Chinese cobalt metal prices fell to a seven-month low on Wednesday July 4, with buyers taking a step back to watch international prices that have continued to fall in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the gap between suppliers' expectations and buyers' bids widened further after local futures prices dipped to a fresh annual low. Metal Bulletin's spot Chinese domestic cobalt metal price dropped to 530,...Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market remained silent on Thursday July 5, due to continuing weak demand in the country's finished steel markets, according to sources.After finishing bookings for July deliveries, Turkish steel producers have gone quiet as demand for finished steel in both the local and export markets has failed to bounce back after the country's presidential and general election...Read More
Comex copper prices crashed to a one-year low on Thursday morning in the United States with market sentiment in the red metal affected by fears of an escalating trade war as well as thin trading. Copper for September settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange tumbled 6.40 cents or 2.2% to $2.8530 per lb. Earlier, the contract touched $2.8370, the lowest since July 2017. T...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange broadly continued their recent run of weakness on the morning of Thursday July 5. Nickel prices were unchanged, while the rest of the complex was down by between 0.3% for copper ($6,382 per tonne) and 0.7% for aluminium ($2,089 per tonne). Volume has been above average with 8,855 lots traded as at 7:17am London time.This follows a general...Read More
Cobalt trade log including business, bids and offers reported to Metal Bulletin. Unless otherwise stated, all prices are per lb on an in-warehouse basis. Delivered prices are netted back. Metal Bulletin prices Click here for Metal Bulletin's price assessment for low-grade cobalt, in-warehouse, $ per lb Click here for Metal Bulletin's price assessment for high-grade cobalt, in-warehouse, $ per lb I...Read More
Activity in the European hot-dipped galvanized coil market has been slow this week, with buyers holding back from making new deals ahead of the preliminary decision in the European Commission's safeguarding case.The EC opened an investigation into 26 steel products in late March, in an attempt to prevent steel shipments being redirected to the EU market as a result of the United States Sectio...Read More
Profit margins for China's hot-rolled coil exports appear to have caught up with those in the country's domestic market, with a depreciation of the Chinese currency enabling mills to get more yuan than previously from dollar-denominated sales to foreign buyers. DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,200-4,240 yuan ($633-639) per tonne, down 10-20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 4,100-4,120 yu...Read More
Domestic prices for cold-rolled coil in Europe have moved up slightly over the week despite slow market activity, sources told Metal Bulletin.European buyers have been mainly holding back from making new deals ahead of the announcement of preliminary findings in a European safeguarding case, market participants said.The European Commission (EC) opened an investigation into 26 steel products i...Read More
Turkish domestic rebar and wire rod prices have gone down over the past week due to sluggish demand, sources said on Thursday July 5.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for domestic rebar in Turkey was $550-560 per tonne ex-works on Thursday, narrowing downward from last week's $550-565 per tonne."Time has passed since the [presidential and parliamentary] elections [in Turkey on...Read More
Turkish rebar export prices have gone down slightly over the past week, amid sluggish buying. But market participants were generally optimistic and expected demand to improve, sources said on Thursday July 5.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for rebar exports out of Turkey was $545-555 per tonne fob on an actual weight basis, narrowing downward from the $545-560 per tonne of last week.Turki...Read More
Imported steel billet prices decreased this week in Egypt with lower offers heard in the market, but domestic rebar prices remained unchanged, sources told Metal Bulletin on Thursday July 5.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for domestic rebar in Egypt on Thursday July 5 was unchanged at E ?12,525-12,528 ($699) per tonne ex-works. The country's major rebar producer, Ezz Steel, continued offe...Read More
The import market for hot-briquetted iron (HBI) in Italy was flat during the week ended Thursday July 5 on low demand, according to sources in the market.Metal Bulletin's import price assessment for HBI in Italy was $320-330 per tonne cfr on Thursday, unchanged week on week."The market [for HBI] is totally flat here, because everyone involved in the metallic trade is waiting for the results of the...Read More
Export pig iron prices from the Black Sea have gone up this week with Italian buyers accepting higher prices after a long silence in the market. But export prices from the Baltic Sea region were unchanged because buyers considered current offers to be too high.Metal Bulletin's export price assessment for high-manganese pig iron from the CIS region rose to $390-395 on Thursday July 5, from $385-390...Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market remained silent on Thursday July 5, due to continuing weak demand in the country's finished steel markets, according to sources.After finishing bookings for July deliveries, Turkish steel producers have gone quiet as demand for finished steel in both the local and export markets has failed to bounce back after the country's presidential and general election...Read More
Turkish billet import prices have gone down this week on sluggish demand, while domestic and export prices have remained largely stable, sources said on Thursday July 5.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for billet imports into Turkey was $520-530 per tonne cfr, down from last week's $530-540 per tonne.The downward movement in the assessment came after CIS suppliers lowered their offers to $...Read More
Metal Bulletin is proposing to amend the minimum tonnage used in the calculation of its CIS Billet Index.The index is a tonnage-weighted calculation intrinsically linked to market transactions. Following internal analysis, Metal Bulletin is proposing to lower the minimum tonnage included in the index in order to ensure that concluded transactions have the largest effect on the final index calculat...Read More
Baowu Steel, China's largest steelmaker, is adding 4.03 million tonnes to its hot metal capacity and 3.61 million tonnes to crude steel capacity at its Zhanjiang city production site in Guangdong province, south China.The increases come at the expense of production cuts at operations in Shanghai and in Jiangsu province.Baowu cut 1.18 million tons of capacity at its Nanjing-based subsidiary Shangha...Read More
Metal Bulletin proposes to amend the delivery timing noted in the specification for its weekly domestic base price assessments for three European domestic stainless steel markets.Metal Bulletin proposes a minimum delivery time of four weeks to reflect the growing divergence in lead times for both flat and long stainless steel products in Europe. Lead times for stainless long products have been rep...Read More
Metal Bulletin proposes to launch a weekly domestic transaction price assessment for 2mm grade 304 cold rolled stainless sheet delivered in Northern Europe. Metal Bulletin understands from preliminary market engagement that the assessment of an overall transaction price would be a complementary addition to Metal Bulletin's existing pricing coverage of the European stainless market. Subject to mark...Read More
Molybdic oxide prices in Europe have dropped slightly amid slow trading activity this week, while the ferro-molybdenum price range widened.Market participants with either long or short positions are jostling to set a price platform in readiness for expected renewed demand in the latter half of the current quarter.The likelihood is that prices are set to hold around the current range until August,...Read More