Antimony prices remained under pressure last week in both Europe and China, amid sluggish demand and increasing availability.Metal Bulletin assessed the MMTA standard grade II antimony in-warehouse Rotterdam price at $8,450-8,550 per tonne on Friday April 6, unchanged from Wednesday's assessment, when prices moved down from $8,500-8,660 per tonne.The trioxide grade antimony price, in-warehouse Rot...Read More
The Turkish steel mills went quiet again in the deep-sea scrap markets at the beginning of this week, but they are still expected to book more scrap for May, sources said on Monday April 9.After booking a number of deep-sea cargoes in the past week, the mills stepped back from the market on April 6.But market participants expected more cargoes to change hands over the rest of the week, Metal Bulle...Read More
Reviews by Hydro and a third-party environmental consultancy have found no indications of contamination from the company's Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil, Hydro said on Monday April 9.Following severe rainfall in Brazil's northern state of Par?? in February, concerns over possible water contamination led the local authorities to order Hydro to operate Alunorte at 50% of its capacity. Hyd...Read More
Volume traded on the London Metal Exchange has rocketed since the United States Treasury sanctioned and froze the assets of Oleg Deripaska and UC Rusal. The US sanctioned and frozen the assets that are subject to US jurisdiction on Friday April 6, prompting bullish sentiment and expectations of tightness in the US aluminium market. Some 29,823 lots of aluminium had traded on the LME as of 3pm Lond...Read More
Comex copper prices were in consolidation mode in start-on-the-week trading while markets await further clarity on the possibility of a trade war breaking out between the United States and China.Copper for May settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange inched down 0.25 cents or 0.1% to trade recently at $3.0560 per lb. Talks are intensifying between the world's two e...Read More
The latest metal markets news and price moves to start the North American day on Monday April 9. Aluminium prices on the London Metal Exchange rallied 2.9% during morning trading, with copper the only other metal to be trading higher than Friday's close. The three-month aluminium price climbed to a high of $2,124 per tonne earlier this morning, its highest since March 14. The movement is a strong...Read More
The arbitrage for copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel imported into China on Monday April 9*Copper -$88.82 (-560.88 yuan) Aluminium -$371.17 (-2,343.85 yuan) Zinc -$93.98 (-593.44 yuan) Nickel -$500.44 (-3,160.15 yuan) *The physical arbitrage numbers are...Read More
The Asian aluminium market is considering the impact on aluminium premiums after the US sanctioned and froze the assets of Oleg Deripaska and UC Rusal, with responses mixed among Asian industry participants so far.The US' announcement last Friday has prompted bullish sentiment and expectations of tightness in the US aluminium market, but reactions from Asia on the impact on its domestic aluminium...Read More
Brazilian exports of carbon steel slab and billet dropped in March, compared with the same month a year earlier, according to figures released by the country's foreign trade ministry, MDIC, late last week.Brazilian exports of carbon steel slab reached 566,303 tonnes in March, down by 21.41% from the 720,604 tonnes in the same month a year earlier. The United States was the largest buyer of Br...Read More
Brazilian imports of long steel products increased by 6.86% year-on-year in March 2018, with higher shipments from Turkey and South Korea.Imports of non-alloyed long steel products amounted to 20,349 tonnes during the month, against 19,043 tonnes in the corresponding period a year earlier, according to figures released...Read More
Brazilian flat steel imports increased by 16.52% year-on-year in March 2018, mostly because of higher inbound shipments from China.Imports reached 127,981 tonnes, against 109,837 tonnes in March 2017, according to figures released by the country's foreign trade ministry, MDIC, late last...Read More
The safeguard investigation by the European Commission (EC) into steel product imports is likely to result in quotas being applied instead of tariffs, according to the International Rebar Producers & Exporters Association (Irepas)."The likelihood of ending up with more safeguard measures, as happened in 2002, is very high," Irepas said late last week. "The EU will probably apply quotas instead of...Read More
Turkey imported 577,591 tonnes of flat steel in February 2018, up by 2.20% from the corresponding month in 2017, when 565,175 tonnes arrived in the country, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK).Turkish market participants believe that the increase came because, at the beginning of the year, Turkey reduced its import duty on hot-rolled coil (HRC) for re-rollers to 3.5% from the pre...Read More
The CIS export billet price continued to fall in the week ended Monday April 9, influenced by the drop in Chinese export billet prices as well as a slump in import scrap prices in Turkey.Metal Bulletin's export CIS billet index was $515 per tonne fob Black Sea on April 9, down by $5 week on week.Some CIS producers followed the downward trend in an attempt to win contracts, and decreased their offe...Read More
European ferro-silicon prices moved down last week under pressure from low demand while prices in the United States continued on a downward trend.Metal Bulletin assessed the price of Europe-origin ferro-silicon, lumpy, basis 75% Si, at ?,?1,550-1,650 ($1,903-2,026) per tonne on Friday April 6, down by 4.5% from the previous assessment.Spot market activity slowed last week, with some market partici...Read More
Chinese tungsten concentrate prices came under pressure last week because of weak buying interest, with exporters of ammonium paratungstate (APT) and ferro-tungsten adjusting their offers downward.More miners are expected to restart operations, which depressed tungsten concentrate prices in ChinaBuying interest in APT decreasedChinese holiday slows down the tungsten market in both China and Europe...Read More
Chinese domestic ferro-chrome prices, the charge chrome index and UG2 index rolled over last week due to the Tomb-sweeping holiday; Turkish lumpy chrome ore and low carbon ferro-chrome into Europe dipped, while South Korea, Japan and the US markets were quiet. Chinese prices roll over for holiday Jisco April tender price falls 500 yuan Low carbon into Europe spread widens US ferro-chrome spo...Read More
Low grade manganese ore prices clawed back some recent losses on Friday April 6, boosted by producer offers at pre-Easter levels. Low grade prices rebound after sharp decline High grade prices keep sliding Chinese domestic alloy prices hold during QingmingMetal Bulletin's 37% manganese ore index, cif Tianjin rose 17 cents to $8.06 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu). Metal Bulletin's 37%...Read More
Helvetia Resources has secured an offtake agreement for future ferro-silicon production from the Karaganda plant being built in Kazakhstan, the Swiss trading house has announced.Helvetia chief executive officer Yuri Rioneli also announced that the company has become the exclusive and sole marketer and distributor...Read More
Export volumes of Brazilian pig iron declined by 52.26% year on year in March due to reduced buying appetite in the United States and the Netherlands.Shipments totaled 101,476 tonnes, compared with 212,578 tonnes a year before, according to figures released by Brazilian foreign trade ministry MDIC late on Friday April 6.Brazil exported 54,371 tonnes of pig iron to the US market last month, down fr...Read More