Turkish steel mills have extended their silence in the deep-sea scrap market due to limited finished long steel demand, especially in the domestic market, participants told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 15.The most recent deep-sea trade was done at the end of the last week, when a steel mill in the Iskenderun region paid an average price of $436 per tonne cfr for 35,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (95:5) an...Read More
Areas of limited demand within the United States' copper scrap market kept most prices steady this week, according to sources.Fastmarkets' assessment of the copper scrap No1 copper discount, delivered to brass ingot makers rose to 27-30 cents per lb on Wednesday April 14 from 25-28 cents per lb at...Read More
Copper prices could reach $15,000 per tonne within five years, boosted by a sharp rise in demand for the metal, which has been described by Goldman Sachs analysts as the "new oil" for its use in green technologies, in a report released on Tuesday April 13.Goldman analysts, led by Nicholas Snowdon, have upgraded their 12-month price target for copper to $11,000 per tonne, predicting an average pric...Read More
London Metal Exchange aluminium continued to reach new multi-year highs while copper and lead were up by 1% on Thursday April 15 morning while nickel and tin fell from their Wednesday gains. LME aluminium's three-month price reached $2.356.50 per tonne during early trading, the most since October 2010, when the metal came to an intraday high of $2,358 per tonne. It was down slightly from that...Read More
Nornickel will increase its nickel production capacity from 65,000 tonnes currently to 75,000 tonnes by 2023 at its Nornickel Harjavalta refinery in Finland, the company said on April 14.Nornickel's Harjavalta refinery mainly produces nickel cathode, nickel briquette, salt and solution, along with cobalt as a by-product of using the sulfuric acid leaching approach with an over 98% extraction rate,...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange have been edging higher in recent days, although this morning, Thursday April 15, they were looking mixed, while those on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were for the most part firmer. Concerns over China's policy on credit tightening in focus ahead of Friday's gross domestic product (GDP) dataAluminium sets fresh highs for the yearBase metalsLME three...Read More
Tata Steel is to relocate and upgrade its steel tube-making operations at Corby in the UK as part of a ?25 million ($34.4 million) investment which will give the business the best chance of a strong future, the company said on Thursday April 15.The two-year investment project will involve the creation of a single high-tech warehouse within the East Works. This will allow the closure of the South...Read More
The steel billet and rebar market in Egypt was slow this week because of a lack of changes to the country's construction ban, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 15.Market participants in Egypt were expecting the rules of the ban to be eased, however, no changes have been announced.The construction ban was first imposed in May 2020, with the rules slightly eased in September 2020 to al...Read More
Domestic and export billet prices in Turkey went down over the past week due to limited demand and negative sentiment in the market, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 15.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel billet, domestic, exw Turkey was $580-585 per tonne on Thursday, down from $590-595 per tonne a week earlier.Mills in Turkey were offering billet to local buyers at $580-600...Read More
Turkish domestic rebar prices have gone down over the past week with a slight recovery in the exchange rate of the Turkish lira against the US dollar, market sources said on Thursday April 15.The Turkish currency was trading at 8.100 lira to $1 on April 15, compared with 8.176 lira to $1 on April 8, according to Oanda.com.The strengthening of the lira led to a decrease in finished steel prices bec...Read More
Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qingdao reached a historical high on Thursday April 15 with the surge supported on demand for high-grade iron ore due to mills' healthy margins, sources said.Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $178.41 per tonne, up $4.87 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $178.68 per tonne, up $4.58 per tonne58% Fe fi...Read More
The premium hard coking coal price slipped slightly in the fob market after both sellers and buyers adopted a 'wait-and-see' attitude while the cfr market continued to climb up amid limited tradable seaborne resources in China on Thursday April 15, sources said.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $112.94 per tonne, down $0.24 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $220...Read More
The discharge of a flurry of import cargoes of ferrous scrap at key Chinese ports did not dampen spot prices on Thursday April 15.Delong Steel's first scrap vessel arrived in the Port of Tianjin during the day, leading the discharge of some 23,000 tonnes of ferrous scrap imports booked this year, according to the Tianjin Iron & Steel Association.This is the first time that a Chinese steel mill had...Read More
An announcement to step up safety inspections on coal mines in China earlier this week has improved sentiment in the country's domestic coking coal market.The National Mine Safety Administration on the afternoon of Tuesday April 13 announced after an urgent meeting in Beijing that inspections on such mines across China would be intensified.All coal mines' inspection offices should add more regular...Read More
Strong steel scrap demand in the Japanese domestic market is now raising export prices from the East Asian nation, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday April 14.Japanese blast furnace (BF) steelmakers have been raising the intake of the higher-grade heavy scrap (HS) material into their converters this month, as Fastmarkets reported in March. Japanese BF mills were heard to be paying ?49,000 ($45...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices shed their upward momentum on Thursday April 15 due to the lower trading activity and short-lived gains in the futures market. DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,020-5,050 yuan ($768-773) per tonne, unchangedSellers raised their offers by 10-20 yuan per tonne in the morning after rebar futures rose to a high of 5,165 yuan per tonne for the day. But...Read More
Key data from the Wednesday April 14 pricing session in London and Beijing.Key drivers The cobalt hydroxide payable indicator edged down with some suppliers cutting their offers amid a persistent decrease in downstream cobalt sulfate prices and a bearish downstream market sentiment in China.Chinese consumers have made aggressive bids,...Read More
The Cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lbtrade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets...Read More
The Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb trade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets assessed...Read More
Ferro-silicon prices in China continued to edge lower in the week to Wednesday April 14, with recent gains in the downstream magnesium market failing to provide support.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for ferro-silicon 75% Si min, in-whs China was 6,900-7,000 yuan ($1,056-1,071) per tonne on Wednesday, down by 2,000-3,000 yuan per tonne (3.5%) from 7,100-7,300 yuan per tonne a week earlier.Fe...Read More