Thawing permafrost linked to global warming is continuing to affect Teck Resources' Red Dog zinc mine in Alaska, with the company expecting its second-quarter sales of zinc in concentrate to be lower as a result, the company said.The Vancouver, Canada-based company said the thawing is affecting the mine's ability to discharge treated water, which is leading water levels at its tailings facility to...Read More
London Metal Exchange tin's three-month price rose to its highest since August 2011 during trading and was up by 5% at Wednesday's close on April 28 following news from one of the market's main suppliers while nickel made substantial gains on its fourth consecutive day on the rise. LME tin's price reached $28,595 per tonne on Wednesday on news that the world's third largest tin producer, Malaysian...Read More
A summary of London Metal Exchange warrant premiums from across the globe for the week to Wednesday April 28. Please click...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Europe increased again on Wednesday April 28, due to the continuing shortage of materials and strong demand, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?987.50 ($1,192.64) per tonne on Wednesday, up by ?,?14.17 per tonne from ?,?973.33 per tonne on Tuesday.The index was also up by...Read More
Domestic prices for European heavy steel plate increased further in the week to Wednesday April 28, supported by stronger demand, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel domestic plate, 8-40mm, exw Southern Europe, was ?,?875-900 ($1,057-1,087) per tonne on April 28, up by ?,?35-50 per tonne from ?,?840-850 per tonne a week earlier.The assessment was based on transa...Read More
Chinese copper smelters with tolling licenses have begun to export copper cathodes due to the emergence of an export arbitrage window between London and Shanghai, sources told Fastmarkets.The arbitrage window started to become viable in the latter part of last week, with the copper price on the London Metal Exchange strongly outperforming its counterpart on the Shanghai Futures Exchange. The LME t...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices in the fob and cfr markets diverged on Wednesday April 28, with tight supply in the cfr market, especially for premium hard coking coal materials.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $112.21 per tonne, down by $1.25 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $225.00 per tonne, up by $2.28 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $104.62 per tonne, do...Read More
The Malaysian Smelting Corp (MSC) will only return to pre-pandemic smelting levels at the end of the year and will restrict its ore intake "both in respect of quantity and quality" in the coming months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the company told suppliers this week.In a note to suppliers sent on Monday April 26, MSC said that the pandemic had "severely affected" its smelting capacity and that i...Read More
There may be significant swings in the prices and trade flows in the steelmaking raw materials market if the Covid-19 situation in India continues to worsen, sources told Fastmarkets.India has had a record-breaking number of Covid-19 cases in recent weeks - breaching the 300,000 mark several times over the week to April 27 - while vaccinations fail to stem the tide of infections.Higher pellet pric...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday April 28 that are worth another look.Latin American steelmaker Ternium plans to focus mainly on supplying its own slab needs in Mexico and selling any excess to the domestic market via its slab mill in Brazil, chief executive officer M??ximo Vedoya said on...Read More
Strong interest in imports of steel billet among Chinese customers supported a further uptick in the CIS export billet price in the week to Wednesday April 28.A cargo of around 40,000 tonnes of Ukraine-origin billet was reported sold to China at $655-660 per tonne cfr early this week, Fastmarkets heard. Market participants said that the price would be equivalent to $605 per tonne fob Black Sea.Bul...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday April 28 that are worth another look.Latin American steelmaker Ternium plans to focus mainly on supplying its own slab needs in Mexico and selling any excess to the domestic market via its slab mill in Brazil, chief executive officer M??ximo Vedoya said on...Read More
There may be significant swings in the prices and trade flows in the steelmaking raw materials market if the Covid-19 situation in India continues to worsen, sources told Fastmarkets.India has had a record-breaking number of Covid-19 cases in recent weeks - breaching the 300,000 mark several times over the week to April 27 - while vaccinations fail to stem the tide of infections.Higher pellet pric...Read More
China is planning sweeping changes to its tax regimes for ferrous raw materials from May 1, its Ministry of Finance said on April 27.The changes are designed to guarantee the supply of steel making raw materials and continue to drive the steel industry toward high-quality growth, the ministry said.There will be no import tariffs for pig iron, crude steel, recycled steel raw materials, ferro-c...Read More
Turkish steel producers continued their deep-sea scrap purchases for June shipments on Wednesday April 28, with prices edging ever higher, market participants told Fastmarkets.A steel mill in northern Turkey booked 22,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) from the Baltic Sea at $432 per tonne cfr.A steel producer in the Iskenderun region booked a second Baltic sea cargo of 17,000 tonne of HMS 1&2 (80:20)...Read More
Prices for steel hollow sections in Europe narrowed upward on Wednesday April 28 with production costs continuing to soar, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel sections (medium), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was ?,?1,070-1,120 ($1,292-1,353) per tonne on April 28, narrowing upward from ?,?1,050-1,120 per tonne on April 21."There is no sense in anything. The...Read More
Steel billet producers in Iran achieved higher prices in deals with traders in the week to Wednesday April 28, supported by rising prices in Asia.Two cargoes of 30,000 tonnes each were reported sold by two mills at $599 per tonne fob Southern ports of Iran.This price was up by $8 per tonne from $591 per tonne achieved by Iranian sellers a week earlier.One of the county's major billet exporters had...Read More
The market for steel wire rod in the north of Europe was largely unchanged over the past week on the disparity between producers' offers and bids from buyers, while market sources expected price increases to be achieved in May because of the limited availability of material, Fastmarkets heard on Wednesday April 28.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel wire rod (mesh-quality), domestic, de...Read More
Domestic steel rebar prices in the north of Europe were broadly stable in the week to Wednesday April 28, supported by strong end-user demand, Fastmarkets heard.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was ?,?650-670 ($785-809) per tonne on April 28, unchanged week on week.The assessment reflected deals, offers and achievable pric...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Europe increased again on Wednesday April 28, due to the continuing shortage of materials and strong demand, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?987.50 ($1,192.64) per tonne on Wednesday, up by ?,?14.17 per tonne from ?,?973.33 per tonne on Tuesday.The index was also up by...Read More