Turkish deep-sea scrap import prices fell sharply on the news of a fresh booking for October shipment, market participants told Fastmarkets on Monday September 13.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a US cargo, comprising 32,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $436 per tonne and 8,000 tonnes of shredded at $451.50 per tonne cfr late on Friday September 10.Earlier on Friday, a booking from the B...Read More
Coking coal prices in the fob market jumped on Monday September 13 due to tight supply; domestic coking coal supply in China was also tight, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $487.33 per tonne, up $6.68 per tonneHard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $446.56 per tonne, up $2.52 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $362.10 per tonne, up $28.98 per...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices inched down on Monday September 13 due to weak buying interest from end users, sources said.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $123.84 per tonne, down $5.87 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $124.16 per tonne, down $6.09 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $97.99 per tonne, down $6.13 per tonne65% Fe Br...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.With nickel prices down by almost 20% over the space of around ten days during late February and early March, one might have been expecting us to be reporting sharply-lower prices of stainless steel, at least for the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel.This is not the case, at least in Europe and the Unite...Read More
Inner Mongolia, China's ferro-chrome production heartland, has imposed restrictions on its metallurgical sector in a move that has fueled the high-carbon ferro-chrome markets in China and Europe, and although this may ease off, the gains were unlikely to be lost while alloy ramp-ups continue, sources have told Fastmarkets.The decision to restrict energy consumption in Inner Mongolia since December...Read More
The latest forecasts and analysis of the ferrous scrap and iron metallics market from the Fastmarkets research team are ready to be viewed.Stifled automotive output this year, driven by a supply shortage of semiconductor chips used in vehicles, has tightened prime scrap availability and widened the spreads between this grade of steelmaking raw material and obsolete scrap.While wide prime-over-obso...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron ore remains the most bullish commodity of the year, with prices fuelled by Chinese demand and supply disruptions in Brazil, along with bullish sentiment. But prices are expected to come down because Brazilian exports have begun to recover, and have reached their highest level since the Brumadinho dam disaster in 2019. W...Read More
Stainless steel prices continue to register new highs around the end of the first half of 2021 and steelmakers continue to enjoy outsized margins.They have responded in recent months by increasing their output, which has now pushed above pre-pandemic levels and will eventually restore balance to the market.For now, though, supply gaps are still being filled and buyers find themselves competing aga...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Fastmarkets analysts were invited to present our outlook for the coking coal market at Coaltrans Asia, held online on November 23-25. One of the key topics at the event was the trade tensions between China and Australia, which overtook Mongolia to become the largest coking coal exporter to China this year...Read More
The Brazilian domestic price for steel rebar was unchanged in September, with producers and buyers in a tug of war amid a global downturn and efforts to prevent oversupply in the market.Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) domestic, monthly, delivered Brazil held at 5,100-5,310 Reais ($972-1,012) per tonne on Friday September 10, compared with August 13, when it fell to...Read More
Key data from Fastmarkets' pricing session in London on Friday September 10th.Key drivers: There is market talk of factory closures in Lengshuijiang, Hunan Province due to high antimony content in Zijiang River, which is located there. The central government has ordered all metal refineries in...Read More
Key data from Fastmarkets' pricing session in Europe on Monday September 13.Key drivers Spot activity has started to pick up, with the international cobalt metal price showing continued gains over the past week. Fastmarkets' price assessment for cobalt, standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, was $24.00-24.60 per lb on September 13, compared with...Read More
Turkish deep-sea scrap import prices fell sharply on the news of a fresh booking for October shipment, market participants told Fastmarkets on Monday September 13.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a US cargo, comprising 32,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $436 per tonne and 8,000 tonnes of shredded at $451.50 per tonne cfr late on Friday September 10.Earlier on Friday, a booking from the B...Read More
Spot prices for hot-rolled coil in China's domestic market held stable on Monday September 13, supported by expectations of a decline in supply due to more local governments stepping up efforts to curb energy consumption.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,850-5,900 yuan ($906-914) per tonne, narrowing downward by 20 yuan per tonneSouthwest China's Yunnan province requires steel mills across the r...Read More
ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India) has started up a second 6-million-tonne-per-year pellet plant at its Paradeep complex in Odisha, taking the company's pelletization capacity to 20 million tpy, the company said earlier this month.The Paradeep complex will have capacity to produce 12 million tpy of direct reduced iron ore pellet after the commissioning of the second stage of production...Read More
Coal exports from Australia's metallurgical coal hub of Queensland increased by 3.2% in August from the same period in 2020. They were also 2% higher month on month.Some 17.20 million tonnes of coal - including some thermal coal - were shipped from the region last month, compared with 16.66 million tonnes a year earlier and 16.87 million tonnes in July, according to data from North Queensland Bulk...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Recent weeks have brought two key developments with regard to trade policy on stainless steel products that will be to the detriment of consumers.In China, the country's stainless steelmakers no longer enjoy a 13% export rebate as of May 1, reducing greatly their incentive to export and instead leading them to focus on supply...Read More
The mood in the European hot-rolled coil market was downbeat in the week ended Friday September 10 due to the lower demand from the automotive sector and competitive import offers.The automotive sector in Europe was reported to be working at reduced rates because of the global shortage of semiconductor chips for onboard electronics. Consequently, market sources expected the industry to consume les...Read More
Rebounding billet import prices in China are supporting rebar spot prices in Singapore, sources toId Fastmarkets during the week to Monday September 13.The active buying of imported billet by traders to sell to Chinese rerollers has caused sentiment in Asia for semi-finished and long steel to rebound, a buyer source in Singapore said."With billet being sold at almost $720 per tonne cfr China, it i...Read More
Fastmarkets proposes to change the frequency of its iron ore value-in-use indices from weekly to daily.Fastmarkets' iron ore value-in-use adjustments for iron, silica, alumina and phosphorus are currently weekly indices with a data inclusion cut-off time each Friday at 6pm Singapore local time, and a publication time each Monday at 6.30pm Singapore local time. The chemistry adjustments represent t...Read More