China may continue importing steel billet after the Chinese New Year holiday (January 25-30) due to the expected pick-up in seasonal downstream demand and prices post-holiday, market sources told Fastmarkets.China was not heard to have imported any steel billet in January due to the holiday lull in the domestic markets. Quiet JanuaryCurrent billet import offers are around $450 per tonne cfr China...Read More
Despite uncertainty surrounding downstream demand, the price of cobalt sulfate in China has jumped by more than 12% so far this year, with suppliers either offering the material at aggressively high levels or holding back from sales.Fastmarkets' price assessment for cobalt sulfate 20.5% Co basis, exw China was 49,000-51,000 yuan ($7,080-7,369) per tonne on Friday January 10, up by 5,000-6,000 yuan...Read More
The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Monday January 13, settling at a nine-month high against moderate volumes traded, while aluminium futures stagnated despite tumbling exchange stocks.Copper's underlying price on the LME closed at $6,290 per tonne on Monday afternoon, its highest settlement price since April 2019, while its daily trading...Read More
The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange improved during morning trading on Monday January 13, with upward momentum supported by a fresh cancelation of some 4,434 tonnes, while continued outflows did little to move a steady aluminium price. Nickel's outright price on the LME was recently seen up by 0.5% at $14,295 per tonne, while trading volumes topped the complex over the mornin...Read More
Operations at Australia's Curragh coal mine have been suspended following a fatal accident over the weekend, the miner said on Monday January 13. Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $155.26 per tonne, up $1.73 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $160.87 per tonne, up $2.77 per tonne Hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $125.01 per tonne, up $2.68 per tonneHard...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 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
Northern European flat steel producers increased their official hot-rolled coil offer prices on Monday January 13 and transaction prices are also expected to rise, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, ex-works Northern Europe, was ?,?442.93 ($492.35) per tonne on Monday January 13, up from ?,?442.43 per tonne on January 10.Monday's index was calcul...Read More
Turkish steel mills continued to hold back from deep-sea scrap purchases on Monday January 13, due to weak rebar markets and firm scrap prices, sources told Fastmarkets.Steelmakers in the country booked only one deep-sea cargo last week, when a steel mill in the Marmara region booked a European cargo, comprising 15,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (75:25), 10,000 tonnes of shredded and 15,000 tonnes of bonus...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday January 13 that are worth another look.Sentiment in the global long steel market has become more positive "especially after the announcement that a trade deal between the [United States] and China will be signed," the International Rebar Producers & Exporters Association (Irepas) said last week.International auditing and advisory...Read More
The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange improved during morning trading on Monday January 13, with upward momentum supported by a fresh cancelation of some 4,434 tonnes, while continued outflows did little to move a steady aluminium price. Nickel's outright price on the LME was recently seen up by 0.5% at $14,295 per tonne, while trading volumes topped the complex over the mornin...Read More
China's new policy to rename certain copper scrap, brass scrap and aluminium scrap as "recyclable raw materials" will take effect in July 2020, according to an official document seen by Fastmarkets. The criterion for eligibility has been approved by bureaus including the State Administration for Market Regulation and will be publicly announced in the next 20 days. Well informed sources told Fastma...Read More
An increase in demand for secondary aluminium from both Europe and abroad has fueled a jump in European scrap prices, according to markets sources.One of the main drivers of the increase in prices is the return of market participants in China and other Asian countries looking to Europe for scrap supply. That trend was sparked by the announcement of new aluminium scrap quotas for China in Dece...Read More
With the exception of aluminium and nickel, base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were little changed at the close of morning trading on Monday January 13.The complex exhibited mixed but limited movements this morning while reacting to underwhelming December employment data out of the United States at the end of last week. Data out on Friday showed that non-farm payrolls increased by...Read More
Rising ferrous scrap costs have nudged special bar quality (SBQ) steel spot prices upward in the United States, while sentiment among market participants has been weak to start the year, Fastmarkets has learned. On the hot-rolled side of the market, Fastmarkets' monthly price assessment for steel bar hot-rolled special bar quality (SBQ) 1-inch round 1000 series (carbon), fob mill US rose to $35 pe...Read More
Steel plate prices in the United States held steady for a fourth consecutive week after a December producer price hike did not materialize in transaction prices in the first full working week of 2020.Plate mills issued a $40-per-ton ($2-per-hundredweight) price increase in early December, their third round of hikes since early November. Prices strengthened in the first two weeks of December but st...Read More
Ukrainian steel billet producer Dneprovskiy Dzerzhinsky Metallurgical Plant (DMKD) has restarted its 900,000-tonnes-per-year No12 blast furnace at its steelmaking facility in the port city of Kamianske on the Dneiper river.Trial pig iron production was started at the end of 2019 and normal operations resumed on Saturday January 4, the company said on January 10. Currently, the daily...Read More
Sentiment in the global long steel market has become more positive "especially after the announcement that a trade deal between the [United States] and China will be signed," the International Rebar Producers & Exporters Association (Irepas) said last week."[But] we have to keep in mind the possibility that any trade deal may prove to be elusive," the association added in its January 2020 Short Ra...Read More
China may continue importing steel billet after the Chinese New Year holiday (January 25-30) due to the expected pick-up in seasonal downstream demand and prices post-holiday, market sources told Fastmarkets.China was not heard to have imported any steel billet in January due to the holiday lull in the domestic markets. Quiet JanuaryCurrent billet import offers are around $450 per tonne cfr China...Read More
A number of factors came together in the second half of 2019 to create a situation of high volatility in the market for pig iron exports from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which covers almost two-thirds of global exports.On one hand, weaker prices for finished steel products and scrap put pressure on the pig iron market, while on the other hand suppliers redirected pig iron away fr...Read More