Europe could face a deluge of steel imports previously destined for the United States if Donald Trump's 232 investigation leads to strict import duties on steel products, German steel association WV Stahl has warned. EU tariffs on imports of cold rolled coil (CRC) from Russia and China led to prices for the material jumping in European domestic markets in 2017, while Russian producers lost ma...Read More
China's major mills raised their crude steel output rates in late December and made more deliveries to the marketplace, which led to a drop in their finished steel inventories and weighed on spot prices. Member mills of the China Iron & Steel Association (Cisa) produced crude steel at an average rate of 1.7817 million tonnes per day during the last 11 days of December, up 63,600 tonnes...Read More
Russian producers have significantly increased their prices for hot- and cold-rolled steel sheet from January production for domestic buyers, amid favorable export market sentiment.Buyers also expect that this week mills will increase their prices again, when they start offering February-rolled material."I suppose we will see another 4-5% price increase soon, because mills say that they are export...Read More
Exporters of CIS-origin hot-rolled coil (HRC) and cold-rolled coil (CRC) increased their prices after the new year holiday period amid short-term price growth for material of Chinese origin."Producers increased their prices a lot at the wrong time, when consumers are not ready to accept them because Chinese prices are going down again," a trader told Metal Bulletin on Monday January 15.Metal Bulle...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange continued their strong performance during Monday January 15 and closed in positive territory across the board. Prices were supported by a weakening dollar which fell to its lowest in nearly three years; copper was one of the best performers closing over $100 higher than Friday. "The supportive macro backdrop (weak dollar, positive macro data) should...Read More
The increases in demand for lithium battery compounds since the end of 2015 have caused a structural change in the global lithium market, making it necessary to have new reference prices with increased granularity. Industrial Minerals has therefore launched new spot price assessments for lithium carbonate and hydroxide monohydrate to keep track of the growing price volatility within the Chinese sp...Read More
The latest metal markets news and price moves to start the North American day on Friday January 15.Base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange were all higher during morning trading, reflecting a further weakening in the dollar. Zinc's continues to set fresh multi-year highs - it peaked at $3,440 per tonne this morning, its highest since August 2007.Available LME zinc stocks continue to fall -...Read More
Good morning from Metal Bulletin's office in Shanghai, as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Monday January 15.Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mostly lower during Asian morning trading on Monday after consolidation set in following last week's gains, with only aluminium and nickel prices moving higher so far in the morning.Check Metal Bulletin's live futur...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 15 (SMM)? 1/4 ? Nonferrous metals futures on the SHFE saw mixed trading on Monday with copper closing with 0.57% rise and nickel up 0.42%. While zinc and aluminium edged up slightly, lead dropped 0.49% and tin slipped 0.3%.The ferrous complex was weaker as iron ore and coking coal dropped around 2% and coke dropped 1.5%. Both hot-rolled coil and rebar were also down slightly.Copper:...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 15 (SMM)? 1/4 ? Nonferrous metals futures on the SHFE saw mixed trading on Monday with copper closing with 0.57% rise and nickel up 0.42%. While zinc and aluminium edged up slightly, lead dropped 0.49% and tin slipped 0.3%.The ferrous complex was weaker as iron ore and coking coal dropped around 2% and coke dropped 1.5%. Both hot-rolled coil and rebar were also down slightly.Copper:...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 15 (SMM)? 1/4 ? Nonferrous metals futures on the SHFE saw mixed trading on Monday with copper closing with 0.57% rise and nickel up 0.42%. While zinc and aluminium edged up slightly, lead dropped 0.49% and tin slipped 0.3%.The ferrous complex was weaker as iron ore and coking coal dropped around 2% and coke dropped 1.5%. Both hot-rolled coil and rebar were also down slightly.Copper:...Read More
Although U.S. equity markets are closed today, index futures in electronic trading are higher. S&P 500 futures are up 4 points in pre-opening trade. Strength in index futures is related to continuing weakness in the U.S. Dollar and related strength in other major currencies. Weakness in the U.S. Dollar Index also has triggered strength in commodity prices. Gold is up $6.90 to $1,341.80 per oun...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 15 (SMM)? 1/4 ? The operating rates of Chinese galvanizing companies in January is likely to be some 20% lower than levels seen in December, SMM learned.This is partly because snow storms in the north have affected the operations of downstream consumers while demand also turns weaker ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday in mid-February.In fact, some galvanizing plants in north China...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange are stronger across the board this morning, Monday January 15, with the complex up by an average of 1.2%. Copper ($7,248 per tonne) and nickel ($12,905 per tonne) lead the advance with rises of 1.9%, while tin lags behind with a 0.1% gain to $20,300 per tonne. Volume has been high with 13,854 lots traded, with 6,586 lots of that being copper. The pre...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange continued their strong performance during Monday January 15 and closed in positive territory across the board. Prices were supported by a weakening dollar which fell to its lowest in nearly three years; copper was one of the best performers closing over $100 higher than Friday. "The supportive macro backdrop (weak dollar, positive macro data) should...Read More
Base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange were all higher during morning trading on Monday January 15, reflecting a further weakening in the dollar.Zinc's continues to set fresh multi-year highs - it peaked at $3,440 per tonne this morning, its highest since August 2007.Available LME zinc stocks continue to fall - a further 10,000 tonnes of metal were cancelled in New Orleans this morning, wh...Read More
Trading activity in the seaborne coking coal market was muted on Monday January 15, though offers on an online trading platform have retreated. Cargoes of premium hard coking coal with a February laycan were offered at around $250 per tonne and $260 per tonne fob Australia on the platform, according to market sources. "There is no justification for such high prices now that the supply situation is...Read More
Buying activity in the CIS export billet market was muted in the first half of January due initially to the long year-end holidays and later to generally low demand for the material in the major outlets.Despite this, Metal Bulletin's weekly export CIS Billet Index rose to $520 per tonne fob Black Sea on January 15, up from the previous $514 per tonne fob Black Sea amid higher offer prices.Billet o...Read More
Export slab prices from the CIS region rose by $25 per tonne over the first half of January, because of the rise in finished flat steel prices as well as the reduced availability of the semi-finished material, sources told Metal Bulletin on Monday January 15.Russia's Evraz and Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) were said to be seeing good demand for slabs from their own re-rolling assets, even though the la...Read More
Peru's largest mining zinc and copper operations were unaffected by the strong earthquake that hit the country's southern coast Sunday January 14. Key roads and ports were also operating as usual, industry sources said. The epicenter of the 7.1-magnitude earthquake was in the Pacific Ocean, about 30km from the town of Lomas, in the Arequipa region, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Per...Read More