The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.With nickel prices down by almost 20% over the space of around ten days during late February and early March, one might have been expecting us to be reporting sharply-lower prices of stainless steel, at least for the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel.This is not the case, at least in Europe and the Unite...Read More
Liberty Steel has resumed production at its UK special steel plant in Rotherham, the steelmaker said on Tuesday April 6.Operations at the plant were halted on March 12, the company said."We are grateful for the support from our customers and suppliers in enabling the restart and in supporting our self-help measures such as matching our current stock to customer orders and working with customers to...Read More
An explosion and then a fire erupted at continuous casting machine No2 at ArcelorMittal Italia on April 5, trade union USB said.No workers were injured during the incident, the union said. Market sources told Fastmarkets that ArcelorMittal claims the fire did not have an impact on production. The steelmaker did not reply to Fastmarkets' request for comment by the time of publication.European buyer...Read More
India's JSW Steel has beefed up its production capacity after confirming the purchase of the plate and coils division of fellow steelmaker Welspun Steel, the company has announced.The purchase agreement had been in place for two years before the rubberstamp came on Wednesday March 31, with Welspun announcing in April 2019 that it would sell the assets to JSW Steel subject to approval of the Compet...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday April 6 that are worth another look.The price spread between 62% Fe and 65% Fe iron ore fines reached a historical high in March as a result of various factors, according to market sources.Read More
Artisanal cobalt produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo and formalized by the Entreprise G?(C)n?(C)rale du Cobalt (EGC) can help fill a supply deficit created in the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs), according to EGC chief executive officer Jean-Dominique Takis. "We are all aware that the increase in demand for cobalt is directly linked to energy transition... We do not expect a substantial...Read More
Tesla delivered 184,800 electric vehicles (EV) in the first quarter of 2021 despite a shortage of computer chips that has crippled the global auto industry, the world's biggest EV maker said on Friday April 2.This is an increase of 23% compared to the 180,570 deliveries the company recorded in the fourth quarter of last year. The better-than-expected results were attributed to solid demand for the...Read More
Fastmarkets has corrected its weekly manganese ore 37% index, cif Tianjin and 44% index, cif Tianjin rationales, which were published incorrectly on Tuesday April 6 due to reporter error.The corrected rationales can be seen below:MB-MNO-0003: Manganese ore index 37% Mn, cif Tianjin, $/dmtuThe Fastmarkets manganese ore 37% index, cif Tianjin moved down by 8 cents to $4.61 per dry metric tonne (dmtu...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday April 6 that are worth another look.The price spread between 62% Fe and 65% Fe iron ore fines reached a historical high in March as a result of various factors, according to market sources.Read More
Proposed changes to the London Metal Exchange's market structure may actually have the opposite effect to its desired intention: destroying liquidity, not increasing it.Attention has been focused on the proposed permanent closure of the LME ring, the incentivization of electronic trade and changes to margin methodology, which were central issues in the exchange's recently closed discussion paper.B...Read More
The price spread between 62% Fe and 65% Fe iron ore fines reached a historical high in March as a result of various factors, according to market sources.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao was at $159.85 per tonne on Thursday March 25 while that for iron ore 65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qingdao was at $190.40 per tonne.The spread between the two indices rose to a historica...Read More
It is essential to stay focused on the prime fundamentals and the clear long-term case for the shiny metal. Numbers for...by Korbinian Koller via Midas Touch ConsultingResilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. In other words, toughness. Looking back over the last year, the world has experienced just such toughness. Unfortunately, this isn't over yet. Maybe it's even just the...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange came to its highest level in a month on Tuesday April 6, with a rise of 3%, while there were similar gains for copper and tin.Copper's intraday high reading was $9,104 per tonne, the highest level since it reached $9,145 per tonne on March 23. It followed a surge on its Chicago Mercantile Exchange price of 3.4% on Monday to $4.15 per tonne.&n...Read More
Proposed changes to the London Metal Exchange's market structure may actually have the opposite effect to its desired intention: destroying liquidity, not increasing it.Attention has been focused on the proposed permanent closure of the LME ring, the incentivization of electronic trade and changes to margin methodology, which were central issues in the exchange's recently closed discussion paper.B...Read More
London Metal Exchange futures prices for copper, nickel, zinc and tin started the week with gains on Tuesday April 6, following positive economic data released in the United States and China on Monday. Tin's three-month price jumped by 3.4% to $25,985 per tonne at 9am on Tuesday, the biggest increase in the complex, closely followed by zinc, which was up 2.7% to $2,858.50 per tonne from last Thurs...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.With nickel prices down by almost 20% over the space of around ten days during late February and early March, one might have been expecting us to be reporting sharply-lower prices of stainless steel, at least for the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel.This is not the case, at least in Europe and the Unite...Read More
Access our research platformsSign-in to our platforms to access our extensive research, our latest insight, data and analytics and to connect to our industry experts.Demand for copper — already on a rising trend — is arguably set to explode as the energy transition takes hold. In order to prevent structural deficits, unsustainably high prices and demand destruction, miners will have to...Read More
Access our research platformsSign-in to our platforms to access our extensive research, our latest insight, data and analytics and to connect to our industry experts.Copper will play a pivotal role in the energy transition. Aluminium may be an abundant and cheap competitor for electrification applications, but carbon footprint issues for primary metal may give copper the edge. Ultimately that poin...Read More
Access our research platformsSign-in to our platforms to access our extensive research, our latest insight, data and analytics and to connect to our industry experts.We enter 2021 with many mined commodity prices riding high after recovering from a dramatic pandemic-induced slump in H1 2020. But far from marking a new atmosphere of positivity, the new year brings new questions. How will Chinese po...Read More
Access our research platformsSign-in to our platforms to access our extensive research, our latest insight, data and analytics and to connect to our industry experts.As the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic began to bite, many observers confidently predicted that the end was nigh for global economic activity. Governments around the world closed their economies as the only tool available to li...Read More