Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday October 7 that are worth another look.Brazilian vehicle production fell by 11% in September 2020 compared with the corresponding month a year before, with producers increasing supply from April lows at a slow pace in order to prevent inventories from rising...Read More
Global tin premiums in the week to Tuesday October 6 were unchanged, supported by a persistent contango across the London Metal Exchange benchmark cash/three-month spread for tin, while a steady uptick in Chinese buying interest saw European sellers take a closer look at arbitrage opportunities against a static domestic market.China's buying activity attracts European sellersCash/3-month spread ho...Read More
The three-month price of copper on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Wednesday October 7, up by just over 2% during the afternoon trading session, while doubts over an economic recovery package in the United States have put little pressure on a broadly positive LME base metals complex.Copper's outright price on the LME closed at $6,679 per tonne on Wednesday afternoon...Read More
Steel slab producers in Iran have managed to achieve higher sales prices in recent transactions amid improving demand in Asia and the resulting stronger prices.According to reports from market participants, several cargoes of slab from Mobarakeh Steel and its subsidiary Hormozgan Steel were sold to traders late in the week ended October 2 at $446 per tonne fob Southern Iranian ports.Another local...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday October 7 that are worth another look.Brazilian vehicle production fell by 11% in September 2020 compared with the corresponding month a year before, with producers increasing supply from April lows at a slow pace in order to prevent inventories from rising...Read More
Sometimes it is better to let a situation speak for itself. Alcoa, Rio Tinto Aluminium, Novelis, Constellium, Arconic, Kaiser Aluminum, Tri-Arrows Aluminum, American Metal Chemical Corp, Hydro Extrusion North America, JW Aluminum, Real Alloy, Reynolds Consumer Products, Scepter, Silberline Manufacturing Co, Smelter Service Corp and Wagstaff. The US Aluminum Association, which represents more than...Read More
Marex Spectron has appointed Philip Price as head of ferrous metals trading, a new role for the global commodities specialist, the company said on Wednesday October 7. Price, who joined the company on September 28, 2020, will be charged with building Marex Spectron's market making and trading infrastructure for its ferrous metals derivatives. After having previously...Read More
With less than one month remaining before the presidential election in the United States, Fastmarkets takes a look at how the two main candidates' platforms could affect the mineral markets.On November 3, the US will go to the polls to choose between incumbent President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden. Both candidates have proposed a number of new policies which could shake up the mineral ma...Read More
The three-month price of copper on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Wednesday October 7, up by just over 2% during the afternoon trading session, while doubts over an economic recovery package in the United States have put little pressure on a broadly positive LME base metals complex.Copper's outright price on the LME closed at $6,679 per tonne on Wednesday afternoon...Read More
A summary of London Metal Exchange warrant premiums from across the globe for the week to Wednesday October 7.Please click...Read More
London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices, except tin, ticked up during the morning on Wednesday October 10 despite news that United States President Donald Trump will not hold long-awaited fiscal stimulus talks with US Democrats until after the Presidential election on November 3.Discussions regarding the proposed US $2.2 trillion relief bill are ongoing, revised down from the original...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: SHFE tailwind for LME pricesAs we are entering the traditional strong demand season, we expect Chinese aluminium demand to show further recovery, and we expect demand from existing end-user sectors, new infrastructure projects and the export sector to show some increases. As a result, we believe that S...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view, including an upgrade to our aluminium price forecasts.Aluminium: Price forecasts raisedWe correctly expected the macro reflationary theme to raise the prices for all base metals but, with it being the base metal with by far the weakest fundamentals, we had expected the price of aluminium to underperform relative...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.These include an increase in our copper mine disruption estimates, upgrades to our production outlook for Indonesian nickel pig iron (NPI), a smaller refined zinc surplus, and an upgrade to our zinc price forecasts.Aluminium: Big disconnect between price and fundamentalsAluminium has extended its uptrend on the London Metal...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. We also review our price forecasting accuracy for the second quarter 2020.Q2 2020 price forecast performance review According to the results of Fastmarkets' Apex for the second quarter of 2020 published this week, Fastmarkets' base metals research team was the second most accurate price forecaster for nickel (99.06%), lead...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Although we correctly forecast a significant rise in hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices in the United States in September 2020, our price forecast proved too conservative.An impressive V-shaped recovery in key economic fundamentals critical to steel consumption is driving stronger demand for steel at the start of the fourth quarte...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Across the regions, producers of welded linepipe and oil-country tubular goods (OCTG) saw their margins shrink with substrate costs increasing in the third quarter of 2020.Many have been attempting to protect margins with higher prices, with varying degrees of success. Europe-origin commodity-grade steel hot-rolled coil and...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.While steel markets in Asia have demonstrated the most strength with regards to pricing through much of 2020, recent weeks have seen prices in Europe and the United States outperform those elsewhere.In a way, much of this is simply catching up on the gains already made by Asian steelmakers. They were able to obtain higher pri...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.US flat-rolled prices began to recover in August, as we expected. The monthly average of our daily HRC index hit $473 per ton ($521/tonne), which was $3/t above our forecast.The upward momentum has since continued and has done so more quickly than we expected - sentiment has turned around dramatically on fundamental developm...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloys forecast highlights:Prices across most ore and alloy markets trended higher in September, buoyed by improving demand from steelmakers with the end of the summer holiday season in Europe and the United States, as well as maintained demand from Chinese steel mills. Tightening of alloy inventories...Read More