Brazilian iron ore pellet producer Samarco has received a license from a state environmental agency, allowing it to resume operations in its Germano complex, in southeastern Minas Gerais state, on Friday October 25.With the license, issued by the Minas Gerais' state environmental council, Copam, Samarco has secured all environmental permits needed to resume operations, its 50% shareholder Val...Read More
The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was lower at the close of trading on Monday October 28, falling by a little less than 2% against high turnover, while copper's outright price breached nearby resistance.Nickel's outright price closed at $16,640 per tonne, while some 9,730 lots were exchanged by the close. The metal reached an intraday high of $17,025 per tonne, its highest...Read More
Turkish steel mills began the week in silence due to a public holiday in the country reducing trading activity, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday October 28. With a half-day public holiday taking place in Turkey on Monday, and Tuesday being a holiday for the Republic Day of Turkey, low levels of trading are expected in the deep-sea markets. The most recent trade reported to Fastmarkets&...Read More
Offer prices for CIS export wire rod have softened somewhat amid a lack of trading activity in the market, Fastmarkets learned on Monday October 28.Russia-origin wire rod was available to foreign customers at $430-432 per tonne fob Black Sea compared with $435-440 per tonne fob last week. But the decrease has not sparked any interest among potential customers.Recent offers of Ukrainian wire rod we...Read More
Seaborne low-grade manganese ore prices in China fell sharply in the week ended Friday October 25 amid aggressive attempts to liquidate material and falling market sentiment.Fastmarkets' manganese ore index 37% Mn, cif Tianjin, plunged 67 cents per dry metric tonne unit to $3.50 per dmtu on Friday. The index has recorded a fall of 24.9% in October. Fastmarkets' assessment for manganese ore 37% Mn,...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday October 28 that are worth another look.The metals industry needs to be smarter and play a bigger part in reducing its carbon footprint over the next decade to thrive in 2020, the chief executive officer of Rio Tinto, Jean-Sebastien Jacques, said.Umicore and Samsung SDI have agreed a multi-year deal whereby the former will supply...Read More
The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was lower at the close of trading on Monday October 28, falling by a little less than 2% against high turnover, while copper's outright price breached nearby resistance.Nickel's outright price closed at $16,640 per tonne, while some 9,730 lots were exchanged by the close. The metal reached an intraday high of $17,025 per tonne, its highest...Read More
Responsible sourcing is top of the agenda for many companies in the metals space, partly driven by the LME's push for an industry standard, yet an LME Week panel discussion suggested the industry could do so much more. Speaking at an LME Week 2019 discussion on environmental sourcing on Monday October 28, panelists from APG Asset Management, Trafigura and the World Economic Forum set out...Read More
A summary of the financial results of Swedish iron-ore producer LKAB for the third quarter of 2019.In brief The quarter was characterized by high and stable production, while a slowdown in the iron ore market led to lower delivery volumes and volatile iron ore prices. LKAB's improved earnings mainly reflect higher iron ore prices and a stronger dollar exchange rate.Lower deliveries in the quarter...Read More
CIS producers of steel slab have considered raising their offer prices because their November-casting order books were almost full, although customers were not ready for any price rises, Fastmarkets learnt on Monday October 28.Offers of CIS-origin slab were reported within the range of $375-380 per tonne fob Black Sea at the end of last week, but no customer was willing to accept such a price, con...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday October 28 that are worth another look.The metals industry needs to be smarter and play a bigger part in reducing its carbon footprint over the next decade to thrive in 2020, the chief executive officer of Rio Tinto, Jean-Sebastien Jacques, said.Umicore and Samsung SDI have agreed a multi-year deal whereby the former will supply...Read More
The Indonesian government has brought forward its ban on ore exports, initially to be implemented in 2022 but then advanced to January 2020, and imposed the prohibition with immediate effect on Monday October 28.Exports of raw ore from Indonesia will cease immediately, with any material due to leave the country to be bought by domestic smelters at an internally agreed price, investment agency chie...Read More
Nickel continues to outperform other base and battery-use metals but there is still uncertainty about the emergence of demand for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, ED & F Man's president of commodity research, Ed Meir, said at a metals seminar for the London Metal Exchange's annual LME Week event on Monday October 28."The EV topic is all the rage at all the different industry conferences right now,...Read More
The premium for aluminium billet in the United States fell to a record low on Friday October 25 due to to continued sluggish demand, while premiums in Europe and Brazil remained under pressure. US premium at record lowEuropean traders holding onto $300 per tonne levelLow spot demand in BrazilThailand premium falls US billet premium drops to all-time lowFastmarkets' aluminium 6063 extrusion billet...Read More
Responsible sourcing is top of the agenda for many companies in the metals space, partly driven by the LME's push for an industry standard, yet an LME Week panel discussion suggested the industry could do so much more. Speaking at an LME Week 2019 discussion on environmental sourcing on Monday October 28, panelists from APG Asset Management, Trafigura and the World Economic Forum set out...Read More
The prospects for global economic growth through to 2024 will be no better than average while trade tensions between the United States and China continue, Citibank's Catherine Mann said at the London Metal Exchange seminar on Monday October 28. "What's happening in global economic growth? Citibank's managing director and global chief economist told delegates in a presentation at the...Read More
The metals industry needs to be smarter and play a bigger part in reducing its carbon footprint over the next decade to thrive in 2020, chief executive officer of Rio Tinto, Jean-Sebastien Jacques, said.The industry needs to be smarter at spotting trends and acting on them, as well as smarter at building new partnerships and connecting with society, Jacques said during his keynote address at the L...Read More
Brazil's largest producer of flat-rolled steel, Usiminas, sees room for a domestic price increase to be implemented before the year-end because the dfegree of parity with import prices has been closer than historical levels, commercial vice-president Miguel Homes said on Friday October 25.While traditionally local steel is sold at a 10% premium over imports, taking into account duties and taxes, t...Read More
Flat-rolled steel import prices were mostly down in South America during the past week, amid bearish sentiment in the region and the continuing global downtrend.Fastmarkets assessed the price for steel hot-rolled coil import, cfr main ports South America, at $450-470 per tonne on Friday October 25, lower on the high end from $450-475 per tonne a week earlier, and at a fresh low for 2019m.Customers...Read More
Fastmarkets has amended the date of its latest steel slab import, cfr Southeast Asia/East Asia price.This price was published on October 28, 2019 but appeared incorrectly with a date of October 27, 2019. The date has now been corrected. Fastmarkets' price book and database have been updated to reflect this change. The price value that was originally published was and is correct.For more informatio...Read More