The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The Covid-19 pandemic and the associated impacts on steel production, mining and manufacturing activity, end-use consumption, and trade and transportation continue to dominate ferro-alloy markets. US steel mills are operating at around 50% of capacity, with similarly low operating rates evident in Europe as well. Chinese ste...Read More
The takeaways from the latest edition of the Steel Raw Materials Market Tracker are ready to view.Iron ore prices remained relatively stable last week, signalling an end to the price spike. And for the first time since March, at the time of the Covid-19 lock-down in Hubei, we have seen a consistent downturn in utilization rates in China. Blast furnace utilization rates dropped for a fifth consecut...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In the year 2020 to date in late August, the Fastmarkets 62% Fe iron ore benchmark has powered along and reached six-year highs, supported by Chinese demand, and despite the global economic uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic. Iron ore demand has weakened almost everywhere except in China, where it has continued to...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.There has been an increasing bullishness in Chinese steel market sentiment recently, with rising post-Covid-19 optimism about the country's economy for the second half of 2020, especially after the government announced an infrastructure spending boost. Although we believe that high prices are justified, they remain far from...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Heavy rains in China, which can negatively affect iron ore supplies and pig iron production, and bolster demand for scrap, continued in July 2020. Although this was more an upside risk to our bearish base case one month ago, Chinese scrap prices remained strong. The firm prices gained support from the rains and from a more g...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. A look at stainless steel price movements through August reveals the ongoing battle being faced by stainless steelmakers in Europe and the United States while they try to pass on rising costs to consumers. In these regions, prices on most grades of stainless steel are little changed from July, rising by around 2% at most -...Read More
The latest forecast from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.As we enter the summer season across the northern hemisphere, almost half a year has passed since the Covid-19 pandemic began to seriously affect Europe and the United States.One would not really be able to tell that such a dramatic event had occurred by looking at stainless steel prices, however, because they are more or less...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices are relatively stable this month, showing little change since our previous tracker. Such stability masks growing issues for stainless steelmakers, however, who are increasingly unable to pass on rising costs to consumers and are, thus, facing cuts to their margins.In general, this is due to an excess of...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices are on the increase in June. As far as this market is concerned, it appears as though the Covid-19 pandemic has had little impact so far, with prices on the most common grades of stainless steel just 2-4% lower than they were at the turn of the year in most markets.Even in Asia, a region often talked ab...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
Most import prices for flat steel in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have remained stable over the past seven days, with demand still weak, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday September 22.Most market participants believed that prices would remain steady or perhaps decrease further in the next few days because of softening Chinese demand.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, ex...Read More
Tariffs and other trade protectionist measures are not conducive to free trade, the chief executives of several major aluminium producers said on a panel in Fastmarkets' virtual International Aluminium Conference on Tuesday September 22.Top executives from Alcoa, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), Hindalco, Norsk Hydro and China Hongqiao participated in the panel, sharing their thoughts on trade protection...Read More
German consumers of refined copper have been unloading inventory on the spot market over the past two weeks, adding downward pressure to premiums.German copper end-users selling inventory amid low industrial demand, backwardationGerman consumers of refined copper have been unloading some of their inventory on the spot market to weigh on premium over the past two weeks.Fastmarkets' Copper grad...Read More
Major aluminium producers operating in some of the countries most affected by Covid-19 took decisive actions early on to protect workers and maintain operations, top executives said during a panel at Fastmarkets International Aluminium Conference on Tuesday September 22.Top executives from Alcoa Corp, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), Hindalco, Norsk Hydro and China Hongqiao participated in the panel, sha...Read More
The London Metal Exchange will add to its aluminium pricing offering with a new cash-settled European duty-paid aluminium premium contract settled against Fastmarkets' benchmark Rotterdam premium. Speaking at the Fastmarkets International Aluminium Conference on Tuesday September 22, Alex Shaw, head of product development and research at the LME, said the exchange will launch the contract in 2021....Read More
Demand for value-added aluminium is returning, supported by a recovery in demand from the automobile and industrial sectors, according to Hindalco's managing director and aluminium division chief executive Satish Pai.Speaking at the Fastmarkets International Aluminium Conference on Tuesday September 22, Pai said the recovery in the auto and industrial sectors has spurred d...Read More
The now-lifted US tariff on Canadian aluminium and the effect of Covid-19 on the market as a whole made an already challenging 2020 for the aluminium industry even tougher, according to Alf Barrios, chief executive officer of Rio Tinto Aluminium.The Section 232 tariff applied to US aluminium imports from Canada, where Rio Tinto has a large aluminium smelting presence, was removed just 40 days afte...Read More
Voestalpine has started up a new bloom continuous caster in Donawitz, Austria, to manufacture highly-advanced end products, the Austrian steelmaker said on Tuesday September 22.The new bloom continuous machine, CC4 at Voestalpine Stahl Donawitz, will have capacity of 1 million tonnes per year and will replace the existing CC2 machine, which has capacity of 750,000 tpy and has been in service for 4...Read More
Sales volumes from Brazilian flat steel distributors rose by 33.5% in August 2020 compared with the corresponding month in 2019, with lower availability from mills leading customers to seek more material from the distribution sector, national distributors' association Inda said on Tuesday September 22.Distributors sold 373,800 tonnes in August, up from 279,900 tonnes a year before. Volumes were al...Read More
Reduced domestic output and limited import offers are keeping sentiment upbeat in the European hot-rolled coil market, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday September 22.Fastmarkets calculated the daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?485.35 ($572.59) per tonne on Tuesday September 22, up by just ?,?0.40 per tonne from ?,?484.95 per tonne on Monday.The index was up...Read More