China's Baowu Steel Group Corp, the world's largest steelmaker, will continue with its merger strategy over the next few years, which cound result in a increase in its steelmaking capacity to 200 million tonnes per year, the China Iron & Steel Association (Cisa) reported recently.The steelmaker's capacity exceeded 100 million tpy in September when it merged with Chongqing Iron & Steel Co, making i...Read More
Iron ore prices surged further on Friday December 4, supported by active long positions in futures markets and steady drawdowns in port inventory, sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $145.01 per tonne, up $7.93 per tonne 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $144.36 per tonne, up $7.38 per tonne 58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $132.83 pe...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices fluctuated across the board in the fob market on Friday December 4 due to the latest changes in supply, while the cfr market was flat.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $102.62 per tonne, down $0.46 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $168.78 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $92.97 per tonne, up $2.17 per tonneHard coking...Read More
The main global scrap markets continued to move higher in the week to Friday December 4, with most markets continuing regular purchases of material. Turkish steel mills continue to pay higher pricesUnited States market remains subdued post-holidayVietnam reports higher pricesTaiwan market reports optimistic sentiment and tight supplyIndian market expresses uncertainty over higher pricesTurkeyTurki...Read More
ArcelorMittal is to increase its official spot offer price for second-quarter rolling hot-rolled coil across Europe to ?,?650 ($788.56) per tonne ex-works effective immediately, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday December 4.They added that the traditional gap between offers in Northern and Southern Europe has now disappeared altogether.Offers of hot-dipped galvanized coil also moved up to ?,?...Read More
Miner Vedanta's Gamsberg zinc processing plant in South Africa could restart milling operations in the week beginning Monday December 7, Fastmarkets has learned from informed sources.Milling operations at Gamsberg were currently "under planned maintenance" but were "expected to restart next week," a source who claimed direct knowledge told Fastmarkets on December 3.All mining activity has been sus...Read More
The London Metal Exchange base metals complex ended around its recently established highs, with nickel making the largest rise of around 3% on Friday December 4. LME nickel's three-month price closed at $16,399 per tonne at 5pm on Friday, a 2.8% increase from its Thursday close of $15,954 per tonne and up 0.8% from the beginning of the week. The metal had a rocky week, closing at $16,27...Read More
An overview of the new energy raw materials markets and their latest price moves.Susan Zou, Sybil Pan, and Sally Zhang in Shanghai, Carrie Shi in Beijing, and...Read More
Vale's head of base metals said he is "hopeful" a positive decision will be reached in two days for the sale of nickel-cobalt operation Vale New Caledonia (VNC) on Wednesday December 2.The Brazilian multi-metal miner entered into a 30-day exclusivity agreement to discuss the sale of VNC with a consortium comprising current management and employees of the unit, as well as state investors and S...Read More
Gary Nagle will become the new chief executive officer of Glencore when Ivan Glasenberg retires during the first half of 2021, the company said on Friday December 4. Nagle is currently global head of Glencore's coal industrial business based out of Sydney Australia, and will return to Switzerland to begin a transition to the new role.After 18 years as Glencore CEO, Glasenberg will step down f...Read More
Global nickel premiums were flat week on week, with the absence of an open arbitrage in Shanghai and market participants focused on 2021 negotiations rather than the spot market in Europe, sources told Fastmarkets.A lack of a profitable arb in Shanghai keeps refined nickel premiums unchanged; nickel pig iron (NPI) prices continue dropPremiums in Europe are flat despite an increased interest for ma...Read More
Copper led the way in a morning of gains on the London Metal Exchange on Friday December 4, rising to a seven-year high again and taking the rest of the complex higher after a day of slight losses on Thursday.The red metal's three-month price rose by 1.2% to $7,767 per tonne on Friday at 9am, a new year-to-date high and surpassing the previous 2020 high of $7,743 per tonne.Copper's price is now cl...Read More
Turkish steelmaker Tosyali Iron and Steel has ordered a quantum electric arc furnace and continuous slab caster from Primetals Technologies, Primetals said on Thursday December 3.The quantum EAF is able to produce 2 million tonnes per year of liquid steel and "can be operated with a mixture of scrap of varying composition, and hot briquetted iron and pig iron," Primetals said.The slab caster is tw...Read More
The publication of Fastmarkets' CIS billet export index for Friday December 4 has been delayed because of a reporter error in setting the publishing time. Rather than the scheduled time of 16.00 UK, the index will be published at 18.00 UK time.The Fastmarkets price book and database for the steel billet index, export, fob Black Sea, CIS, will both be updated at that time.For more information, or t...Read More
Indian hot rolled coil export prices have surged by $105 per tonne in the week to Friday December 4 on bookings from Europe, market participants told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets assessed the price of steel hot-rolled coil export, fob main port India at $665-670 per tonne on Friday, up by $105 per tonne from last week's $560-565 per tonne fob.The latest HRC export booking to Europe was for a small parc...Read More
Turkish prices for hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG) and color-coated coil (pre-painted galvanized iron or PPGI) continued their uptrend in the week to Friday December 4 on strong demand, sources told Fastmarkets. The price of hot-rolled coil in Turkey, the base product for coated coil, rose by 4.5% week on week, lending additional support to the coated flat steel prices. Fastmarkets' weekly price...Read More
The import market for pig iron in the United States was strong in the week to Friday December 4, due to continuing robust demand, sources said.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US was $455-465 per tonne on Friday, up from $450 per tonne a week earlier.Earlier in the week, a US buyer purchased a cargo from Ukraine at $455 per...Read More
The prices of alloy steel scrap in the UK domestic market were largely unchanged this week despite lower nickel costs, because tight supply continued to provide pricing support, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday November 4.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for stainless steel scrap 18/8 solids, domestic, delivered merchants UK, on Friday was ?950-980 ($1,276-1,316) per tonne, narrowing downwa...Read More
The price of shredded steel scrap imported into India and Pakistan increased on Friday December 4, due to continuing shipping issues and despite uncertainty over higher prices, sources have told Fastmarkets.IndiaFastmarkets calculated the steel scrap, shredded, index, import, cfr Nhava Sheva, India, at $380.65 per tonne on Friday, up from $365.18 per tonne one week earlier.Only one deal was report...Read More
An acute shortage of containers and new rule changes by container lines have combined over the past week to again raise containerized shipping costs for commodity market participants.Trading sources told Fastmarkets that container lines have not only continued to raise freight rates but have also introduced additional measures that will serve to make life increasingly difficult for companies invol...Read More