Usually after a London Metal Exchange discussion paper there is a decent idea of what the outcome is likely to be. But this time around, it seems much harder to tell which path the LME will take. The proposals under debate include the permanent closure of the exchange's open outcry trading floor, known as the ring, which dates back to 1877. They also include the incentivization of electronic trade...Read More
Australian lithium-spodumene producer Altura Mining has appointed Alex Cheeseman chief executive officer with immediate effect, the company said on Friday April 16. Cheeseman was previously the general manager of marketing for Altura prior to the administration process that was initiated in October 2020.Read More
It seems that copper's biggest market has soured on the metal. Premiums paid over exchange prices for copper cathodes imported into China have fallen in recent weeks, dropping to a five-month low in a decline that shows no signs of slowing down.Fastmarkets' benchmark copper grade-A cathode ER premium, cif Shanghai was at $40-48 per tonne on Wednesday April 14, a five-month low.Falling premiums for...Read More
Nickel briquette has steadily become a more favored choice of feedstock for Chinese battery-grade nickel sulfate producers in recent months, resulting in a notable pick-up in spot trading activity for the former.But recent declines in the Chinese nickel sulfate price have raised questions among market participants about whether this trend will continue. Fastmarkets examines the major factors behin...Read More
Three-month prices for base metals on the London Metal Exchange showed mixed fortunes at the close of trading on Monday April 16, despite the US Dollar Index being at a six-weeks low, with only copper showing a gain a of more than 1%, and nickel falling from its Friday price.Copper's three-month price was up by 1.8% at 5pm on Monday to $9,376 per tonne, compared with Friday's closing price of $9,2...Read More
It seems that copper's biggest market has soured on the metal. Premiums paid over exchange prices for copper cathodes imported into China have fallen in recent weeks, dropping to a five-month low in a decline that shows no signs of slowing down.Fastmarkets' benchmark copper grade-A cathode ER premium, cif Shanghai was at $40-48 per tonne on Wednesday April 14, a five-month low.Falling premiums for...Read More
Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices edged up slightly on Monday April 19.In the cfr market, imported coking coal prices were supported by positive market sentiment due to expectations of short supplies and rising domestic coking coal and metallurgical coke prices, while buying interest has started to revive after falling offer prices in the fob market, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets ind...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:?EUR? There is no end in sight to the shortfall in flat steel supply that has characterized US markets in early 2021, and we expect record-high US pricing for hot-rolled coil to persist through the second quarter of 2021 and into the second half of the year. We are fo...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.In both Europe and the United States, the prices of most flat steel products have pushed to record highs in the weeks to Monday March 22. They remain slightly below their mid-2008 peaks in China, but are at multi-year highs there too.This illustrates in part the heavier consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for steelmakers in...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Chinese seamless linepipe prices have jumped by $120 per tonne over the past month because of rising costs. With iron ore prices remaining elevated, scrap costs on the rise, and activity at steel mills curbed by environmental measures, steel billet has become difficult to source, bolstering the prices for seamless linep...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. This month's key North American steel forecast highlights: US hot-rolled coil prices continued to move in line with our forecasts in February, although actual prices again modestly exceeded our forecasts. Domestic HRC prices averaged $1,194 per ton in February, exceeding our forecast price of $1,150 per ton for the month. U...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR? Impressive advances in ore and alloy prices persisted in March, with most markets posting significant price gains. Strengthening demand from steelmakers along with supply shortages and depleted inventories in numerous markets, as well as freight and transportation...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR?In a strong start to the year, January saw ore and alloy pricing gains across all markets priced by Fastmarkets - with the exception of Chinese silicon metal export prices, which retreated slightly last month after posting impressive gains in December 2020.The combination...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.With nickel prices down by almost 20% over the space of around ten days during late February and early March, one might have been expecting us to be reporting sharply-lower prices of stainless steel, at least for the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel.This is not the case, at least in Europe and the Unite...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.We spoke in our previous tracker of stainless steel prices ending 2020 on a high. That trend has continued during early 2021 and, in fact, the upward rally in prices has increased its momentum.Compared with the monthly price increase of some 5% seen at the end of 2020, prices for grade-304 stainless steel in al...Read More
Key data from Fastmarkets' pricing session in Europe on Friday April 16.Key drivers Market participants report lower offers all under $1,000 per kg for prompt delivery material on spot basis. Most germanium-dioxide material is tied up in long-term contracts on a formula basis, however, material rarely exchanges hands in...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Europe increased further on Monday April 19 after ArcelorMittal announced an increase in its offer prices last week, sources told Fastmarkets.The mood in the market is bullish, and buyers are expected to accept even higher prices soon.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at ?,?941.67 ($1,128.10) per tonne...Read More
Chinese alumina refinery Kaiman (Sanmenxia) Aluminium has cut its production by half because of a shortage of bauxite supplies, market sources told Fastmarkets on Monday April 19.Hangzhou Jinjiang Group owns the refinery in Sanmenxia city in Henan province, which has capacity for 2.1 million tonnes per year. It will reduce output for at least one month starting from Monday, but could extend the cu...Read More
Several major Chinese metal producers bought zinc and gold concentrates produced in North Korea in 2019, despite economic sanctions, a court ruling has revealed.Thirteen men were convicted of smuggling metal raw materials across the closed China-North Korea border, according to a ruling by the Jiangsu Yangcheng Intermediate Court on Wednesday March 31, resulting from the lawsuit (2021) Jiangsu 09...Read More
It seems that copper's biggest market has soured on the metal. Premiums paid over exchange prices for copper cathodes imported into China have fallen in recent weeks, dropping to a five-month low in a decline that shows no signs of slowing down.Fastmarkets' benchmark copper grade-A cathode ER premium, cif Shanghai was at $40-48 per tonne on Wednesday April 14, a five-month low.Falling premiums for...Read More