The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange rallied at the close of trading on Thursday July 23, with the price settling more than 4% higher after US carmaker Tesla called for a ramp-up in global nickel mining.Meanwhile, a continued tightening of LME copper's forward curve failed to hamper the metal's positive close.Nickel's outright price on the LME closed at $13,689 per tonne, a ri...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe were fairly stable day on day on Thursday July 23, due to the seasonal market slowdown, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was calculated at ?,?407.69 ($471.19) per tonne on Thursday, up by just ?,?0.01 per tonne from ?,?407.68 per tonne on July 22.Thursday's index was b...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday July 23 that are worth another look.Adjusted steel safeguard measures in Europe, combined with new trade cases, will limit availability of imported hot-rolled coil and support domestic prices.Companies with strong balance sheets and access to capital could drive a...Read More
China's ammonium paratungstate (APT) market is showing signs of a recovery after prices climbed to around 125,000 yuan ($17,871) per tonne this week, having held closer to 120,000 yuan per tonne for approximately a month. At the same time, prices in the country's upstream tungsten concentrate are said to be on a similar upward trajectory.Chinese APT producers have been in a difficult situation in...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 three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange rallied at the close of trading on Thursday July 23, with the price settling more than 4% higher after US carmaker Tesla called for a ramp-up in global nickel mining.Meanwhile, a continued tightening of LME copper's forward curve failed to hamper the metal's positive close.Nickel's outright price on the LME closed at $13,689 per tonne, a ri...Read More
Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices went down slightly on Thursday July 23 with no transactions heard today, although sources indicated that Indian steel mills had been purchasing seaborne material recently.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $109.02 per tonne, down $0.91 per tonne Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $118.69 per tonne, down $0.54 per tonneHard coking co...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices were largely rangebound on Thursday July 23 with political tensions rising between the United States and China, according to trade sources.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $110.12 per tonne, down by $0.83 per tonne.62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $112.80 per tonne, down by $0.04 per tonne.58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $99.57 per...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
Turkish steel mills have continued to book deep-sea scrap cargoes for August shipment with improving prices, sources said on Thursday July 23.A steel mill in the Iskenderun region booked a Baltic Sea cargo, comprising 18,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (95:5) at $275 per tonne cfr on Thursday.Another steel mill in Turkey booked a US cargo, comprising 7,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $270 per...Read More
The Cerro Verde copper mine in Peru operated at around 80% of its 2019 average levels in June but is expected to see operations increase in the second half, according to majority owner Freeport-McMoRan. The US copper producer, which has a 53.56% stake in the mine, said that Cerro Verde's operating rates averaged 251,800 tonnes of ore per day in the second quarter, including an average of 316,800 t...Read More
Low copper inventories are a "good omen" for copper because they position the metal for material gains when economic activity rebounds, the chief executive officer of miner Freeport-McMoRan has said.Richard Adkerson said in a conference call on the US copper producer's second-quarter earnings on Thursday July 23 that mine and scrap supply constraints were in focus, and that stocks had actually dec...Read More
Companies with strong balance sheets and access to capital could drive a gradual pick-up in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the metals and mining sector in the months ahead, following a significant reduction in deal numbers due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to consultancy firm PwC.But uncertainties created by the continuing pandemic and a possible recession continued to weigh heav...Read More
Southern Peru Copper Corp (SPCC) was the Peruvian miner least affected by the Covid-19 pandemic among public companies on the Santiago Stock Exchange, several notifications filed to the country's securities authority, SMV, showed. The SMV polled all listed companies during July and only SPCC said that it did not partially or completely halt operations due to the national emergency declared by the...Read More
Glencore's head of zinc and lead assets Chris Eskdale has stepped down from his role while the company overhauls the department's senior leadership, Fastmarkets understands.Eskdale's role will now be split between incoming head of trading Nick Popovic, Denis Hamel and Aline Cote who will become the first woman to lead an industrial division at Glencore.Glencore produced 975,000 tonnes of zinc...Read More
Freeport-McMoRan has beaten its second-quarter copper sales target by 10% but will retain its revised annual forecast due to the continued adverse impact of Covid-19 on its operations, it said on Thursday July 23. The company reported second-quarter 2020 copper sales of 759 million lb or 344,277 tonnes, up 10% from the April 2020 estimate, primarily reflecting better-than-anticipated production ra...Read More
US hot-rolled coil prices have slipped below $22 per hundredweight for the first time since late April, with some mills attempting to raise prices as others continue to cut deals in an effort to close out August order books, market participants said.Fastmarkets daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $21.95 per hundredweight ($439 per ton) on Thursday July 23, down 3.2% fr...Read More
While prices for certain flat steel imports into the United States have dropped again, moving in tandem with lower domestic pricing, other products have remained resilient on pricing because of improved steel demand in other parts of the world.Fastmarkets received only a limited inputs for foreign flat-rolled products over the past two weeks, because sources said that the weak steel market in the...Read More
The price for steel reinforcing bar in the United States held firm week on week on steady demand from the construction end market, market participants said.US marketFastmarkets' price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), fob mill US held at $28 per hundredweight ($560 per short ton) on Wednesday July 22, unchanged after falling to this level on July 15."It seems to have stalled...Read More
Steel billet Import prices increased in Egypt in the week to Thursday July 23 because of higher offers and despite weak demand, sources told Fastmarkets.CIS-origin billet was offered this week at $405-410 per tonne cfr, and buyers said that $380 per tonne cfr was likely to be a workable price for the material. However, CIS sellers did not accept the low-priced bids. ...Read More