Following a trade of US-origin premium hard coking coal on Wednesday September 15, Fastmarkets' index for premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang registered its largest-ever daily increase.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $560 per tonne, up $66.83 per tonneHard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $464.78 per tonne, up $11.91 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $358.67 per...Read More
London Metal Exchange prices bounced back on September 15, with lead the only metal under selling pressure. Aluminium had an intraday high of $2,924 per tonne. This is its highest price since it touched $3,000 per tonne on Monday prior to the sell-off on Monday afternoon. Its closing price was lower, at $2,893 per tonne, but still 2.2% higher than Tuesday's closing price. Similarly, nickel's...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron ore remains the most bullish commodity of the year, with prices fuelled by Chinese demand and supply disruptions in Brazil, along with bullish sentiment. But prices are expected to come down because Brazilian exports have begun to recover, and have reached their highest level since the Brumadinho dam disaster in 2019. W...Read More
An overview of the specialty steel raw materials markets in Europe and their latest price moves.Alex Cook, Janie Davies...Read More
Negative sentiment is prevailing among European buyers of hot-rolled coil, but mills managed to keep prices fairly stable in Italy and Northern Europe on Wednesday September 15, sources told Fastmarkets.Reduced demand from the automotive sector and cheap import material booked earlier this year that has arrived in the European Union and is awaiting customs clearance have been supporting the bearis...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-dipped galvanized coil declined across Europe in the week to Wednesday September 15 due to weaker demand from the automotive segment, sources told Fastmarkets.The European Union automotive industry is unlikely to use as many coil products as the market expected because car manufacturers are working at reduced rates due to the global shortage of semiconductor chips for onboa...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday September 15 that are worth another look....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
Inner Mongolia, China's ferro-chrome production heartland, has imposed restrictions on its metallurgical sector in a move that has fueled the high-carbon ferro-chrome markets in China and Europe, and although this may ease off, the gains were unlikely to be lost while alloy ramp-ups continue, sources have told Fastmarkets.The decision to restrict energy consumption in Inner Mongolia since December...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR? Impressive advances in ore and alloy prices persisted in March, with most markets posting significant price gains. Strengthening demand from steelmakers along with supply shortages and depleted inventories in numerous markets, as well as freight and transportation...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices and margins for stainless steel producers have risen notably over the past few months in both Europe and the United States, but there are now signs that the rally is petering out.A clear reason for the halt to rising prices comes from the near 20% drop in nickel prices seen in late February/early March,...Read More
Iron ore prices went down again on Wednesday September 15 with concerns about further steel production restrictions depressing iron ore demand outlook, sources said.Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $116.65 per tonne, down $5.02 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $117.80 per tonne, down $4.83 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $88.53 per tonne...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
European steel companies must scale up their decarbonization technologies within the coming decade or risk exhausting their allocated emissions allowances early, according to a report released on Tuesday September 14.The report, "Steeling for Net Zero," by climate researcher Industry Tracker, found that selected European steel companies have less than 26% of their carbon budget remaining and must...Read More
The latest forecasts and analysis of the ferrous scrap and iron metallics market from the Fastmarkets research team are ready to be viewed.Stifled automotive output this year, driven by a supply shortage of semiconductor chips used in vehicles, has tightened prime scrap availability and widened the spreads between this grade of steelmaking raw material and obsolete scrap.While wide prime-over-obso...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
Negative sentiment is prevailing among European buyers of hot-rolled coil, but mills managed to keep prices fairly stable in Italy and Northern Europe on Wednesday September 15, sources told Fastmarkets.Reduced demand from the automotive sector and cheap import material booked earlier this year that has arrived in the European Union and is awaiting customs clearance have been supporting the bearis...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-dipped galvanized coil declined across Europe in the week to Wednesday September 15 due to weaker demand from the automotive segment, sources told Fastmarkets.The European Union automotive industry is unlikely to use as many coil products as the market expected because car manufacturers are working at reduced rates due to the global shortage of semiconductor chips for onboa...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
Domestic prices for heavy plate in Europe declined in the week to Wednesday September 15 due to lower slab costs, sources told Fastmarkets.Sentiment in the market remains negative despite healthy demand."Demand is still good, whereas the sentiment is a bit more negative; everybody expects price reductions and has to state approximately ?,?100 per tonne loss on prices till now," a German distributo...Read More