Base metals on the London Metal Exchange ended trading broadly lower on Tuesday June 19, lead by a 2.2% drop in aluminium prices while nickel and zinc's three-month prices dipped 2.1%. Pressured by a surging US dollar index, which reached a fresh 2018 high of 95.30, the base metals complex traded lower throughout the day.Aluminium's three-month price recorded the largest drop of the day, shedding...Read More
Iron ore prices fell in both the physical and paper markets on Tuesday June 19 amid threats of a new round of tariffs by the United States on Chinese imports.Metal Bulletin 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $66.45 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down by $2.04 per tonneMetal Bulletin 58% Fe Premium Index: $53.62 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down by $0.57 per tonneMetal Bulletin 65% Fe Iron Ore Index: $86.80 per tonne cfr Qi...Read More
There was little movement in the seaborne coking coal market on Tuesday June 19 with both buyers and sellers remaining on the sidelines.China's coke sector - which has been under strict production restrictions since early this year due to the Chinese government making an aggressive push toward cutting emissions - remains a major determining factor for price movements in the coking coal market."End...Read More
UC Rusal has started to export bauxite mined at Dian-Dian in Guinea's Bok?(C) province. Shipments follow the completion of the first stage of development at the deposit, which has capacity of 3 million tonnes per year of bauxite. As part of the first stage, Rusal has built the necessary roads, railway and other infrastructure needed...Read More
Flat steel import prices in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were stable this week following the Eid al-Fitr break, sources told Metal Bulletin on Tuesday June 19.Buyers expect new price offers later this week or early next week. The UAE returned to work on Monday June 18, but Saudi Arabia will continue celebrating Eid until Thursday June 21. UAE traders expect offers from China to...Read More
Mill-grade aluminium scrap prices in the United States have edged lower following declines on the London Metal Exchange, while most smelter-grade scrap prices maintained a steady footing.Prices for mill-grade aluminium scrap fell by 2 cents per lb across the board on Monday June 18, while the price for used beverage cans also dropped by 2 cents, according to American Metal Market's...Read More
The US Midwest copper premium in the United States has risen by a half-cent, with freight costs propelling the market to a nearly four-year high.American Metal Market's assessment of the US copper cathode premium rose to 6.5-7 cents per lb delivered to the Midwest on Tuesday June 19, the highest level since mid-July 2014. This marks the second upward move since late May, when t...Read More
This notice is for a correction to Metal Bulletin's assessment of the Rotterdam duty-unpaid aluminium P1020 single number premium, published on June 19, 2018.Metal Bulletin has corrected its Rotterdam duty-unpaid aluminium P1020 single number premium, which was published incorrectly on June 19, 2018 due to an input error.The premium should have been $95 per tonne in-warehouse, not $100 per tonne i...Read More
Flat steel sales from Brazilian distributors dropped by 15.8% year on year in May, as the market was affected by the two-week truck drivers' strike last month.Sales reached 203,000 tonnes during the month, compared with 241,000 tonnes a year before, according to figures released by national flat steel association Inda on Tuesday June 19. Shipments also dropped by 9.8% from April's level of 225,100...Read More
The CIS export wire rod market picked up in the week ended Monday June 18, with customers accepting higher prices after a positive trend emerged in the billet segment and buying activity thawed following the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.Metal Bulletin's weekly assessment of export prices for CIS-origin wire rod was $575-595 per tonne fob Black Sea on Monday, up from $560-580 per tonne...Read More
Prices for rebar and steel billet in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were stable on low demand this week because of the Eid al-Fitr holiday that ended on Monday June 18 in the UAE and continues until Thursday in Saudi Arabia, sources told Metal Bulletin on Tuesday June 19.The Eid holiday, which started on June 15 and ended on June 17, marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. H...Read More
Large traders in Russia's central region around Moscow have not resumed hot rolled (HR) and cold rolled (CR) steel sheet purchases despite lower offers from mills."We didn't buy material last week because according to our stocking agreement we can wait," one stockist trader told Metal Bulletin. "We had a short working week due to the [Russian public] holiday [June 11-12] and the World Cup slowing...Read More
China's domestic hot-rolled coil prices tumbled on Tuesday, the first trading day after the three-day Dragon Boat Festival, following US president Trump's tariff threat on $200 billion of Chinese goods.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,270-4,300 yuan ($663-668) per tonne, down 20-40 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 4,200-4,230 yuan per tonne, down 20-40 yuan per tonneHRC prices dropped to...Read More
Increased demand for hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil from the Commonwealth of Independent States has led to a rise in prices for the first time since early March. Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for CIS-origin HRC exports was $550-565 per tonne fob Black Sea on Monday June 18, up from $535-555 per tonne a week earlier. In the three months to June 11, the average HRC export price...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices moved down on sparse trading on Tuesday June 19 amid weakening futures. Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 4,120-4,160 yuan ($640-646) per tonne, down 20 yuan per tonne Northern China (Beijing): 3,910-3,940 yuan per tonne, down 40 yuan per tonne Futures tumbled during the day following threats by US President Donald Trump to impose a 10% tariff on more Chinese imports...Read More
Pilbara Minerals has made the first shipment of direct shipping ore (DSO) from its wholly owned Pilgangoora lithium-tantalum project in Australia.Via minor and iron ore explorer Atlas Iron, with which it has an offtake deal, Pilbara Minerals miner shipped 85,000 tonnes of DRO from Port Hedland to China on June 16.Pilbara Minerals has agreed to deliver at least 1 million tonnes of unprocessed lithi...Read More
Chile's National Economic Prosecutor's Office (FNE) is investigating the sale of a 24% stake in SQM, the country's largest lithium producer, to Chinese miner Tianqi.The deal comes at a time when lithium prices have soared thanks to increased demand from the electric vehicle sector, which requires lithium compounds to produce renewable car batteries. Metal Bulletin assessed the Chinese domesti...Read More
The recent uptrend in prices persisted across the Chinese, European and United States' vanadium markets owing to low availability. Fob China vanadium prices rose on domestic tightness as uptrend continues European ferro-vanadium market strengthened once again amid supply concerns US ferro-vanadium market ascends on low availability Metal Bulletin assessed fob China ferro-vanadium min 78...Read More
Production curtailments at major Chinese producer Ningxia Tianyuan will continue to support manganese flake and ferro-chrome markets, market participants have told Metal Bulletin. Last month, Ningxia Tianyuan, the world's biggest manganese flake producer, cut manganese flake output by around 16,000 tonnes per month after one of its three facilities were closed for maintenance, a source at the...Read More
Ammonium paratungstate (APT) prices continued to be buoyed in the latest pricing sessions by producer shutdowns in China's Jiangxi province, with the effects felt in the European market too. Low availability in the ammonium paratungstate market continues, but the export market saw fewer inquiries in the past week Prices for domestic tungsten concentrates and fob China ferro-tungsten remaine...Read More