The market for steel rebar and billet in the United Arab Emirates was silent in the week to September 21 because buyers were waiting for new local rebar prices to be announced, sources told Fastmarkets.Most market participants expect prices to follow the global downtrend.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $700-710 per tonne on Sep...Read More
Mexican ferrous scrap prices posted widespread declines in the week ended on Friday September 17 despite steady demand in the country.Almost all scrap buyers reduced their prices during the week, with most reductions ranging from 300-500 pesos ($15-25) per tonne, market participants said.The movement was believed to be a lagged response to lower ferrous scrap prices in the United States due t...Read More
Manganese semi-carbonate prices have risen in the past week on renewed liquidity, although inventories continued to weigh heavily on the market, limiting any potential gains.Fastmarkets' latest calculation of the manganese ore index, 37% Mn, cif Tianjin, was $4.56 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on Friday September 17, up by 8 cents per dmtu (1.79%) from $4.48 per dmtu the previous week.Fresh liq...Read More
The world's largest cobalt supplier is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which leaves a growing market dependent on a region that poses challenges, among them the risk of human rights abuses.Cobalt is a key ingredient in batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs), and its use is expected to grow exponentially as the world shifts to a greener economy. As a result, in recent years, market s...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday September 21 that are worth another look.ArcelorMittal is preparing to invest $100 million from its innovation fund into a company founded by Bill Gates, best known as the founder of Microsoft, to develop decarbonization technologies, it announced on Monday September...Read More
If any member was going to leave the London Metal Exchange ring trading floor, the exchange was probably hoping it wouldn't be Triland Metals Ltd.The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi, is one of the exchange's longest serving Category 1 members, having joined in 1972 after being founded in the prior year. Having a unit of Japan's largest trading company as a ri...Read More
Eight of the nine Category 1 members of the London Metal Exchange have indicated their support for continuing to trade official lunchtime prices in the open-outcry ring.Does this mean that one company does not support ring trading? And could one of the exchange's members be preparing to leave the trading floor?The exchange revealed on Monday August 9 that it had majority support for the ring, in a...Read More
ArcelorMittal is preparing to invest $100 million from its innovation fund into a company founded by Bill Gates, best known as the founder of Microsoft, to develop decarbonization technologies, it announced on Monday September 20.The $100 million equity investment in Gates' Breakthrough Energy will be made over five years via ArcelorMittal's XCarb innovation fund, and will go toward scaling-up the...Read More
En+ Group is eyeing a partnership with the manufacturer of an electric vehicle to produce aluminium with low-carbon greenhouse gas emissions, its executive chairman told Fastmarkets.Speaking in an interview on Tuesday September 21, Lord Gregory Barker said that partnerships of this kind would "absolutely" become more common as the group scaled up its inert anode technology, which generates direct...Read More
Mexican ferrous scrap prices posted widespread declines in the week ended on Friday September 17 despite steady demand in the country.Almost all scrap buyers reduced their prices during the week, with most reductions ranging from 300-500 pesos ($15-25) per tonne, market participants said.The movement was believed to be a lagged response to lower ferrous scrap prices in the United States due t...Read More
The world's largest cobalt supplier is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which leaves a growing market dependent on a region that poses challenges, among them the risk of human rights abuses.Cobalt is a key ingredient in batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs), and its use is expected to grow exponentially as the world shifts to a greener economy. As a result, in recent years, market s...Read More
Zinc producers in China's southwestern province of Yunnan should be able to fully resume their operations by mid-June, sources said.Yunnan will remove its power restrictions by the end of June that have stunted local zinc output, the provincial energy bureau said.A few zinc smelters in Yunnan have already resumed production, however, sources that spoke to Fastmarkets said.Production capa...Read More
The market for steel rebar and billet in the United Arab Emirates was silent in the week to September 21 because buyers were waiting for new local rebar prices to be announced, sources told Fastmarkets.Most market participants expect prices to follow the global downtrend.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $700-710 per tonne on Sep...Read More
Activity in the Asian import markets for steel billet has been stifled over the past few days amid continued weak demand in the Philippines market and China's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday September 21.Offers from traders for 125mm 5sp-grade billet, made of steel from electric-arc furnaces (EAFs) and originating from Russia's Far East province, were heard at $700...Read More
Indonesian state-owned steelmaker Krakatau Steel is aiming to increase the capacity of its new No2 hot strip mill to 4 million tonnes per year from 1.5 million tpy currently, it said on Tuesday September 21 at the mill's inauguration ceremony.The No2 hot strip mill is aimed at supplying the automotive industry with substrate for the production of electric cars, reducing steel imports.It expects it...Read More
The collapse of the iron ore market and market turbulence over Chinese property developer Evergrande Group are adding to the economic woes caused by the Delta variant of Covid-19 for much of this year.It is hard to find bright sparks in the months ahead for the ferrous supply chain, which has been buffeted repeatedly in a short span of few months, starting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's comment...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were down across the board on Tuesday September 21 with uncertainty related to Chinese construction company Evergrande continuing to cast a shadow over the market."This week's sell-off was triggered by a sharp negative turn in global risk sentiment, with the world keeping a close eye on the collapse of Chinese property developer Evergrande and trader...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday September 17 that are worth another look.A dire shortage of truck drivers and rail cars and unforeseen levels of demand while businesses reopen from Covid-19 pandemic-related shutdowns are among the factors contributing to the current logistics woes in the United States that have sparked...Read More
China is putting more cities in the northern region under its air pollution controls to reduce emissions during the upcoming winter.Cities in northern Hebei, northern Shanxi, eastern and southern Shandong and southern Henan will join the fight against smog, bringing the total number of cities affected to approximately 64, according to a draft policy plan released by the Ministry of Ecology and Env...Read More
After a one-month consultation period, Fastmarkets will amend the timing specifications for its assessment of the China import steel billet price from Tuesday September 28.The frequency of the assessments, which are currently weekly, will move to a twice-weekly basis after the next assessment date on Friday September 24.The change would have been due to take place on Tuesday September 21, as per t...Read More