Participants took a breather from the seaborne coking coal spot market on Thursday April 18 following a flurry of trades earlier this week."We are not in a hurry to offer at the moment, especially since the loading dates for our shipments have been pushed back to May," a Chinese trading source said.Meanwhile, at the Port of Jingtang in China's steelmaking hub of Tangshan, a brand of premium low-vo...Read More
Most prices for steel coil products in Turkey decreased again over the week to Thursday April 18, with buying activity remaining subdued.Demand in the local market was still soft because of the continuing weakness of the Turkish lira and the expectation that prices will fall further.The lira was trading at TRY100 to $17.3698 on April 18, compared with TRY100 to $17.4791 on April 12 and TRY 18.7654...Read More
Bearish sentiment on LME-traded base metals pervaded the market throughout trading on April 18 with the majority of the complex continuing to trade down at the end of the trading day. Pessimism continued to mount on the back of weak European PMI data throughout the day's trading, dissipating any of the previous day's bullish sentiment on the basis of positive Chinese economic data. Suppressed appe...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday April 18 that are worth another look.The decision by the European Commission to suspend carbon emissions allowances issued by the UK government under the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme is expected to remain valid until the UK is able to reach a deal with the EU on the country's exit from the union, Richard Warren, head of p...Read More
Fading domestic demand and rising supply for No2 copper scrap in the United States have pushed discounts wider, with all eyes on China's impending scrap import regulations in July."In the last week we have seen sellers become desperate for placement of No2 copper scrap units. We've been offered tremendous volumes for May delivery but because we're booked we are not in the market," one US consumer...Read More
The US Midwest P1020 aluminium premium widened downward on Thursday April 18 amid tightening price spreads on the London Metal Exchange.Fastmarkets AMM assessed the P1020 Midwest premium at 19-19.5 cents per lb on April 18. That is down by 0.25 cents on the low end from 19.25-19.5 cents per lb previously, and marks the premium's first movement since April...Read More
Mining-and-metals company South32 has revised its alumina production guidance down due to a de-bottlenecking initiative, it said in its third-quarter financial year report on Thursday April 18.The company reduced production guidance at its Worsley alumina facility in operation by 4% to 3.79 million tonnes to, "support a sustainable increase in production-to-nameplate capacity ahead of future de-bo...Read More
The US copper market failed to hold onto Wednesday's gains amid a surging dollar, which weighed on the base metals complex.The copper price for May settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 4.20 cents to $2.9255 per lb.At last glance, the dollar index was at 97.32, up 0.32% and above the psychological level of 97. The red metal has been unable to set a clear price...Read More
Copper fund Red Kite has settled its $850 million market manipulation lawsuit with Barclays out of court, the bank said in a statement today April 18."Legal proceedings between the Red Kite group as Claimants and Barclays Bank PLC as Defendant have been concluded on mutually acceptable...Read More
A forecast downtrend in the mid-to-long-term London Metal Exchange cash zinc price could bring about a shortage of zinc mining projects, BMO Capital Markets analyst Kash Kamal said in a presentation at Fastmarkets' International Lead & Zinc conference on Monday April 15. Although the LME zinc cash price performed well in the second half of 2018, it dipped by 9.7% to a $2,644 per tonne average in t...Read More
Prospects for the Brazilian steel market are uncertain right now because of slow economic activity in the country, and any price increase depends on a recovery, Usiminas' commercial vice president Miguel Homes told investors during a conference call on Thursday April 18."We are expecting the second quarter of the year to be better than the first one," the executive said. "But everything depends on...Read More
Despite healthy demand, Brazilian slab export prices widened downward on Thursday April 18 due to reduced prices in other producing regions and increased deals, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets assessed Brazilian slab exports at $495-545 per tonne fob, down from $510-550 per tonne fob a week earlier. Deals to the US were closed near the $545-per-tonne-fob level, while deals for material from B...Read More
Reinforcing steel bar prices have decreased in the United States due to downward pressure from falling raw material costs and some reports of slower market activity, market sources said. Fastmarkets AMM's price assessment for domestic rebar stood at $34.50-35.50 per hundredweight ($690-710 per short ton) fob mill on Wednesday April 17, down by 2.4% from $35.25-36.50 per cwt two weeks earlier. At t...Read More
South American steel import prices were mostly unchanged or slightly higher, with demand in the region still low and customers increasingly looking for alternative sources of flat steel as Chinese material becomes too expensive for importers, sources said.Mills in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region, like Russia and Ukraine, were regarded as a feasible alternative, they added.Fastm...Read More
The decision by the European Commission (EC) to suspend carbon emissions allowances issued by the UK government under the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is expected to remain valid until the UK is able to reach a deal with the EU on the country's exit from the union, Richard Warren, head of policy at industry body UK Steel, told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 18.Allowances issued by the UK wer...Read More
Brazilian steelmakers have called for an urgent solution regarding production stoppages in iron ore miner Vale's southeastern system, after a disastrous accident in January this year at a tailings dam in the C??rrego do Feij??o mine, according to national steel association Instituto A??o Brasil."The current situation of raw materials supply cannot be maintained for long," A??o Brasil executive pre...Read More
Turkish steel producers have gone through Thursday without making any deep-sea scrap purchases, because the political situation in the country has changed and the value of the country's lira has become more volatile, sources said on Thursday April 18.Turkey's supreme committee of elections (YSK) has declared opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu the winner of the recent mayoral election in Istanbul,...Read More
The price of shredded ferrous scrap imported into India moved up this week with deals done at higher levels than last week, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 18.Fastmarkets' weekly index for containerized imports of shredded scrap into India inched up to $332.25 per tonne cfr Nhava Sheva on Thursday, from $331.32 per tonne cfr one week before.This week, deals were heard for shredded scrap...Read More
Prices for light iron steel scrap in the United Kingdom were unchanged for a fifth week on Thursday April 18 following a recovery in Turkish scrap prices, sources told Fastmarkets on the day.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for UK grade-5C ferrous scrap on an inter-merchant basis was ?90-110 ($117-143) per tonne on April 18. The price has remained unchanged since March 15.The steady 5C price...Read More
Niron Metals PLC, an investment vehicle with shareholders including former Xstrata chief executive officer (CEO) Mick Davis, has been given the go-ahead to export iron ore from the Zogota deposit in Guinea through Liberia using existing infrastructure. The company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Liberian government allowing it to use rail and port facilities to export the material fr...Read More