The price of steel billet in the Turkish market has remained stable over the past week while the steel mills in the country mostly focused on the markets for finished steel products, sources said on Thursday October 10.Suppliers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region continued to offer material to Turkey at $365-370 per tonne cfr, but bids from Turkish customers...Read More
The CIS export billet price continued to strengthen this week with fresh bookings agreed by customers in Africa at prices higher than those of earlier deals, Fastmarkets has heard.Customers in Egypt and Ethiopia booked a total of 25,000 tonnes of Russia-origin billet through a trader at $356 per tonne fob Black Sea. The price from the mill was estimated to be $354-355 per tonne fob Black Sea, whic...Read More
Prices for steel rebar in Egypt fell in the week to Thursday October 10, while imported steel billet prices increased, sources have told Fastmarkets.Egyptian rebar producers reduced their prices on September 30 and October 9.The reason for these falls was that Egypt's prime minister last week announced a reduction in the cost for natural gas, to $5.50 per BTU from $7.00 per BTU. This will substant...Read More
China's domestic stainless steel prices increased slightly this week on a spike in restocking demand following a national holiday in the country on October 1-7.Fastmarkets' price assessment for stainless steel cold-rolled coil 2mm grade 304 domestic, ex-whs China in the country's major market of Wuxi was 15,800-16,100 yuan ($2,214-2,256) per tonne including value-added tax for the week ended Wedne...Read More
Vale expects Chinese demand for iron ore pellets and pellet feed to rise by 50 million tonnes per year with mills in China increasing the usage of pellets in their blast furnaces.It estimates that pellet consumption could increase its proportion of the total raw material mix in blast furnaces from 11% in 2015 to 19% in 2025, according to a presentation that the Brazilian miner showed to investors...Read More
Demand for flat steel products in Turkey was weak in September 2019 because of global price falls, market participants have told Fastmarkets.And local producers have now filled their order books until late November, they said on Wednesday October 2.Turkish steel prices increased on May 17 after the import duty into the United States, which had been applied at a rate of 50% in September 2018, was c...Read More
Taiwan will defer the imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on five Chinese steel and stainless steel products, the island's customs administration said last week. The decision to delay the tariffs was made after considering the recommendation of Taiwan's International Trade Commission (ITC), the impact on Taiwan's economic interests and the global economic situation, Taiwan's Custo...Read More
The price of steel billet in the Turkish market has remained stable over the past week while the steel mills in the country mostly focused on the markets for finished steel products, sources said on Thursday October 10.Suppliers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region continued to offer material to Turkey at $365-370 per tonne cfr, but bids from Turkish customers...Read More
Turkish domestic prices for rebar and wire rod have gone up over the past week, while the country's lira weakens against the US dollar, sources said on Thursday October 10.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) domestic, exw Turkey, was TRY2,790-2,800 ($477-478) per tonne on Thursday, up from the TRY2,730-2,780 per tonne of last week.Steel mills in the Izmir region...Read More
The three-month zinc price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Thursday October 10, nearing the $2,400 per tonne resistance level against a continued drawdown of LME stocks, while copper breached nearby resistance amid moderate turnover.Zinc's outright price closed at $2,388 per tonne in the afternoon, its highest price since August 1, while volumes traded were high...Read More
Vedanta's Skorpion zinc refinery will shut for four months from November due to a lack of local concentrate feed, the company told Fastmarkets on Thursday October 10. Skorpion is an integrated zinc mining and smelting operation located in Namibia, which produced 90,000 tonnes of refined zinc in 2018. It had been scheduled to produce 130,000 tonnes in 2020. But the smelter will soon not have enough...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday October 10 that are worth another look.The queue to remove metal from London Metal Exchange-approved warehouses operated by H&M Metal in Busan, South Korea rose to 30 days at the end of September, according to the latest LME data.New customs declaration procedures could be put in place by European Union member states if the Uni...Read More
The world's largest low-grade iron ore producer has confirmed that it will bid for two blocks at what is considered the world's largest untapped high-grade ore resource, a move that reiterates what the industry has been saying over the past few years - that demand for green iron ore or high-grade ore is a structural change in the making."Following the release of information at a public meeting hel...Read More
Following a flip in global steel and ferrous trade flow trends last year caused by economic jitters in Turkey, trade defenses by the United States and production cuts in China, this year it is steel prices that are turning upside down. Hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices are now below rebar prices in a phenomenon rarely seen outside of the Chinese domestic markets. HRC import prices in Vietnam have...Read More
The whole battery supply chain will benefit from lithium benchmark pricing, Fastmarkets head of battery raw materials research William Adams says as he explores what is driving auto manufacturers to support this pricing mechanism. The auto industry is going through a period of unprecedented change due to companies introducing electric vehicles (EV) into their portfolios alongside internal combusti...Read More
Cindy Guan has joined TradeCloud as a marketing executive to solidify its presence in China and South Korea, the company said on Monday September 30.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. Guan will be based in Shanghai, China....Read More
The three-month zinc price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Thursday October 10, nearing the $2,400 per tonne resistance level against a continued drawdown of LME stocks, while copper breached nearby resistance amid moderate turnover.Zinc's outright price closed at $2,388 per tonne in the afternoon, its highest price since August 1, while volumes traded were high...Read More
The connection between physical demand fundamentals and futures price action has broken, say market participants, pointing to nickel stocks on the London Metal Exchange at an 11-year low and the benchmark cash/three-month spread in a backwardation of over $160 per tonne. There have been unprecedented daily drawdowns of LME nickel stocks, which are at their lowest since 2008 at 102,696 tonnes on Th...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices rebounded on Thursday October 10 following a big decline a day earlier, thanks to gains in the futures markets.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $93.68 per tonne, up by $2.62 per tonne.62% Fe Pilbara Blend fines, cfr Qingdao: $94.23 per tonne, up by $3.89 per tonne.62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $92.08 per tonne, up by $2.33 per tonne.58% Fe fi...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