Austrian steelmaking group Voestalpine has been certified as a sustainable production site by the non-profit steel sustainability organization ResponsibleSteel, the steelmaker announced earlier this week.Part of the certification was to meet 200 criteria, including the responsible procurement of raw materials, reducing CO2 emissions and the management of labor and human rights. Certification requi...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday November 16 that are worth another look.The Chinese government is in discussions with multiple metal industry bodies on suspending the publication of data related to the country's progress in achieving its ambitions for "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality," sources have told Fastmarkets.The lower...Read More

Mexican ferrous scrap prices were stable for most grades, but sparse reports of price increases and higher-price deals were spotted in what could be the beginning of an uptrend in prices.At least one Mexican scrap buyer was heard applying slight increases for prime grade scrap, since the material supply was short. There were also reports of higher deals for some obsolete grades.But for most grades...Read More

General Motors (GM) plans to extend its control of the midstream processing chain in the next 18 months while it gets battery plants in the United States up and running, a senior company executive at the automotive manufacturer said.This is also part of a push by the automaker to create a greener supply chain via reduced movement of materials around the world, GM manager of energy environment and...Read More

Copper and aluminium London Metal Exchange prices closed lower on Tuesday November 16, with a stronger dollar pushing prices down.The aluminium three-month price closed at $2,574 per tonne on Tuesday, down from $2,657 per tonne at Monday's close.Market participants attributed the fall to a strong dollar, which makes buying metals using other currencies expensive and pushes demand...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday November 16 that are worth another look.The Chinese government is in discussions with multiple metal industry bodies on suspending the publication of data related to the country's progress in achieving its ambitions for "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality," sources have told Fastmarkets.The lower...Read More

Evergrande is on the brink of bankruptcy. Will gold prices collapse together with the real estate developer or benefit from its default?Generals are always prepared to fight the last war, while economists are always prepared to fight the last recession. But what if the next economic crisis doesn’t start in the US financial sector, but in China’s real estate?Naturally, I refer to Evergr...Read More

Lithium market participants have voiced concern about the ability to secure supply of industrial-grade lithium compounds due to an increasingly larger share of the market being taken up by the battery sector.With long-term contract negotiations for next year's supply unfolding, traditional industrial buyers spoke of surging demand from the battery sector globally and said they expect increasing pr...Read More

The gold miners’ latestquarterly earnings season will soon get underway, with their full Q3’21 resultsdue out by mid-November.  These fundamentalreports are invaluable to traders, revealing how companies are actually faringoperationally and financially.  Despite Fed-tighteningfears hammering gold and gold stocks last quarter, the miners are likely to collectivelyreport outsta...Read More

You see, there is all this noise out there. It comes mostly from inflationists touting gold in the same breath as copper, as oil, and as commodities of all flavors (and aside from gold and to a degree, silver, those flavors are cyclical).But you also see, gold is counter-cyclical in its best suit. You see on this monthly chart that gold has been forming its Handle to the bullish Cup ever since the...Read More

Kickingthe can down the road is the new national pastime. Every time the government’sbills come due, officials at the Treasury Department find creative ways ofpaying them with money they don’t have.Onemeasure of just how overextended the United States has become financially isthe debt to GDP ratio. For most of the country’s history, excluding temporarywartime blips, net general g...Read More

Inflation accelerated again in September, and gold prices (finally!) reacted positively. Bad news: the rally was short-lived.Unfortunately, I was right. One month ago, when commenting on the CPI readings for August, I wrote that inflation “doesn’t have to go away anytime soon” and that the economic developments suggest that “inflation isn’t disappearing just yet.&rdqu...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly trading down at 9am on Tuesday November 16 - with the exception of nickel, which was up by over $70 per tonne.Strength in the United States dollar weakened base metals prices, with the US Dollar Index opening the day at $95.53, the highest opening figure since July 21, 2020. The rally has come off slightly since Monday's highs of $95.60.T...Read More

“Gold going nowhere” seems to be a reasonable description of recent price action in the metals markets.Below is a daily chart of GLD for the past year… The price variation from the mid-point (170) of the price range (160-180) is only about 5 1/2 percent – either up or down.For those expecting bigger things, this might trigger some impatience. It might also be disappointin...Read More

What’s the price level exit for theblack gold?The new front month contract (as weswitched now to Dec’21) for WTI Crude Oil futures closed the week at $82 perbarrel on Friday (Oct. 15th).Fundamentally, nothing seems to be able to stop, in the short term, the surge incrude oil prices which continued to rise on Friday amid concerns over supply,since the WTI hit a new high in almost seven...Read More

Seaborne iron ore prices moved up slightly but overall market sentiment remains weak, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday November 16.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $90.04 per tonne, up $0.99 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $91.00 per tonne, up $0.74 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $63.07 per tonne, up $1.08 per tonne65% Fe Brazil-orig...Read More

Mining stocks were picked up byinvestors in the latest bullish wave. But these bad performers may be dumpedjust as quickly as they were bought.After the HUIIndex rallied back above the neckline of its bearish head &shoulders pattern, a new bull market for mining stocks has finally begun. Or has it? Well, after an identicaldevelopment occurred in 2000, the HUI Index soon invalidated the breakou...Read More

Spot prices for hot-rolled coil in China edged higher on Tuesday November 16, thanks to a short-lived rebound in futures prices.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,720-4,750 yuan ($740-745) per tonne, narrowing up by 20 yuan per tonneThe most-traded HRC contract the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed to an intraday high of 4,527 yuan per tonne on Tuesday, before reversing to register the third day...Read More

Abig week for precious metals markets as inflation pressures push consumer prices to painful new heights.OnThursday, the U.S. Labor Department reported that inflation at the wholesalelevel is up 8.6% from a year ago. That’s the steepest annual advance since thedata started being reported.Ofcourse, Americans who have shopped at a grocery store recently or tried to rentor buy a car don’t...Read More

Copper makes the headlines, but GYX has been bullish all along; gold awaits its time as the message from metals land is bullish, risk ‘on’ and cyclicalWhile copper went through its correction we have been noting each week in NFTRH that the Industrial Metals index, GYX had never aborted its bullish stance. Trends remained up and the index price held the SMA 50’s intermediate trend...Read More