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
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Key ferro-alloy forecast highlights for the coming months:?EUR? A strong recovery in both bulk and noble alloys is expected in 2021 but the markets are unlikely to return to the levels seen before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. We have seen a quicker-than-expected recovery across various regions amid the economic fal...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Prices for most ferro-alloys maintained their upward momentum into October, solidifying previous gains and reflecting the improved demand from steelmakers, the rebuilding of depleted inventories, and the supply-side concerns following both planned and unplanned outages. Gains were noted for ferro-silicon, silicon metal, mang...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloys forecast highlights:Prices across most ore and alloy markets trended higher in September, buoyed by improving demand from steelmakers with the end of the summer holiday season in Europe and the United States, as well as maintained demand from Chinese steel mills. Tightening of alloy inventories...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Fastmarkets analysts were invited to present our outlook for the coking coal market at Coaltrans Asia, held online on November 23-25. One of the key topics at the event was the trade tensions between China and Australia, which overtook Mongolia to become the largest coking coal exporter to China this year...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron ore remains the most bullish commodity of the year, with prices fuelled by Chinese demand and supply disruptions in Brazil, along with bullish sentiment. But prices are expected to come down because Brazilian exports have begun to recover, and have reached their highest level since the Brumadinho dam disaster in 2019. W...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In the iron ore market, supply issues including heavy rains at the start of the year, followed by staffing problems during the Covid-19 pandemic, have affected exports from Brazil. This has helped Australia gain a larger market share, but since June, Brazilian export volumes have returned to levels last seen before the...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Chinese blast furnace (BF) utilization rates have stagnated and iron ore port stock volumes are rising, reaching their highest levels since March, which suggests that iron ore supply is becoming excessive while demand is not growing. Unsurprisingly, prices dropped last week and we expect the trend to continue. The market has...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.We spoke in our previous tracker of stainless steel prices ending 2020 on a high. That trend has continued during early 2021 and, in fact, the upward rally in prices has increased its momentum.Compared with the monthly price increase of some 5% seen at the end of 2020, prices for grade-304 stainless steel in al...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 latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.While much commentary has been written about Asian economies performing far better than those elsewhere this year during the global Covid-19 pandemic, it is stainless steel markets in Europe and the United States that are ending the year in better shape than their Asian counterparts.We do not talk of demand levels or demand g...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.While a world leader in many areas, the United States is a relatively small player when it comes to stainless steel. It produces a small amount of material, both in absolute and relative terms (i.e. compared to the size of its population), while a large share of its industry is in the hands of bigger European companies. Never...Read More
The frenzy of buying activity in silver, attributed to a group of retail investors using the Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets and other social media sites, is waning.The silver surge - which began on January 27 and saw the price of the industrial metal soar to an eight-year high of more than $30 per oz before slipping to just below $27 per oz by Tuesday January 2 - followed a phenomenal upswell in th...Read More
Cynthia Carroll has been appointed an independent non-executive director of Glencore plc, according to a statement on the company's website on Tuesday Fenruary 2. Her appointment takes effect immediately.Carroll was chief executive officer of Anglo American from March 2007 until April 2013, and in 2015 she became chair of Vedanta Resources.She started her career as an exploration geologist with Am...Read More
United States President Joe Biden reinstated aluminium tariffs on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) less than two weeks after they were removed, which has convinced some participants that President Biden will keep the broader Section 232 tariff program in place."Since the tariff on aluminium imports was imposed, such imports substantially decreased, including a 25% reduction from the UAE, and domesti...Read More
RAPAPORT... Kendra Scott has left her position as CEO of her namesake jewelry brand after nearly two decades, and will instead focus on the design and consumer elements of the business.Scott will continue as executive chairwoman, majority owner, and leader of design, customer experience and philanthropy, the company said Monday. Tom Nolan, president of the company, will succeed her as head of the...Read More
RAPAPORT... A sharp rise in silver prices over the past week has shocked the jewelry industry and raised concerns that consumers will steer clear of the precious metal until the volatility ends.Prices have jumped around 9% since last Wednesday, according to Silverprice.org.The hike is thought to be a result of posts on the Reddit social-media platform encouraging amateur traders to bet on ass...Read More
RAPAPORT... The decline in Hong Kong retail sales deepened in December as the resurgence of Covid-19 cases and the continued ban on tourism weighed on the market.Retail sales of jewelry, watches, clocks and valuable gifts plummeted 41% to HKD 3.09 billion ($399 million) for the month, according to data Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department released Tuesday. Sales across all retail categorie...Read More
RAPAPORT... Firestone Diamonds will keep its Liqhobong mine closed as it works with its bondholders to restructure its debt and continues to test market prices for its rough.The miner has reached an agreement with Absa, one of its lenders, to allow it to defer repayment of its debt until September 2021, Firestone said Tuesday. The company is still in discussions with other bondholders about a long...Read More
The London Metal Exchange tin price continued its uptrend by setting a new 2021 high and a historic $1,510-per-tonne backwardation on its benchmark spread, while the rest of the base metals complex closed on a mixed tone on Tuesday February 2. Tin's three-month price kept up its unabated rise on Tuesday despite a rising dollar, with the fundamentals for the metal superseding macroeconomic concerns...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds emerged from 2020 as one of the few miners to record revenue growth, benefiting from a sharp recovery in prices and sales during the second half.Sales rose 4% to $189.2 million for the year, the company reported Tuesday in a trading update. The average price jumped 17% to $1,908 per carat, outweighing an 11% decline in sales volume to 99,172 carats.Gem Diamonds had fe...Read More