If global financial markets had been operating under a pervading sense of uncertainty due to the impact of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), they now appear to be veering on panic.Oil prices have suffered their biggest one-day collapse since the 1991 Gulf War following Saudi Arabia's declaration of a price war on Russia through a shock move to hike oil production. S&P Dow Jones Indices was forced...Read More
The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is set to accelerate what the trade wars started: the diversification of global supply chains. Both events have demonstrated just how interconnected the global economy is and have provided a wake-up call to businesses worldwide that it might be time to reduce their reliance on China as the workshop of the world. Of course, that's easier said than done. China is th...Read More
Japan's demand for aluminium is the highest in Asia but recently has been falling fast due to a slowing economy and the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak affecting downstream demand. Japan is the biggest buyer of aluminium in Asia, typically ratcheting up to more than 1 million tonnes per year of imports, but the industry is now experiencing a period of increasingly weak demand. According to t...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month copper price slightly improved at the close on Thursday March 19, up by 2% but firmly below the $5,000-per-tonne resistance level, while nickel recorded its highest daily trading volume since November 2016. Copper's underlying price on the LME closed at $4,830 per tonne this afternoon, while turnover was once again just below 30,000 lots over the day.Yet buyin...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices dropped on Thursday March 19, though uncertainty about supply persisted and the futures prices on the Dalian Commodity Exchange regained some losses made earlier in the morning. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $91.36 per tonne, down $0.35 per tonne 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $92.37 per tonne, down $0.83 per tone58% Fe fines high-grade pr...Read More
Physical trading for copper in China has ground to a halt after the tumbling copper price on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) startled the market, Fastmarkets heard.Copper, a bellwether for the global economy, lost its cool following the rout across global financial markets amid the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) fallout. SHFE copper rapidly fell to the daily down limit after it opened on Thursday Ma...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 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
Japan's demand for aluminium is the highest in Asia but recently has been falling fast due to a slowing economy and the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak affecting downstream demand. Japan is the biggest buyer of aluminium in Asia, typically ratcheting up to more than 1 million tonnes per year of imports, but the industry is now experiencing a period of increasingly weak demand. According to t...Read More
ArcelorMittal will temporarily idle blast furnace (BF) A in Asturias and some other equipment "in around 15 days" in Spain, the company's spokesman told Fastmarkets on Thursday March 19.ArcelorMittal Asturias operates two BFs with a total capacity of 4.7 million tonnes per year, according to Fastmarkets' Capex quarterly service.The steelmaker will also stop operations at one of its two sinter plan...Read More
Copper and brass scrap discounts and prices have fallen across the board in the United States, weighed down by a 14% week-on-week drop in the Comex copper price and by concerns surrounding the rapidly evolving novel coronavirus pandemic situation.The speed of the coronavirus spread in the US - which has restricted public gatherings and movement across the country - has taken industry participants...Read More
Zinc and lead miners have had their silver lining taken out.The price of the precious metal fell abruptly to an 11-year low of $11.80 per oz in the week to Thursday March 19, having traded close to multi-year highs mere days previously.Investors dumped silver, a precious metal that in physical form is mostly used in industrial applications, as part of a wide selloff in liquid asset classes on fear...Read More
Downstream aluminium materials producer Constellium has announced that it will reduce or suspend activities at its manufacturing sites due to the disruption caused by the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic.Constellium, which produces aluminium products for the aerospace, automotive and packaging sectors, has plants throughout North America, Europe and Asia.The company would also be looking to reduce c...Read More
Key pricing data from the alumina index, fob Australia pricing session on Thursday March 19. Key drivers: Fastmarkets' daily alumina index, fob Australia declined 4.6% to $283.11 per tonne on Thursday, down from $297.23 per tonne the previous day and down 6.5% week on week when it was at $303.17 per tonne. A fresh deal concluded today for 30,000 tonnes of Indonesian material at $275 per tonne for...Read More
As of Thursday March 19, more copper, zinc and lead producers have reduced or halted operation in light of the rapidly changing conditions arising from travel restrictions in place across South American countries.Fastmarkets has summed up the latest list of disruptions and developments in South American base metals:Chile, the biggest copper producing country, restricted travel into the country and...Read More
US hot-rolled coil prices are in a holding pattern as the market waits for the shock of automotive plant shutdowns to spread across the steel supply chain.Fastmarkets' steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $28.40 per hundredweight ($568 per ton) on Thursday March 19, up 0.6% from 28.23 per cwt one day prior but down 2.4% from $29.09 per cwt a week earlier.Inputs were received...Read More
Tata Steel Europe will cut its steel output in the UK and the Netherlands to address the reduced flat steel demand in Europe, the company said on Thursday March 19.Widespread operational stoppages among EU car manufacturers have affected the demand for flat steel, and increasingly more steelmakers are either stopping or cutting their output.Tata Steel has already made production adjustments at som...Read More