The Indian export price for silico-manganese jumped by nearly 9% on Friday March 19 to the highest since Fastmarkets started to assess the market in June 2014. Fastmarkets assessed the silico-manganese, 65% Mn min, min 16% Si, fob India price at $1,250-1,280 per tonne on Friday, up by $100 per tonne, or 8.58%, week on week. The previous high of $1,220-1,260 per tonne was achieved in February...Read More
Fluctuating global prices and erratic downstream secondary aluminium consumption have market participants in Europe wondering how to manage risk through periods of volatility. Fastmarkets' assessment of the aluminium pressure die-casting ingot DIN226/A380, delivered Europe was at ?,?2,010-2,040 ($2,391.04-2,426.72) per tonne Friday March 19, down from ?,?2,040-2,090 per tonne the week before....Read More
Base metals prices on both the London Metal Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange, as well as spot precious metals prices, were mainly weaker this morning, Tuesday March 23, as were broader markets.* Markets looking more nervous after concerted Western government sanctions on China have raised geopolitical tension.* Europe braces for further Covid-19 lockdownsBase metalsLME three-month base m...Read More
Texas Instruments (TXN), an S&P 100 stock moved above $181.80 to an all-time high extending an intermediate uptrend. Pre-opening Comments for Tuesday March 23rdU.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 13 points in pre-opening trade. Crude oil dropped $2.45 to US$59.11 per barrel in pre-opening trade. Energy stocks are expected to respond in early t...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday March 19 that are worth another look.Import activity in the South American flat-rolled steel market was nearly at a halt in the week ended on March 19 due to growing uncertainty about the existing Chinese steel export tax rebate.Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday March 19 that are worth another look.Import activity in the South American flat-rolled steel market was nearly at a halt in the week ended on March 19 due to growing uncertainty about the existing Chinese steel export tax rebate.Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday March 19 that are worth another look.Import activity in the South American flat-rolled steel market was nearly at a halt in the week ended on March 19 due to growing uncertainty about the existing Chinese steel export tax rebate.Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday March 19 that are worth another look.Import activity in the South American flat-rolled steel market was nearly at a halt in the week ended on March 19 due to growing uncertainty about the existing Chinese steel export tax rebate.Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday March 19 that are worth another look.Import activity in the South American flat-rolled steel market was nearly at a halt in the week ended on March 19 due to growing uncertainty about the existing Chinese steel export tax rebate.Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday March 19 that are worth another look.Import activity in the South American flat-rolled steel market was nearly at a halt in the week ended on March 19 due to growing uncertainty about the existing Chinese steel export tax rebate.Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed on Monday March 22, while those on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were up across the board.United States 10-year treasuries yields have eased to 1.67%, from recent highs of 1.75%.Base metalsLME three-month base metals prices were mixed, with copper, aluminium and lead down by an average of 0.5%, while the rest of the metals were up by an av...Read More
Volkswagen has decided to temporarily suspend production in all its Brazilian plants because of the worsening situation of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, the company announced on Friday March 19The stoppage will last for 12 days and will start on March 24. Only essential activities will be allowed in the factories."The measure aims to preserve the health of the company's employees and their...Read More
The never-before-seen measures meted out by China's Tangshan provincial government could cut hundreds of thousands of tonnes per day in steel output and hit raw material demand in 2021, market sources told Fastmarkets. Tangshan's environmental protection office said on Friday March 19 that it is looking to tighten its grip on air pollution in the city, especially after it found that not all s...Read More
Papua New Guinea's Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) - a supplier of copper concentrate with high gold content to East Asia and Southeast Asia - will suspend production for 14 days from Friday March 19 to contain the spread of Covid-19. "In light of the recent surge in Covid-19 cases at the mine site and in Papua New Guinea, OTML will temporarily suspend operations for 14 days as of Friday March...Read More
When considering the prospects for the new Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) copper contract, a senior executive at one of the world's largest metals trading companies quoted Hamlet's soliloquy in the Shakespearian play of the same name."In terms of promotion of the internationalization of the renminbi and weakening of the pricing power of the [London Metal Exchange] and CME: 'To be or...Read More
A key topic reverberating around the Asian steel market over the past month has been the possibility of China reducing steel export rebates to 9% from the current 13%, or possibly axing them altogether.Market chatter on this topic has grown increasingly louder, with industry sources in China hearing more and more details about these plans from late January onward."This is likely in line with China...Read More
A shortage of containers to ship commodities around the world and the consequent soaring in associated freight rates have led to a revival of interest in breakbulk cargoes. Producers and physical traders of metals, agricultural, chemical and timber products have been starting to book shipments in breakbulk vessels, which cost far less and doesn't require vast amounts of equipment in port. On the m...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: SHFE tailwind for LME pricesAs we are entering the traditional strong demand season, we expect Chinese aluminium demand to show further recovery, and we expect demand from existing end-user sectors, new infrastructure projects and the export sector to show some increases. As a result, we believe that S...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view, including an upgrade to our aluminium price forecasts.Aluminium: Price forecasts raisedWe correctly expected the macro reflationary theme to raise the prices for all base metals but, with it being the base metal with by far the weakest fundamentals, we had expected the price of aluminium to underperform relative...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.These include an increase in our copper mine disruption estimates, upgrades to our production outlook for Indonesian nickel pig iron (NPI), a smaller refined zinc surplus, and an upgrade to our zinc price forecasts.Aluminium: Big disconnect between price and fundamentalsAluminium has extended its uptrend on the London Metal...Read More