The low-carbon ferro-chrome market in Europe leapt over the two weeks to Tuesday October 26 to a multi-year high due to extremely tight availability, with some sellers not offering on the spot market and consumers scrambling to find material.Fastmarkets' price assessment for ferro-chrome 0.10% C, average 65-70% Cr, delivered Europe was $3.43-3.75 per lb Cr on October 26, up by 38-50 cents (13.97%)...Read More
Domestic steel reinforcing bar prices in the United States were sideways on Wednesday October 27, but import tags went up for the first time in nearly two months.Fastmarkets' assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), fob mill US was $49.25 per hundredweight ($985 per short ton) on October 27, unchanged since August 11 at its highest level since late 2008. This marks the 11th week of that the a...Read More
From Wednesday December 1, Fastmarkets will publish its seaborne Asia battery-grade lithium carbonate and hydroxide assessments on a daily basis. Fastmarkets had proposed in July to increase the pricing frequency for the two battery-grade lithium prices - assessed on a cif China, Japan and South Korea basis - to daily from weekly. This proposal had originally stated that the consultation period fo...Read More
Prices for aluminium P1020A cargoes offered into China have come down from multi-year highs because of a marked decline in demand, an uncertain near-term outlook and the closure of the London-Shanghai arbitrage window, Fastmarkets heard on Wednesday October 27.Fastmarkets' latest monthly assessment of the aluminium P1020A premium, cif Shanghai, was $130-140 per tonne on Tuesday, down from a six-ye...Read More
Long and flat-rolled steel producer Gerdau expects demand to continue to grow in 2022, after a rapid recovery of the local market this year from the lows of 2020 that were caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Brazil-based company said on Wednesday October 27.Brazilian steel consumption was likely to rise by 4-6% next year from 2021 levels, chief executive officer Gustavo Werneck said in conference...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday October 27 that are worth another look.Long and flat-rolled steel producer Gerdau expects demand to continue to grow in 2022, after a rapid recovery of the local market this year from the lows of 2020 that were caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the...Read More
The price of steel hollow sections in Europe was unchanged on Wednesday October 27, with the market looking to recoup recent losses, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel sections (medium), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was ?,?1,230-1,275 ($1,427-1,479) per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged week on week.Market sources believed that hollow sections prices had reac...Read More
Consolidating its position in the battery materials supply chain amid fierce competition is the biggest challenge facing Greatpower Nickel & Cobalt Materials Co, company president Dongqiang Cao told Fastmarkets in an interview.Previously, attracting investment and improving the ability to provide finance had proved to be a bottleneck in the early stages of Greatpower's development, when it expande...Read More
If any member was going to leave the London Metal Exchange ring trading floor, the exchange was probably hoping it wouldn't be Triland Metals Ltd.The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi, is one of the exchange's longest serving Category 1 members, having joined in 1972 after being founded in the prior year. Having a unit of Japan's largest trading company as a ri...Read More
Consolidating its position in the battery materials supply chain amid fierce competition is the biggest challenge facing Greatpower Nickel & Cobalt Materials Co, company president Dongqiang Cao told Fastmarkets in an interview.Previously, attracting investment and improving the ability to provide finance had proved to be a bottleneck in the early stages of Greatpower's development, when it expande...Read More
Trading activity in the European hot-rolled coil market was slow on Wednesday October 27, but mills are likely to seek price rise due to increasing production costs, sources told Fastmarkets. Buyers and sellers have been holding back from trading until a trend becomes clear, they added. Demand, however, has started to gradually improve due to distributors re-stocking for the first quarter of next...Read More
Labor shortages across the global scrap industry pose the biggest threat to growth, according to a panel discussion at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) conference in Brussels on Tuesday October 26."We are having tremendous difficulties in hiring employees as we grow," George Adams, president of SA Recycling said as part of the discussion."There is going to be a massive shortage of scrap...Read More
Active buying interest, limited offers from mills and export sales activity - because of the imminent expiry of a temporary export duty - pushed flat steel prices in the Russia's Central Federal District around Moscow up again in the week to Monday October 25, sources have told Fastmarkets.But the upward price trend may not be sustainable because of the usual low season during winter, some market...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices inched downward on Wednesday October 27 because most market participants were cautious about procurement amid the generally weak demand outlooks for the rest of 2021, market sources said.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $119.86 per tonne, down by $2.44 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $122.15 per tonne, down by $1.96 per tonne58% Fe fin...Read More
A summary of the financial results for Turkey's largest steelmaking group, Erdemir, for January-September 2021.In brief?EUR? Erdemir Group produced 6.815 million tonnes of crude steel over the first nine months of 2021, equivalent to 23% of the national total.?EUR? The group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) increased year-on-year by 291.98% in January-Septe...Read More
Aluminium producer Rusal's sales dipped by nearly 12% quarter-on-quarter to 915,000 tonnes in July-September 2021, according to its latest statement of operating results."Aluminium sales dynamics can largely be explained by an increase of goods in transit that are recognized as inventory, which was caused - among other factors - by transport capacity restrictions in supply chains globally," the co...Read More
Turkish steel mills were quiet in the deep-sea scrap markets ahead of an upcoming Republic Day holiday on Thursday and Friday, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday October 27.The most recent cargo was recorded on Tuesday, when a steel mill in the Marmara region booked a cargo from the United States, consisting of 20,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (90:10) and 10,000 tonnes of shredded at an average price o...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday October 27 that are worth another look.Long and flat-rolled steel producer Gerdau expects demand to continue to grow in 2022, after a rapid recovery of the local market this year from the lows of 2020 that were caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices in both the fob and cfr markets were relatively flat on Wednesday October 27. And China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) intervened in the coal market to curb thermal coal prices, which led to a sharp drop in the coal and coke futures market.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $614.46 per tonne, up by $0.09 per tonneHard coking...Read More
Steel scrap buyers in South Korea have continued to chase bulk bookings from Japan in recent days at increasingly high prices, market sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday October 27.?EUR?South Korea books more scrap?EUR?Tokyo Steel Utsunomiya raises buy price again?EUR?China prices continue downtrend amid bearish sentiment in finished steel markets?EUR?Taiwan prices retreat on weakening sentiment...Read More