Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday November 12 that are worth another look.German steelmaker Salzgitter is to supply heavy steel plate for the Saint-Brieuc wind-power project off the French coast, the company said on November 12.Greenland-centerd commodity developer Bluejay Mining on...Read More
Prices for certain imported flat steel products rose in the United States, with increasing domestic prices and tight supplies making shipments from abroad competitive when they were available, market participants said.Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil, import, ddp Houston rose to $620-650 per short ton ($31-32.50 per hundredweight) on Wednesday November 11, up by 2.4% from $5...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly higher at the close of trading on Thursday November 12, with lead being the star performer and the rest of the complex showing smaller gains.The three-month price for the heavy metal showed a 1.3% increase from its closing price on Wednesday, to $1,899 per tonne on Thursday.Stock levels dipped by a further 300 tonnes on Thursday to 113,05...Read More
The London Metal Exchange's latest off-warrant stock data showed a net rise of 123,871 tonnes of material held outside the LME network over September, a rise of 7.3% from the prior month with aluminium stockpiles accounting for just under 87% of the total. Copper inventories made a marked descent after incremental rises over the summer. The data, released on Monday November 10, reported stock lev...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday November 12 that are worth another look.German steelmaker Salzgitter is to supply heavy steel plate for the Saint-Brieuc wind-power project off the French coast, the company said on November 12.Greenland-centerd commodity developer Bluejay Mining on...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
With China outperforming the rest of the world in its economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, the country has an increasing need to secure strategic materials and commodities, market participants told Fastmarkets.The disruptions to international trade amid all the headwinds derived from the Covid-19 pandemic have identified the vulnerabilities in the global supply chain. The nationwide and...Read More
It's been a tough year for the COMEX silver market, where there's been constant pressure on supply & deliveries, and now there's one bank that's...Andrew Maguire with Chris Marcus of Arcadia EconomicsIt's been a tough year for the COMEX silver market, where there's been constant pressure on supply and deliveries.But in this month's update, #AndrewMaguire of Kinesis Money reports that now there's o...Read More
It will be interesting to see what the sales will reach for the remainder of the year as the markets continue to be volatile with... by Steve St Angelo of SRSrocco ReportAnother week and another 1 million Silver Eagles were sold by the U.S. Mint. In the first ten days of November, sales of Silver Eagles are nearly six times higher than the total for November 2019. With premiums now down in th...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly higher at the close of trading on Thursday November 12, with lead being the star performer and the rest of the complex showing smaller gains.The three-month price for the heavy metal showed a 1.3% increase from its closing price on Wednesday, to $1,899 per tonne on Thursday.Stock levels dipped by a further 300 tonnes on Thursday to 113,05...Read More
The London Metal Exchange's latest off-warrant stock data showed a net rise of 123,871 tonnes of material held outside the LME network over September, a rise of 7.3% from the prior month with aluminium stockpiles accounting for just under 87% of the total. Copper inventories made a marked descent after incremental rises over the summer. The data, released on Monday November 10, reported stock lev...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices were down slightly on Thursday November 12 amid diminishing demand for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $123.74 per tonne, down $0.82 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $123.74 per tonne, down $1.26 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $114.41 per tonne, down $1 pe...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
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Flat product prices in the US moved largely in line with our expectations in October, posting impressive gains across the product range, and slightly exceeding our forecasts for coil products.Domestic hot-rolled coil prices averaged $722 per tonne in October, exceeding our forecast of $705 per tonne forecast price.Although w...Read More