High zinc prices could eventually lead to an irreversible dent in consumption of the metal, specifically in the form of zinc alloys in electric vehicles, market participants told Metal Bulletin.Substitution out of zinc is likeliest in the alloys sector, a zinc producer told Metal Bulletin, estimating that up to 3-5% of usage of metal at current levels could be at risk - albeit over a matter of yea...Read More
INTL FCStone has merged its London Metal Exchange and precious metals departments, with the new unit headed by Barry Canham, the company said. In an email to the company's global metals team and seen by Metal Bulletin, INTL chief executive officer (CEO) for EMEA and Asia Philip Smith said that the move was made following the decision by Malcolm Leonard to retire after 46 years working in LME metal...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly lower at the close on Tuesday January 9, with only nickel trading in positive territory. The three-month nickel price climbed $160 per tonne higher while the cash/January-2018 nearby spread moved into a $3 per tonne backwardation. "The LME nickel market has tightened slightly since the start of the year, judging by the contraction in the...Read More
Comex copper prices weakened Tuesday January 9 morning in the US, although the complex remains well-supported due to positive Chinese and US data released in the past few weeks.Copper for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 0.70 cents or 0.2% to $3.2170 per lb."We remain bullish for copper's fundamentals and the price's action seems to be supporting th...Read More
Bullish for 2018 The base metals have started 2018 in consolidation mode after frenzied rallies at the end of 2017. The fact that manufacturing data still looks robust, that supply disruptions are being threatened, that the Fed remains dovish and that China’s financial conditions have loosened, suggests the backdrop for the base metals remains bullish overall. This supports our expectations f...Read More
Significant LME and SHFE price rises in 2017... On the back of the Chinese government’s clean-up of illegal capacity and its winter heating season production cuts in order to protect air quality, aluminium prices on both the LME and SHFE had significant increases in 2017. The LME aluminium price finished the year with a remarkable 30.8% increase while the SHFE aluminium price rose 18.5%, a le...Read More
Aluminium Aluminium is consolidating after extending to a fresh five-year high at $2,290.50 per tonne on December 29. With prices below $2,200 per tonne, immediate support at $2,215 per tonne from the October 26 and November 1 double-top has failed, but the daily candlesticks imply indecision. Although prices are drifting lower, they remain in high ground. The RSI has eased to 59 from an overbough...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM)? 1/4 ?Nonferrous metals traded higher this afternoon with zinc and nickel rising over 1%. Lead and copper were up close to 1%, while tin and aluminium edged down slightly.Ferrous metals were firm today with iron ore leading the gain with over 3% rise. Coking coal moved higher by 1.7%, while hot-rolled coil and rebar rose over 1%. Coke also traded up slightly.Copper: SHFE copp...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM)? 1/4 ?Nonferrous metals traded higher this afternoon with zinc and nickel rising over 1%. Lead and copper were up close to 1%, while tin and aluminium edged down slightly.Ferrous metals were firm today with iron ore leading the gain with over 3% rise. Coking coal moved higher by 1.7%, while hot-rolled coil and rebar rose over 1%. Coke also traded up slightly.Copper: SHFE copp...Read More
Consolidation after 12.4 percent year-end rally Copper prices rallied sharply between December 6 and 28, reaching a fresh multi-year high of $7,312.50 per tonne, from the month’s low of $6,507.50 per tonne, a gain of 12.4 percent. Given there was a general strong move across the metals, copper’s price rally was not copper-specific. It appears that there was a surge of interest to increas...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM)? 1/4 ?Nonferrous metals traded higher this afternoon with zinc and nickel rising over 1%. Lead and copper were up close to 1%, while tin and aluminium edged down slightly.Ferrous metals were firm today with iron ore leading the gain with over 3% rise. Coking coal moved higher by 1.7%, while hot-rolled coil and rebar rose over 1%. Coke also traded up slightly.Copper: SHFE copp...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM) – SMM surveys major Chinese producers in the base metals market every month to get first-hand production data. The following table shows the latest output in December and our forecast for January.CopperChina’s copper output rose in December as some large producers looked to hit their annual production target at the year-end. Qingyuan Jiangxi Copper and Shandong Hu...Read More
Price working higher, approaching October 2017 high Given Glencore’s Lady Loretta restart announcements in December, it is interesting that lead prices have continued to work higher. But lead has underperformed sister metal zinc, which has seen fresh 10-year highs. The upward trend in lead prices has recently been given a boost by the cold weather and snow that has hit the North-East USA and...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM) – SMM surveys major Chinese producers in the base metals market every month to get first-hand production data. The following table shows the latest output in December and our forecast for January.CopperChina’s copper output rose in December as some large producers looked to hit their annual production target at the year-end. Qingyuan Jiangxi Copper and Shandong Hu...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM) – SMM surveys major Chinese producers in the base metals market every month to get first-hand production data. The following table shows the latest output in December and our forecast for January.CopperChina’s copper output rose in December as some large producers looked to hit their annual production target at the year-end. Qingyuan Jiangxi Copper and Shandong Hu...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 2 points in pre-opening trade.The Canadian Dollar was virtually unchanged following release of Canadian December Housing report. Starts at 8:15 AM EST. Consensus was 211,000 versus 251,000 in November. Actual was 217,000.Target gained $2.40 to $69.58 after raising its fiscal fourth quarter profit and sales estimatesUnd...Read More
Nickel prices rallied well ahead of the fundamentals during LME Week when the market got carried away by the prospects for demand from the electric vehicle (EV) market. Having set a high of $13,030 per tonne, prices corrected to $10,740, which felt justified given increased ore shipments from Indonesia and the Philippines. Prices have since rebounded back above to $12,000 per tonne but this move i...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM)? 1/4 ? Nickel ore exports from the Philippines to China were expected to be 720,000 wmt, or 6,600 mt in Ni content, according to SMM research. This is down 76% from volumes seen in November.The slump was mainly led by the raining season in Surigao region while shipments in Palawan and Zambales only rose slightly. Shipments from Tawi-Tawi region was stable.On quality breakdown...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM)? 1/4 ?Cooper: While LME copper sees temporary support at $7,100/mt, the SHFE copper is expected to trade downwards to 54,000 yuan/mt. However, the implementation of copper scrap policy and the expected supply tightness of concentrate would limit the down side. LME copper is expected to trade at $7,090-7,150/mt today and the SHFE 1803 contract is to trade at 54,300-54,900 yuan...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM)? 1/4 ? The operating rates at zinc smelters in December dropped 4.16 percentage points from the previous month with companies of all sizes seeing declines.Even though some smelters have come out of their maintenance schedules and Hunan Kingstone Mining has resumed its production, overall output was down over 20,000 mt from November, according to SMM research.Shorter supply of...Read More