Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange remained elevated during morning trading on Monday July 1, but fell by 2% across European trading hours despite continued outflows. The metal's futures price reached an intra-morning high of $12,850 per tonne, its highest level since April. Trading volumes were strong over the morning session, with more than 5,000 lots of nickel exchange...Read More
Plate prices in the United States have continued to fall due to supply and demand concerns, market participants said. Fastmarkets AMM's price assessment for domestic cut-to-length plate was at $37.50 per hundredweight ($750 per short ton) on Friday June 28, down by 2.6% from $38.50 per cwt a week earlier.Product was said readily available at mills, with lead times averaging two to three weeks. But...Read More
Merchant bar quality (MBQ) steel prices in the United States' domestic market have dropped once again after mill cuts in mid-June, and market sentiment remains mostly bearish with some sources anticipating further reductions. Nucor Corp, Bayou Steel Group and Gerdau Long Steel North America announced price reductions of $40 per short ton ($2 per hundredweight) effective Thursday June 13. ...Read More
ArcelorMittal has begun the revamp of a blast furnace in Brazil earlier than planned, and has also temporarily stopped operations at a rebar facility in the country due to market conditions.On June 23, the company started a 70-day maintenance outage at its No2 blast furnace in Tubar??o, in the southeast Brazilian state of Esp?-rito Santo.The stoppage had been planned for August-September.The reaso...Read More
Trineck?(C) ? 3/4 elez??rny shrugged off "the difficult situation on the steel market" to exceed expectation in its full-year results, it said last week, but the Czech Republic steelmaker warned of stronger headwinds this year.It reported a profit of 3.33 billion Czech krone ($148.77 million) after tax for 2018, while revenues from the sale of products, services and goods of 40.496 billion krone w...Read More
Export prices for rebar and wire rod from the Commonwealth of Independent States fell in the week to Monday July 1, amid lower customer bids and reduced mill offers following a drop in buying activity in major sales outlets.Fastmarkets weekly price assessment for CIS rebar exports was $455-465 per tonne fob Black Sea, down from $460-465 per tonne fob.Small cargoes of Ukrainian rebar...Read More
The iron ore market has been on a general uptrend so far in 2019, with prices hitting their highest levels since late April 2014. The market has been focused on the effects exerted by the supply side and especially China's restrictions on blast furnace operations, which may have the greatest influence on prices.The price spread between 65% Fe iron ore and the 62% Fe equivalent declined during June...Read More
In the process of standardizing the names of its prices, Fastmarkets has found that the unit of measurement on some of its value-in-use iron ore indices was displaying incorrectly.In the four indices listed in the table below, the unit of measure had been listed as US cents per tonne or US dollars per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu). The correct value, to which the indices have now been standardized,...Read More
Turkish domestic scrap prices remained largely steady over the past week, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday July 1, with most steel producers keeping their buy prices unchanged. However, domestic scrap prices are expected to recover from this point on, in line with the upturn in the imported scrap values, they added.Only two steel mills have slightly reduced their buy prices - for auto...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices pushed up again on Monday July 1, with gains also seen in the downstream sector in China.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $123.65 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $5.18 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $121.69 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $5.18 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $125.76 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $6.12 per tonne. MB 58% Fe Premium Index: $113.67...Read More
Seaborne iron ore concentrate prices made little movement last week although the price paid for iron ore pellets continued to move up while environmental restrictions on steelmaking operations in parts of China underpinned demand for the latter.The weekly Fastmarkets MB 66% Fe Iron Ore Concentrate Index stood at $123.03 per tonne cfr China last Friday, moving down by $0.02 per tonne week on week.T...Read More
Pessimism grew in the seaborne coking coal market on Monday July 1, with transactions and offers declining further.A shipment of premium low-vol hard coking coal, scheduled for loading over July 4-14, was sold to an end user in northern China over the weekend at $192.94 per tonne cfr China, according to various sources.This is down around $4 per tonne compared with a transaction last Friday involv...Read More
Fastmarkets MB is changing the frequency of its cfr Taiwan containerized steel scrap assessment to a daily one from Monday July 1. The move follows a one-month consultation, and is aimed at capturing in greater detail the price movements for the steelmaking raw material in Asia, of which those in the territory serve as a major benchmark. This assessment was previously done on a weekly basis and pu...Read More
Chinese hot-rolled coil prices strengthened on Monday July 1 on optimism generated by the agreement to resume trade talks between China and the United States.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,000-4,020 yuan ($582-585) per tonne, up 80 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,920-3,940 yuan per tonne, up 70-80 yuan per tonneMills raised their offers over the weekend amid improved sentiment after...Read More
Prices for Chinese rebar increased sharply on Monday July 1 in both the domestic and export markets following signs of an improvement in trade relations between China and the United States over the weekend.Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 4,030-4,070 yuan ($587-593) per tonne, up 70 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Beijing): 3,950-3,990 yuan per tonne, up 100-110 yuan per tonneUS President Donald T...Read More
Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia and Europe for the week ended Friday June 28.ChinaKey drivers The Chinese domestic antimony price was unmoved for a fourth consecutive week, which reflects thin spot business. But the price could dip in this because some Chinese antimony suppliers have shown willingness to lower their offer prices to encourage sales to destock and generate cash flow.Still...Read More
Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia and Europe for the week ended Friday June 28ChinaChina's silicon export price slides on signs of a weakening domestic market due to more supply and limited bookings for July cargoes. Sellers open to cheaper bids to achieve sales early in expectation of slow demand in the summer lull and increasing supply during rainy season. Most refiners in Yunnan provin...Read More
Spanish stainless steelmaker Acerinox has appointed Mark Davis chief executive officer of its Bahru Stainless joint venture in Malaysia, it said on Monday July 1.Davis replaces Oswald Wolfe, who becomes director of institutional relations at Acerinox's headquarters in Madrid, Spain. Wolfe had been CEO of...Read More
Positivity...ACCESS RESTRICTEDTo read the rest of this analysis please take a free sample or subscribeFREE SampleReceive a free sample of market analysis and price forecasts.Free SampleSUBSCRIBEReceive unlimited access to all current and archive content going back to 2008 including downloadable pricing data and forecasts.Plus download the latest issue as soon as it’s published...Read More
LME aluminium prices up 1.9% last...ACCESS RESTRICTEDTo read the rest of this analysis please take a free sample or subscribeFREE SampleReceive a free sample of market analysis and price forecasts.Free SampleSUBSCRIBEReceive unlimited access to all current and archive content going back to 2008 including downloadable pricing data and forecasts.Plus download the latest issue as soon...Read More