Exporters of flat steel from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) reduced prices in further sales to Turkey, although later increased their offers in the week to Tuesday April 21 on full order books.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil, export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $345-365 per tonne on Tuesday, down from $360-370 per tonne a week before.Two sales of R...Read More
Mexican steel scrap prices decreased in the week ended April 17, with some buyers applying the first round of a series of price cuts planned for the month, and a second group of buyers keeping their prices stable.In Mexico's central Baj?-o region, steelmakers applied price cuts of 200-400 pesos ($8-17) per tonne last week, and have announced a second round of price cuts of 200 pesos per tonne to s...Read More
The Turkish steel producers went through the second working day of the week with no deep-sea bookings and they were expected to remain quiet for the rest of the week, sources said on Tuesday April 21.The mills in the country booked at least seven deep-sea cargoes last week, totaling almost 220,000 tonnes.Market participants believed that those cargoes will be enough to cover mills' urgent needs."I...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices dropped on Tuesday April 21, following the crash in US oil prices, which fell into negative territory late on Monday evening in Singapore for the first time on record, Fastmarkets understands.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $84.37 per tonne, down $3.08 per tonne 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $85.96 per tonne, down $3.15 per tonne58% Fe fines...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices dropped further on Tuesday April 21 due to inactive trading and persistent bearish sentiment among market participants.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $125.05 per tonne, down by $3.21 per tonne.Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $135.04 per tonne, down by $1.47 per tonne.Hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $116.01 per tonne, down by $1.00 per tonne.H...Read More
Japan's Nippon Steel will halt a third blast furnace due to an "immediate sharp drop in demand for steel products" caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.Company: Nippon SteelLocation: Kimitsu, Chiba prefectureEquipment: No2 blast furnace (BF), coke ovensDate: From mid-May The 8-million-tonnes-per-year Kimitsu steel works has...Read More
Steel production outside China could contract by a double-digit percentage in 2020, according to global miner BHP, but output in China may rise slightly in the same period if the country can avoid a second wave of Covid-19 infections. According to the miner, steel makers from a variety of regions, including Europe, the Americas, India and Japan, have announced or signaled full shutdowns or curtail...Read More
China's domestic hot-rolled coil prices dropped on Tuesday April 21, with market sentiment hurt by a slump in financial markets triggered by an oil crash in the United States.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,300-3,320 yuan ($466-469) per tonne, down 20-30 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tangshan): 3,240 yuan per tonne, down 20 yuan per tonneSellers across China lowered their offers in response to...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month copper price declined during morning trading on Tuesday April 21, threatening to dip below the key $5,000-per-tonne support level, while tin futures fell 2.5% despite a sizeable stock outflow.LME copper's outright price was recently at $5,069 per tonne, sinking from an intra-morning low of $5,182 per tonne, while turnover is moderately high at some 9,000 lots...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices slid further on Tuesday April 21 amid futures losses sparked by an oil market crash in the United States. Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,420-3,450 yuan ($483-488) per tonne, down by 10 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Beijing): 3,430-3,450 yuan per tonne, down by 20 yuan per tonne The May futures contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil fell as low as minus...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were weaker this morning, Tuesday April 21, and Asian-Pacific and pre-market major western equity indices were weaker too. On Monday we had thought poor corporate earnings data had the potential to rattle markets, but it seems that negative oil futures prices were the catalyst that caused traders concern. The soon-to-exp...Read More
Some metal-product cargoes can now be shipped out of Durban, almost one month after the biggest terminal in sub-Saharan Africa stopped handling such material amid a nationwide lockdown intended to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, Fastmarkets has learned.Several Asia-bound copper cargoes originally scheduled to leave the South African port one month ago departed over the past weekend, t...Read More
Despite signs of the Covid-19 virus being brought more under control with daily death tolls in most major economies now in decline, the rebound in demand is slow and this seems to be weighing on metals prices this morning, Wednesday April 22.But with broader markets starting to pick up, the metals may shake off their early weakness.One of the problems is that while manufacturing and industry can r...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 34 points in pre-opening trade. The Canadian Dollar was virtually unchanged at U.S. 70.70 cents following release of Canada's March Consumer Price Index at 8:30 AM EDT. Consensus was a decline of 0.4% versus a gain of 0.4% in February. Actual was a decline of 0.6%.Netflix slipped $3.83 to $430.00 despite announcing a h...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday April 20 that are worth another look.Last month, analysts started warning that oil prices could fall below zero. On Monday, they did.Iron ore fines output at Brazil-based miner Vale fell by 18.2% year on year in the first quarter of 2020, while the company has cut its guidance of iron ore and pellet production for 2020, the company...Read More
The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was the standout metal at the close of trading on Monday April 20, while the rest of the base metals complex remained pinned down amid broad risk aversion. Nickel's outright price on the LME closed at $12,505 per tonne on Monday afternoon - its highest closing price since March 13 - with daily turnover notching a three-week high w...Read More
China's production of refined copper in March dropped marginally from a year ago while charges to turn concentrate into copper metal rebounded during the month. Home of half of the world's copper smelting capacity, China generated 771,000 tonnes of copper cathodes last month, representing a drop of 2.5% from a year ago, the country's statistics bureau said on Monday April 20. The largely stable op...Read More
China's production of refined copper in March dropped marginally from a year ago while charges to turn concentrate into copper metal rebounded during the month. Home of half of the world's copper smelting capacity, China generated 771,000 tonnes of copper cathodes last month, representing a drop of 2.5% from a year ago, the country's statistics bureau said on Monday April 20. The largely stable op...Read More
Low-grade and high-grade seaborne manganese ore prices diverged in the latest assessments on Friday April 17 with the former continuing to move up amid lingering concerns over supply tightness while the latter corrected downward amid relatively abundant supply. Fastmarkets' manganese ore index 37% Mn, cif Tianjin rose by 1.8% or 9 cents per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) to $5.14 per dmtu on Fr...Read More
Chinese domestic portside manganese ore prices of both high and low grades registered significant increases in the latest assessments on Friday April 17, after the country's ore traders raised offer prices notably in response to a 14-day extension of the lockdown in South Africa. On April 9, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he would extend the nationwide lockdown in place sin...Read More