Spoofing does not even help a little, to support the case for price-suppression...by Keith Weiner of Monetary-MetalsThere was a big drop in the price of silver last Wednesday. Then the price moved up, and down, but mostly up. Let's look at a graph of the silver price and basis showing Sep 30 through Oct 5, with intraday resolution.Let's take a look:It's remarkable how the basis tracks the price,...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

Marex Spectron has appointed Philip Price as head of ferrous metals trading, a new role for the global commodities specialist, the company said on Wednesday October 7. Price, who joined the company on September 28, 2020, will be charged with building Marex Spectron's market making and trading infrastructure for its ferrous metals derivatives. After having previously...Read More

With less than one month remaining before the presidential election in the United States, Fastmarkets takes a look at how the two main candidates' platforms could affect the mineral markets.On November 3, the US will go to the polls to choose between incumbent President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden. Both candidates have proposed a number of new policies which could shake up the mineral ma...Read More

The three-month price of copper on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Wednesday October 7, up by just over 2% during the afternoon trading session, while doubts over an economic recovery package in the United States have put little pressure on a broadly positive LME base metals complex.Copper's outright price on the LME closed at $6,679 per tonne on Wednesday afternoon...Read More

A summary of London Metal Exchange warrant premiums from across the globe for the week to Wednesday October 7.Please click...Read More

London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices, except tin, ticked up during the morning on Wednesday October 10 despite news that United States President Donald Trump will not hold long-awaited fiscal stimulus talks with US Democrats until after the Presidential election on November 3.Discussions regarding the proposed US $2.2 trillion relief bill are ongoing, revised down from the original...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.Although we correctly forecast a significant rise in hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices in the United States in September 2020, our price forecast proved too conservative.An impressive V-shaped recovery in key economic fundamentals critical to steel consumption is driving stronger demand for steel at the start of the fourth quarte...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Across the regions, producers of welded linepipe and oil-country tubular goods (OCTG) saw their margins shrink with substrate costs increasing in the third quarter of 2020.Many have been attempting to protect margins with higher prices, with varying degrees of success. Europe-origin commodity-grade steel hot-rolled coil and...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.While steel markets in Asia have demonstrated the most strength with regards to pricing through much of 2020, recent weeks have seen prices in Europe and the United States outperform those elsewhere.In a way, much of this is simply catching up on the gains already made by Asian steelmakers. They were able to obtain higher pri...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.US flat-rolled prices began to recover in August, as we expected. The monthly average of our daily HRC index hit $473 per ton ($521/tonne), which was $3/t above our forecast.The upward momentum has since continued and has done so more quickly than we expected - sentiment has turned around dramatically on fundamental developm...Read More

RAPAPORT... Diamonds Do Good will hand out $150,000 in grants to support members of the industry who most need assistance with maintaining their programs, it said Tuesday.The nonprofit, which helps develop diamond communities and empower local citizens in those areas, will distribute money to the Flaviana Matata Foundation, which supports education, entrepreneurship, youth empowerment and hig...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloys forecast highlights:Prices across most ore and alloy markets trended higher in September, buoyed by improving demand from steelmakers with the end of the summer holiday season in Europe and the United States, as well as maintained demand from Chinese steel mills. Tightening of alloy inventories...Read More

RAPAPORT... More than half of consumers plan to treat themselves and others to luxury products this year during the holidays, feeling that indulgence is important at this time, according to a survey by Accenture.This comes despite the fact that two out of every five shoppers intended to spend less for the seasonal period than they did last year, the professional services company noted in its 14th...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:Prices across most ferro-alloy markets trended stable to lower in August as demand remained subdued in major markets, apart from China where steel output continues to rise at a rapid pace, supporting demand for ferro-alloys. As alloy makers seek to remedy supply/demand imbalan...Read More

RAPAPORT... Petra Diamonds has resolved its contract issues with South African workers following a strike threat stemming from a failure to reach a pay agreement.The miner has signed a one-year deal with employees who are members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Petra said Tuesday. The company will make a one-time bonus payment of ZAR 5,000 ($302) and an increase of 5.5% for the year to...Read More