The Biden administration's focus on US manufacturing and domestic supply chains will benefit established and developing minerals and metals sectors, including steel, rare earths, graphite and lithium.US President Joe Biden's executive order on the strengthening of American manufacturing, which he signed during his first week in office, is expected to have a direct effect on demand for US-produced...Read More
Copper's price dipped to $8,907.50 per tonne while nickel sank by 7.4% at the 5pm close of trading on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday March 4, with sell-offs and corrections seen for a second day.Prices for other materials in the base-metals complex fell by an average of 1.9%."Base metals have backed off from their recent highs over the past week, with the market experiencing some very viole...Read More
Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices in the cfr market fell on Thursday March 4, with end users in China not interested in seaborne cargoes due to sufficient domestic supplies.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $124.45 per tonne, down $0.23 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $214.51 per tonne, down $3.30 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $116.16 per tonne,...Read More
The strength of the economic recovery in China in 2020 defied the expectations of most market observers. According to estimates by Fastmarkets, apparent consumption in the country rose by 9% in 2020 compared with a 12% fall in the rest of the world.Crucially, this increase in supply was a response to a boom in steel demand in the East Asian nation. In the first quarter of 2020, demand (or real con...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Chinese export prices for seamless oil country tubular goods (OCTG) and linepipe barely moved in February 2021, after rallying in January, because the holidays to celebrate the Lunar New Year curbed market activity sharply.With the holiday now ended, we have seen some sharp jumps in round billet prices and we expect there to...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 moved in line with our forecasts in January, with actual prices modestly exceeding our forecasts for the month. Fastmarkets' US HRC index averaged $1,099 per ton in January, slightly above our forecast price of $1,075 per ton for the month. W...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The uptrend in European flat steel prices continued in January 2021 as expected, with the prices for hot-rolled coil in the North and South of the region averaging ?,?698 and ?,?686 ($840 and $826) per tonne respectively, within 1% of the Fastmarkets research forecasts.With European HRC prices climbing to their highest level...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.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
The European ferro-titanium price dropped over the week to Wednesday March 3, with the range widening lower, which surprised industry sources because an acute shortage of scrap has been pushing up all titanium markets in recent months, sources said.The dip in ferro-titanium prices should be brief, however, given the upward pressure on prices from tight feedstock supplies, which is squeezing alloy...Read More
Trafigura has confirmed it will hold a 19% stake in the Goro nickel mining and processing complex in the South Province of the French territory of New Caledoniia, 1,200km east of Australia.The announcement by the Swiss trading and mining company comes alongside reports that electric vehicle car maker Tesla will source material from the mine for use in its batteries.Trafigura is part of the Prony R...Read More
Some US aluminium traders reacted positively to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo's comments on the Section 232 steel and aluminium tariffs, which she called "effective" in a televised interview on Thursday March 4."Let me say those tariffs have been effective. The data show that those tariffs have been effective. And I think what President Biden has said is we're going to have a whole-of-governmen...Read More
Copper is effective at killing bacteria on high-touch transit surfaces, results from a trial study backed by Canadian miner Teck Resources showed.Based on sample-testing that was performed on transit and in a lab, the trial concluded that select copper products on transit are durable and kill up to 99.9% of all bacteria within one hour of the bacteria's contact with the surface.The trial, which be...Read More
The sell-off in the London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price continued on March 4, with the metal down to its lowest since November 2020 during early trading, with a higher US Dollar also dragging the rest of the complex down by an average of 2%.The US Dollar was up to as much as 91.17 at 9am, from Wednesday's 5pm reading of 90.88, while the rise in yields of the US 10-year Treasury bonds to...Read More
China's stainless steel prices decreased in the past week amid a flagging nickel market.The three-month nickel contract on the London Metal Exchange ended the official session on Wednesday March 3 at $17,864 per tonne, down by $1,538 per tonne (7.9%) from $19,402 per tonne a week earlier.DomesticStainless steel cold-rolled coil 2mm grade 304 domestic (Wuxi): 15,600-16,900 yuan ($2,412-2,613) per t...Read More
Chinese nickel premiums widened upward in the week to Tuesday March 2, with a favorable import arbitrage and increased spot liquidity providing support, while terms in Europe and the United States were broadly flat.Nickel premiums rise in China, ore prices set another record highEuropean cut cathode premium rises 5%, others flatUS premiums unchanged as participants remain watchfulChina's refined m...Read More
Eight industry associations representing various steel end-consumers in Europe have sent a letter to the European Commission (EC) asking for termination of the region's safeguard measures imposed on steel imports.The European Commission started an investigation on February 26 into the possible extension of existing safeguard measures, which are applied to imports of 26 steel product categories.The...Read More
Import prices for flat-rolled steel in South America soared in the week to Friday February 26 on a swift increase in bulk freight rates and higher offers from Chinese mills, returning to the market after the Lunar New Year holiday, sources said.By the end of the week, some of offers previously presented to the continent were pulled, due to uncertainties regarding delivery. Reduced availability of...Read More
Domestic prices for steel hot-rolled coil (HRC) in Northern Europe inched further up day on day on Thursday March 4 due to a coil shortage and strong demand, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at ?,?750.00 ($905.59) per tonne on Thursday March 4, up by ?,?1.25 per tonne from ?,?748.75 per tonne on March 3, based...Read More
Turkish steel billet prices have advanced over the past week due to rising imported scrap costs, market participants told Fastmarkets on Thursday March 4.The latest deep-sea scrap transaction was recorded late on February 26, when a steel mill in the Marmara region paid $456 per tonne cfr for Baltic Sea-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20). This raised the daily scrap index for US-origin material - which tends...Read More