Rebar prices in the domestic market of Egypt picked up in the week ended Thursday May 2 amid higher import billet costs due to the temporary duty imposed on foreign material and lower availability of rebar as a consequence.Egypt imposed temporary import duties on billet and rebar on April 15 at a rate of 25% for rebar imports and 3-15% for billet imports.The safeguard duty on billet is c...Read More
The CIS export billet market started May with no major price changes, mainly due to the May holiday lull in seller countries, but also because most producers sold all their May-rolling volumes in April.Several offers were heard as high as $430 per tonne fob Black Sea, but sources said the workable price was $420-425 per tonne fob, the level at which recent bookings were done.A 30,000-tonne ca...Read More
The market for pig iron exports from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) remained silent during the week ended Thursday May 2, with suppliers taking public holidays and the price of scrap unclear in the United States, the key outlet market.Fastmarkets' price assessment for CIS exports of high-manganese pig iron was $335-340 per tonne fob Black Sea on Thursday, narrowing upward from $330-3...Read More
Copper continued its sell-off on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday May 2, with the absence of Asian markets a key factor in the downturn while strength in the US dollar caps commodity investment. Volumes were moderately high, with more than 20,000 lots of copper changing hands by the close, indicating strong selling momentum. Open interest has fallen by 3,824 positions overnight, dipping below...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday May 2 that are worth another look.Peruvian tin producer Minsur resumed normal operations at its San Rafael mine in the southern province of Melgar, following the end of a workers' strike that was first announced on April 30, the company said on Wednesday May 1.Zinc bears are betting that the London Metal Exchange zinc price wil...Read More
The differential between the Chinese and European ferro-vanadium prices has continued to widen since the beginning of March, with European demand lagging behind and prices in Europe now trading at its lowest level since November 2017.Currently, the price gap between the Chinese and European markets has widened to around $8.50-11 per kg, according to Fastmarkets data.The most recent Fastmarkets MB'...Read More
Copper continued its sell-off on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday May 2, with the absence of Asian markets a key factor in the downturn while strength in the US dollar caps commodity investment. Volumes were moderately high, with more than 20,000 lots of copper changing hands by the close, indicating strong selling momentum. Open interest has fallen by 3,824 positions overnight, dipping below...Read More
Zinc bears are betting that the London Metal Exchange zinc price will fall to $2,500 per tonne in June, with massive orders for put options placed in recent weeks, Fastmarkets learned.Current open interest on the LME Select platform shows 5,125 lots of put options are active for the June declaration at a $2,500-per-tonne strike price, representing an equivalent of 128,125 tonnes of the metal. Opti...Read More
Higher offers and concerns over possible supply disruptions gave the seaborne coking coal market a boost on Thursday May 2 despite the absence of Chinese participants during the day."I made an inquiry for a cargo of premium mid-vol hard coking coal for loading in June. But the miner told me that the particular cargo could fetch more than $205 per tonne fob Australia due to tight supply," an Indian...Read More
The European molybdenum market moved up in the first half of the week starting Monday April 29, supported by molybdenum oxide supply tightness, sources said.Spot market activity picked up at the beginning of the week, with both the alloy and oxide market prices increasing week on week on Wednesday May 1.The continued material tightness supported the oxide market, with Fastmarkets assessment for th...Read More
Zinc bears are betting that the London Metal Exchange zinc price will fall to $2,500 per tonne in June, with massive orders for put options placed in recent weeks, Fastmarkets learned.Current open interest on the LME Select platform shows 5,125 lots of put options are active for the June declaration at a $2,500-per-tonne strike price, representing an equivalent of 128,125 tonnes of the metal. Opti...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday May 2 that are worth another look.Peruvian tin producer Minsur resumed normal operations at its San Rafael mine in the southern province of Melgar, following the end of a workers' strike that was first announced on April 30, the company said on Wednesday May 1.Zinc bears are betting that the London Metal Exchange zinc price wil...Read More
Peruvian tin producer Minsur resumed normal operations at its San Rafael mine in the southern province of Melgar, following the end of a workers' strike that was first announced on April 30, the company said on Wednesday May 1."An agreement was made with our workers' trade union at San Rafael to finish the strike," Minsur said in a filing with the Peruvian stock exchange. "Work at the unit was...Read More
Zinc spot treatment charges (TCs) were expected to remain at their current high levels through the rest of 2019, because additional Chinese smelting capacity will only come online next year, Nexa Resources' chief executive officer Tito Martins told investors on Thursday May 2.But the price on the London Metal Exchange could rise in the second half of the year amid a global deficit of the metal, he...Read More
BMW Group has chosen Braidy Atlas - the joint-venture project between Russian aluminium producer UC Rusal and US holding company Braidy Industries - to supply aluminium sheet for North American manufacturing, due the venture's focus on a low-carbon footprint and using "green" inputs, Braidy Industries' top executive told Fastmarkets AMM.Once the greenfield aluminum rolling mill begins production,...Read More
Daily PDFs will be downloadable until Monday May 6. After that, because of the UK's early May bank holiday, the next daily PDF will be downloadable on Wednesday May 8.Read More
Comex copper prices sank further in morning trading on Thursday May 2 in the United States after a 3% selloff yesterday fueled by increased warehousing inflows, weak global data and a stronger dollar. The copper price for July settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 2.15 cents to $2.7810 per lb. "In line with our expectations, copper has come under downward p...Read More
Prices for imported flat-rolled steel have edged downward, but they aren't attracting US buyers because domestic prices are falling even faster, market participants said.And with US mill lead times short - a matter of weeks as opposed to as much as three months for import orders - there is little incentive to take the price and geopolitical risk associated with offshore deals, they said.Hot-rolled...Read More
Prices for reinforcing bar steel in the United States continued to soften on weak demand, sources told Fastmarkets AMM. Fastmarkets AMM's price assessment for domestic rebar is $34.25-35.25 per hundredweight fob mill as of Wednesday May 1, down 0.7% from $34.50-35.50 per cwt two weeks earlier and off 2.1% from $35-36 per cwt at the beginning of the year. At the same time, Fastmarkets' assessment f...Read More
Turkish billet prices have softened over the past week, with news of fresh export sales at lower prices confirming the downturn, sources said on Thursday May 2.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for billet exports out of Turkey was $425-430 per tonne fob on Thursday, down from last week's $450-455 per tonne.A steel mill in northern Turkey sold 40,000 tonnes of billet to Saudi Arabia at $425 per....Read More