Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States topped $90 per hundredweight ($1,800 per short ton) for a third consecutive day, with mills providing only a limited amount spot material, market participants said.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $90.75 per cwt ($1,815 per ton) on Friday July 16, down by 0.20% from $90.93 per cwt on Thursday July 15 but up by...Read More
Prices for cold-rolled and galvanized steel sheet climbed to new records, with cold roll catapulting above the $100-per-hundredweight ($2,000-per-short-ton) milestone for the first time ever.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel cold-rolled coil, fob mill US jumped to $101 per cwt ($2,020 per ton) on Thursday July 15 from $98.50 per cwt ($1,970 per ton) on July 8. The assessment has now g...Read More
European copper maker Aurubis announced on Friday July 16 that it has declared force majeure on its Stolberg operations, being unable to deliver or accept incoming deliveries following floods in the valley where the site is located. Aurubis Stolberg manufactures semi-finished products made of copper and copper alloys, including high-precision strip and wire made for industrial applications, such a...Read More
Treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) paid for copper concentrates became noticeably firmer over the past week, with smelters pressing home their negotiating advantage for the few cargoes that traded.Fastmarkets' copper concentrates TC index, cif Asia Pacific, was calculated at $47.40 per tonne/4.74 cents per lb for the week to Friday July 16, up from $42.40...Read More
Tin's three-month price reached a new all-time peak on the London Metal Exchange on Friday July 16, with supply concerns from Southeast Asia - due to the spread of the delta variant of Covid-19 - also supporting most prices.Tin's benchmark futures price has jumped by 63% since the start of the year, when the metal was priced $20,735 per tonne. It closed at $33,600 per tonne on Friday, a 1.4% gain...Read More
An overview of the new energy materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Susan Zou, Yingchi Yang, and Sybil...Read More
The US aluminium billet premium soared on Friday July 16, supplanting the all-time high set in the previous assessment despite limited spot activity while market participants await the impact of the looming Russian export tax set to take effect next month.Fastmarkets assessed the aluminium 6063 extrusion billet premium, delivered Midwest US at 21-25 cents per lb on July 16, up by 6.98% from 20-23...Read More
Continued demand for aluminium scrap in the United States boosted prices of some grades of material week on week, but difficulties in finding labor and shipping containers - as well as rising ingot manufacturing costs - put pressure on the wider market.Fastmarkets' assessment of the buying prices for mixed low copper clips, delivered Midwest secondary smelters, mixed high copper clips, delive...Read More
The benchmark A380.1 secondary aluminium alloy price crept higher on Thursday July 15, while strong demand and limited supply for A413.1 pushed that price up to parity with 356.1.Fastmarkets assessed the price for aluminium alloy A380.1, delivered Midwest at $1.18-1.20 per lb on July 15, up by 0.85% from $1.17-1.19 per lb on July 8 and at its highest in nearly 10 years.Some producers have not quot...Read More
The Turkish steel mills continued to limit their deep-sea scrap bookings due to weak finished steel sales, while the downturn in the country had a knock-on effect on prices in the global markets.Turkish mills restrict deep-sea purchases to put downward pressure on pricesSummer slowdown hits US export marketCovid-19 pandemic shuts down local long steel and scrap markets in VietnamDomestic supply ti...Read More
Key data from Fastmarkets' pricing session in London on Friday, July 16.Key drivers Vanadium product prices increased in the week to Friday July 16, with producers and traders increasing offers rapidly due to widespread violence in South Africa, sparked by the jailing of former South African president Jacob Zuma. Following the riots, major ports of Durban and Richards Bay have been disrupted by da...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices were firm in the cfr market on Friday July 16 despite quiet trading. Offers for September loaded cargoes rose but the fob coking coal market also remained stable, sources said.Prices for seaborne pulverized coal injection (PCI) inched up in the cfr market in the week to July 16 due to tight supply for high quality resources from Russia. The fob market continued to incre...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday July 15 that are worth another look.Brazilian steel producers have accepted a reduction of 10% in import duties, and agreed to avoid raising domestic prices further, according to the country's economy minister, Paulo Guedes.Aluminium producer UC Rusal will...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday July 15 that are worth another look.Brazilian steel producers have accepted a reduction of 10% in import duties, and agreed to avoid raising domestic prices further, according to the country's economy minister, Paulo Guedes.Aluminium producer UC Rusal will...Read More
Chinalco Shanxi New Material Co suspended production on an alumina line at its refinery in Shanxi province last weekend, removing 500,000 tonnes per year from its annual output, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday July 15.The subsidiary of the state-owned Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco), has an annual capacity of 2.5 million tpy - although that has been reduced to 1.7 million tpy since t...Read More
Glencore has described rioting in South Africa as a "force majeure event" in a letter to customers about a number of ores, alloys and metals exported from the country, although this is not a declaration of force majeure. In a notice to customers on July 14, seen by Fastmarkets, the trader-miner warned that ongoing violence in South Africa could potentially prevent them from fulfilling contracts wi...Read More
PT Freeport has said it will continue with building a new copper smelter in Indonesia on its own, the latest twist in a saga that has run for almost a decade.The company, which is a subsidiary of US mining company Freeport McMoRan, will begin constructing a new smelter able to process 1.7 million tonnes of copper concentrates per year, its spokesperson Riza Pratama told Reuters on July...Read More
First Cobalt has held preliminary discussions with Canadian government officials on the creation of a lithium-ion battery park on the same site as its battery materials hydrometallurgical refinery north of Toronto, the company said.The goal is to attract a precursor manufacturer to the site to recycle black mass from spent lithium-ion batteries, recovering nickel and cobalt in the process, it note...Read More
Benchmark futures were mostly higher on the London Metal Exchange at Thursday's 5pm close following positive economic data released from China and a sustained dovish stance from the US Federal Reserve on interest rates.The three-month copper contract continued to rally, reaching $9,486.50 per tonne at Thursday's 5pm close, up by 1.5% from $9,342.50 per tonne on Wednesday. Despite recent consolidat...Read More
Turkish steel producers were inactive in the deep-sea scrap import markets on Thursday July 15 due to a public holiday in the country, sources have told Fastmarkets.Steel and scrap trading were expected to slow in the coming weeks because of several public and religious holidays. Turkish market participants were not at work on Thursday with the country...Read More