European nickel premiums universally declined on Tuesday May 14 after weak regional demand for material manifested in depressed premiums across the board. Elsewhere, the cif Shanghai premium rose to a renewed 14-month high on fresh arbitrage profit opportunities on the back of a newly-opened import window. The European briquette premium remained on a three-week downward trajectory on weak de...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange recovered at the close of trading on Wednesday May 15, climbing back above $12,000 per tonne while the metal's cash/three-month spread moved into backwardation for the first time since 2015.The metal's cash/three-month spread differential was recently seen in a backwardation of $9 per tonne, while its nearby June-July spread was now trading i...Read More
Garry Jones, former chief executive officer of the London Metal Exchange, has been appointed as independent non-executive director and remuneration committee chair at ICBC Standard Bank, Fastmarkets understands. Jones was appointed as CEO of the LME after its acquisition by the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEX) in 2012 and fulfilled the role until 2017, when current CEO Matthew Chamberlain...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday May 15 that are worth another look.Rising inventories of manganese ore at Chinese ports amid soaring import volumes were being fueled by changes to alloy smelters' purchasing habits, offset by low stocks at plants, market participants told Fastmarkets.Trafigura has consolidated its leadership team in the non-ferrous...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday May 15 that are worth another look.Rising inventories of manganese ore at Chinese ports amid soaring import volumes were being fueled by changes to alloy smelters' purchasing habits, offset by low stocks at plants, market participants told Fastmarkets.Trafigura has consolidated its leadership team in the non-ferrous...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More
The possibility of another auction of indium stock held by the defunct Fanya Metal Exchange has weakened the buying appetite of consumers both in China and abroad. Word had circulated in the market since last week that around 20-100 tonnes of indium held in Fanya's warehouses could be auctioned by the end of May, market sources told Fastmarkets MB. Officials from the Alibaba online platform, where...Read More
The UK ferrous scrap market for deliveries to domestic consumers in May has settled at prices lower than a month earlier, matching losses reported in the export market, trade sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday May 15.Export prices have fallen in line with weaker sales into the key destination of Turkey, they added.Most UK deals for May deliveries to domestic consumers have been settled at ?15...Read More
Turkish steel producers have continued to book deep-sea scrap cargoes this week, with prices falling further, sources said on Wednesday May 15.The mills were trying to keep their deep-sea scrap purchases as slow as possible, to put downward pressure on prices, because demand for long steel products was sluggish and values were falling, Fastmarkets was told.But two steel mills came to the market...Read More
Prices for mesh-quality wire rod in Europe fell this week following a drop in finished mesh product prices and due to buyer hesitance, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday May 15. Fastmarkets' weekly domestic price assessment for mesh-quality wire rod in Northern Europe fell to ?,?515-535 ($578-600) per tonne delivered on Wednesday, down ?,?10-15 week on week from ?,?525-550 per tonne delive...Read More
Markets were looking brighter on the morning of Wednesday May 15, with the equities and metals firmer, this despite some further poor economic data in China and the uncertainty about which direction US-China trade talks will go.China's CSI 300 up by 2.6%; LME base metals up an average of 0.4%, after a 1.2% gain on TuesdayChina's fixed asset investment, industrial production and retail sales, all c...Read More
Some mobile phone producers have started to develop devices that support the fifth generation (5G) network, but long-term support for cobalt demand from 5G phones will be limited, Fastmarkets heard on the sidelines of a cobalt conference in Hong Kong this week.There was likely to be an instant boost for cobalt demand, however, when many consumers replaced their 4G mobile phones with those enabled...Read More
Australian Lepidico Ltd agreed earlier this month to acquire Desert Lion, a junior miner with mining operations in Namibia, to create an integrated lithium business. The merged company will be named Lepidico Ltd and will combine Desert Lion's Rubicon and Helikon lepidolite deposits in Namibia alongside the partially developed lepidolite concentrator with Lepidico's L-Max and LOH-Max technologies w...Read More
Follow up on this year's Fastmarkets Battery Materials Conference in Shanghai with this comprehensive downloadable PDF that brings together the full coverage from the event.Our Battery Materials Conference 2019 in Shanghai in April was one of the many industry-leading events we curate, organize and run, bringing together the biggest OEMs, battery manufacturers, cathode makers and chemical companie...Read More
An accident at a steel mill owned by Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Sider??rgica Nacional (CSN) on Wednesday May 15 injured around 20 employees but had no impact on production there, the company said.The accident at the plant in Volta Redonda city, in Brazil's southeastern Rio de Janeiro state, was caused by a reaction during the removal of slag from equipment during the steelmaking process, CSN s...Read More
China's hot-rolled coil prices were largely steady on Wednesday May 15 amid sparse trading in the domestic market, though trading activity in the export segment appeared to pick up after exporters cut their offers.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,990-4,000 yuan ($580-582) per tonne, unchangedNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,870-3,880 yuan per tonne, narrowing from both endsTrading was persistently t...Read More
The price range for hollow steel sections in Northern Europe has widened downward this week under the influence of lower prices for hot-rolled coil (HRC), sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday May 15.Fastmarkets' domestic price assessment for commodity-size, grade-S235 square hollow sections made in Northern Europe widened downward to ?,?600-630 ($673-707) per tonne delivered on Wednesday, lower b...Read More
Feralpi Stahl will raise capacity at its rebar and wire rod rolling mill in Riesa in the Saxony region of Germany to 1.3 million tonnes per year, the German division of Italy-based steelmaker Feralpi Group said.The company will invest ?,?60 million ($67.33 million) over a two-year period to increase capacity at Riesa, it said on Wednesday May 15."The investment will strengthen the current producti...Read More
Steel H-beam prices in Northern and Southern Europe were stable this week, although pressure from falling scrap costs remains a feature of the market and beams prices could fall in the near future, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday May 15.One factor behind the lack of price movement, particularly in Southern Europe, was the Made in Steel event taking place in Milan, Italy, from May 14-16, wher...Read More
The UK ferrous scrap market for deliveries to domestic consumers in May has settled at prices lower than a month earlier, matching losses reported in the export market, trade sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday May 15.Export prices have fallen in line with weaker sales into the key destination of Turkey, they added.Most UK deals for May deliveries to domestic consumers have been settled at ?15...Read More