The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:Numerous ore and alloy markets enjoyed upward pricing momentum in the first half 2020, with supply-side constraints supporting prices despite collapsing demand from steelmakers and other key end users. While supply side issues related to Covid-19 lockdowns have been resolved,...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In previous reports, we noted that upside risks to our forecasts existed. These were based on Chinese steel production, and in turn alloy consumption, outperforming our expectations.Chinese crude steel production is rising each month in a year-on-year comparison, prompting our revised view that Chinese alloy consumption will...Read More
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 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.This year has come with several unexpected events which increased the bullish case for iron ore prices, while the Chinese government's spending on infrastructure is likely to boost iron ore demand and add upside support to prices. But supply disruptions and a demand surge which caused price spikes are now easing. We do not e...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
Seaborne prices for low-grade and high-grade manganese ore in China consolidated in the week to Friday August 28, with market participants awaiting direction from offers for October shipments and the release of the purchase price for September-delivery silico-manganese from Hebei Steel - China's second-largest steel mill - market sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' manganese ore index 37% Mn, ci...Read More
The active restocking activities among alloy smelters helped slow the falls in portside prices for both low- and high-grade manganese ore in China in the week to Friday August 28, market sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets' manganese ore port index, base 37% Mn, range 35-39%, fot Tianjin, China was 35.30 yuan ($5.14) per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on August 28 - equivalent to $4.40 per dmtu ex...Read More
A summary of miner-producer China Molybdenum Co's results for the six months of 2020, as released on Monday August 31.In brief Revenue for the company's mining and processing business totaled 9.1 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) in the first half of 2020, down by 4.86% year on year. ...Read More
A second deal for fourth-quarter aluminium ingot supply to main Japanese ports (MJP) was concluded at a premium of $83 per tonne cif MJP, market sources told Fastmarkets on Monday August 31.The deal was for 1,500-3,000 tonnes of aluminium ingot in total for October-December delivery, with 500-1,000 tonnes to be delivered each month. The premium is paid on top of the London Metal Exchange cash pric...Read More
Prices for carbon steel plate in the United States strengthened for the first time this year after mills announced that they would seek price increases.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel cut-to-length plate carbon grade, fob mill US climbed back to $26 per hundredweight ($520 per short ton) on Friday August 28 from $25 per cwt on August 21. The assessment had spent one week at $25 per...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States surged past $25.50 per hundredweight ($510 per short ton) only one trading day after rising above $25 per cwt for the first time since mid-June, propelled by a round of domestic mill price increases and slowly rising demand. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $25.60 per cwt ($512 per ton) on Monday August 31, up...Read More
Fastmarkets examines the factors affecting the price spread between domestic steel reinforcing bar and shredded scrap over the past two years. Trade, supply factors widen, then tighten spreadWhile rebar and scrap prices tend to be directionally correlated, developments on the trade front helped widen that gap, according to KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Philip Gibbs."If you look at it over a...Read More
Indian mills have increased export prices for hot-rolled coil by $15 per tonne this week, with material being offered at $515-520 per tonne, mainly to Southeast Asian destinations.Fastmarkets assessed the price of steel hot-rolled coil (commodity) export, fob main port India at $500-505 per tonne on Friday August 28 - a range at which deals were being concluded."Domestic...Read More
The Brazilian steel industry is operating around 60% production capacity, up from 42% in April when demand was hit the hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic, but still far from the ideal level of 80%, Instituto A??o Brasil said on Friday August 28.At the worst moment of the pandemic, there were 13 halted blast furnaces (BF) in the country, the president of A??o Brasil, Marco Polo de Mello Lopes said du...Read More
A renewed demand for finished steel, higher steel mill utilization rates and mills actively on the hunt for ferrous scrap in recent weeks all point to a strong ferrous scrap trade in the United States in September.Higher numbers have already been tossed around, with sellers expecting scrap prices to rise by $20-40 per gross ton depending on the grade and the region in the pending trade. Some sugge...Read More