Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday July 24 that are worth another look.ArcelorMittal M?(C)xico's integrated steel mill at L??zaro C??rdenas, in the country's western Michoac??n state, has been partly closed by local municipal officials because of alleged tax irregularities, the company said on...Read More
Gold is setting fresh record highs with prices having been as high as $1,943.70 per oz this morning, Monday July 27, while the base metals on the London Metal Exchange were up by an average of 0.8%.Hopes and fears are driving the markets, with the hope of further United States stimulus underpinning equites and industrial metals, while concerns about the US-China diplomatic relations and how the on...Read More
Barrick Gold (ABX), a TSX 60 stock moved above Cdn$40.04 to an 8 year high extending an intermediate uptrend. Agnico-Eagle (AEM), a TSX 60 stock moved above Cdn$97.01 to an all-time high extending an intermediate uptrend. Franco-Nevada (FNV), a TSX 60 stock moved above Cdn$214.38 to an all-time high extending an intermediate uptrend. Pre-opening Comments for Monday July 27thU.S. equity index futur...Read More
World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (Worldsteel) fell 7% year on year in June 2020.Global output was 148.30 million tonnes in June 2020 down from 159.54 million tonnes in the same month in 2019.China contributed the most to global crude steel production both in June and in the first six months of 2020, producing a total of 91.58 mill...Read More
Adjusted steel safeguard measures in Europe, combined with new trade cases, will limit availability of imported hot-rolled coil and support domestic prices. The latest changes, however, are not the end to the protectionist measures in the EU.Please click on the thumbnail below to download this free special report.Read More
China has become the savior of the global steel market, with its big appetite and high domestic prices supporting the international ferrous supply chain amid the Covid-19 pandemic.While demand for steel in most economies has plummeted in the face of the health crisis, that in China has been strengthening since at least the second quarter of 2020 amid the country's steady recovery after battling th...Read More
The London Metal Exchange is looking for ways to boost its options market, which has been struggling for some years to replicate the growth seen in the same sector among its peers.The exchange has launched a consultation, scheduled to end on July 29, on developing electronic options via a new trading platform while retaining its current inter-office options trading structure.Items up for discussio...Read More
The mining industry does a huge amount of good for local communities, to say nothing of its essential contribution to society through the materials it produces. Unfortunately, it all too often manages to give itself a bad name, worsening negative perceptions of the sector through accidents, spills and a failure to act as a steward of the environments in which it operates. In the past month alone,...Read More
The threat of Section 232 tariffs on aluminium imports from Canada into the United States has, like the great white shark following the Brody family in the universally panned film, 'Jaws: The Revenge,' returned - akin to a truly awful horror movie franchise. And that's how Neil Herrington, senior vice president for the Americas, US Chamber of Commerce, views reports that the US administration is c...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Comfortable consolidationAluminium appears comfortable consolidating for the moment, and this will leave prices in a stronger position to challenge overhanging long-term trend-line resistance from the May 2018 high, which stands at $1,670 per tonne currently.Copper: Consolidation unlikely to lastCopper reached its...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Upside breakout last weekThe price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange surprised us with a break to the upside in the week ended July 10, when prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange raced to three-and-a-half-year highs. While we think there is more short-term upside potential if technical and liquidity fact...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Capped by oversupplyA lack of a meaningful supply adjustment to the Covid-19 demand hit is keeping the aluminium physical market oversupplied and weighing on prices, limiting the success of more buoyant macro and technical forces on prices. Our premium forecasts are under review in light of threats from the U...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Poised for a technical breakoutFears over a second wave of Covid-19 continue to grow, forcing prices of aluminium and the other base metals to take a pause. Our base-case scenario is that countries will respond more efficiently to contain the virus spread, so economic activity and metal demand should continue to r...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Prices hold, pipe buying stalls Seamless prices remained broadly stable in much of the world this month - with the notable exception of falling Japan fob prices, because oil and gas producers have been less inclined to fight for premium products as they cut their capital expenditure - but this was not the result of a balance...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:Upward momentum in US domestic sheet steel prices came to a halt in the second half of June, wiping out earlier gains. Although the prices of hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil (CRC) and hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG) increased on a monthly average basis, the d...Read More
In light of the recent turmoil in the oil market, the Fastmarkets research team has closely examined the correlations between the price of oil and the prices for ferrous scrap and finished steel products, to discover nuanced relationships and their changes over time.It is common for steel market participants to refer to high correlations between oil prices and the prices for scrap and steel. Among...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Price uptrend stumbles, but expected to resumeAs we expected, Chinese export and domestic steel prices moved upward in June, settling within the 2% range of our forecasts. Rebar prices trended downward in the second half of the month while heavy rains and floods in parts of the country meant that some construction sites had...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In previous reports, we noted that upside risks to our forecasts existed. These were based on Chinese steel production, and in turn alloy consumption, outperforming our expectations.Chinese crude steel production is rising each month in a year-on-year comparison, prompting our revised view that Chinese alloy consumption will...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' teamof analysts are ready to view.Chinese crude steel production outperformed our expectations with its recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. Crude steel output was up by 2.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2020 to 503 million tonnes, and we have revised upward what was initially a more bearish forecast for this year. We now estimate that product...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Prolonged flooding in China could limit the use of construction steel and drag down demand for steel rebar in the short term, which in turn could damp the demand for iron ore. So far, it has been reported that steel mills in the affected regions have continued to operate as normal. The floods have, however, caused a few days...Read More