Eastern China's Shagang has lowered the list prices for its rebar and wire rod booked and shipped in mid-June. The mill is selling its HRB400 16-25mm rebar at 4,070 yuan ($588) per tonne over the June 11-20 period, down 180 yuan per tonne from its last...Read More
China's finished steel exports fell in May on both a year-on-year basis as well as when compared with the preceding month. The country shipped 5.74 million tonnes of finished steel abroad last month, down 16.5% from a year earlier, according preliminary Chinese customs data released on Monday June 10.Last month's exports are also...Read More
Domestic rebar prices in Brazil fell during May as leading steelmakers battle with new participants for market share amid low domestic demand, retreating from announced price increases.Fastmarkets' domestic rebar price assessment was 2,450-2,600 Reais per tonne delivered on June 7, down from 2,600-2,720 Reais per tonne a month prior. The bottom of the price range is at its lowest for this year.Lon...Read More
AMG Vanadium has selected a new Ohio location for its second spent catalyst processing facility as part of its planned expansion to roughly double its annual ferro-vanadium and ferro-nickel-molybdenum production. With the new facility, AMG Vanadium - a subsidiary of Amsterdam-based AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group - will expand its overall spent catalyst recycling capacity by 35,000 tonnes and its...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Thursday June 20, settling at its highest level since May 24, while the rest of the complex was buoyed by dollar weakness and strong figures from the United States labor market. The metal's three-month price reached an intraday high of $12,390 per tonne, closing at $12,300 per tonne while total volumes tr...Read More
The International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG) has indicated a slight uptick in global production for both zinc and lead across January-April of 2019, while global zinc demand remains in question against a 1.3% fall in global usage.Across January-April of this year, lead mine production climbed up by 0.7% to 1,544,000 tonnes from 1,534,000 tonnes over the same period in 2018. Refined lead met...Read More
The need for flexible sourcing of direct-reduced iron (DRI) production feedstock will continue over the next three to five years, market participants said at Fastmarkets' 7th World DRI and Pellet Congress in Dubai this week.Steel mills in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region are using alternative DRI feedstock such as [lower iron content] blast furnace-grade (BF) pellet and lump iron ore...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday June 20 that are worth another look.The London Metal Exchange has just finished its trial to calculate nickel prices using a volume-weighted average price method on the exchange's electronic trading platform. China will only permit 240,429 tonnes of copper scrap imports in the entire third quarter of 2019, sending pan...Read More
The London Metal Exchange has just finished its trial to calculate nickel prices using a volume weighted average price (VWAP) method on the exchange's electronic trading platform. If early indications are anything to go by, metals market participants did not embrace this method of price discovery in the way some had anticipated. For three months since Monday March 18, closing prices for nickel car...Read More
The United States Secretary of Commerce has joined the growing chorus of voices questioning the current method of setting the US Midwest aluminium premium. Wilbur Ross said the US Midwest aluminium premium is at inflated levels that do not justify the cost of transportation and logistical handling costs that it was originally designed to reflect. His view is being echoed by a number of...Read More
A decade ago, the Shanghai Futures Exchange launched its steel rebar futures contract. In the years that followed it has become the gold standard for steel derivatives, achieving a success that other exchanges aspire to emulate. And they are definitely trying, with a total of 11 steel derivatives contracts launched by the main trading exchanges since. SHFE, which launched a wire rod futures contra...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Thursday June 20, settling at its highest level since May 24, while the rest of the complex was buoyed by dollar weakness and strong figures from the United States labor market. The metal's three-month price reached an intraday high of $12,390 per tonne, closing at $12,300 per tonne while total volumes tr...Read More
The International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG) has indicated a slight uptick in global production for both zinc and lead across January-April of 2019, while global zinc demand remains in question against a 1.3% fall in global usage.Across January-April of this year, lead mine production climbed up by 0.7% to 1,544,000 tonnes from 1,534,000 tonnes over the same period in 2018. Refined lead met...Read More
The London Metal Exchange has just finished its trial to calculate nickel prices using a volume weighted average price (VWAP) method on the exchange's electronic trading platform. If early indications are anything to go by, metals market participants did not embrace this method of price discovery in the way some had anticipated. For three months since Monday March 18, closing prices for nickel car...Read More
China's month-on-month new electric vehicles (NEV) sales rebounded in August after month-on-month declines in June and July. The drop in sales between May and June was the first drop since September 2016, but Fastmarkets MB had expected Chinese NEV sales to dip temporarily after the June subsidy changes came into effect because consumers and NEV manufacturers would have to adjust to the new subsid...Read More
Iron ore prices fell sharply in the second half of November after climbing through October, with prices for higher-grade material pioneering the decline.Fastmarkets MB daily benchmark for 65% Fe fines dropped by 22% by Monday November 26 after peaking on October 29. The 62% Fe iron ore index declined by 16% over the period, as some Chinese steelmakers started to seek larger volumes of cheaper ores...Read More
The steel scrap sector in the United States still depends on exports to Turkey, a member of the Fastmarkets research team said during the ferrous session at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) conference in London.This dependence persists despite the changes in the international markets created by the US' imposition of its Section 232 tariffs on imports of steel products, metals analyst Le...Read More
Key data from the June 20 pricing session in London and Shanghai.Fastmarkets' benchmark daily fob Australia alumina index declined to $332.38 per tonne - a fresh low since August 24, 2017 - on Thursday June 20 from $338.71 per tonne on the previous day. Key drivers:The market remains under pressure due to the presence of several unplaced cargoes in the market for July and September. Buyers ar...Read More
Brazil's Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Minera????o (CBMM) is discussing another fresh capacity increase to 210,000 tonnes per year of ferro-niobium if bullish forecasts for the mineral materialize, chief marketing officer Adalberto Parreira told Fastmarkets MB in an interview.For now, capacity will officially grow to 150,000 tpy by 2020, from an expected output of 110,000 tpy in 2019, Parre...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday June 20 that are worth another look.The London Metal Exchange has just finished its trial to calculate nickel prices using a volume-weighted average price method on the exchange's electronic trading platform. China will only permit 240,429 tonnes of copper scrap imports in the entire third quarter of 2019, sending pan...Read More