN, April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Ivory Coast&#8217;s natural rubber output is expected to reach 1.1 million tonnes in 2021, up almost 16% from about 950,000 tonnes the previous year, a senior industry figure said on Thursday.
The world&#8217;s top cocoa producer, Ivory Coast is also Africa&#8217;s leading grower of natural rubber and the fourth largest in the world.
Production has risen in recent years as farmers attracted by the promise of more stable income have increasingly switched to rubber from cocoa.
&#8220;We are going to surpass one million tonnes to arrive at about 1.1 million,&#8221; said Marc Genot, director-general of Ivory Coast&#8217;s natural rubber producer Saph.
Genot spoke at a ceremony marking the start of construction of a new rubber processing plant in the western region of Soubre, in the heart of the cocoa belt.
He said the company would invest about 17.1 billion CFA francs ($31 million) to increase its processing capacity by 60,000 tonnes with the new factory, which is expected to be completed in two years.
Saph&#8217;s current processing capacity is about 230,000 tonnes. Ivory Coast&#8217;s total rubber processing capacity was about 664,000 tonnes last year.
&#8220;This factory will allow us to support growers who have difficulty selling their production and to improve resilience in case of a drop in (international) prices,&#8221; said Genot.
Provisional port data showed that Ivory Coast exported 1.2 million tonnes of rubber in 2020. Some of this was produced in neighbouring Liberia. ($1 = 548.5000 CFA francs) (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Nellie Peyton and Jonathan Oatis)
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Ivory Coast rubber output expected to rise 16% in 2021

* Philippines suspends use of AstraZeneca shot in under 60s
* Afican Union drops plans to buy AstraZeneca shot
* Indonesia seeks Chinese vaccines to make up for AZ delays
* Australia recommends Pfizer vaccine for under 50s
April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Australia and the Philippines limited use of AstraZeneca&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, while the Africa Union dropped plans to buy the shot, dealing further blows to the company&#8217;s hopes to deliver a vaccine for the world.
The vaccine &#8211; developed with Oxford University and considered a frontrunner in the global vaccine race &#8211; has been plagued by safety concerns and supply problems since Phase III trial results were published in December, with Indonesia the latest country forced to seek doses from other vaccine developers.
The Philippines suspended the use of AstraZeneca shots for people below 60 after Europe&#8217;s regulator said on Wednesday it found rare cases of blood clots among some adult recipients although the vaccine’s advantages still outweighed its risks.
Australia recommended people under 50 should get Pfizer&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine in preference to AstraZeneca&#8217;s, a policy shift that it warned would hold up its inoculation campaign.
The African Union is exploring options with Johnson &amp; Johnson having dropped plans to buy AstraZeneca&#8217;s vaccine from India&#8217;s Serum Institute, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters.
AstraZeneca&#8217;s shot is sold at cost, for a few dollars a dose. It is by far the cheapest and most high-volume launched so far, and has none of the extreme refrigeration requirements of some other COVID-19 vaccines, making it likely to be the mainstay of many vaccination programmes in the developing world.
But more than a dozen countries have at one time suspended or partially suspended use of the shot, first on concerns about efficacy in older people, and now on worries about rare side effects in younger people.
That, coupled with production setbacks, will delay the rollout of vaccines across the globe as governments scramble to find alternatives to tame the pandemic which has killed more than 3 million.

&#8216;EXTREMELY RARE&#8217;
Italy joined France, the Netherlands, Germany and others in recommending a minimum age for recipients of AstraZeneca&#8217;s shot on Wednesday and Britain said people under 30 should get an alternative. South Korea also suspended use of the vaccine in people under 60 this week, while approving Johnson &amp; Johnson&#8217;s shot.
AstraZeneca has said it is working with the British and European regulators to list possible brain blood clots as &#8220;an extremely rare potential side-effect&#8221;.
South Africa also paused AstraZeneca vaccinations last month because of a small trial showing the shot offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness caused by the dominant local coronavirus variant.
AstraZeneca is grappling with production issues that have led to shortfalls of its shot in several countries.
Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Thursday the country was in talks with China on getting as many as 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to plug a gap in deliveries after delays in the arrivals of AstraZeneca shots.
India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of AstraZeneca&#8217;s shot made by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine-maker, as domestic infections rise.
That has affected supplies to the GAVI/WHO-backed global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility through which 64 poorer countries are supposed to get doses from the SII, the programme’s procurement and distributing partner UNICEF told Reuters last month.
Britain is slowing its vaccine rollout due to a shipment delay from India and is at loggerheads with the EU over exports. Australia has also blamed delays in its immunisation campaign on supply issues in Europe.
AstraZeneca has cited reduced yields at a European factory behind the supply shortfall to the European Union.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux worldwide; Writing by Kirsten Donovan; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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WRAPUP 1 -AstraZeneca woes grow as Australia, Philippines, African Union curb COVID shots

LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Gasoline stocks held in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub fell by 2.5% in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed. * Gasoline inventories fell due to strong transatlantic exports, said Insights Global&#8217;s Lars van Wageningen. * Gasoil stocks also fell 1% as demand up the Rhine River picked up week-on-week. * Fuel oil inventories sharply dropped on high exports and low imports, van Wageningen added. * Naphtha stocks also dropped as imports were limited and demand for the gasoline blending sector was strong, van Wageningen said. 08/04/2021 01/04/2021 09/04/2020 Gasoline 1,247 1,279 1,036 &lt;STK-GL-ARA&gt; Naphtha 223 273 455 &lt;STK-NAF-ARA&gt; Gasoil 2,329 2,349 1,901 &lt;STK-GO-ARA&gt; Fuel oil 1,517 1,805 1,473 &lt;STK-FO-ARA&gt; Jet fuel 904 890 617 &lt;STK-JET-ARA&gt; Incoming cargoes Outgoing cargoes Gasoline Germany, Ireland, Argentina, Canada, Finland, Russia, Spain, MED, Kenya, Puerto UK Rico, USA, West Africa Naphtha Finland, Norway, Russia none Gasoil Russia, Saudi Arabia France, UK, West Africa Fuel oil Estonia, France, Caribbean, MED, Saudi Germany, Poland, UK Arabia Jet fuel Bahrain UK *COPYRIGHT NOTICE* &#8211; Any unauthorised use, duplication or disclosure of ARA stocks data is prohibited without the prior approval of PJK International B.V. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin. Editing by Jane Merriman) 
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ARA gasoline stocks fell by 2.5% – Insights Global

* Investors seek judicious allocation of Tencent windfall
* Investors wary of cash funneled into loss-making units
* Naspers&#8217; unit Prosus sold $15 bln worth of Tencent shares
By Promit Mukherjee
JOHANNESBURG, April 7 (Reuters) &#8211; Investors in Naspers Ltd &#8211; Africa&#8217;s biggest company &#8211; said on Thursday they want proceeds from a $14.7 billion stake sale in its Tencent Holdings investment to go towards blockbuster acquisitions or a share buyback.
Naspers&#8217; Dutch-listed subsidiary Prosus NV sold a 2% stake in the Chinese gaming and social media giant on Thursday in the world&#8217;s largest-ever block trade, reducing its stake to 28.9%.
Prosus&#8217; portfolio is dominated by Tencent, which owns China&#8217;s biggest messaging app, WeChat.
Bob van Dijk, chief executive of both Naspers and Prosus, said on Thursday the stake sale created the financial flexibility to go for mergers and acquisitions, continue its on-going share buyback programme and explore other ways to create shareholder value.
A major acquisition could give one of Prosus&#8217; other business segments &#8211; classifieds, food delivery, fintech, payments or online education &#8211; a welcome boost, analysts said.
&#8220;We might see some deal announcements again in the next six months or the rest of this year,&#8221; said Jean Pierre Verster, CEO of the South African hedge fund management firm Protea Capital Management, which holds shares in Naspers and Prosus.
Aside from acquisitions, Verster, who said Prosus had shown discipline in capital deployment after an earlier Tencent stake sale in 2018, said it could put Thursday&#8217;s windfall towards another share buyback.
&#8220;That in my mind is very efficient capital allocation and that should decrease the discount because shareholders would gain a lot of comfort that management is allocating capital efficiently,&#8221; he said.
Naspers spun off its international assets into Prosus and listed it in Amsterdam in 2019 to try to reduce a yawning discount its shares traded on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) to the value of its stake in Tencent.
And in October, Prosus announced it planned to buy back $1.37 billion worth of Prosus shares and $3.63 billion worth of Naspers shares.
That has yet to reduce the discount.
At current share prices, Naspers is trading at a discount of 26% to the value of its roughly 73% stake in Prosus. Prosus in turn trades at a 22% discount to its stake in Tencent.
Peter Takaendesa, head of equities at Mergence Investment Managers, which also holds Naspers and Prosus shares, said he favoured another buyback over acquisitions, given that, aside from Tencent and its online classifieds, Prosus&#8217; other businesses are loss-making.
&#8220;Some of the proceeds should go to buy back shares, which may be a better way to deploy those proceeds instead of assets that we don&#8217;t know how they&#8217;re going to play out,&#8221; he said. (Reporting by Promit Mukherjee Editing by Joe Bavier and Barbara Lewis)
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Naspers investors want big deals, share buyback after Tencent windfall

By Jonathan Saul and Carolyn Cohn
LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Reinsurers are set to foot most of the bill for the grounding of the ship that halted traffic in the Suez Canal, industry sources said, with payouts expected to run into hundreds of millions of dollars.
International supply chains were thrown into disarray when the 400 metre (430 yard) Ever Given ran aground in the canal on March 23, with specialist rescue teams taking almost a week to free the vessel.
Around 400 vessels were affected by the canal&#8217;s closure, which led to some having to divert around Africa to get supplies to global markets.
Ships typically have protection &amp; indemnity (P&amp;I) insurance, which covers third party liability claims including environmental damage and injury. Separate hull and machinery (H&amp;M) policies cover vessels against physical damage.
Alan Mackinnon, chief claims officer with UK Club, the Ever Given&#8217;s P&amp;I insurer, said it expected a claim against the ship’s owner from the canal authorities for possible damage to the canal and for loss of revenues, and separately claims for compensation from some of the owners of the delayed ships.
&#8220;I expect we will get a claim from the Egyptian authorities quite soon and the claims from the other shipowners will trickle in over the coming months,&#8221; Mackinnon told Reuters.
Suez Canal Authority chairman Osama Rabie said last month that losses and damages from the Ever Given blockage could reach around $1 billion, but that the actual amount would be calculated after the investigations, though it was unclear when this would be completed.
The UK Club will cover the first $10 million of P&amp;I losses.
Beyond that, the wider pool of P&amp;I insurers will cover up to $100 million, at which point re-insurers such as Lloyd’s of London step in for up to $2.1 billion of claims. P&amp;I insurers would contribute for part of a further $1 billion of cover.
When asked if claims could reach the upper levels of cover at $2.1 to $3.1 billion, UK Club&#8217;s Mackinnon said “we are confident we are not in that territory at all.”
&#8220;This is not an existential moment for the P&amp;I sector. It may be a large claim but we are structured to deal with large claims.&#8221;
Analysts at DBRS Morningstar said that total insured losses &#8220;will remain manageable given the relatively short period of time that the canal was blocked.”
Lloyd’s of London last week said the incident would likely result in a “large loss” for the commercial insurance and reinsurance market of at least $100 million.
Yumi Shinohara, deputy manager of the fleet management department with Japan&#8217;s Shoei Kisen, the owner of Ever Given, said it had not received any compensation claims yet.
Container ships of the Ever Given&#8217;s size usually have H&amp;M insurance limits of $100-$140 million, brokers say.
An insurance source in Tokyo, who declined to be named, said the three Japanese H&amp;M insurers would pay for salvage costs and any repair fees for the hull. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, the main Japanese hull insurer for the vessel, declined to comment.
Other insurance sources said the Japanese hull underwriters would also spread their exposure with re-insurers. (Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo, Patrick Werr and Nadeen Ebrahim in Cairo and Kirstin Ridley in London, Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Jane Merriman)
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Reinsurers set to bear brunt of costs for Suez Canal grounding

LUSAKA, April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Zambia&#8217;s currency is likely to continue weakening against the U.S. dollar next week while Uganda&#8217;s gains. Kenyan, Nigerian and Tanzanian currencies are expected to hold steady.

ZAMBIA
The kwacha may come under renewed pressure against the dollar next week due to increasing demand for hard currency as business activity heightens after the Easter holidays.
On Thursday, commercial banks quoted the currency of Africa&#8217;s second largest copper producer at 22.1100 per dollar, marginally down from 22.0750 at the close last Thursday.
&#8220;In the absence of central bank intervention, the kwacha will likely continue depreciating,&#8221; one commercial bank trader said.
Zambia&#8217;s central bank last week injected $12 million into the economy, thus slowing the kwacha&#8217;s depreciation, Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZANACO) said in a weekly note.

UGANDA
The Ugandan shilling is seen trading with a firming tone on the back of conversions by offshore investors exiting Ugandan assets and weak importer demand.
At 1005 GMT commercial banks quoted the shilling at 3,645/3,655, compared to last Thursday&#8217;s close of 3,660/3,670.
&#8220;We have seen consistent offshore investor selling in last few days and we anticipate the same in the short term,&#8221; said an independent FX trader, who explained that the offshore investors were exiting Ugandan assets like government securities.
Importer demand, he said, is also seen largely remaining lacklustre due to weak consumer spending.

KENYA
The Kenyan shilling is expected to take a pause in the week ahead after gaining ground rapidly in the previous two weeks.
At 1030 GMT on Thursday, commercial banks posted the shilling at 107.90/108.10 per dollar, having leapt from 109.20/40 the previous week.
The surge in the currency has been driven by dollar inflows from investors abroad into the local government debt market, and positive sentiment following the approval of a new financing package by the International Monetary Fund.
&#8220;It will either stabilise or start losing ground. If I were a buyer I would pick (dollars) at these level because there is a limit to how much it can strengthen in a short period,&#8221; said a trader at a commercial bank.

NIGERIA
The naira is seen unchanged next week as the central bank maintains its grip on the currency and dollar scarcity blights the spot and black markets, traders said.
Dollar shortages have plagued Nigeria as COVID-19 weakened oil prices. The central bank has maintained a currency regime that has created multiple quotes on the naira and deterred foreign investment.
The currency was quoted at 485 per dollar on the black market on Thursday, a level it has been stuck at since this month.
It traded within a range of 407 to 410 naira on the spot market but remained flat on the official market backed by the central bank at 381 naira since last July.

TANZANIA
Tanzania&#8217;s shilling is expected to hold steady next week and may gain more in the short to medium term as the new president pushes to improve the business environment.
Commercial banks quoted the shilling at 2,314/2,324 on Thursday, the same levels as last week&#8217;s close.
&#8220;Demand will continue to be driven by manufacturing and energy importers while the inflows are expected to be from normal daily retail activities,&#8221; one commercial bank trader said. (Reporting by Chris Mfula, Elias Biryabarema, Duncan Miriri and Chijioke Ohuocha; Compiled by Chris Mfula; Editing by Alison Williams)
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WEEKAHEAD-AFRICA-FX-Zambian currency seen on back foot, Uganda’s firm

MKHIZE SAYS SOUTH AFRICA ALSO EXPECTS FIRST BATCH OF PFIZER VACCINE DOSES TO ARRIVE THIS MONTH
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MKHIZE SAYS SOUTH AFRICA ALSO EXPECTS FIRST BATCH OF PFIZER VACCINE DOSES TO ARRIVE THIS MONTH

TUNIS, April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Tunisia approved Johnson &amp; Johnson&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, the health minister Faouzi Mehdi said, and will soon receive 1.5 million doses of the vaccine under an African Union plan.
The North Africa country also intends to buy further doses directly from the company to speed up its vaccination campaign, as it seeks to vaccinate 5 million people by the end of the year.
Tunisia will extend its nighttime curfew hours and will prevent all gatherings and weekly markets to curb the rapid spread of the coronavirus pandemic, as intensive care units near maximum capacity in most hospitals. (Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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Tunisia approve Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine

April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange-traded-fund (ETF), New York&#8217;s SPDR Gold Trust fell 0.03% on Wednesday from Tuesday, while holdings of the largest silver-backed ETF, New York&#8217;s iShares Silver Trust remained unchanged during the same period. Exchange-traded funds, the most widely recognized type of ETP, back each security issued with physical stocks of a given commodity, creating a product they say is free from counterparty risk. Name New Holdings (OZ) Date Prev Holdings (OZ) Prev Abs Change (OZ) % chg YTD Abs Change (OZ) GOLD SPDR Gold Trust 33,073,407.6 Apr-07 33,084,810.6 Apr-06 -11,403.0 -0.03% -4,566,898.3 COMEX Gold Trust 16,185,072.9 Apr-07 16,181,738.4 Apr-06 3,334.5 0.02% -696,578.7 ETF Securities gold (ex-US) 9,293,742.4 Nov-30 9,293,742.4 Nov-30 &#8212; &#8212; -300,230.4 ZKB Physical Gold ** 5,439,013.1 Apr-01 5,442,921.6 Mar-26 -3,908.5 -0.07% -158,776.4 Sprott Physical Gold Trust 2,606,214.0 Apr-07 2,606,214.0 Apr-06 0.0 0.00% 30,994.0 ETFS Physical Swiss Gold 844,902.3 Jan-24 844,902.3 Jan-24 &#8212; &#8212; 57,520.6 ABSA &#8211; NewGold ETF 633,331.0 Apr-07 633,336.2 Apr-06 -5.2 0.00% 9,655.6 Total 68,075,683.3 68,087,665.5 -11,982.2 -0.02% -5,624,313.6 SILVER iShares Silver Trust 574,858,999.9 Apr-07 574,858,999.9 Apr-06 0.0 0.00% 16,143,117.5 Sprott Physical Silver 133,843,149.0 Apr-07 133,543,149.0 Apr-06 300,000.0 0.22% 42,734,494.0 ETF Securities silver ex-US 100,389,761.6 Nov-30 100,389,761.6 Nov-30 &#8212; &#8212; 27,135,104.7 ZKB Physical Silver 95,169,161.3 Apr-01 95,035,446.4 Mar-26 133,714.9 0.14% 1,725,080.4 ETFS Physical Silver Shares 22,908,298.3 Mar-20 22,908,298.3 Mar-20 &#8212; &#8212; -307,868.5 Total 927,169,370.1 926,735,655.2 433,714.9 0.05% 87,429,928.1 PLATINUM ETFS Physical Platinum Shares 738,343.9 Mar-20 738,343.9 Mar-20 &#8212; &#8212; -10,582.1 ABSA &#8211; NewPlat ETF 571,619.2 Apr-07 571,624.6 Apr-06 -5.4 0.00% -447,689.4 ETF Securities platinum ex-US 617,330.8 Nov-30 617,330.8 Nov-30 &#8212; &#8212; 32,609.5 ZKB Physical Platinum 442,230.8 Apr-01 442,230.8 Mar-26 0.0 0.00% 18,976.3 Total 2,369,524.7 2,369,530.1 -5.4 0.00% -406,685.7 PALLADIUM InvestPalladium ETF # 142,113.5 Mar-25 142,113.5 Mar-25 &#8212; &#8212; -8,079.6 ETFS Physical Palladium Shares 129,466.6 Mar-20 129,466.6 Mar-20 &#8212; &#8212; -28,264.8 ETF Securities palladium ex-US 111,915.0 Nov-30 111,915.0 Nov-30 &#8212; &#8212; -959.5 ZKB Physical Palladium 78,361.8 Apr-01 78,361.8 Apr-01 &#8212; &#8212; 352.6 ABSA &#8211; NewPalladium ETF **** 27,467.8 Apr-07 27,468.1 Apr-06 -0.3 0.00% -14,399.7 Total 489,324.7 489,325.0 -0.3 0.00% -51,351.0 The figures above are those reported to Reuters by the organizations involved by telephone or email on the date shown, or those that are publicly available on their websites. ** ZKB physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium funds are fully backed by physical precious metal and investors are entitled to physical delivery of them. *** Shareholders in the GAM Gold fund can elect to hold &#8220;A class&#8221; shares, which are fully backed by physical gold. Investors in that class are entitled to physical delivery of the precious metal. Investors may also elect to hold &#8220;AX&#8221; class shares, which are fully backed by physical gold. Investors in that class are not entitled to physical delivery of the precious metal. **** Absa Capital&#8217;s NewPalladium Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) was listed on March 27, 2014 and is fully backed with South African palladium. # Standard Bank&#8217;s AfricaPalladium ETF, South Africa&#8217;s first listed palladium exchange traded fund, debuted on March 24, 2014. 
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TABLE-Holdings of SPDR Gold fall, iShares Silver unchanged

JOHANNESBURG, April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s manufacturing output contracted 2.1% year on year in February after shrinking by a revised 4.2% in January, the statistics agency said on Thursday. Percentage changes: Y/Y M/M Food and beverages -0.7 3.3 Textiles, clothing etc. 3.8 -3.5 Wood and wood products, paper 0.1 -0.3 Petroleum and chemicals -8.4 -3.7 Glass and non-metallic 8.9 -2.7 Basic iron, steel etc. -4.8 -5.4 Electrical machinery 3.0 -5.5 Radio, TV and Comms -8.0 -1.4 Motor vehicles, parts etc. 13.2 1.3 Furniture and others -17.0 -6.4 Total -2.1 -1.2 (Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana Editing by Nqobile Dludla) 
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TABLE-South Africa’s manufacturing output down 2.1% year on year in February

JOHANNESBURG, April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s manufacturing output contracted 2.1% year on year in February after shrinking by a revised 4.2% in January, the statistics agency said on Thursday.
Factory production was down 1.2% in February month on month and rose 0.3% in the three months to end of the same month, Statistics South Africa said. (Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana Editing by Nqobile Dludla)
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South Africa’s manufacturing output down 2.1% year on year in February

By Muyu Xu, Sudarshan Varadhan and Melanie Burton
BEIJING/CHENNAI, April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; India and Indonesia have emerged as key beneficiaries of a Chinese ban on Australia&#8217;s coal exports which is expected to further shift global trade in the fuel used for power generation and steelmaking this year.
Australia, the world&#8217;s biggest coal exporter, will continue to benefit from growing Indian demand for its coal, made cheaper after it was shunned by China, analysts said. Coal traders and buyers expect India&#8217;s buying spree of Australian coal to last into next year due to its price and quality.
China has targeted various Australian products with unofficial import restrictions since March 2020 as relations between the two countries soured.
The ban has also benefited coal exporters in Indonesia, Mongolia and Russia as China&#8217;s buyers switched suppliers, according to the latest Chinese customs data. Indonesia&#8217;s coal miners signed a $1.5 billion supply deal with China in November.
&#8220;Global trade flows will be self-adjusting with Australian coal flowing to Indian and European markets and South African and Colombian sources coming into China,&#8221; said Winston Han, chief analyst from China Coal Transportation and Distribution Association at a Coaltrans seminar this week.
As the largest consumer of most commodities apart from oil, China has long had a heavy influence on resources trade through its sheer size. But the ban has particularly benefited Indian buyers, while Chinese importers are complaining that they are having to pay more for lower quality coal from other countries.
Indian cement companies last year started snapping up cargoes of Australian coal that were being offered at steep discounts after being turned away from China, said Kirit C Gandhi, joint president at Indian cement firm Shree Cement .
India became the second-biggest buyer of Australian thermal coal in February, according to data from consultancy Lavi Coal Info, as it bought less coal from its traditional suppliers Indonesia and South Africa.
Australia, already India&#8217;s biggest supplier of metallurgical coal, accounted for around 20% of India&#8217;s thermal coal imports in the first two months of 2021, up from a little over 4% on average in 2020, according to data from Lavi Coal Info.


Lavi Coal Director Vasudev Pamnani said he expects Australia to maintain a 15-20% market share in India&#8217;s market for thermal coal for the rest of 2021, mainly at the expense of Indonesia and South Africa, both of which have ramped up supplies to China.
&#8220;Australia has no (new) big market other than India,&#8221; said Rajendra Singh Talan, managing director at Komin India Resources Pvt Ltd, an Indian commodities trading firm.

Only in Japan, the world&#8217;s third-biggest coal importer, has Australia&#8217;s dominance remained steady around the 60% market share it had in 2020, according to official data.

CHINESE FALLOUT
China is expected to relax import restrictions on coal this year, apart from on Australia, with its total coal imports expected to reach around 300 million tonnes in 2021, compared to 304 million tonnes in 2020, Han said.
China has imposed import quotas on coal to protect domestic miners.


For Australia, the ban has cut total coal exports by more than 7% to 198 million tonnes in 2020-21 from 213 million tonnes in 2019-20.
&#8220;However, exports are projected to increase to 231 million tonnes by 2025-26 as supply chains adjust and global markets increasingly prioritise high-quality coal,&#8221; the government resources bureau said.
Analysts warned that the trade reshuffle will make it harder for China&#8217;s buyers to source the high quality metallurgical coal that Australia specializes in.
&#8220;If imports from Australia are absent long-term, it will force Chinese steel mills to adjust their coking coal recipe to replace the missing types,&#8221; said Dongbin Feng, analyst from China-based Fenwei consultancy.

&#8220;Theoretically, supply from Russia, Mongolia, Canada and the U.S. can be the alternative, but these countries have their own problems,&#8221; Feng said.
The ban has also hit Chinese utilities, which have complained to state planners about high prices and low inventories in the first quarter, said a Beijing-based coal trader. Record low temperatures during the winter that just ended sent demand for heating surging.
(Reporting by Muyu Xu in Beijing, Sudarshan Varadhan in Chennai and Melanie Burton in Melbourne; Writing by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
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ANALYSIS-India, Indonesia benefit as China’s ban on Australian coal reshapes trade flows

SINGAPORE, April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Singapore residual fuel oil inventories hit a more than 4-month high in the week to April 7, up 2% from the previous week as net import volumes firmed, official data showed on Thursday. Onshore fuel oil stocks climbed by 454,000 barrels, or about 71,000 tonnes, to 23.621 million barrels, or 3.72 million tonnes, Enterprise Singapore data showed. A surge in arbitrage flows into the Singapore hub in March, with similar levels expected in April, helped lift fuel oil stocks away from a near 1-1/2-year low in February. Refinitiv Oil Research assessed fuel oil flows into East Asia at 5.5 to 6 million tonnes in April, similar to the 5.92 million tonnes seen in March and well above the 2020 monthly average of 4.68 million tonnes. Compared with last year, Singapore&#8217;s residual fuel stocks were 3% higher in the week to Wednesday, marking the first year-on-year surplus in three months. This came as fuel oil net imports jumped 59% in the week to April 7 to a two-week high of 695,000 tonnes but were below the 2021 weekly average of 799,000 tonnes, the data showed. Weekly figures, however, are volatile. Singapore fuel oil exports were at a three-week low of 362,000 tonnes. The largest net imports were from the Netherlands, at 193,000 tonnes, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 144,000 tonnes, Malaysia with 112,000 tonnes and the United States with 92,000 tonnes. Singapore imports from the Netherlands were at a near two-year high as inventories in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub ballooned, giving way to arbitrage opportunities. Fuel oil inventories in the ARA hub, which was a key exporter of residual fuels to Singapore prior to the introduction of stricter bunker fuel rules in 2020, hit a record high of 1.805 million tonnes in the week to April 1. Singapore&#8217;s top fuel oil net exports destinations were South Korea at 102,000 tonnes, China at 57,000 tonnes and 41,000 tonnes going to Hong Kong. April 7, Fuel oil Total Imports Total Exports Net Imports (in tonnes) ALGERIA 11,584 0 11,584 AUSTRALIA 75,062 18,434 56,628 BELGIUM 50,321 0 50,321 BRAZIL 2 0 2 BRUNEI 0 0 0 CAMBODIA 0 0 -0 CHILE 16,333 0 16,333 CHINA 0 57,039 -57,039 CONGO, DEM REP OF 11,531 0 11,531 HONG KONG 0 40,638 -40,638 INDIA 26,815 0 26,815 INDONESIA 40,366 0 40,366 JAMAICA 1 0 1 JAPAN 4 0 4 KOREA, REP OF 12 101,639 -101,628 MALAYSIA 247,915 135,574 112,341 MALTA 26,058 0 26,058 MEXICO 52,206 0 52,206 NETHERLANDS 193,359 0 193,359 NEW CALEDONIA 0 8,298 -8,298 RUSSIA 69,936 0 69,936 SOUTH AFRICA 2 0 2 TAIWAN 2 0 2 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 143,705 0 143,705 UNITED STATES 91,682 0 91,682 TOTAL 1,056,895 361,622 695,273 (Reporting by Roslan Khasawneh; Editing by Devika Syamnath) 
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Singapore fuel oil inventories hit 4-month high, imports from Netherlands soar

* Polish zloty rises after c.bank holds rates
* Turkish lira lags peers as financial uncertainty persists
By Ambar Warrick
April 8 (Reuters) &#8211; Emerging market currencies rose on Thursday as the dollar and treasury yields retreated on dovish signals from the Federal Reserve, with U.S. monetary policy set to stay loose for the time being.
South Africa&#8217;s rand rose 0.3%, according to data from Yahoo Finance. The currency&#8217;s relatively higher yield has helped it strengthen despite a weakening South African economy. Most other currencies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa also rose.
In central Europe, Hungary&#8217;s forint rose slightly to the euro, while the Polish zloty added 0.3% after the country&#8217;s central bank held interest rates near zero levels on Wednesday.
The bank also said the pace of Poland&#8217;s economic recovery will depend on the zloty&#8217;s exchange rate.
&#8220;The recent weakening of the zloty has resulted in a softening of the prevailing narrative on the risks to economic growth posed by a lack of sustained exchange rate adjustment,&#8221; analysts at ING wrote in a note.
&#8220;Given the expected rebound in the global economy and the assumed significant acceleration in vaccinations in 2Q21, the growth outlook for Poland remains good, despite prolonged restrictions.&#8221;
Broader sentiment towards emerging markets was helped by a dip in the dollar and U.S. treasury yields, after minutes from the Federal Reserve&#8217;s latest meeting showed the bank ready to maintain accommodative monetary policy in the foreseeable future.
&#8220;This is in line with what we’ve been expecting and adds more credence to our view that the Fed is unlikely to start policy normalization any time soon,&#8221; Charalambos Pissouros, senior market analyst at JFD Group, wrote in a note.
Emerging market stocks and currencies had come under pressure from a spike in the dollar and yields this year, as improving U.S. economic data had seen investors pricing in sooner-than-expected policy tightening in the United States.
The Turkish lira lagged its EMEA peers, extending losses into a third straight session after disappointing inflation data earlier this week.
Investors have become increasingly wary of the country&#8217;s financial credibility after the ousting of four central bank heads in less than two years. For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2021, see http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2021, see https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX

For TOP NEWS across emerging markets
For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see
For TURKISH market report, see
For RUSSIAN market report, see (Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru, Editing by William Maclean)
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South Africa’s manufacturing output down 2.1% year on year in February

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South Africa’s manufacturing output down 2.1% year on year in February

ANALYSIS-India, Indonesia benefit as China’s ban on Australian coal reshapes trade flows

Singapore fuel oil inventories hit 4-month high, imports from Netherlands soar

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