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
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
CIS wire rod export prices had an up-and-down week in the seven days to Monday 20 September, particularly in Russia, where mill offer prices went in different directions, sources told Fastmarkets.Russia's Abinsk Electric Steel Works continued to drop its offer prices to attract customers and outflank competitive offers from Turkey.The most recent offers from the mill were heard at $767-772 per ton...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
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
Turkish steel mills continued to ignore the deep-sea scrap market on Tuesday September 21, with no transactions heard so far this week, market participants told Fastmarkets.While mills have not yet booked any new transactions so far this week, another transaction emerged from last week, which sources said was a top-up shipment for a cargo booked two...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
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
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In the iron ore market, supply issues including heavy rains at the start of the year, followed by staffing problems during the Covid-19 pandemic, have affected exports from Brazil. This has helped Australia gain a larger market share, but since June, Brazilian export volumes have returned to levels last seen before the...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
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
Flat steel buyers in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia preferred to wait for prices to stop coming down before they placed any new orders, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday September 21.Most imported flat steel prices to the two countries have decreased during the past week, because of lower offer prices. End-user demand remained weak because of the lack of big new projects, sources adde...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in northern Europe and Italy declined on Tuesday September 21 due to low trading activity, sources told Fastmarkets.Spot buyers have been holding back from making new orders because they have sufficient stocks and they expect domestic prices to move down further. Negative sentiment has been supported by reduced demand from the automotive segment. Car manufacture...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
Seaborne iron ore prices were largely flat on Tuesday September 21 with limited trading activity in the physical market taking place amid a Chinese holiday. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $93.03 per tonne, up $0.05 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $93.96 per tonne, down $0.11 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $64.87 per tonne, up $0.14 p...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.With nickel prices down by almost 20% over the space of around ten days during late February and early March, one might have been expecting us to be reporting sharply-lower prices of stainless steel, at least for the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel.This is not the case, at least in Europe and the Unite...Read More
Base metal prices on the morning of Tuesday September 21 stuck near the levels seen at the sell-off on Monday, triggered by continued uncertainty over the fate of Chinese property developer Evergrande.Copper's three-month price was at $9,053 per tonne, for example, a small rise from its closing price of $9,033 per tonne on Monday, a 3% drop from last Friday's 5pm price. The red metal dropped to $8...Read More
The Malaysia Smelting Corporation, one of the largest tin producers in the world, is currently operating its main smelter with 80% of its staff present, one company representative confirmed to Fastmarkets on September 21. MSC declared force majeure in early June after the third wave of Covid-19 cases began to rapidly affect the country. The spokesperson for the company noted that the force ma...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Bulk ferro-alloy prices have shown impressive gains again this month, with ferro-silicon, silicon metal and manganese alloy prices all making significant increases. Noble alloy markets also enjoyed upward momentum, with both vanadium and molybdenum prices rising sharply.Recovering demand from steelmakers globally, together w...Read More