Chinese ferro-silicon prices continued to decline in the week to Friday July 20 amid weak demand and production ramp-ups, while European prices staged a slight recovery following a steep fall in the prior week. ...Read More
Down for 6th straight week While the LME copper price dropped for a sixth week in a row last week (-1.0%, closing Friday at $6,152 per tonne), the pace of selling has gradually eased while trading volumes have weakened. This could suggest that the magnitude of selling interest has receded and that an inflection point is around the corner. Despite positive fundamental news flow (more details below)...Read More
Into bear market territory Lead prices dropped to a low of $2,095 per tonne last week, extending the fall from the June high of $2,555.50 per tonne. Prices are now down 18% from the June high and 22% from the February high of $2,685 per tonne – a correction of over 20% is considered to indicate a bear market. On the chart, the next level where we would expect strong support is around $2,045 p...Read More
Suppliers cut seaborne and port prices for low-grade manganese ore in response to aggressive bids from consumers. ...Read More
Another big deficit reported by INSG The latest INSG supply-demand data was released last week and, once again, made for bullish reading as another substantial global market deficit was reported for the month of May. The group estimated that world refined nickel demand exceeded supply during the month by 15,400 tonnes. It also raised its preliminary deficit for April from 13,100 tonnes to 14,700 t...Read More
Tin relatively more resilient After a notable loss of 7% in Q2, LME tin has proven more resilient than its peers since the start of Q3, down roughly 1% vs a drop of ~7% in the LMEX. The sharp sell-off in the LMEX is due to large price declines in lead (-11%), zinc (-10%), nickel (-10%), and copper (-7%). Although LME tin ended in negative territory last week, it rebounded notably in the second hal...Read More
Price volatility jumps Price action was extremely volatile last week. The LME three-month zinc price posted an intra-day range of $160 per tonne on Thursday, July 16, the largest since August 2017. Across the week, the price moved by an average of 4.5% per day, compared with 3.7% the previous week and by an average of 2.2% per day during June. The latest Commitments of Traders data showed position...Read More
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Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed on the morning of Tuesday July 24; while copper prices were up by 0.4% at $6,154 per tonne, aluminium and tin prices were down by 0.4% and the rest were little changed. Volume has, however, been above average - some 13,479 lots had traded across the complex as at 8.05am London time. Gold and silver prices were a little weaker,...Read More
Equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 11 points in pre-opening trade. Futures were buoyed by news that China added monetary stimulus to its economy.Alphabet jumped $55.95 to $1265.13 after reporting higher than consensus second quarter revenues and earnings. Stifel Nicolaus and Susquehanna raised their target price on the stock. United Technologies dipped $0.87...Read More
More aggressive inspections of scrap at Vietnamese ports have sparked concern among US sellers to West Coast docks and US scrap traders, as material may flow to other Asian markets or even be shipped back to the United States, market participants said. ...Read More
Metal Bulletin is proposing the launch of a new 62% Fe iron ore fines index that will provide a more representative reflection of the typical specification profile of Brazil-origin mid-grade fines.The daily spot index for Brazil-origin iron ore fines will be based on a content specification of 62% iron, 1.5% alumina and 5% silica. It will appear on the MBIOI website as MBIOI-62-BZ.The new Metal Bu...Read More
The Turkish steel producers went quiet again in the deep-sea scrap markets after booking a number of deep-sea cargoes late last week and at the beginning of this week, sources said on Tuesday July 24....Read More
Trading activity in the seaborne coking coal spot market appears to have thinned, while Chinese participants wonder whether a price floor has been reached. ...Read More
Seaborne iron ore transactions calmed on Tuesday July 24 amid mixed futures and steel market performances in China, as well as blast furnace restrictions in the country's steelmaking hub....Read More
The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for iron ore, pig iron, direct-reduced iron and other steelmaking raw materials. ...Read More
China's hot-rolled coil prices retreated on Tuesday July 24 after trading activity fell in the wake of increases a day earlier, sources said....Read More
China's domestic rebar prices continued to rise on Tuesday July 24 amid some optimism among sellers about demand. ...Read More
Aluminium prices on the London Metal Exchange moved higher during morning trading on Tuesday July 24, after a fresh cancelation exceeding 50,000 tonnes resulted in total on-warrant stock falling by more than 8% this week.Edging 1.2% higher over the morning, the LME's three-month aluminium price pushed back over $2,100 per tonne for the first time in two weeks. Buoyed by volatile spread movements o...Read More