The price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange reached a new year-to-date high during trading on Wednesday March 17 at $2,246.50 per tonne, and tin's price had gone up by more than $700 per tonne at the close.The wider markets were awaiting direction from the a meeting later in the day of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the US Federal Reserve Bank.Tin's three-month price was $25,7...Read More

One day, it's all going to matter...by J. Johnson via JS MinesetGreat and Wonderful Tuesday Morning Folks, Gold is still in the green with the April contract at $1,732.20, up $3 and close to the high of $1,736 with the low at $1,724.40. Silver is giving the sell signal, with the trade at $26.155, down 13.3 cents and trading right by the low at $26.065 with the high at $26.405. The US D...Read More

Iron ore prices were slightly weaker on Wednesday March 17 amid limited trading activity, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $166.19 per tonne, down $0.13 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $166.27 per tonne, down $0.13 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $151.99 per tonne, down $0.73 per tonne65% Fe Brazil-origin fines,...Read More

RAPAPORT... US polished-diamond imports were flat year on year at $1.43 billion in January, reflecting an easing of the industry's slowdown that dominated 2020. The month was the first since February 2020 that didn't feature a notable year-on-year decline, according to Rapaport archives based on data from the US Commerce Department.US Trade Data for January 2021  Read More

RAPAPORT... US retail sales faltered in February as winter storms impacted consumers' ability to shop, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said.Revenues slipped 3% versus January's total, with major snowstorms hitting the country's northeast, and ice storms in the south cutting power in many locations, according to data the US Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Government stimulus checks, increased...Read More

Domestic prices for steel hot-rolled coil in Europe increased again over the week to Wednesday March 17, due to a shortage of material combined with solid demand, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?791.25 ($943.04) per tonne on Wednesday, down by just ?,?1.25 per tonne from ?,?792.50 per tonne on March 16...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A trader has been arrested on suspicion of diverting duty-free gold worth almost $14m back into India's domestic market.Preet Kumar Agarwal is accused of re-directing 250kg of gold after it had been formally cleared by airport Customs officers for export, thus evading tax. He was arrested last Thursday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.India's Enforcement...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A new website launched by CIBJO provides easy-to-understand definitions of natural and lab-grown diamonds to avoid confusion for anyone who buys, sells or handles them.The site at www.whatisadiamond.org defines a diamond as  a mineral consisting essentially of carbon that crystallises in the isometric (cubic) crystal system."It defines a synthetic diamond or laboratory-grown d...Read More

Key data from Fastmarkets' pricing session in Europe on Wednesday March 17. Key drivers Prompt supply in Europe is limited and spot demand is good, market sources said. Availability in Europe has been tight since the second half of last year because China has been importing large volumes of material amid a better demand outlook than in Europe. But weakening prices for substitute fer...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A lab-grown diamond company claims it's going beyond carbon neutrality, by creating gems that are carbon-negative. Ryan Shearman and Dan Wojno, co-founders of Aether Diamonds, based in New York, say their diamonds pull excess carbon from the atmosphere. As a result, every one they produce has a positive impact on the planet.They use a patent-pending technique called carbo...Read More

Prices for 300-series stainless scrap grades in the United States have continued to fall in the wake of a collapse in the nickel cash price on the London Metal Exchange early this month.The LME's nickel cash contract has dropped by 18.07% since hitting a more than six-year high of $19,689 per tonne ($8.93 per lb) on February 22. The price stood at $16,131 per tonne ($7.32 per lb) as of the officia...Read More

Fastmarkets has renamed its China alumina assessment as ex-works (exw) China, from delivered duty paid (ddp) China, effective Wednesday March 17.This corrects a labeling error that had been in place since the launch of the alumina metallurgical grade assessment in September 2006. Current and historical data reflects alumina metallurgical...Read More

The price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange reached a new year-to-date high during trading on Wednesday March 17 at $2,246.50 per tonne, and tin's price had gone up by more than $700 per tonne at the close.The wider markets were awaiting direction from the a meeting later in the day of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the US Federal Reserve Bank.Tin's three-month price was $25,7...Read More

Spot interest in secondary lead material has spiked after the outright price of lead softened from two weeks ago, causing lead premiums in India and South East Asia to rise on Tuesday March 16. London Metal Exchange lead price dropped 4.7% over the past two weeks, prompting buying interest.  Continuing supply shortages keep US lead premiums supported in the current range.  US zinc spot m...Read More

Premiums for commodity grade copper cathodes continued to trend lower in Shanghai in the week to Tuesday March 16, with the market there failing to meet expectations of a roaring post-holiday import boom, while in the United States storms in Texas have disrupted industry and could hamper demand. Worsening Shanghai arbitrage softens China import premiums Texas storms could limit spot demand in...Read More

London Metal Exchange tin surged the most on Wednesday March 17 morning, regaining ground it lost over the week while the rest of metals reversed losses from Tuesday ahead of the US Federal Reserve's statements.LME tin's three-month price rose to $25,560 per tonne on Wednesday morning, close to levels from last Friday when it closed at $25,600 per tonne. LME tin had been on a downfall until this m...Read More

Galvalume prices in the United States rose to a record high for a third month in a row, with consumers scrambling to find supply while production continues to lag demand."The Galvalume supply chain across the entire United States is stressed," a distributor said. "Inventory levels of consumers and distributors are at low levels; the domestic mills have not been able to catch up on past-due orders...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mainly firmer on Wednesday March 17, while on the Shanghai Futures Exchange they were weaker across the board.Broader markets were treading water ahead of this evening’s US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcements and press conference.* United States 10-year treasuries yields have firmed again to 1.63%* EU passenger car registrati...Read More

Severstal, one of the Russia's largest steel producers, expects that apparent steel use in the country will return to pre-Covid-19-pandemic levels in 2021, Maxim Semenovykh, the company's head of corporate strategy, said during Capital Markets Day last week.The company expects steel use in Russia to total 43.8 million tonnes compared with 43.6 million in 2019, before the onset of the pandemic. App...Read More

Export prices for steel billet from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) continued to fall amid a lack of trading activity in the week to Wednesday March 17.Customers took wait-and-see positions, expecting further drops in the prices for raw materials and finished long steel products.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey, was calcula...Read More