The London Metal Exchange has just finished its trial to calculate nickel prices using a volume weighted average price (VWAP) method on the exchange's electronic trading platform. If early indications are anything to go by, metals market participants did not embrace this method of price discovery in the way some had anticipated. For three months since Monday March 18, closing prices for nickel car...Read More
The United States Secretary of Commerce has joined the growing chorus of voices questioning the current method of setting the US Midwest aluminium premium. Wilbur Ross said the US Midwest aluminium premium is at inflated levels that do not justify the cost of transportation and logistical handling costs that it was originally designed to reflect. His view is being echoed by a number of...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange showed mixed results at the close of trading on Friday July 19, with continuing trade tensions and uncertainty at the United States Federal Reserve driving directionless trading across the complex."The complex continues to see cash sellers reign on the second-ring closes," Marex Spectron's morning report said. "And these have therefore presented a go...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their latest price moves.Read More
The London Metal Exchange will continue to push forward with relaxing its queue-based rent capping (QBRC) rule, a key area of warehousing reform, to 80 days, sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets understands that there was a warehousing committee meeting on Thursday July 19, during which plans on the warehousing reforms were put to warehousing members. Under the new proposal, warehouses will be ab...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their latest price moves.Read More
The zinc price has been fluctuating so much this year that analysts still cannot agree on where it is headed. Commodities researchers from major banks surveyed by Fastmarkets differed by $500 per tonne on their second-half 2019 forecast - that is 23.7% of the galvanizing metal's current value. At $2,460 per tonne at the open on Friday July 19, the LME three-month zinc contract was just $10 down fr...Read More
North China copper smelter Baiyin Nonferrous Group's one-month shutdown in July has had limited impact on copper concentrates and outright copper prices in China, market sources told Fastmarkets. Baiyin Nonferrous Group will restart its 200,000-tonne-per-year smelter by the end of July after the facility was suspended in late June to complete a flash furnace upgrade, market sources told Fastmarket...Read More
Nyrstar lost ?,?31 million ($34.8 million) as a result of closing out inventory zinc and lead hedges in the first half of the year, the company said on Friday July 19. "Nyrstar realized a one-off cash benefit of approximately $40 million and since this time has been fully exposed to fluctuations in metal prices for its metal at risk," it said in an update from its 2018 annual results where it had...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their latest price moves.Read More
Scrap prices in most global markets pushed upward in the week ended Friday July 19, in line with stronger Turkish import prices. But this excluded the Indian market, which was hurt by limited trading activity. Turkish import prices up week-on-week, bookings resume US export prices flat on East Coast, up on West Coast Asian import prices up on steady demand but upside limited Indian prices down on...Read More
The price of shredded ferrous scrap imported into India fell this week due to a lack of demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday July 19.Fastmarkets' weekly price for steel scrap, shredded, index, import, cfr Nhava Sheva, India, was $314.23 per tonne on July 19, down from $319.09 per tonne on July 12.Offer prices for shredded scrap moved down this week to $308-320 per tonne, from $315 to $3...Read More
Turkish steel producers continued to book deep-sea ferrous scrap cargoes for August shipments at the end of the week, sources said on Friday July 19.A steel mill in the Izmir region booked a Baltic Sea cargo, comprising 14,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $295 per tonne, 12,000 tonnes of shredded at $300 per tonne and 6,000 tonnes of bonus at $305 per tonne cfr.A steel mill in the Marmara region b...Read More
Comments from US Federal Reserve officials overnight appeared dovish after New York Federal Reserve president John Williams stressed at the annual meeting of the Central Bank Research Association that "it is better to take preventative measures than to wait for disaster to unfold". With the market already pricing in a 25-basis-point cut in the central bank's benchmark interest rate at the Federal...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their latest price moves.Read More
Battery-grade lithium prices in China decreased further in the week ending Thursday July 18 due to unimproved downstream demand, while most buyers were in no rush to buy more material due to current reduced cathode and battery production in China, buying only on a hand-to-mouth basis.Battery-grade lithium carbonate and hydroxide prices moved further down this week.Technical and industrial-grade li...Read More
Swedish steelmaker SSAB expects demand for heavy steel plate to remain strong in the United States during the third quarter of 2019 but sees demand for flat steel in Europe decreasing due to seasonal reasons. Shipments of steel products from SSAB's Americas division totaled 909,000 tonnes in the second quarter, down by 6.54% year on year, the steelmaker said on Friday July 19. Shipments from SSAB...Read More
Flat-rolled steel prices mostly moved upward in South America during the week ended Friday July 19, following the persistent Chinese uptrend, but the prices for hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG) and Galvalume were unchanged.Fastmarkets' assessment of the price for steel hot-rolled coil, import, cfr main ports South America, was $540-550 per tonne on July 19, compared with $520-545 per tonne a week...Read More
Offer prices for South Korea-origin hot-rolled coil (HRC) exported to India have increased by at least $5 per tonne to $535-540 per tonne cfr Mumbai for shipments in August, Fastmarkets heard on Friday July 19.HRC from South Korea was last booked about a month ago at $530-535 per tonne cfr Mumbai.Importers, however, were currently not keen on booking HRC shipments for fear of the imposition of a s...Read More