The cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam trade log, including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparency into the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies. Fastmarkets...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More
An overview of the Chinese minor metals markets and the reasons for their latest price moves.Read More
A summary of Glencore's production results for the half year ended June 30, as stated in the company's latest half year report released on Friday July 31. In brief Glencore attributable ferro-chrome production fell by 42% year on year in the first half of the year due to production disruptions in South Africa following the national Covid-19 lockdown during March and April. Smelting operation...Read More
European monthly grade-304 alloy steel surcharges for August have increased slightly from July's values because of higher nickel costs, Fastmarkets heard on Friday July 31.Fastmarkets' stainless steel cold-rolled sheet, 2mm, grade 304, alloy surcharge, domestic, Europe was calculated at ?,?1,345-1,367 ($1,586-1,612) per tonne on Friday, up by ?,?16-24 per tonne from the July range.The average nick...Read More
A slight increase in European monthly grade-304 alloy steel surcharges for August is unlikely to result in higher transaction prices for finished stainless steel products because of a weak underlying market, Fastmarkets heard on Friday July 31.Grade-304 surcharges have increased on higher nickel costs but by relatively modest amounts, with Fastmarkets' stainless steel cold-rolled sheet 2mm grade 3...Read More
Aluminium scrap prices in the United States were mostly steady this past week, but overseas demand for some grades lent support to rising prices, sources told Fastmarkets. "Right now there's [a cat and mouse game] where domestic primary and secondary mills are trying to keep a happy balance between keeping some level of scrap flowing and not [becoming long on product] as finished product sales and...Read More
Offers for deep-sea import scrap to Bangladesh rose again over the past week, leading mills to focus their attention on markets for domestic scrap and containerized import scrap, sources told Fastmarkets."The markets have turned and it's definitely a seller's market now," one South Asian trader said. "We're not giving space for buyers to come back to negotiate while the market is rising, so these...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday July 30 that are worth another look.Brazil's largest flat-rolled steel producer by capacity, Usiminas, is looking to correct the current domestic price discount to imports in the short term, commercial vice-president Miguel Homes said on July 30....Read More
Long-term uncertainty among consumers over end-user demand in Italy benefits downstream distribution network Metal Link who aims to serve consumer needs more quickly than producers who need consumers to have a clear order outlook for around 10 weeks.In an interview with Fastmarkets this month, the aluminium products distribution network said the economic uncertainty caused by Covid-19 offers busin...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were collectively lower at the close of trading on Thursday July 30, with LME nickel's 1.3% price dip leading the complex-wide decline, while a tightening of copper's forward curve led to thin volumes and a negative close on the day.Weighing equally heavily on the base-metals complex, the US economy shrank by 32.9% over the second quarter...Read More
Brazilian miner Vale is expecting copper prices to remain at high levels through the remainder of 2020, because it sees strong signs of demand resilience amid expectations of reduced supply, especially from South America, the company's top executives said on Thursday July 30."We are firm believers in the copper price uptrend," chief executive officer Eduardo Bartolomeo told analysts and investors...Read More
The declining quality of global zinc concentrate has left Noranda Income Fund's (NIF) residue handling section at capacity despite ongoing work to optimize its electrolytic processing facility in Quebec, Canada, the company said.Two belt filters will be added to the handling section as part of a recently announced expansion project. They are expected to help improve production capacity and overall...Read More
A summary of Brazilian mining company Vale's financial results for the second quarter of 2020, as stated in its earnings report released on Wednesday July 29.In briefFerrous division: Iron ore fines' realized price - after adjustments on both a cfr and fob basis - was $88.90 per tonne in the second quarter, down by 6% from $94.60 per tonne a year before. Pellet's realized price was $129.40 per ton...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday July 30 that are worth another look.Brazil's largest flat-rolled steel producer by capacity, Usiminas, is looking to correct the current domestic price discount to imports in the short term, commercial vice-president Miguel Homes said on July 30....Read More
Prices for cobalt salts, including cobalt tetroxide and sulfate, surged in the first half of this week, with suppliers refraining from offering large tonnages in the market. Fastmarkets' price assessment for cobalt tetroxide 72.6% Co min, delivered China was 190,000-195,000 yuan ($27,125-27,839) per tonne on Wednesday July 29, up by 10,000 yuan per tonne (5.5%) from 180,000-185,000 yuan per tonne...Read More
The price of steel scrap imported into Turkey rose further on Thursday July 30 on new bookings, continuing the trend started on July 29.A steel mill in the Iskenderun region booked two cargoes, one from the Baltic region and one from Western Europe.The first comprised 27,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $276 per tonne, 5,000 tonnes of bonus scrap at $286 per tonne and 3,000 tonnes...Read More
South Korean steelmakers were able to book bulk scrap cargoes from Japan over the past week at low prices although offers for US-origin deep-sea material continued to jump, sources have told Fastmarkets.Three cargoes of Japanese H2-grade scrap have been bought by a South Korean steelmaker at ?26,000 ($248) per tonne cfr over the past week, which would be equivalent to ?24,000 per tonne fob, Fast...Read More
ED&F Man's Ed Meir clinched the top spot on the base metals predictions leaderboard for the second quarter of 2020 with 98.87% accuracy while ING's Wenyu Yao took the top spot for precious metals predictions over the period with a 98.75% accuracy rating.For steel raw materials, Casper Burgering of ABN Amro topped the leaderboard with a 90.89% accuracy score. Click on the image below to download th...Read More
Base metals prices were for the most part firmer this morning, Thursday July 30, while broader markets were more mixed.The United States Federal Reserve provided more liquidity to international markets at its meeting that ended on Wednesday, but did not make any major changes. It also said that the path of the US economic recovery would depend on the course of Covid-19 in the country. Given the la...Read More