CIS producers of steel billet have kept their offer prices stable despite mounting downward pressure from the poor international scrap trading environment and limited demand, market sources told Fastmarkets on Friday September 20.Fastmarkets' daily steel billet index, export, fob Black Sea, CIS, was $357 per tonne on September 20, compared with $356 per tonne a day earlier.Steelmakers have been of...Read More
Prices in Southeast Asia's steel billet market fell on Friday September 20 on expectations that prices could soon sink below the psychological floor of $400 per tonne cfr Southeast Asia, a level not breached since May 2017.Bearish sentiment has been exacerbated by the decline in the price of ferrous scrap in the bellwether Turkish market - a major indicator because the country is th...Read More
Stainless steel prices in Europe were stable this week amid expectations of dramatically increased alloy surcharges for October, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday September 20.October alloy surcharges will be based on nickel prices between August 21 and September 20. During this time, the average price for nickel, 3-months, London Metal Exchange Daily Official, was $17,178 per tonne, up by $2,183...Read More
Domestic price sentiment for hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG) in Europe has continued to be negative in the week ended Thursday September 19 due to slow market activity, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel HDG, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was unchanged over the week at ?,?550-570 ($608-630) per tonne ex-works on September 19, reflecting the latest deals...Read More
Brazilian import volumes of flat and long steel displayed opposite tendencies in August, according to figures from the country's economy ministry published last week.Import volumes of flat steel declined year on year by 11.29% to 95,116 tonnes in the month, from 107,216 tonnes, mostly because of lower volumes imported from China.Imports of flat steel from China fell to 41,950 tonnes in August 2019...Read More
India has given the go-ahead to the state-owned Steel Authority of India (SAIL), to sell up to 7 million tonnes of iron ore annually , to maintain security of raw material supplies ahead of the expiration of 31 mining leases in the country next year. "The Ministry of Mines has allowed SAIL to offload in a year up to a quantity equivalent to [a] maximum [of] 25% of [the] total iron ore production i...Read More
Prices for imported flat-rolled steel in South America were mostly down in the week to Friday September 20, given a continuing global downtrend and low demand from the region.Fastmarkets assessed the price for steel hot-rolled coil import, cfr main ports South America, at $490-500 per tonne on September 20, down from $500-515 per tonne a week before and the lowest level seen thus far in 2019.New o...Read More
Brazilian slab export prices remained unchanged in the week ended Friday September 20, with no deals agreed while buyers and sellers battled to establish a new price.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel slab, export, fob main port Brazil, was $420-435 per tonne on September 20, unchanged week-on-week.The price corresponded to the most recent deals closed, to the West Coast of the United...Read More
Export prices for pig iron from Brazil have gone down on the influence of weak global scrap pricing and fading demand, sources told Fastmarkets during the week ended Friday September 20.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for pig iron, export, fob Vitorio/Rio, Brazil, was $285-300 per tonne on Friday, down from $305-310 per tonne last week.Suppliers were heard to cut their prices, but were not re...Read More
Global scrap prices continued to fall in all major markets during the week ended Friday September 20, under pressure from persistent negative sentiment and with market participants seeing no prospect of relief. Turkey import prices fall further; suppliers accept lower prices US export prices down for cargoes sold off both coasts Asian import prices decline on oversupply Indian import prices down i...Read More
Diego Zanuso will begin a transition plan to take over as chief executive officer of Evraz' trading arm, Switzerland-based East Metals AG, while the current East Metals chief executive officer Joe Vazquez is set to retire as of July 2020.Zanuso has spent 12 years with Evraz, most recently serving as the global head of vanadium sales since...Read More
Questions about the fate of stocks held by the defunct Fanya Metal Exchange have been a weight on negotiations in many minor metals markets since the bourse collapsed in 2015, and have contributed to the uncertainty that has stifled trade for much of 2019.Buying appetite in the spot market has weakened, and prices for some minor metals including indium, bismuth and antimony have reached multi...Read More
The three-month lead price on the London Metal Exchange rose by 1.2% at the close of trading on Friday September 20, climbing beyond the $2,100 per tonne support level, while forward spreads in LME nickel tightened over the afternoon. Lead futures closed at $2,120 per tonne, its highest closing price since March, while just under 4,000 lots were exchanged by the close. Reports of a restart at Nyrs...Read More
Restocking by downstream consumers in preparation for China's National Day holiday was the main driver of a drawdown of most base metal stocks at Shanghai Futures Exchange-approved warehouses in the week to Friday September 20. All base metals inventories fell, barring zinc and nickel. Copper stocks tumbled by 7.1% or 10,809 tonnes to 141,379 tonnes in the latest SHFE stock report released on Frid...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices have fallen to a three-year low while the segment for premium products appear to be diverging into two distinct tiers due to sustained Chinese demand for low-vol materials and fewer takers for mid-vol cargoes.Premium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $128.19 per tonne, down $12.47 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $154.98 per tonne, down $6.45 per tonneHard cok...Read More
Questions about the fate of stocks held by the defunct Fanya Metal Exchange have been a weight on negotiations in many minor metals markets since the bourse collapsed in 2015, and have contributed to the uncertainty that has stifled trade for much of 2019.Buying appetite in the spot market has weakened, and prices for some minor metals including indium, bismuth and antimony have reached multi...Read More
The import market for pig iron in the United States fell in the week ended Friday September 20, with buyers still not ready to resume purchases and expecting lower prices because of the weak scrap sector and planned maintenance outages in December.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US, was $320-325 per tonne on September 20, down from $330-340 per tonne the wee...Read More
The three-month lead price on the London Metal Exchange rose by 1.2% at the close of trading on Friday September 20, climbing beyond the $2,100 per tonne support level, while forward spreads in LME nickel tightened over the afternoon. Lead futures closed at $2,120 per tonne, its highest closing price since March, while just under 4,000 lots were exchanged by the close. Reports of a restart at Nyrs...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their latest price moves.Read More
Uptrends in the spot aluminium premiums in Rotterdam have faltered with backwardations in the London Metal Exchange December/three-month and January/three-month spreads starting to put material pressure on the physical market. Fastmarkets assessed the benchmark aluminium P1020A premium, in-whs dup Rotterdam at $100-110 per tonne on Friday September 20 from $105-115 per tonne the day before wh...Read More