The monthly European alloy steel surcharges for November for grade-316 stainless flat steel products have decreased because of lower molybdenum costs, Fastmarkets heard on Friday November 1.Fastmarkets' range for the stainless steel cold-rolled sheet, 316, 2mm, alloy surcharge, domestic, Europe, was ?,?2,497-2,581 ($2,786-2,879) per tonne on November 1, down by ?,?13-63 per tonne from October.Allo...Read More
A mixture of trends were forecast for steel, iron ore and coking coal prices in 2020 at the London Metal Exchange Ferrous Focus session this week."Steel is going to drift a bit lower, but not collapse," Citi research analyst Tracy Liao told delegates on Thursday October 31, "[and] iron ore will go quite a bit lower, whereas coking coal prices will go up." Liao said that wh...Read More
Brazilian iron ore export volumes and revenues dropped year-on-year in October due to supply disruptions, according to figures released by the country's economy ministry on Friday November 1.Export volumes of iron ore declined to 31.20 million tonnes in October, down by 16.1% from 37.19 million tonnes a year earlier.Iron ore shipments from the country fell this year in an annual comparison, becaus...Read More
A mixture of trends were forecast for steel, iron ore and coking coal prices in 2020 at the London Metal Exchange Ferrous Focus session this week."Steel is going to drift a bit lower, but not collapse," Citi research analyst Tracy Liao told delegates on Thursday October 31, "[and] iron ore will go quite a bit lower, whereas coking coal prices will go up." Liao said that wh...Read More
BHP will provide $44 million of the necessary funding to resume operations at Brazilian iron ore pellet producer Samarco, the Australia-based mining company said on Friday November 1.Samarco is a joint venture between BHP and Vale and has been closed since late 2015, when a tailings dam failed and flooded the nearby Rio Doce river in southeastern Brazil.On October 25, the pellet producer received...Read More
Brazilian iron ore export volumes and revenues dropped year-on-year in October due to supply disruptions, according to figures released by the country's economy ministry on Friday November 1.Export volumes of iron ore declined to 31.20 million tonnes in October, down by 16.1% from 37.19 million tonnes a year earlier.Iron ore shipments from the country fell this year in an annual comparison, becaus...Read More
A mixture of trends were forecast for steel, iron ore and coking coal prices in 2020 at the London Metal Exchange Ferrous Focus session this week."Steel is going to drift a bit lower, but not collapse," Citi research analyst Tracy Liao told delegates on Thursday October 31, "[and] iron ore will go quite a bit lower, whereas coking coal prices will go up." Liao said that wh...Read More
Major holidays in Turkey resulted in thin spot liquidity in the global scrap markets in the week ended Friday November 1, with US exporters seeing limited sales to the major import market.But prices in Asia have surged following those in the rest of the world, with Vietnamese buyers accepting higher prices. Taiwanese demand eased slightly after the flurry of purchasing activity last week. Turkey m...Read More
Copper concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) rebounded slightly amid a lack of spot deals while annual contract negotiations kicked off during the annual London Metal Exchange Week gathering this week.Fastmarkets' copper treatment and refining charges index cif Asia Pacific was at $56.3 per tonne/5.63 cents per lb as of Friday November 1, compared with $55.9/ 5.59 cents a week earlie...Read More
Bearish macroeconomic signals and oversupply have put minor metals and ferro-alloys prices variously under pressure over 2019; the structure and terms of contracts agreed over the coming weeks will show how market participants are accounting for those signals ahead of 2020. A slowing global economy alongside uncertainty over the China-United States trade dispute and Brexit have slowed minor metals...Read More
Trade unions representing workers for Chile's state-run miner Codelco have called on their members to mobilize in support of protests against the government.Union No1 for Codelco's Chuquicamata has joined Sindicato No1 for BHP's Escondida in backing protestors, whose opposition to inequality in the country has escalated into alleged looting and arson, and to violent confrontations with the militar...Read More
Vinayak Bhave has joined TradeCloud as head of India to solidify the company's presence in India and Middle East, the company said on Friday November 1.Launched in October 2017, TradeCloud is a digital metals trading platform where producers, consumers and traders can meet to exchange information, negotiate contracts and conclude business. Vinayak will be based in Mumbai, India.Prior to joining...Read More
Government subsidies are a necessary part of early electric vehicle adoption but EVs will have mainstream usage without the need for incentives in the long term, panelists said at the LME Metal Seminar this week. EV adoption has come at a slower pace than previously expected, coinciding with cuts in government subsidies in China. In March this year, Beijing announced a 50-60% reduction in subsidie...Read More
Chinese steel exporters are bracing for a tough year end and an equally challenging 2020, even as the trade war between China and the United States mellows after a truce reached in early October.A source at a major steelmaker in eastern China expects the export market for Chinese steel to worsen in the months to come, even if the US holds off on increasing its tariffs on Chinese imports. "The truc...Read More
Aluminium closed at its highest in six weeks on the London Metal Exchange on Friday November 1 while copper also continued its recovery. The three-month aluminium closed at $1,786 per tonne this afternoon after peaking earlier at $1,790 per tonne. More than 18,000 lots changed hands by the close, the highest one-total since July. Still, market participants must factor in costlier financing conditi...Read More
The alumina price on a fob Australia basis rose to $285 per tonne in the week ending Friday November 1, its highest since early October, thanks to continued import demand from China. Fastmarkets calculated the benchmark daily alumina index, fob Australia at $285.18 per tonne on Friday, down only slightly from $285.42 per tonne on the previous day. Before Thursday, it had not traded above $285 per...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices plunged on Friday November 1 on trades involving premium mid-volatility cargoes procured by end-users in China and India.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $132.38 per tonne, down by $11.07 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $145.08 per tonne, down by $16.45 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $128.84 per tonne, unchangedHard coking co...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
Key data from the pricing sessions in Europe, Asia and the United States for the week ending Friday November 1.China Seaborne manganese ore prices of both grades continued to slide after some miners slashed their offers further to offload remaining November-delivery cargoes.Higher grade ore prices fell to their lowest since August 2016 after a surge in liquidity.Trading in seaborne cargoes picked...Read More
Booking activity in the United States import pig iron market has come to a standstill until the price trend in ferrous scrap for November becomes clear, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday November 1.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US, was $310-312 per tonne on November 1, narrowing upward from $305-312 per tonne a week earlier.No new bookings of pig iron wer...Read More