Market participants expect alumina prices to plummet upon any future announcement that Hydro's alumina refinery, Alunorte, can return to full capacity, but agree the scheduled court date does not provide any further clarity. Alunorte, the largest alumina refinery in the world, has been running at only 50% of its production capacity since March 2018 because of restrictions imposed by authorities in...Read More
Domestic prices for cold-rolled coil (CRC) in Southern Europe have fallen this week due to limited demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday March 28.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for domestic CRC in Southern Europe was ?,?530-560 ($598-630) per tonne ex-works on March 27, down by ?,?30 per tonne compared with ?,?560-590 per tonne ex-works a week earlier.Italian mills were reported to be...Read More
Steel billet import prices fell in Egypt in the week ended Thursday March 28, with demand remaining weak, but the domestic price for rebar held steady, Fastmarkets has heard.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel billet imported into Egypt was $460-480 per tonne cfr on Thursday, widening downward from $475-480 per tonne cfr last week.CIS-origin billet was offered to the country at $480-485...Read More
United Arab Emirates-based United Iron & Steel Co (UISC) has started producing its own cold-rolled coil at its plant in Abu Dhabi for processing into hot-dipped galvanized coil.The new 250,000 tonnes-per-year CRC facility consists of an in-line push-pull pickling line, a single-stand cold-rolling mill and a continuous galvanizing line to process both hot- and cold-rolled coil, equipment suppl...Read More
Weaker-than-expected demand from steel mills following the introduction of new rebar standards in China and increased use of ferro-niobium there have hit the ferro-vanadium market with prices in Europe now trading at levels last seen in December 2017. So far this month, the European ferro-vanadium price has fallen by more than 25%. Fastmarkets assessed the price for ferro-vanadium, 78% min, free d...Read More
China's domestic hot-rolled coil prices were flat on Thursday March 28, with market participants taking a wait-and-see approach.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,850-3,860 yuan ($573-574) per tonne, unchangedNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,790-3,800 yuan per tonne, unchangedA few buyers raised their procurement rates amid gains in the futures market in the earlier part of the day, sources said.But o...Read More
Brazilian miner Vale expects iron ore sales volumes in 2019 to be cut by 50-75 million tonnes, from a previous internal, undisclosed target of 382 million tonnes of sales during the year, chief financial officer Luciano Siani said on Thursday March 28 in a conference call with analysts.The reduction will be caused by the mine closures that ensued after an accident at the C??rrego do Feij??o unit,...Read More
Turkish steel mills made no new bookings in the deep-sea scrap market on Thursday March 28, but more transactions made last week were revealed, sources said on Thursday March 28.News of three deep-sea cargoes from last week came to light on Thursday.A steel producer in the Iskenderun region booked a US cargo, comprising 30,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $320 per tonne, 5,000 tonnes of shredded a...Read More
Vale achieved a price of $68.40 per wet metric tonne for its iron ore fines in the fourth quarter of 2018, the company said in an earnings report on Wednesday March 27. In the fourth quarter of 2017, Vale's realized price for the material was $63.10 per wmt.According to the miner, the premium received for higher-quality iron ore fines stood at $8.10 per tonne in the fourth quarter o...Read More
The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for iron ore, pig iron, direct-reduced iron and other steelmaking raw materials. Latest transaction: iron oreIron oreVale, Global Ore, 180,000 tonnes...Read More
Physical iron ore prices weakened on Thursday March 28 following losses in the futures markets.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $84.68 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down $0.43 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $83.80 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down $0.43 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $86.93 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down $0.17 per tonne. MB 58% Fe Premium Index: $76.97 per tonne cfr Qi...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices were stable on Thursday March 28, with market participants awaiting the outcome of a miner's tender for direction.A cargo of second-tier hard coking coal was heard offered at $186 per tonne cfr China. The was no word of the cargo being sold by 6pm, the data collection cut-off time for the Fastmarkets MB daily coking coal indices.In the premium hard coking coal segment,...Read More
Brazil's Vale has adopted the Fastmarkets MB 65% Fe Iron Ore Index as the reference for the pricing of contract cargoes of its blast furnace and direct-reduction pellets in 2019."The [Fastmarkets MB 65% Fe Iron Ore Index] is the new reference index and the premiums for blast furnace and direct-reduction pellets remained the same as [that in] 2018 - $60 per tonne on average," the miner said on Thur...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange was lower during morning trading on Thursday March 28, capped by broad strength in the US dollar index while risk-averse investors continue to defer commodity investment. Falling below $13,000 per tonne over the morning session, nickel's three-month price continues to trade in volatile swings either side of the support level, despite total LM...Read More
Arbitrage for copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel imported into China on Thursday March 28*Copper -$139.98 (-944.04 yuan) Aluminium -$293.97 (-1,982.63 yuan) Zinc -$148.71 (-1,002.96 yuan) Nickel -$356.58 (-2,404.90 yuan) *Fastmarkets calculates the physical arbitrage for import into China daily by using SHFE...Read More
China's domestic rebar market was flat on Thursday March 28, with mills' higher output discouraging buyers from placing bookings while lower inventory levels in the spot market kept sellers from lowering their prices.Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,830-3,870 yuan ($570-576) per tonne, unchangedNorthern China (Beijing): 3,830-3,880 yuan per tonne, unchangedA declining futures market and data s...Read More
London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices continue to produce sluggish price action, down 0.2% on average in the morning of Thursday March 28. Copper bucked the trend with a mild gain of 0.1% while aluminium was unchanged at $1,903 per tonne. But LME zinc and lead prices were down 0.1% while nickel and tin were down 0.5%. Trading volume was fairly subdued at 4,325 lots as of 6:48am Lond...Read More
Chinese import and export volumes of flat-rolled stainless steel shrank by nearly 50% year on year in February, amid the country's ongoing anti-dumping investigation into stainless hot-rolled and semi-finished products.Imports of stainless steel flat products into China totaled 85,788 tonnes in February, down by 68,630 tonnes or 44.4% from 154,418 tonnes in February 2018, according to Chinese cust...Read More
Persistently weak demand for stainless steel in China pushed down domestic prices for such products over the past week.Fastmarkets MB's domestic price assessment for benchmark 304 stainless cold-rolled coil in the major market of Wuxi was 14,500-14,900 yuan ($2,156-2,216) per tonne including value-added tax for the week ended Wednesday March 27, down 100-200 yuan per tonne from a week earlier.End-...Read More
China's intention to cut the rate of value-added tax to 13% has already been credited for an increase in imported ore prices and having a bearish effect on alloys, Fastmarkets heard on Wednesday March 27.The rate of VAT in the east Asian country applicable to manufacturers will be lowered from April 1 by 3 percentage points, to 13%, with the intention of stimulating China's slowing economy.The tax...Read More