Secondary aluminium alloy prices continued to rise on Thursday November 19, with the spreads between the benchmark A380.1 and the less liquid A360.1 and A413.1 grades at the narrowest point since Fastmarkets began assessing these prices.Fastmarkets assessed aluminium alloy A380.1, delivered Midwest at 93-95 cents per lb on November 19, up 3.3% from 90-92 cents per lb the previous week and up ...Read More
Steelmakers in South Korea have focused on procuring steel scrap from their domestic market, along with some cut-price deals from Japan, over the past week, sources said on Friday November 20.At least three South Korean mills purchased H2 scrap from Japan at ?30,500 per tonne fob over the week - which is equivalent to around ?32,500 per tonne cfr South Korea, according to market participant...Read More
An ever-tighter supply of containers combined with low steel scrap generation in key export regions has led to another sharp increase to Bangladesh import scrap prices over the week to November 20, sources told Fastmarkets.Steel prices in Bangladesh remain flat amid an oversupply but mills that require material need to keep buying to keep their furnaces running despite the higher prices, market pa...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday November 19 that are worth another look.Commodity traders have long forecast that there would be consolidation in their own industry, and in some of the world's biggest centers for metals business that has already...Read More
Lead showed the biggest increase in its three-month price at the end of trading on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday November 19, while prices for the rest of the base metals complex fluctuated after a flat morning trading session.The three-month price for lead was up by 1.54% on Thursday at 5pm, trading at $1,978.50 per tonne and up from Wednesday's closing price of $1,948.50 per tonne.This w...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices were relatively flat on Thursday November 19, while fears of economic damage from a second-wave of Covid-19 lockdowns spread across the market. Tin's three-month price made the largest decline on Thursday morning, falling by 1.3% to $15,595 per tonne as of 9am. This follows a 0.9% decline from Tuesday as of 5pm on Wednesday, when the price w...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday November 19 that are worth another look.Commodity traders have long forecast that there would be consolidation in their own industry, and in some of the world's biggest centers for metals business that has already...Read More
Kyle Morris has been appointed marketing manager at Kalahari Trading, the exclusive marketing agent of South African manganese ore producer United Manganese of the Kalahari (UMK).Morris started at Kalahari Trading on Monday November 16,...Read More
Commodity traders have long forecast that there would be consolidation in their own industry, and in some of the world's biggest centers for metals business that has already started to happen.Independent metals trading companies operating out of Shanghai and Singapore - many of which launched during the early 2000s, surfing the commodities "supercycle" to bountiful profits - have seen risks to bus...Read More
Chinese prices for nickel pig iron (NPI) fell for the first time since early July despite continued strength in the upstream nickel ore market, raising questions over whether the latter is still sufficient to prop up NPI prices in China.Activity in China's NPI market has been muted since early October, with the lack of spot trading resulting in liquidity issues for some participants, in turn causi...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday November 19 that are worth another look.Commodity traders have long forecast that there would be consolidation in their own industry, and in some of the world's biggest centers for metals business that has already...Read More
Fastmarkets has partnered with CME Group to launch a cash-settled cobalt contract to be settled against Fastmarkets' daily benchmark cobalt price assessment. The new contract will use an average of the midpoint Fastmarkets' standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam price assessment and will trade under the Bloomberg ticker MB071071 from December 14.The cobalt supply chain has been joined by automotive make...Read More
Turkish steel mills returned to the deep-sea scrap market after three days of silence to book three new cargoes at higher prices, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday November 19.Two European cargoes and one from the Baltic Sea were traded after three days of market inactivity from the mills.One European origin cargo was booked by a steel mill in the Iskenderun region and comprised 15,000 tonnes o...Read More
The world's largest trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), could result in India losing its share of the Asian steel market, sources told Fastmarkets this week."It is likely that steel mills in Southeast Asia will benefit from the RCEP trade deal, and India will lose market share in Asia," a Chinese trader told Fastmarkets.The RCEP was signed by China, the 10 member co...Read More
Strategic & Precious Metals Processing (SPMP) has named Joel Montgomery as its new chief executive with effect from November 1, Fastmarkets learned.Montgomery was chief operating officer and executive committee member at SPMP since September 2018 and has been acting CEO since February 2020.Montgomery spent 12 years with Vale copper nickel operations in Canada where he held various senior oper...Read More
The base metals were consolidating recent gains but generally holding up near high ground this morning, Thursday November 19 - this despite some nervousness emerging in wider markets about the rapid spread of Covid-19.Asian Pacific equities were mixed this morning, but major European equity indices were down while they tracked Wednesday's weakness in US marketsGold prices also weakerBase metals Th...Read More
Lithium needs a transparent market where demand and supply meet to foster the growth of the sector, attendees heard during the annual Lithium in the South America conference organised by Panorama Minero on Wednesday November 18.The event that normally takes place in Buenos Aires was hosted virtually this year due to Covid-19 related restrictions. Interest around bringing price transparency to the...Read More
Concerns over an oversupply of imported cobalt in China have continued to weigh on prices for the metal in the country's domestic market.Fastmarkets' assessment for cobalt 99.8% Co min, ex-works China dropped to 255,000-268,000 yuan ($38,906-40,890) per tonne on Wednesday November 18, down by 2,000-3,000 yuan per tonne (0.9%) from 258,000-270,000 yuan per tonne on November 13. The latest assessmen...Read More
Companhia Sider??rgica Nacional (CSN) has resumed operations on the No2 blast furnace at its Usina Presidente Vargas (UPV) unit in Brazil's southeastern Volta Redonda city, the steelmaker said on Thursday November 19.The Brazilian steelmaker decided to idle the equipment - which has capacity to produce 1.50 million tonnes per year of crude steel - in May, when demand for steel hit...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States have shot above $37 per hundredweight ($740 per short ton) for the first time in nearly two years on a supply-chain squeeze potentially made worse by rising Covid-19 infections, market participants said.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $37.25 per cwt ($745 per ton) on Thursday November 19, up by 1.7% from...Read More