The 2019-nCoV pandemic is definitely a black swan event, one which nobody saw coming. Global business sentiment has taken a massive hit, with major industries grinding to a halt on travel bans, quarantine orders and border controls. Major airlines such as Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways have grounded their fleets, stock markets have collapsed with exchanges closing and tourism is taking a pun...Read More
Spot availability of copper scrap is now being limited by a plummeting commodity price in March because suppliers have refused to destock at the price level."At this discounted price level, some copper scrap suppliers could suffer losses. The price of scrap cannot even cover the processing costs so suppliers have become reluctant to sell," a source with a major copper refinery in China said. High-...Read More
The lockdown in India has caused a variety of logistical issues resulting in imported scrap material becoming stranded at ports and leading to potentially large charges at a time when trading has come to a sudden halt, market sources have told Fastmarkets. On March 24, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the country would begin a 21-day lockdown period effective from midnight until...Read More
The three-month aluminium price on the London Metal Exchange continued its decline at the close of trading on Monday March 30, settling at its lowest level since April 2016, while a steady uptick in lead saw its outright price close at a two-week high. Aluminium's underlying price on the LME closed at $1,530.50 per tonne on Monday afternoon, its lowest level in just under four years, while turnove...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices dropped closer to the $80-per-tonne level on Monday March 30 on plunging rebar prices in China and a negative outlook for downstream demand in April among some market participants. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $82.98 per tonne, down $3.38 per tonne 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $83.88 per tonne, down $3.14 per tone58% Fe fines high-grade...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices plummeted on Monday March 30, with steel mills - especially those outside China - expected to cut output in the second quarter. Fastmarkets IndicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $147.73 per tonne, down $5.71 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $155.54 per tonne, down $2.49 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $134.01 per tonne, down $5.88 per tonneHard...Read More
The new issue of Aluminium Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers key insights and forecasts into aluminium markets around the world.Aluminium price down 2.3% week-on-week amid stock market sell-offGlobal markets remain rattled by the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCOV) across Europe and the United States. Panic-sellin...Read More
Copper has attempted to rebound since early September following a marked sell-off in the summer months where macro and fundamental forces have been prevalent.On the macro front, copper has benefited from a slight easing in US-China trade tensions and more monetary policy easing across the globe - including China, where copper consumption is the most exposed - that has shored up investor sentiment....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
The new issue of the Steel Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers key insights and forecasts into the long and flat products markets.This week's risks to our latest flat-rolled forecasts:The Chinese government is stepping up help to the economy, increasing banks' liquidity. But the spread of the coronavirus worldwide is likely...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Although China is slowly returning to pre-outbreak activity, the same cannot be said for the rest of the world, which is grappling with the Covid-19 outbreak, with a fifth of the global population and counting under lockdown. Average blast furnace activity in China is recovering but iron ore demand from outside China is expec...Read More
The increasing consumption of scrap and a potential shift toward the electric-arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking route from the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) route in China are medium- to long-term threats to demand for steelmaking raw materials, while in the near team coking coal import volumes will continue to be affected by iron ore procurement strategies.This was the basis of Fastmarkets research team...Read More
The Covid-19 pandemic has opened up financing opportunities for metals and mining-focused investment firms. It's also created a problem. The one-two punch demand and supply shock that the virus has created is putting the mining sector under extreme pressure. With banks even more reluctant than before to provide capital to the mining sector amid the tumultuous global financial backdrop, corporates...Read More
The three-month aluminium price on the London Metal Exchange continued its decline at the close of trading on Monday March 30, settling at its lowest level since April 2016, while a steady uptick in lead saw its outright price close at a two-week high. Aluminium's underlying price on the LME closed at $1,530.50 per tonne on Monday afternoon, its lowest level in just under four years, while turnove...Read More
Spot availability of copper scrap is now being limited by a plummeting commodity price in March because suppliers have refused to destock at the price level."At this discounted price level, some copper scrap suppliers could suffer losses. The price of scrap cannot even cover the processing costs so suppliers have become reluctant to sell," a source with a major copper refinery in China said. High-...Read More
Zinc concentrate treatment charges (TCs) are dropping in China with smelters and traders scrambling to cover shortfalls in supply feed left by shuttered mines.Countries across South America have brought in stringent lockdown measures to combat the spread of the Covid-19 virus with top exporters Peru (2 million tonnes - 2019) and Bolivia (1.1 million tonnes - 2019) among the most restrictive to bus...Read More
The Chinese alumina price dropped sharply on Thursday March 26 on shrinking demand from aluminium smelters, several of whom put part of their capacity on maintenance to avoid further losses. Fastmarkets' alumina metallurgical grade, ddp China price fell to 2,380-2,420 yuan ($335-341) per tonne on Thursday, from 2,450-2,550 yuan per tonne a week earlier and a year-to-date high of 2,620-2,540 y...Read More
The three-month aluminium price on the London Metal Exchange was lower during morning trading on Monday March 30, with price action falling by around 1.6% after more than 24,000 tonnes of metal was delivered back to LME-registered warehouses across Asia.Aluminium's underlying price on the LME was recently seen at $1,528.50 per tonne, down by $17 per tonne from Friday's closing price of $1,545.50 p...Read More
Markets were looking quite mixed this morning, Monday March 30, with most Asian-Pacific equity indices down, the pre-market Dow Jones Industrial Average up by 0.2%, oil prices down by around 5% and the base metals prices mixed.Base metals face numerous cross currents with demand expected to recover in China but fall further in the world ex-China, while the Covid-19 virus and lower prices lead to s...Read More
While hot-rolled coil prices in the United States have remained largely steady day on day, sources anticipated a scrap- and demand-driven downturn in spot pricing as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $27.15 per hundredweight ($543 per short ton) on Monday March 30, up by 0.3% from $27.08 per cwt on Friday Marc...Read More