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
A summary of London Metal Exchange warrant premiums from across the globe for the week to Wednesday October 27.Please click...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were down across the board at the 5pm close of trading on Wednesday October 27, following a further drop in coal prices and widespread selling."Today's news that [China's] National Development & Reform Commission has set the price of thermal and coking coal at levels [that will reduce] key input prices for energy-intensive metals - pertinent to alumi...Read More
The price of steel H-beams in Europe remained stable on Wednesday October 27 amid improving demand linked to better sentiment, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel beams domestic, delivered northern Europe was ?,?1,010-1,030 ($1,172-1,195) per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged week on week."We are seeing sentiment starting to turn and...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were down across the board at the 5pm close of trading on Wednesday October 27, following a further drop in coal prices and widespread selling."Today's news that [China's] National Development & Reform Commission has set the price of thermal and coking coal at levels [that will reduce] key input prices for energy-intensive metals - pertinent to alumi...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
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
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
The United States' imports of finished steel products increased moderately month on month but ballooned year on year in September, with most tracked commodities showing gains.A total of 2.94 million tonnes of steel imports arrived in September, up by 16.70% from the final tally of 2.52 million tonnes in August and up by 156.45% from 1.15 million tonnes in September 2020, according to prelimin...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
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
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
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
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
Guidance for China to achieve its carbon emissions peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 was jointly released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Sunday October 24.The guidance specifies that by the year 2025, China's energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product will be reduced by 13.5% from 2020 levels, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per...Read More
The nickel briquette premium in the United States surged by 10% this week amid supply tightness while those in China also rallied amid a favorable arbitrage.?EUR? US briquette premiums hit all-time high?EUR? Chinese premiums rally to 2-year high?EUR? European premiums stableNew peaks for both US premiumsHaving been flat for many weeks, nickel premiums in the US rose to new all-time highs.The two p...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 latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:US prices for hot-rolled coil moved in line with our forecasts in August, averaging $1,910 per ton, within 1% accuracy of our forecast of $1,925 per ton. The market has achieved much-needed stability in recent weeks, with prices fluctuating in the range of $1,900-1,94...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
European steel companies must scale up their decarbonization technologies within the coming decade or risk exhausting their allocated emissions allowances early, according to a report released on Tuesday September 14.The report, "Steeling for Net Zero," by climate researcher Industry Tracker, found that selected European steel companies have less than 26% of their carbon budget remaining and must...Read More