The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The recent announcement about Vale's resumption of operations in Brazil, along with new concerns about a slump in demand because of heavy rainfall in China, has resulted in the end of the iron ore price rally. There has also been pressure from tight steel spreads, with the operating margins for Chinese steel mills shrinking...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron ore prices climbed further last week and we expect the elevated levels to remain into the next month. In particular, further upside will come from blast furnace (BF) capacity, which was reduced in Europe, Japan and the United States and has now come back online after restrictions started to be removed. With Covid-19 spr...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron ore prices have shot up as market participants have judged the supply risks from Covid-19 higher at this point in time when there is already a tight seaborne market. Despite the efforts to ramp up, Vale is struggling to catch up with its pre-dam disaster export volumes and its slow recovery has only been hit further by...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron oreSentiment in the iron ore market continues to be dominated by concerns about supply disruptions in Brazil. Prices spiked above $100 per tonne after reports that there had been a recent surge of Covid-19 cases at Vale's three mines in Itabira. A...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices are on the increase in June. As far as this market is concerned, it appears as though the Covid-19 pandemic has had little impact so far, with prices on the most common grades of stainless steel just 2-4% lower than they were at the turn of the year in most markets.Even in Asia, a region often talked ab...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices have fared relatively well over the past couple of months in the face of the threat from the Covid-19 pandemic.In grade-304 material, the most common grade of stainless steel, prices were down by about 5-7% since the turn of the year - not bad, when compared with the falls in prices of other assets so f...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Having first hit Asia during early 2020, the Covid-19 viral outbreak is now having an even bigger impact on European countries and the US. Widespread lockdown measures have been put in place on people and industry, and economic activity has slowed markedly.For now, stainless steel markets in Europe and the US are yet to show...Read More
The new issue of the Seamless OCTG & Linepipe Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers analysis of seamless OCTG and linepipe across international markets:Covid-19 underscores pipe outlookUnsurprisingly, the concern in the seamless pipe markets across the regions is the effect of the spread of Covid-19 on public health and econo...Read More
European steelmakers have been insisting on price rises for domestic hot-rolled coil despite demand remaining low, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday June 29.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was calculated at ?,?395.00 ($443.07) per tonne on Monday, up by ?,?1.25 per tonne from ?,?393.75 per tonne on June 26.Monday's index was...Read More
The Turkish steel mills continued to shy away from deep-sea scrap purchases at the beginning of this week, expecting lower prices soon, sources said on Monday June 29.The mills in Turkey booked only two deep-sea cargoes last week, which totaled 67,500 tonnes.Producers have been keeping their deep-sea scrap purchases at a low level because of the limited demand and, therefore, falling prices for lo...Read More
Brazilian aluminium consumption was likely to show a two-digit percentage decrease in 2020 amid the restrictions enforced in the country to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the president of local aluminium association Abal, Milton Rego, told Fastmarkets on Friday June 26.The country consumed 1.49 million tonnes of aluminium products last year, according to data from Abal. But since the pandemic hit B...Read More
Russian miner Nornickel has reported another industrial incident in the Norilsk region of Siberia - an overflow at the Talnakh concentrator, which the company said on Sunday June 28 presents "no threat of waste leakage.""The company is cooperating with Russia's ecology watchdog Rosprirodnadzor and the ministry of emergency situations to monitor the situation and assess whether any damage has occur...Read More
Steady buying over the afternoon brought the three-month zinc price on the London Metal Exchange higher at the close of trading on Monday June 29, eradicating the metal's morning price weakness, while nickel futures topped gains despite minimal volume traded on the day. Zinc's outright price on the LME closed at $2,061.50 per tonne, climbing from an intraday low of $2,020 per tonne, while turnover...Read More
Huaxing alumina refinery, in Shanxi province of northern China, has closed one alumina production line following an equipment accident, several sources told Fastmarkets on Monday June 29. It could take 20-30 days to return the production line to full operation, removing around 50,000-80,000 tonnes of alumina supply from the Chinese domestic market over the period, according to market estimates. Hu...Read More
Poor physical aluminium market conditions have forced people to store excess metal, pushing total aluminium stocks on the London Metal Exchange to more than 1.6 million tonnes.Aluminium stocks rose by 2.9% last week, up for a seventh consecutive week, with inventories now sitting at their highest level since April 2017.Current on-warrant stock levels now stand at 1.6 million tonnes - 108% higher t...Read More
The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange consolidated higher during morning trading on Monday June 29, although it remained firmly below the $6,000 per tonne threshold. Copper's outright price on the LME was recently at $5,956.50 per tonne, up from a morning low of $5,924 per tonne, but firmly below the $6,000 per tonne threshold, despite spiking above the resistance level on Frid...Read More
Prices for domestic and imported merchant bar quality (MBQ) steel in the United States again remained flat this month while market participants reported that demand was rising, although only modestly in some locations. Fastmarkets' monthly price assessment for steel bar 2 x 2 x 1/4 -inch angle merchant products, fob mill US was $33.80 per hundredweight ($676 per short ton) on Friday June 26, unc...Read More
Prices for steel plate in the United States weakened for the first time since early May after mills grew slightly more flexible on post-hike pricing in an effort to book enough orders to find destinations for the current pace of rollings.But participants emphasized that pricing stability remains the prevailing theme in the plate market. They credit the plate mills' two rounds of price-increase ann...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States have slipped below $24 per hundredweight ($480 per short ton) on stagnant demand and high inventory levels.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $23.70 per cwt ($474 per ton) on Monday June 29, a 1.3% decline from $24 per cwt on Friday June 26 and off by 4.9% from $24.92 per cwt a week earlier on June 22. Inputs we...Read More
Egypt consumed 312,000 tonnes of rebar in May 2020, 35.36% less than the 482,700 tonnes consumed in May 2019, Egyptian sources told Fastmarkets.This is the lowest rebar consumption figure for the last ten years, sources noted. Comparatively, Egypt consumed 452,800 tonnes of rebar in April 2020, sources said.If consumption continues to fall at this rate, market sources expect the country's annual r...Read More