Key pricing data from the pricing session for Fastmarkets' alumina index, fob Australia on Thursday April 30. Fastmarkets' daily alumina index, fob Australia moved up to $241.37 per tonne on Thursday from $233.93 per tonne the previous day. The index is now at its highest since April 1 when it was at $241.52 per tonne. Key drivers: Three new deals concluded Thursday, with two destined f...Read More
A summary of London Metal Exchange warrant premiums from across the globe for the week to Wednesday April 29. Please click...Read More
KAZ Minerals has delayed the start of production at its $1.2 billion Aktogay copper expansion project in Kazakhstan to late 2021, citing the impacts to its supply chain of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company has also cut its capital expenditure for the project this year to $300-350 million from $400 million previously forecast. KAZ Minerals had spent $663 million on the project by the end of 2019,...Read More
Domestic steel beam prices in the United States slipped in April on weaker demand and price reductions by mills, while import prices edged slightly higher in the face of collapsing demand due to foreign mills resisting price cuts. Fastmarkets' monthly price assessment for steel beams 8 x 8-inch, fob mill US fell to $35.25 per hundredweight ($705 per short ton) on Thursday April 30, down by $1.25 (...Read More
A free-falling domestic flat-rolled steel market has sent more pressure to the foreign mills that are shipping their steel products to the docks in the United States, resulting in further declines on prices of most imported flat steel products.US hot-rolled coil prices crashed below $23 per hundredweight ($460 per short ton) this week despite an expected increase in ferrous scrap prices in May.&nb...Read More
Latin American steel group Ternium expects the Mexican automotive industry to "gradually" restart operations in May, chief executive officer M??ximo Vedoya said on Wednesday April 29.Automakers in Mexico have stopped operations since late March because of the spread of Covid-19. "The automotive industry's value chain in US and Mexico is highly integrated and it demands synchronized production in b...Read More
A summary of the financial results for Turkey's largest steelmaking group, Erdemir, for January-March 2020.In briefEarnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda)1,068,037,000 Turkish lira ($153.07 million*), down by 38.36% from 1,732,790,000 lira in January-March 2019.Q1 2020 production, salesCrude steel production2.232 million...Read More
Indian steel mills are unlikely to cut domestic hot rolled coil prices for sales in May, private mill sources in the country told Fastmarkets this week."We are likely to continue with current prices for the next month,," an official from a private sector mill said, "[because] any reduction in prices will [lead to] a big loss to our dealers and distributors."Fastmarkets' price assessment...Read More
The Russian Steel Association has called for equal access to the country's railway infrastructure so that its members can export goods to eastern destinations, according to a local news report published earlier this week.Russian Steel unites the country's largest mining and steel companies.It filed an appeal to Russia's first deputy prime minister, Andrei Belousov, asking him to ensure that there...Read More
Latin American steel group Ternium expects to delay the start-up of some projects in order to preserve cash during the Covid-19 pandemic.The company will delay start-up of a hot-rolling mill in Pesquer?-a, a northeastern Mexican city near Monterrey, Mexico, to April 2021.The company previously planned a fourth-quarter 2020 launch of the new hot-rolling mill, which is designed to hav...Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market was almost silent again on Thursday April 30, with mills expecting even lower prices, sources told Fastmarkets.Overall demand for deep-sea scrap remains poor because of lower steel output and weak demand for finished steel, due to the measures put in place to curb the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak.At least six steelmakers have halted produc...Read More
Prices in the seaborne iron ore market continued to gain ground on Thursday April 30, in line with higher futures curves for steel rebar, but trading activity in the seaborne and Chinese portside markets slowed down before China's Labor Day holiday on May 1.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $84.04 per tonne, up by $1.54 per tonne.62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $86.70 p...Read More
Buying activity for ferrous scrap cargoes imported into South Korea has increased over the past week, with steelmakers looking to acquire Japanese material, market sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 30.South Korean scrap demand has not held up over recent months. The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic across the country has seriously reduced high-grade steel demand and even led to major produ...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices dropped slightly day on day on Thursday April 30, one day before the five-day Chinese Labor Day holiday, Fastmarkets heard.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $107.12 per tonne, down $0.18 per tonne Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $117.33 per tonne, down $1.17 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $93.26 per tonne, down $1.75 per tonneHard coki...Read More
Prices for ferrous scrap imports into Bangladesh declined over the past week with buying activity held back by high stocks of material as well as the start of the Islamic celebration of Ramadan, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 30.Prices in the Bangladesh market had been strong since the start of April, with higher offer prices from the US West Coast due to the low supply of material, to...Read More
China's domestic hot-rolled coil prices edged up on Thursday April 30, with sentiment lifted by news that the country's manufacturing activity continued to grow in April.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,270-3,300 yuan ($462-466) per tonne, widening upward by 20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tangshan): 3,240-3,250 yuan per tonne, widening upward by 10 yuan per tonneA Shanghai-based trader said p...Read More
The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange held on to support above $5,200 per tonne during morning trading on Thursday April 30, while a fresh cancellation of 10,000 tonnes did little to support aluminium futures prices. The LME three-month copper price was recently at $5,251.50 per tonne, but has traded as high as $5,294.50 per tonne over the morning, while turnover remained thin...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices increased slightly on Thursday April 30 on rising futures following the release of the latest steel purchasing managers' index (PMI).Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,410-3,440 yuan ($481-486) per tonne, up by 10 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Beijing) - weekly assessment: 3,390-3,440 yuan per tonne, down by 30 yuan per tonne from last FridayChina's steel PMI for Ap...Read More
Base metals prices and global equity indices were holding up in high ground this morning, Thursday April 30, helped by the US Federal Open Market Committee's message of continued support, an expansion in manufacturing activity at China's larger factories, a stronger oil price and because state-sponsored inventory buying in China bodes well for the metals. Asian-Pacific and pre-market major western...Read More
Demand for Umicore's products dropped significantly in the first quarter of 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the producer anticipates global automotive production to slump by 25% this year. The "coronavirus-induced recession" is "significantly affecting demand in cobalt and specialty materials and precious metals chemistry," the Belgium-headquartered technology company said in its results sta...Read More