Prices for seaborne premium low-vol coking coal weakened on Wednesday November 6 amid deteriorating sentiment.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $133.29 per tonne, unchangedPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $146.16 per tonne, down by $0.53 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $123.21 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $134.34 per tonne, unchangedLow-vol P...Read More
Brazil's national mining agency, ANM, has concluded that Vale failed to report anomalies before a deadly disaster breach occurred at a tailings dam in its C??rrego do Feij??o mine in January.ANM published a technical report on Tuesday November 5 in which it said internal documents from Vale showed that the miner was aware of several defects in the tailings dam but did not inform the agency before...Read More
London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices were broadly trading down in the morning session on Wednesday November 6, suppressed by low trading volumes despite stocks flowing out across all the metals today. The LME three-month copper price notably abated during the morning session, trading down to around $5,921.50 having hit a high of $5,978 per tonne yesterday while turnover for the day...Read More
Export prices for Chinese hot-rolled coil strengthened further on Wednesday November 6 amid rising domestic prices and higher bids emerging among overseas buyers.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,540-3,550 yuan ($505-506) per tonne, up 20-30 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tangshan): 3,540 yuan per tonne, up 20 yuan per tonneSellers in eastern China raised their prices after mills in the northern...Read More
Broader markets were little changed this morning, Wednesday November 6, while participants await further news on the likelihood of a "phase one" trade deal between the United States and China. For now it seems as though the market has priced in as much as it wants to, given how trade rhetoric can flip-flop so easily.Asian equities were mixed, suggesting some consolidation has started to set in.Chi...Read More
Copper was the lone base metal on the Shanghai Futures Exchange to record a gain during the morning trading session on Wednesday November 6, with growing supply concerns providing support.The most-traded December copper contract on the SHFE stood at 47,310 yuan ($6,746) per tonne as at 10.20am Shanghai time, up by 60 yuan per tonne - or 0.1% - from Tuesday's close of 47,250 yuan per tonne.Despite...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and their latest price moves.Read More
Chinese buyers' appetite for imported cobalt metal is likely to shrink in the near future because domestic supply is increasing and there is little room for demand to increase, market participants told Fastmarkets. Cobalt production in China is estimated to reach 9,300 tonnes in 2019, up 17% from last year, Zhanrong Kong, senior analyst from Antaike told delegates at Antaike's International Nickel...Read More
Key data from Fastmarkets' pricing session in Europe on Wednesday November 6.Key drivers Alloy price range widens upward on reported deals, although overall spot demand remains muted. Trading liquidity was reported, with deals being done at both ends of the new pricing range, although some sources reckon that a move lower is more likely than not in the near future because some suppliers expect to...Read More
Despite a recent slowdown in the development of nickel-rich lithium ion batteries for use in the electric vehicle (EV) sector, certain types of these batteries will continue to penetrate the market due to so called "driving range anxiety", according to the chairman of Ningbo Ronbay New Energy Technology Co.Addressing delegates at the China International Nickel & Cobalt Conference in Yichang, centr...Read More
The Brazilian foreign trade secretariat, Secex, has exempted Germany, South Korea, Finland and Vietnam from an anti-dumping tariff on stainless cold-rolled coil imports, but retained it for China and Taiwan.After a one-year review, Secex decided to extend the tariff on Chinese and Taiwanese products until October 2024. The tariff has been in effect since 2013, which resulted from an application ma...Read More
China has approved a sixth copper scrap import quota to allow an additional 11,110 tonnes of copper scrap into the country by the end of this year, the environmental ministry said on Tuesday November 5.The latest quota, 81% lower than the previous quota covering 57,365 tonnes announced on October 18, brings the total volume of copper scrap imports allowed into China in the second half of 2019 to 5...Read More
U.S. equity index futures moved higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 12 points in pre-opening trade. Index futures responded to news that China and the U.S. agreed to phase out some of their tariffs.Index futures were virtually unchanged following release of the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims report at 8:30 AM EST. Consensus was a drop to 215,000 from a revised 219,000 last week. Actual...Read More
A summary of base metals premiums from across the globe for the week to Tuesday November 5.Please click...Read More
The three-month copper price traded on the London Metal Exchange almost closed the gap on its psychological $6,000 per tonne level, with growing supply concerns bolstering consumption and precipitating a significantly higher turnover on Tuesday November 5. The red metal's three-month price closed 1.1% higher at $5,946.50 per tonne compared with the previous day's $5,877 per tonne close. The price...Read More
Discounts for nickel full plate cathodes in the Chinese import market flipped to premiums on Tuesday November 5 following a sudden opening of the import window over the week. "The intermittent opening of the import window this week was due to technical squeezing on China's future exchanges rather than supply tightness. [Nickel full plate cathodes are] normal premiums now," a Shanghai-based trader...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday November 5 that are worth another look.Most major aluminium producers agree that tackling the carbon intensity of the smelting process is one of the biggest challenges facing their industry.Chinese re-rollers' interest in imported billet has waned in recent weeks following a surge in prices in the major global markets, sources t...Read More
Shipments of nickel laterite ore from Indonesia have resumed gradually following a crackdown on nickel mines in the country on October 25, delegates attending the China International Nickel & Cobalt Conference in Yichang, Central China, told Fastmarkets on Tuesday November 5.Indonesian officials launched an inspection of domestic nickel laterite ore mines late on October 25, market sources confirm...Read More
The global vanadium market remained under pressure last week from poor buying interest and good spot availability.The export price of ferro-vanadium in China plunged in the latest assessment period on Thursday October 31 following a significant price drop in the domestic market.Fastmarkets assessed the price of ferro-vanadium, 78% V min, fob China at $29-31 per kg on October 31, down by 11.1% from...Read More
Fastmarkets is proposing to reduce the frequency of publication of its European germanium metal and tellurium assessments and Chinese germanium dioxide assessment. Fastmarkets selects the frequency of publication of its price assessments after considering the number of data points (deals, bids, offers, deals heard and assessments) that it can reasonably expect to collect on a consistent basis in t...Read More