Ball Beverage Packaging South America (BPSA), the South American branch of international packaging company Ball Corp, achieved dual Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) certifications for its 15 manufacturing facilities across South America, it announced on Monday November 15.BPSA has been successfully certified with both ASI Performance and Chain of Custody (CoC) standards for responsible produ...Read More
Spot prices for hot-rolled coil in China declined on Monday November 15, with market sentiment subdued by the release of bleak property data.Fastmarkets assessed the price of steel hot-rolled coil domestic, ex-whs Eastern China at 4,700-4,750 yuan ($737-744) per tonne on Monday, down by 60 yuan per tonne from Friday.The most-traded HRC contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange extended losses...Read More
Operations at the Antamina copper-zinc-lead mine in Peru restarted last week, with talks between the local community and the mining entity continuing on Friday November 12, Fastmarkets heard. Two sources confirmed that mining resumed as of Monday at Antamina, where operations were stopped on October 31 due to roadblocks and protests. The mine is the biggest copper deposit in Peru, and is join...Read More
Sir Brian Bender, chairman of the London Metal Exchange for almost a decade, has died at age 72.Bender joined the LME in 2010, fresh from a lifelong career in the British civil service, and described himself in an interview with Metal Market Magazine on his retirement in 2019 as a "slightly leftfield candidate" for the role.He presided over a transformative period of change at the exchange, includ...Read More
The automotive industry's shift to electric vehicles (EVs) has put the sustainability efforts of its suppliers under scrutiny, Jean-Martin Van der Hoeven, chief marketing officer of ArcelorMittal's global automotive division, told Fastmarkets in an exclusive interview.One outcome of the so-called Dieselgate scandal - in which German automaker Volkswagen, among others, admitted to manipulating the...Read More
Sir Brian Bender, chairman of the London Metal Exchange for almost a decade, has died at age 72.Bender joined the LME in 2010, fresh from a lifelong career in the British civil service, and described himself in an interview with Metal Market Magazine on his retirement in 2019 as a "slightly leftfield candidate" for the role.He presided over a transformative period of change at the exchange, includ...Read More
Global ferro-alloy markets have been supercharged this year by robust demand and supply shortages that began when the world's major producing countries faced extensive electricity limitations. With many alloy prices near record highs, conversation at this year's International Ferro-alloys conference in Prague over November 14-16 will focus on the surge in electricity prices in China and Europe, th...Read More
Steel rebar and wire rod producers in the Commonwealth of Independent States reduced export offer prices in response to lower bids coming from foreign customers since the beginning of November.Wire rod offers from Ukraine's main long steel supplier - ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih - slid to $860-870 per tonne fob Black Sea from $900-910 per tonne fob earlier in November.Meanwhile, Russian material was a...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Europe declined slightly in the week to Friday November 12 amid subdued trading activity in the spot market.HRC buyers across Europe were largely maintaining a wait-and-see attitude during the week.European mills were still able to offer fourth-quarter HRC to the spot market at lower prices due to slowed demand from the automotive industry. Notably, some volu...Read More
Domestic steel reinforcing bar prices in Russia's Central Federal District around Moscow corrected downward by $14-27 per tonne on increased supply from mills in the region during the seven days to Monday November 15."Demand remains high. We don't exclude that the government will have to take some action again to cool down rebar prices, like they did in summer," one large trader source told Fastma...Read More
Key data from the Friday November 12 pricing session in China.Key drivers China's cobalt metal price rose amid gains in the local futures market and a rally in the international benchmark cobalt metal price. Chinese cobalt tetroxide suppliers pushed up offers despite thin buying amid...Read More
Sir Brian Bender, chairman of the London Metal Exchange for almost a decade, has died at age 72.Bender joined the LME in 2010, fresh from a lifelong career in the British civil service, and described himself in an interview with Metal Market Magazine on his retirement in 2019 as a "slightly leftfield candidate" for the role.He presided over a transformative period of change at the exchange, includ...Read More
China's production of crude steel declined by more than 20% in October from a year earlier, according to data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday November 15. Total crude steel production over the first ten months of the year was also marginally lower than that over the same period of 2020, with a 0.7% drop, the data shows.October outputCrude steel: 71.58 millio...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday November 15 that are worth another look.Ferro-alloy supply-side disruptions will likely continue well into 2022 with production cuts in China and capacity in other regions insufficient to meet demand amid persistent logistics constraints, panelists said on Sunday November 14 during...Read More
Revisions to the European Union's Waste Shipments Regulation (WSR) are intended to promote and encourage investment into the circular economy as well as to provide further protection to developing countries from the transfer of hazardous waste, executives from European Aluminium told Fastmarkets during an exclusive interview on last week.They said the regulations are not intended to ban the export...Read More
The Egyptian Ministry of Industry and Trade has suspended safeguard duties on imported billet and rebar, effective Monday November 15.The measure suspends import duties that had been in effect in the country since October 2019 to help local industry combat the significant rise in energy and shipping costs.There had been expectations that the duties would be removed in June this year, but the...Read More
Sir Brian Bender, chairman of the London Metal Exchange for almost a decade, has died at age 72.Bender joined the LME in 2010, fresh from a lifelong career in the British civil service, and described himself in an interview with Metal Market Magazine on his retirement in 2019 as a "slightly leftfield candidate" for the role.He presided over a transformative period of change at the exchange, includ...Read More
Demand for direct-charge steelmaking raw materials iron ore pellets and lump has been limited due to steelmakers' focus on cost efficiency amid the ongoing sintering restrictions in China, sources told Fastmarkets.As a result, prices for both iron ore lump and pellets have eased and will likely continue to fall further because of the weakness in demand, they said.The month-to-date average of Fastm...Read More
The United States Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) plans to make its second tin offer of fiscal 2022 in a bid opening at 9:30am Eastern time on Tuesday November 16 and closing at noon on November 17.Fastmarkets understands that the volume of tin to be offered will be close to the 60 tonnes the DLA offered on October 12, but in a change in procedure the agency will no longer disclose the offer size i...Read More
Turkey's domestic auto bundle scrap prices have increased due to a weakening lira, while ship scrap prices have been largely stable, market participants told Fastmarkets on Monday November 15.The Turkish lira weakened further against the United States' dollar after the Turkish central bank cut the benchmark interest rate by 2% to 16% late in October.The central bank was expected to cut the interes...Read More