General Motors (GM) plans to transition its entire light-duty vehicle fleet to electric vehicles (EVs) by 2035, bringing an end to its production of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles. The automaker aims to go carbon neutral by 2040.A GM spokesperson told Fastmarkets that the company has set a goal to exclusively produce EVs in its light-duty fleet and discontinue producing internal combustion...Read More
Swedish steelmakers SSAB no longer plans to acquire the Ijmuiden plant in the Netherlands off of Tata Steel, SSAB said on Friday January 29.Tata Steel initiated discussions with SSAB on the sale of its IJmuiden plant in the Netherlands and related downstream assets in November 2020. After the announcement, market sources said it would have allowed SSAB to increase its presence in Northern Europe.A...Read More
China's Baowu Steel Group, the world's largest steelmaker, is in talks with Shandong Iron & Steel Group Co for a potential merger.While a small segment of the steel market already had some knowledge of this development, particularly after Baowu Steel sent some of its company officials to Shandong Steel to conduct surveys on the topic of a merger, the matter became public after local media reported...Read More
General Motors (GM) plans to transition its entire light-duty vehicle fleet to electric vehicles (EVs) by 2035, bringing an end to its production of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles. The automaker aims to go carbon neutral by 2040.A GM spokesperson told Fastmarkets that the company has set a goal to exclusively produce EVs in its light-duty fleet and discontinue producing internal combustion...Read More
South America's import prices for flat-rolled steel were mostly down during the week ended Friday January 29, with China-origin material offered at lower levels for April shipment.Some customers, on the other hand, had concerns that their previous expectations of a steeper downtrend after the Chinese New Year holiday period would not materialize due to high raw material costs and potential output...Read More
Copper concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) continued to drop toward the end of January as smelters cover cargoes that look to be delayed from Chile and Peru.What you need to know China smelters covering short positions exacerbated by Chile, Peru delays High sea swells are preventing cargoes from leaving some ports in Chile Las Bambas shipments have started to resume A...Read More
Prices for ferro-molybdenum and molybdic oxide rallied during the second half of the week ended Friday January 29 while concerns about interrupted shipments from Chile reduced the hopes that tightness in Europe and Asia might ease in the near term.Fastmarkets' price assessment for ferro-molybdenum 65% Mo min, in-whs Rotterdam, widened upward to $24.60-26.00 per kg on January 29, up by 2.3% from th...Read More
Pig iron import prices in the United States fell sharply in the week ended on Friday January 29, with at least one deal reported for Brazil-origin material.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US was at $500-510 per tonne on Friday, down by $65-75 from $575 per tonne the previous week.After several weeks of a quiet market, information started to circulate ab...Read More
A differentiated fee structure designed to drive member-to-member trade away from the telephone market is being proposed by the London Metal Exchange as part of its discussion paper. The goal is to incentivize trade on the exchange's electronic trading platform, LMESelect, and is proposed to be achieved by cutting fees to trade electronically while raising fees for the telephone market by around 5...Read More
The London Metal Exchange and its clearing house are revisiting a proposal to transition to a different way of calculating its clearing methodology. The exchange announced its discussion paper on the topic on Tuesday January 19. The last attempt was made in 2017 and was rejected by LME members because it would make the provision of credit lines expensive and result in the rapid withdrawal of...Read More
Covid-19 appears to have claimed another casualty: the London Metal Exchange ring trading floor. The closure of the floor, now entering its 144th year, has been proposed in a discussion paper issued by the exchange earlier on Tuesday January 19.The open outcry floor may be old, but it didn't appear to have serious underlying health issues. It has successfully fought back against talk it was set to...Read More
Tin's forward price rose by 1.5% in the week ended Friday January 29, while the rest of the base-metals complex on the London Metal Exchange, nickel and zinc in particular, showed lower prices than on Monday.This was blamed on several macro-economic factors turning sentiment downward for metals."With the exception of tin, across the board the base metal suite has come under pressure this week," St...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices in both the fob and cfr markets kept relatively flat on Friday January 29, with no deals heard during the day although sources do not believe the seaborne premium hard coking coal fob price will exceed $160 per tonne in the short term.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $154.92 per tonne, down $0.18 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $21...Read More
The arrival of around a quarter of a billion dollars of zinc into London Metal Exchange warehouses this week has dented the metal's price prospects, confirming analysts' view of a well-supplied market. A total of 105,800 tonnes of zinc was delivered onto the LME system on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, all in the United States and Southeast Asian port locations, bringing total inventories on the...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. buoyant flat steel market and rising raw material prices resulted in large price rises for welded pipe products across all regions in January 2021.Increases in the price assessments for helical submerged arc-welded (HSAW) pipes were of the magnitude of $140-190 per tonne, with the exception of Europe, where prices were...Read More
An overview of the new energy materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Read More
The export prices for pig iron from the Commonwealth of Independent States dropped during the week to Thursday January 28 on a bearish mood among buyers, sources have told Fastmarkets.Buyers preferred to hold back from making new deals until scrap prices settle and they can have a clearer price idea for pig iron, market sources said.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for high-manganese pig iron,...Read More
Tin's forward price rose by 1.5% in the week ended Friday January 29, while the rest of the base-metals complex on the London Metal Exchange, nickel and zinc in particular, showed lower prices than on Monday.This was blamed on several macro-economic factors turning sentiment downward for metals."With the exception of tin, across the board the base metal suite has come under pressure this week," St...Read More
Nickel stocks in Shanghai-bonded warehouses fell in January amid increased import activity due to a favorable arbitrage between London and Shanghai after China cut its provisional import tax on non-alloyed nickel from the beginning of the year.A marginal decline was recorded in Shanghai-bonded copper stocks over the past month, while zinc and aluminium inventories both increased, with the latter s...Read More
Base metals inventories, with the exceptions of lead and copper, were reported to be higher in Shanghai Futures Exchange-registered warehouses in the week to Friday January 29, with tin up by the most in percentage terms, rising by 22.1% over the past week.Tin inventories increased by 1,139 tonnes week on week to 6,291 tonnes, with the 830 Huangpu warehouse in Guangdong and the SIPG Logistics Suzh...Read More