Most Turkish flat steel prices hit a monthly peak on June 12, following feedstock prices, before edging back down when buyers concluded their procurement activity, market participants told Fastmarkets on Thursday July 2. Turkish flat steel producers are fully booked until mid-September. Feedstock scrap prices fluctuated in June. Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), U...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday July 6 that are worth another look.A deadly border clash which began in the cold and windy highlands of Ladakh, in northeastern Kashmir, has spilled over into steel trading between China and India.China's infrastructure spending has aided the steel market's recovery from the effects of Covid-19 shutdowns and is very likely to facili...Read More
Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) has predicted an impending collapse of a portion of its Nchanga open-pit copper mine in Zambia after a series of geotechnical assessments found some slope instability.Preliminary indications have shown that the slough, or caving in of ground, will be confined to a stretch of around 350 meters, the Zambian copper producer said, putting the estimated area and volume of the...Read More
Seaborne manganese ore prices continued to face pressure last week against a backdrop of falling portside ore prices, weak alloy futures contracts, and lower-than-expected tender price for July-delivery silico-manganese from Hebei Steel, China's second largest steel mill. Fastmarkets' manganese ore index, 37% Mn, cif Tianjin tumbled to $4.21 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on July 3, down by...Read More
The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was the standout performer at the close of trading on Monday July 6, with turnover at its highest since June 2, while copper futures similarly found momentum over the afternoon, closing above nearby resistance.Nickel's underlying price on the LME closed at $13,336 per tonne on Monday afternoon, climbing from an intraday low of $12,985 per t...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday July 6 that are worth another look.A deadly border clash which began in the cold and windy highlands of Ladakh, in northeastern Kashmir, has spilled over into steel trading between China and India.China's infrastructure spending has aided the steel market's recovery from the effects of Covid-19 shutdowns and is very likely to facili...Read More
The London Metal Exchange is looking for ways to boost its options market, which has been struggling for some years to replicate the growth seen in the same sector among its peers.The exchange has launched a consultation, scheduled to end on July 29, on developing electronic options via a new trading platform while retaining its current inter-office options trading structure.Items up for discussio...Read More
The mining industry does a huge amount of good for local communities, to say nothing of its essential contribution to society through the materials it produces. Unfortunately, it all too often manages to give itself a bad name, worsening negative perceptions of the sector through accidents, spills and a failure to act as a steward of the environments in which it operates. In the past month alone,...Read More
The threat of Section 232 tariffs on aluminium imports from Canada into the United States has, like the great white shark following the Brody family in the universally panned film, 'Jaws: The Revenge,' returned - akin to a truly awful horror movie franchise. And that's how Neil Herrington, senior vice president for the Americas, US Chamber of Commerce, views reports that the US administration is c...Read More
The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was the standout performer at the close of trading on Monday July 6, with turnover at its highest since June 2, while copper futures similarly found momentum over the afternoon, closing above nearby resistance.Nickel's underlying price on the LME closed at $13,336 per tonne on Monday afternoon, climbing from an intraday low of $12,985 per t...Read More
This could finally be silver's week to shine. Here's why... I'd like to share two random thoughts in no particular order of importance.Because that's what you'll get when scanning the mainstream media to start the week: Randomness.That is to say, we've got stock market parties in China and the US because apparently, everything is awesome again, we've got the Covid-19 'second wave' full court press...Read More
Iron ore prices rose again on Monday July 6 amid active trading in the seaborne and futures markets. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $101.24 per tonne, up $0.59 per tonne. 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $103.99 per tonne, up $0.99 per tonne. 58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $89.81 per tonne, up $0.26 per tonne. 65% Fe Brazil-ori...Read More
Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices edged down on Monday July 6, with no transactions heard and market sentiment turning negative. Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $114.03 per tonne, down $0.57 per tonne Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $125.42 per tonne, down $0.08 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $93.33 per tonne, up $0.50 per tonneHard...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Capped by oversupplyA lack of a meaningful supply adjustment to the Covid-19 demand hit is keeping the aluminium physical market oversupplied and weighing on prices, limiting the success of more buoyant macro and technical forces on prices. Our premium forecasts are under review in light of threats from the U...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Poised for a technical breakoutFears over a second wave of Covid-19 continue to grow, forcing prices of aluminium and the other base metals to take a pause. Our base-case scenario is that countries will respond more efficiently to contain the virus spread, so economic activity and metal demand should continue to r...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Demand outlook revisedWe are not surprised to see aluminium prices retreat from last week's high after flagging up in recent reports that they had become overbought. 'Sell-the-rally' traders will be targeting the April high now, down at $1,534 per tonne. This week we have reviewed our aluminium demand forecasts fo...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Short-term upside targets achievedLME aluminium's price recovery to $1,600 per tonne has been driven by macro forces acting on all metals, and amplified for aluminium by technical factors after prices became so oversold at the double-bottom lows in April and May. With a 4-million-tonne supply surplus this year, al...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The latest forecast of global oil country tubular goods (OCTG) consumption paints a stark picture of the slowdown in demand from the energy industry in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent oil and gas retreat.For 2020, total global consumption is expected to amount to 13.2 million tonnes, a decline of nearly 3.5...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Depending on which market one looks at, prices of coated steels have either risen, fallen or remained roughly the same since mid-May. One crucial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic that has swept the world this year is the decoupling it appears to have created between global steel markets.In China, prices of most steel products...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.US prices continue to hold Seamless oil country tubular goods (OCTG) and line pipe prices remained unchanged for the third straight month in June, and we expect them to remain stable through the summer before edging higher on the back of a measured rise in drilling rates.The lack of price movement in recent months does not i...Read More