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

This second part of our special “What To Expect In 2021” article highlights our proprietary Adaptive Dynamic Learning (ADL) price modeling system and is specifically authored to help you understand where trends, price rotations, and risks may set up throughout 2021.  In the first part of this article, we covered the ES, NQ, and INDU symbols – highlighting how each one of the...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday December 29 that are worth another look.Turkey's Ministry of Trade will start an anti-dumping investigation against hot-rolled coil imports from the European Union, Turkish sources told Fastmarkets on December 29.Fastmarkets' premium for the supply of aluminium...Read More

A summary of base metals premiums from across the globe for the week to Tuesday December 29.Please click...Read More

Export prices for long steel products from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) rose again during the week to Tuesday December 29 amid strong market fundamentals.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $650-670 per tonne on Tuesday, up by $20 from $630-650 per tonne a week earlier.Offers for Russia-origin re...Read More

Turkey's Ministry of Trade will start an anti-dumping investigation against hot-rolled coil imports from the European Union, Turkish sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday December 29.Turkey imported 1,132,907 tonnes of HRC under HS code 7208 in the first 10 months of 2020, down by 12.73% from 1,298,189 tonnes in the same period of 2019, according to the Turkish statistical Institute (T?oeI...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday December 29 that are worth another look.Turkey's Ministry of Trade will start an anti-dumping investigation against hot-rolled coil imports from the European Union, Turkish sources told Fastmarkets on December 29.Fastmarkets' premium for the supply of aluminium...Read More

Seaborne iron ore prices declined again on Tuesday December 29 due to the cold wave in China suppressing operations at ports and leading to weakened steel demand, sources said. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $163.02 per tonne,down $0.83 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $163.50 per tonne,down $1 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $152.15 p...Read More

The CME Group's cash-settled cobalt futures contract, which is tied to Fastmarkets' daily benchmark price assessment for the metal, was traded for the first time on Monday December 28. One lot was traded for each month of the first quarter of 2021 at $15.60 per lb. These are the first three lots to be traded since the contract's launch on December 14.The contract, traded under the Bloomberg ticker...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Prices of stainless steel are generally set to reach highs for the year as 2020 comes to a close. For the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel, this upward trend is being driven above all by rising nickel prices, which themselves are hitting relatively high levels into the end of 2020.The price increases si...Read More

The three-month tin price on the London Metal Exchange reached a new 2020 high, while zinc's forward price saw a 2% slump and the rest of the base metals were mixed at the 5pm close on Tuesday December 29.Tin's three-month price hit $20,410 per tonne, overtaking the previous high of $20,245 per tonne on December 18.The price retreated slightly to $20,386.50 per tonne at the close, a gain of 1% fro...Read More

Fastmarkets' premium for the supply of aluminium to main Japanese ports (MJP) in the first quarter of 2021 has settled at $130 per tonne, its highest since the third quarter of 2018.The latest aluminium P1020A (MJP) quarterly premium, cif Japan is on top of the London Metal Exchange cash price and for January-March delivery. The premium is up 47.7% from $88 per tonne in the fourth quarter of 2020....Read More

RAPAPORT... Graff subsidiary Safdico has purchased a substantial number of shares in Lucapa Diamond Company, as part of the miner's bid to raise money for the expansion of its Mothae deposit.Lucapa shareholders approved the sale of 6% of company stock to diamond manufacturer Safdico for AUD 2.7 million ($2.1 million) at its general meeting December 17. In total, Lucapa aimed to raise approximately...Read More

RAPAPORT... The diamond industry underwent rapid changes in 2020 as the coronavirus swept through the world and devastated economies. The much-read Rapaport Weekly Market Comment kept up with the news, narrating the state of the trade while the situation developed at high speed.In the first quarter, this included the virus's shift from an epidemic in China to a major pandemic that shut down r...Read More

(IDEX Online) -  Members of the Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), in Mumbai, voted yesterday, as expected, to allow the trading of lab-growns.The managing committee of the world's largest bourse will now draw up strict guidelines to keep natural and lab-grown diamonds (LGD) separated and is likely to set aside a dedicated LGD office. No date has been set for the new policy to be implemented.T...Read More

Chile is set to reach its peak total copper production in 2028 at 7.35 million tonnes, a 26.9% increase from 5.79 million tonnes in 2019, the country's copper commission, Cochilco, said in its 2020-2031 outlook on Tuesday December 29.Output will start to retract from 2028 on due to depletion to reach 7.09 million tonnes in 2031, with an average growth of 1.7% per year from 2020 until then, the com...Read More

Base metals futures prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed on Tuesday December 29 morning, with slight gains for copper and nickel but decreases for aluminium and zinc with uncertainty still looming over the United States' coronavirus stimulus checks.LME zinc's three-month price recorded the biggest loss on Tuesday morning, dropping by 1.7% to $2,793.50 per tonne from $2,842.50 per tonne o...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Alrosa says it will maintain its "prudent sales strategy" to safeguard the sustainability of the whole diamond pipeline.Sergey Ivanov, CEO, (pictured) was addressing expectations for 2021 and beyond at an end-of-year meeting with banks and financial institutions, held online because of travel restrictions.He said the Russian state-owned company was chasing prices and profit rather...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A restaurant in Colombia is selling gold-plated burgers to boost business during the pandemic.Toro McCoy, in the capital Bogota, is wrapping its standard $11 double beef, cheese and bacon burger in 24k gold foil and charging diners $59 for the privilege.Chef Maria Paula told news media it was a tough job to apply the edible gold leaf without damaging it, before it melted on the bur...Read More

A summary of China's battery raw materials imports for November 2020.In briefChina's imports of cobalt intermediates dropped on a monthly basis, but still sat at a relatively high level for the year. Import appetite has been strong since the second quarter, with a majority of smelters operating with low inventories of feedstock following persistent supply disruptions since April. China's imports o...Read More

A summary of China's battery raw materials exports for November 2020.In brief China's cobalt metal exports fell to a single digit, recording the lowest level since June 2016. Export appetites have been relatively thin due to a stronger domestic Chinese market and sluggish overseas demand amid the Covid-19 pandemic fallout.China's lithium carbonate exports decreased in November both on a monthly an...Read More