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.The conequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on energy demand affected oil and gas prices through much of 2020 and weighed on drilling rates and demand for oil-country tubular goods (OCTG) in most regions.These effects were most likely to continue well into 2021 and perhaps longer, according to Fastmarkets OCTG Intelligence Serv...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 latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Prices of stainless steel are generally set to reach highs for the year as 2020 comes to a close. For the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel, this upward trend is being driven above all by rising nickel prices, which themselves are hitting relatively high levels into the end of 2020.The price increases si...Read More
Alumina cargoes in Brazil were trading at a slight premium to Australian material on Thursday February 25 due a muddled supply picture, but opinions on the market's direction remained mixed.Fastmarkets' alumina index adjustment to fob Australia index, Brazil, was at a premium of $0.90 per dry metric tonne compared with Australian units on Thursday, against a $4.51 per dmt discount on January 14.Th...Read More
Domestic prices for steel hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe increased day on day on Thursday February 25 due to tight supply, sources have told Fastmarkets.Market participants expected that European steelmakers would increase their offers next week in an attempt to trigger further price rises.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?735.00...Read More
A summary of Kaiser Aluminum's fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 earnings results, published on Wednesday February 24.Fourth-quarter results in brief Kaiser's fourth-quarter 2020 net sales were $272 million, up by 6.25% from the previous quarter's net sales of $256 million but down by 26.29% from $369 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. The company reported net income of $6 million, up signific...Read More
Jacky Gofflot will become chief executive officer at French lead producer Recylex on Monday March 1 when Sebastian Rudow, who has recently resigned, leaves the company.Gofflot was hired in April last year to manage Recylex's battery-breaking sites, the company said, and brought more than...Read More
The price of aluminium showed a 2.3% rise and held close to its new 2021 high of $2,243 per tonne during trading on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday February 25.The price of nickel was the only one among the base-metals complex to close lower day on day at the 5pm close, being down by 2.6%.Aluminium's three-month price was up to $2,235 per tonne at the close, from Wednesday's 5pm price of $2,...Read More
The backwardation in copper's benchmark cash-to-three-month spread reached a near two-year high of $51.50 per tonne, with the bullish rally on the red metal showing no signs of relenting.The London Metal Exchange cash price for copper reached $9,648.50 per tonne on Thursday, rising by 22.5% from the start of February. Analysts say copper's all-time high of $10,207.50 per tonne - hit in...Read More
At least $14 trillion must be invested in the electricity grid worldwide by 2050 to support new energy usages, research consultancy BloombergNEF reported on Tuesday February 23.The drive to upgrade the grid could spur demand for a wide range of metals and industrial minerals."The transition to electric heating and transport is driving up electricity demand, while the tremendous growth of wind and...Read More
United States President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday February 24 intended to secure his nation's supply chains through a review of critical products, which will include computer chips and batteries.The order directs US federal departments and agencies to identify ways to secure supply chains against a range of risks and vulnerabilities, and ultimately to avoid shortages of crit...Read More
North Star BlueScope's expansion of its electric-arc furnace (EAF) operations in Delta, Ohio, are proceeding as scheduled and should come online by the end of the first half of 2022, parent company BlueScope Steel said."Right now, I can't get the North Star project done quick enough, quite frankly, and the team out there are running at 1,000 miles an hour to bring it to market," BlueScope Ste...Read More
Dubai's Conares Steel has cut its rebar price to 2,530 dirhams ($689) per tonne ex-works, down from the previous 2,590 dirhams per tonne ex-works, chief executive Bharat Bhatia told Fastmarkets on Thursday, February 25.The UAE steelmaker's announcement follow's Wednesday's price cut by the region's biggest steel producer Emirates Steel, which dropped its rebar price by 91 dirhams to 2,535 dirhams....Read More
Prices for export billet from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) continued trending upward at the end of the week on support from surging scrap costs, sources said on February 25.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey was calculated at $448.1 per tonne on Thursday, up by $6.67 per tonne day on day and $34.47 per tonne week on week.H...Read More
Steel billet offer prices to Egypt increased sharply this week, despite a complete lack of buying activity, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday, February 25.Sources said the main reason for the higher offer prices was growing demand for billet from the Commonwealth of Independent States.Fastmarkets' daily steel billet index, export, fob Black Sea, CIS, was $566 per tonne on February 24, rising fr...Read More
Turkish steelmakers have continued their deep-sea scrap purchasing despite rising prices, supported by strong rebar and billet sales, market sources said on Thursday February 25.A steel mill in the Iskenderun region booked a US cargo, comprising 11,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $454 per tonne along with 16,000 tonnes of shredded and 3,000 tonnes of bonus at $464 per tonne cfr.The same mill also...Read More
Brazilian steel scrap consumption is expected to grow in 2021 after scrap generation increased and began to meet a jump in demand from mills in the second half of 2020, the country's ferrous scrap association, Inesfa, said.Inesfa calculated scrap consumption at 8 million tonnes in 2020, up from 7.79 million tonnes in 2019, with the current environment signalling a rise this year, it said.That said...Read More