Prices for domestic steel wire rod inched upward by ?,?5 per tonne in Southern Europe this week with mills well-booked and supply tight, sources told Metal Bulletin on Wednesday February 28.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for domestic mesh-quality wire rod in Southern Europe widened upward to ?,?535-560 ($658-688) per tonne delivered on Wednesday, compared with ?,?530-555 per tonne delive...Read More
Export prices for Southern Europe-origin rebar have held steady this week with prices remaining too high for customers in Algeria, market sources told Metal Bulletin on Wednesday February 28.Metal Bulletin's weekly export price assessment for Southern European rebar was ?,?480-490 ($590-602) per tonne fob main ports on Wednesday, unchanged week-on-week.Mills in Italy and Spain have seen their lead...Read More
Base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange are mainly weaker this morning, Wednesday February 28, with prices off by an average of 0.4%. Lead prices lead the decline with a 1% drop, followed by copper prices (-0.6%) at $6,989 per tonne. Tin, zinc and nickel prices are off between 0.2% and 0.4%, while aluminium prices are little changed. This follows a day of general weakness on Tuesday that s...Read More
Domestic prices for cold-rolled coil (CRC) in the EU have been largely unchanged over the past week, although import prices have inched upward, sources told Metal Bulletin on Wednesday February 28."The market is more or less quiet, because buyers have booked their required volumes. Non-EU suppliers have increased their offers so imports are not having any negative effect on prices," a German trade...Read More
SHANGHAI, Feb 28 (SMM) – Nonferrous metals futures saw mixed trading on Wednesday February 28 with SHFE lead leading the loss with a 1.5% drop. SHFE copper was down by 1.4%, zinc slid over 1%, while nickel edged down. Aluminium and tin inched up.In the ferrous market, rebar and hot-rolled coil were up slightly while coking coal was down over 1%. Coke and iron ore edged down.Copper: The SHFE...Read More
SHANGHAI, Feb 28 (SMM) – Nonferrous metals futures saw mixed trading on Wednesday February 28 with SHFE lead leading the loss with a 1.5% drop. SHFE copper was down by 1.4%, zinc slid over 1%, while nickel edged down. Aluminium and tin inched up.In the ferrous market, rebar and hot-rolled coil were up slightly while coking coal was down over 1%. Coke and iron ore edged down.Copper: The SHFE...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil (HRC) in the EU have been largely stable over the past week, with buyers holding back from new deals after booking sufficient volumes earlier, sources have told Metal Bulletin."Second-quarter production coil is well sold, so buyers are in no hurry to make new deals until a new trend in the market becomes clear," a German trader said.In the meantime, prices are u...Read More
SHANGHAI, Feb 28 (SMM) – Nonferrous metals futures saw mixed trading on Wednesday February 28 with SHFE lead leading the loss with a 1.5% drop. SHFE copper was down by 1.4%, zinc slid over 1%, while nickel edged down. Aluminium and tin inched up.In the ferrous market, rebar and hot-rolled coil were up slightly while coking coal was down over 1%. Coke and iron ore edged down.Copper: The SHFE...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were mixed this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 2 point in pre-opening trade.Index futures were virtually unchanged following release of the second estimate for real U.S. fourth quarter GDP growth. Consensus was a slip to 2.5% from the first estimate at 2.6%. Actual was growth at a 2.5% rate.The Canadian Dollar was virtually unchanged following release of the Federal...Read More
SHANGHAI, Feb 28 (SMM) -Copper: A stronger US dollar drove LME copper lower towards the 60-day moving average, but prices are likely to rise in the medium term as downstream consumption recovers and Chinese scrap imports decline. We see LME copper to trade at $7,000-7,070/mt and the SHFE 1804 contract at 52,500-53,100 yuan/mt today. Spot discounts are seen getting smaller as sellers held up.A...Read More
SHANGHAI, Feb 28 (SMM) -Copper: A stronger US dollar drove LME copper lower towards the 60-day moving average, but prices are likely to rise in the medium term as downstream consumption recovers and Chinese scrap imports decline. We see LME copper to trade at $7,000-7,070/mt and the SHFE 1804 contract at 52,500-53,100 yuan/mt today. Spot discounts are seen getting smaller as sellers held up.A...Read More
SHANGHAI, Feb 28 (SMM) -Copper: A stronger US dollar drove LME copper lower towards the 60-day moving average, but prices are likely to rise in the medium term as downstream consumption recovers and Chinese scrap imports decline. We see LME copper to trade at $7,000-7,070/mt and the SHFE 1804 contract at 52,500-53,100 yuan/mt today. Spot discounts are seen getting smaller as sellers held up.A...Read More
The latest metal markets news and price moves to start the North American day on Wednesday February 28. Lead prices on the London Metal Exchange recorded the biggest drop during morning trading following a large stock delivery into LME warehouses. Some 12,375 tonnes were delivered into LME-listed warehouses in Antwerp - taking on-warrant stock levels to 20,250 tonnes. This is the largest lead infl...Read More
Good morning from Metal Bulletin's office in Singapore as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Wednesday February 28.Base metals traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were down across the board during Asian morning trading on Wednesday, with a firmer dollar and disappointing Chinese macro-economic data denting sentiment for the complex.Check Metal Bulletin's live futures report he...Read More
Comex copper prices softened in the US morning on Wednesday February 28, with a stronger dollar and lower-than-expected Chinese data weighing on the base metals complex. Copper for May settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 3.10 cents or 1% to $3.1555 per lb. Earlier, the contract touched $3.1525, the lowest since February 13. Earlier this morning, China's manufa...Read More
Iron ore prices slid below $79 per tonne cfr China on Wednesday February 28 amid sluggish demand for the steelmaking raw material in the seaborne market. Metal Bulletin's 62% Fe Iron Ore Index Today: $78.61 per tonne cfr Qingdao Daily change: down by $0.54 per tonne Month-to-date average: $77.35 per tonne Metal Bulletin's 58% Fe Premium Index Today: $61.62 per tonne cfr...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices rose on Wednesday February 28, with Chinese buyers flagging limited offers of such materials and an unclear outlook for domestic supply as factors generating buying interest. A cargo of premium products was offered at $237 per tonne fob Australia on Global Coal. A bid of $229 per tonne fob was made for the cargo. Tier-two cargoes were heard offered on both cfr China and...Read More
Although base metals are under pressure in the short term, we have a bullish bias to our 2018 price forecasts given the supportive background of solid global economic growth and the fact that all six base metal markets look set to be in fundamental deficit this year. But each has a slightly different supply-side story and this aspect should be the main differentiator. For example, zinc's narrative...Read More
Metal Bulletin has launched two assessments to track spot and annual refining charges (RC) for blister copper imported to China following a month-long consultation. Blister copper, an intermediate copper product used by smelters for refined copper production, is known as one of the first options for scrap replacement. Import volumes of the increasingly popular blister copper, together with anodes,...Read More
Vale is reevaluating its plans for its Vale New Caledonia nickel project due to its improved results and the positive impact of higher cobalt prices, chief executive officer Fabio Schvartsman said on Wednesday February 28."We are waiting to see where things are going to move forward to in order to make a decision in the VNC situation," he told analysts during a conference call. "It is clear that t...Read More