The overly bullish hype around nickel and its future potential in batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), which reached fever pitch at LME Week and drove prices to two-year highs of $13,030 per tonne, is subsiding. It is about time too, because this is a story that will not truly affect the nickel market fundamentals until deep into the 2020s. As a result, nickel...Read More
United States mills have managed to stem the period of falling flat steel prices, as their October price hikes proved to be a success. Mills' announcements targeted $625 per short ton ($689 per tonne) for hot-rolled coil, and by the middle of November spot prices came close to that level, as Metal Bulletin's US domestic HRC index reached $621 per short ton. An increase of $35 per short ton in less...Read More
China's winter capacity closures are finally upon us. Although some started early the official heating season began on November 15. Our impression thus far is that the market has been disappointed by the scale of the cuts, or at least their affect. That has also been borne out in prices,...Read More
Copper prices have generally been consolidating in a down-trending channel since reaching their latest multi-year high of $7,177 per tonne in mid-October. Trading up here has attracted a combination of profit-taking and forward selling, which is capping the upside. We expect activity to remain choppy as moves down towards $6,700 per tonne have...Read More
Lead prices have been consolidating above $2,400 per tonne and below $2,550 per tonne after the high of $2,621 per tonne in early October. We have recently revised our supply-demand model to deepen the annual deficit this year and the deficit expected in 2018; we now see a cumulative 200,000-tonne shortfall...Read More
The overly bullish hype around nickel and its future potential in batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), which reached fever pitch at LME Week and drove prices to two-year highs of $13,030 per tonne, is subsiding. It is about time too, because this is a story that will not truly affect the nickel market fundamentals until deep into the 2020s. As a result, nickel...Read More
United States mills have managed to stem the period of falling flat steel prices, as their October price hikes proved to be a success. Mills' announcements targeted $625 per short ton ($689 per tonne) for hot-rolled coil, and by the middle of November spot prices came close to that level, as Metal Bulletin's US domestic HRC index reached $621 per short ton. An increase of $35 per short ton in less...Read More
China's winter capacity closures are finally upon us. Although some started early the official heating season began on November 15. Our impression thus far is that the market has been disappointed by the scale of the cuts, or at least their affect. That has also been borne out in prices,...Read More
Copper prices have generally been consolidating in a down-trending channel since reaching their latest multi-year high of $7,177 per tonne in mid-October. Trading up here has attracted a combination of profit-taking and forward selling, which is capping the upside. We expect activity to remain choppy as moves down towards $6,700 per tonne have...Read More
Lead prices have been consolidating above $2,400 per tonne and below $2,550 per tonne after the high of $2,621 per tonne in early October. We have recently revised our supply-demand model to deepen the annual deficit this year and the deficit expected in 2018; we now see a cumulative 200,000-tonne shortfall...Read More
The overly bullish hype around nickel and its future potential in batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), which reached fever pitch at LME Week and drove prices to two-year highs of $13,030 per tonne, is subsiding. It is about time too, because this is a story that will not truly affect the nickel market fundamentals until deep into the 2020s. As a result, nickel...Read More
United States mills have managed to stem the period of falling flat steel prices, as their October price hikes proved to be a success. Mills' announcements targeted $625 per short ton ($689 per tonne) for hot-rolled coil, and by the middle of November spot prices came close to that level, as Metal Bulletin's US domestic HRC index reached $621 per short ton. An increase of $35 per short ton in less...Read More
United States mills have managed to stem the period of falling flat steel prices, as their October price hikes proved to be a success. Mills' announcements targeted $625 per short ton ($689 per tonne) for hot-rolled coil, and by the middle of November spot prices came close to that level, as Metal Bulletin's US domestic HRC index reached $621 per short ton. An increase of $35 per short ton in less...Read More
United States mills have managed to stem the period of falling flat steel prices, as their October price hikes proved to be a success. Mills' announcements targeted $625 per short ton ($689 per tonne) for hot-rolled coil, and by the middle of November spot prices came close to that level, as Metal Bulletin's US domestic HRC index reached $621 per short ton. An increase of $35 per short ton in less...Read More
United States mills have managed to stem the period of falling flat steel prices, as their October price hikes proved to be a success. Mills' announcements targeted $625 per short ton ($689 per tonne) for hot-rolled coil, and by the middle of November spot prices came close to that level, as Metal Bulletin's US domestic HRC index reached $621 per short ton. An increase of $35 per short ton in less...Read More
United States mills have managed to stem the period of falling flat steel prices, as their October price hikes proved to be a success. Mills' announcements targeted $625 per short ton ($689 per tonne) for hot-rolled coil, and by the middle of November spot prices came close to that level, as Metal Bulletin's US domestic HRC index reached $621 per short ton. An increase of $35 per short ton in less...Read More
About a year ago, metallurgical coal embarked on a long journey of great volatility and disruption. It emerged as the best performing commodity in 2016 after several years of declining prices. Prices have dropped and spiked several times since then and the volatility continued in 2017 with a cyclone disrupting the market and eventually also affecting the way the commodity is priced. Although therm...Read More
The past year, soaring metallurgical coal prices have greatly affected the costs involved in producing pig iron, a form of crude iron which is the product of the blast furnace. Metal Bulletin Research's Global Steel Cost Service details how coking coal and coke costs usually averaged around 35% of total pig iron production expenditure in 2014 and 2015 while iron ore stood for the majority of costs...Read More
About a year ago, metallurgical coal embarked on a long journey of great volatility and disruption. It emerged as the best performing commodity in 2016 after several years of declining prices. Prices have dropped and spiked several times since then and the volatility continued in 2017 with a cyclone disrupting the market and eventually also affecting the way the commodity is priced. Although therm...Read More
The past year, soaring metallurgical coal prices have greatly affected the costs involved in producing pig iron, a form of crude iron which is the product of the blast furnace. Metal Bulletin Research's Global Steel Cost Service details how coking coal and coke costs usually averaged around 35% of total pig iron production expenditure in 2014 and 2015 while iron ore stood for the majority of costs...Read More