Gold has big year in 2020 and outlook for this year robust. Learn about monetary expansion and gold future prices.Read More
The gold futures price reached US$1,767/ounce this week before retreating, which was the second time it has surpassed US$1,760 in the past two months, marking some of gold's highest levels in several years.Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States climbed over $40 per hundredweight ($800 per short ton) for the first time since 2018 after more buyers chased fewer spot tons at the domestic mills. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $40.44 per cwt ($808.80 per ton) on Tuesday December 1, up by 1.53% from $39.83 per cwt on Monday November 30 and an increase of...Read More
A summary of base metals premiums from across the globe for the week to Tuesday December 1.Read More
Ferrous scrap prices in the main Mexican domestic markets increased in the week ended Friday November 27, with some companies applying increases in order to secure supply amid low availability and steady demand.Early last week, at least one company in the region near the northern city of Monterrey applied price increases, and afterwards some scrap sellers were able to achieve higher deals with oth...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday December 1 that are worth another look.The mining industry must apply the correct cultural mindset to its operating principles in order to avoid any repeat of tragic events such as the destruction of one of Australia's...Read More
Now is not the time for Freeport-McMoRan to be thinking about mergers and acquisitions, the mining company's chief executive officer says.According to Richard Adkerson, the company - which is just over half-way through a mega-project to transform its giant Grasberg copper-gold mine in Indonesia from an open-pit to an underground operation - is on the verge of creating huge shareholder value."I jus...Read More
Plans for a London Metal Exchange spot trading platform have sparked intense debate within the aluminium industry. But opponents and supporters don't necessarily fall into the camps that one might expect. For starters, a decision by the LME not to change its futures contract, establish a new green aluminium contract or set thresholds to define what constitutes low-carbon metal is proving key in st...Read More
Sometimes it is better to let a situation speak for itself. Alcoa, Rio Tinto Aluminium, Novelis, Constellium, Arconic, Kaiser Aluminum, Tri-Arrows Aluminum, American Metal Chemical Corp, Hydro Extrusion North America, JW Aluminum, Real Alloy, Reynolds Consumer Products, Scepter, Silberline Manufacturing Co, Smelter Service Corp and Wagstaff. The US Aluminum Association, which represents more than...Read More
Joel Adams has joined the copper team at Trafigura, Fastmarkets understands.Adams had worked at Glencore in Switzerland since 2010, most recently as a senior trader for refined...Read More
The London Metal Exchange has appointed a new chairman to its LME Clear Ltd board after Richard Thornhill stepped down from the position, the exchange said on Monday November 30.Marco Strimer was appointed as chairman of the LME Clear board on Monday following Richard Thornhill's retirement after seven years at the role. Strimer has been a member of the LME Clear board since December 2013 and...Read More
Negotiations for first quarter 2021 supplies of aluminium to main Japanese ports (MJP) have begun and the quarterly premium is expected to settle significantly higher than 2020 levels.The first deal was concluded on November 30, at a premium of $125 per tonne cif MJP, for 6,000-9,000 tonnes of aluminium ingot in total for January-March delivery. While there are also offers out in the market from t...Read More
After being badly hit by Covid-19, chromium metal prices have started to rebound on transport disruptions and high production costs, adding to a more positive outlook for 2021. Fastmarkets' price assessment for chromium alumino-thermic 99% min, in-whs Rotterdam, was at $5,700-6,050 per tonne on Friday November 27, up by $200 per tonne (3.5%) from $5,500-5,850 per tonne a week earlier and rising fo...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month aluminium, copper and nickel prices extended their rallies on Tuesday December 1, setting new year-to-date highs in the final month of 2020 with a low dollar index continuing to provide tailwinds to the prices. Copper's three-month price rose for a sixth straight day on Tuesday at 5pm, up by 1.5% to $7,694.50 per tonne from Monday's closing price of $7,580 per...Read More
A 318,500,000 ounce deficit, in 2020?by Chris Marcus of Arcadia EconomicsIt was a wild day in the #silver market, with the price plunging on the opening in Asia, but then rallying almost the entire way back later in the day.To find out what happened, as well as what the Silver Institute is reporting about a possible $318.5 million ounce deficit in 2020, click to watch the video now! Read More
Iron ore seaborne prices stayed relatively stable on Tuesday December 1 due to less physical trading despite the rise in swaps, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $132.13 per tonne, up $0.50 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $131.90 per tonne, up $0.51 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $122.70 per tonne,down $0.42 per...Read More
The seaborne low-vol pulverized coal injection (PCI) price increased to $100 per tonne cfr China on tight supply, sources said, while several sources do not believe China's ban on Australian coal will be removed any time soon.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $101.97 per tonne, up $0.57 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $165.00 per tonne, down $0.03 per tonneHar...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: SHFE tailwind for LME pricesAs we are entering the traditional strong demand season, we expect Chinese aluminium demand to show further recovery, and we expect demand from existing end-user sectors, new infrastructure projects and the export sector to show some increases. As a result, we believe that S...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view, including an upgrade to our aluminium price forecasts.Aluminium: Price forecasts raisedWe correctly expected the macro reflationary theme to raise the prices for all base metals but, with it being the base metal with by far the weakest fundamentals, we had expected the price of aluminium to underperform relative...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.These include an increase in our copper mine disruption estimates, upgrades to our production outlook for Indonesian nickel pig iron (NPI), a smaller refined zinc surplus, and an upgrade to our zinc price forecasts.Aluminium: Big disconnect between price and fundamentalsAluminium has extended its uptrend on the London Metal...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. We also review our price forecasting accuracy for the second quarter 2020.Q2 2020 price forecast performance review According to the results of Fastmarkets' Apex for the second quarter of 2020 published this week, Fastmarkets' base metals research team was the second most accurate price forecaster for nickel (99.06%), lead...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:?EUR? Flat steel product prices in the United States moved largely in line with our expectations in October, although the increases slightly outpaced our projections. US hot-rolled coil prices averaged $655 per ton in October, exceeding our forecast price of $640 per...Read More