Base metals prices continued to soar higher this morning, Tuesday October 19, with cash prices rising at an even faster pace while shorts are squeezed. Cash copper prices on the London Metal Exchange were evaluated on Monday evening at $1,103.50 per tonne.* All of the LME base metals’ cash/three-month spreads, except that for aluminium, are in backwardation.* Risk appetite is fairly upbeat de...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices increased slightly on Monday October 18. And the number of trucks for transporting Mongolian coal is expected to increase, sources said.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $612.56 per tonne, up by $1.46 per tonneHard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $565.06 per tonne, up by $3.39 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $400.30 per tonne, up by $0.6...Read More
London Metal Exchange prices ended broadly lower on the afternoon of Monday October 18 after rising to new highs during the trading day, while copper spread backwardations reached previously unseen figures.Aluminium's three-month price, for example, reached a new year-to-date peak of $3,229 per tonne during the day but fell to $3,167 per tonne at the 5pm close, a small drop from its closing price...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices dropped on Monday October 18 following the release of data by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showing a decrease in new housing starts.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,730-5,770 yuan ($890-896) per tonne, down by 30-40 yuan per tonneThe construction area of newly started houses came to 1.53 billion square meters in the first three quarters of 2021, down by 4.5%...Read More
The total amount of lead held outside of the London Metal Exchange's warehouses fell by 77.6% over August, with most other metals also posting declines, according to the LME's latest report. After a small rise in July, the total amount of metal held outside of LME sheds was down by 150,694 tonnes to 813,916 tonnes in August. Lead had the biggest decrease - just 1,053 tonnes were left off-wa...Read More
Silicon sales upward of $5 per lb reported in Mexico and Canada indicate continued upward pressure on prices of the aluminium alloying metal in the United States, which reached another all-time high on Thursday October 14.Fastmarkets assessed the price of silicon, ddp US at $3.35-4.25 per lb on October 14, up by 18.75% from $2.90-3.50 per lb on October 7.This was the fourth week in a row...Read More
Ford Motor will invest $316 million to build electric car components at its Halewood factory in northern England, it said.The US automotive manufacturer expects power unit production to begin in mid-2024, with capacity planned to be around 250,000 units per year, it said in a release on Monday October 18.This vehicle transmission facility, which currently builds transmissions for several...Read More
Export prices for rebar and wire rod originating from the Commonwealth of Independent States increased during the week to Monday October 18 on bullish offers from mills amid increased rolling costs, Fastmarkets heard.A steady uptrend in the international scrap market since last week, as well as increasing costs of production due to surging electricity and gas prices, pushed offers for CIS-origin l...Read More
Ford Motor will invest $316 million to build electric car components at its Halewood factory in northern England, it said.The US automotive manufacturer expects power unit production to begin in mid-2024, with capacity planned to be around 250,000 units per year, it said in a release on Monday October 18.This vehicle transmission facility, which currently builds transmissions for several...Read More
Argentinian aluminium producer Aluar will resume a quarter of its production capacity that has been restricted since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic after the federal government guaranteed power supply at lower costs, the company and the government said jointly on Wednesday October 13.That will amount to 106,000 tonnes of aluminium and result in 600 new direct and indirect jobs, they said....Read More
The antimony metal and trioxide markets remained tight, with China's environmental checks the main factor pushing the prices up; some market players hope that smelters in Hunan, China, could reopen at the end of October, easing supply.Price movesThe Chinese antimony price steadily moved up in September due to tight domestic supply. Most producers suspended operations due to a shortage of raw mater...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices dropped on Monday October 18 following the release of data by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showing a decrease in new housing starts.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,730-5,770 yuan ($890-896) per tonne, down by 30-40 yuan per tonneThe construction area of newly started houses came to 1.53 billion square meters in the first three quarters of 2021, down by 4.5%...Read More
The Commonwealth of Independent States' (CIS) billet export prices increased following a couple of Black Sea cargoes reportedly sold to Turkey, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday October 18.A 10,000-tonne cargo from Russia was reportedly sold to Turkey at $650 per tonne fob late last week, several sources told Fastmarkets.Another billet cargo of around 20,000 tonnes was sold from Ukraine to Iskend...Read More
Ford Motor will invest $316 million to build electric car components at its Halewood factory in northern England, it said.The US automotive manufacturer expects power unit production to begin in mid-2024, with capacity planned to be around 250,000 units per year, it said in a release on Monday October 18.This vehicle transmission facility, which currently builds transmissions for several...Read More
Giuseppe Pasini, chairman of Italy's Feralpi Group, one of the leading long steel manufacturers in the European Union, spoke with Fastmarkets' Julia Bolotova about the challenges facing the European steel sector and Feralpi's strategy in light of the EU's ambitious greenhouse emissions reduction goals and global trade restrictions.Energy crisis in EuropeThe recent jump in electricity and gas price...Read More
Manganese ore prices at Chinese ports rose markedly in the week to Friday October 15 amid an improved demand outlook and easing production headwinds in some major alloy-producing regions.The price differential between low-grade and high-grade manganese ore grew to 8.50 yuan ($1.32) per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on Friday, the widest since Fastmarkets started assessing the markets in January 201...Read More
Turkish domestic scrap prices have increased during the week to Monday October 18 in line with rising imported scrap values, market participants said.Turkish steelmakers have been paying higher prices for deep-sea scrap in recent weeks due to limited supply and firm demand.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix) United States origin, cfr Turkey was $489.99 per tonne on Mo...Read More
A summary of the operational results for Russian steelmaker Severstal for the third quarter (July-September) of 2021In brief Steel sales were up by 1% quarter on quarter to 2.69 million tonnes due to strong sales of pig iron and slabs. Sales of hot-rolled steel and plate increased by 1% quarter on quarter to 1.12 million tonnes. The total share of export sales volume, including sales of pig iron,...Read More
A summary of the operational results for Russian steelmaker Severstal for the third quarter (July-September) of 2021In brief Steel sales were up by 1% quarter on quarter to 2.69 million tonnes due to strong sales of pig iron and slabs. Sales of hot-rolled steel and plate increased by 1% quarter on quarter to 1.12 million tonnes. The total share of export sales volume, including sales of pig iron,...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices increased slightly on Monday October 18. And the number of trucks for transporting Mongolian coal is expected to increase, sources said.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $612.56 per tonne, up by $1.46 per tonneHard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $565.06 per tonne, up by $3.39 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $400.30 per tonne, up by $0.6...Read More