Freeport-McMoRan has not yet reached a mutually acceptable agreement to develop a new copper smelter in Indonesia with a third-party, but commercial discussions have been taking place, the company said.In its first-quarter 2021 earnings on April 22, the US copper producer said that the smelter would be at an alternate location to other options on the table for the project.The company did not name...Read More

US copper producer Freeport-McMoRan said it expects production at its Indonesia unit to rise significantly in 2021 from year-ago levels, reaching around 1.3 billion pounds of copper, or 589,670 tonnes.In 2020, the company's Indonesia unit produced 809 million lbs, or 366,956 tonnes. The increase comes as the company transitions from open pit to underground mining at the giant Grasberg mine in Indo...Read More

RAPAPORT... Beyonc?(C) Knowles-Carter has chosen the Black industry professionals who will win a scholarship for a graduate gemologist degree from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).The performer selected Audriana Osborne and Shelton Bradford to receive The Beyonc?(C) Knowles-Carter x Lorraine Schwartz GIA Scholarship, the GIA said Tuesday. In their applications, the winners wrote abo...Read More

A lack of automotive demand in the UK - and across the rest of the world - has driven secondary aluminium prices in the country to a two-month low, Fastmarkets heard on Thursday April 22.The global shortage of semiconductor chips, which has led to a temporary halt in automotive production across the UK and Europe, has weakened demand for secondary aluminium, putting downward pressure on ingot pric...Read More

US copper producer Freeport-McMoRan said its Cerro Verde copper mine in Peru is expected to be back at pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels in 2022.This will see the mine, in which Freeport owns a 53.56% stake, return to around 400,000 tonnes of ore per day. During the first quarter of 2021, Cerro Verde's concentrator facilities exceeded planned milling rates and averaged 390,100 tonnes of ore per day. It...Read More

Fastmarkets wishes to inform customers that it will change the way it publishes its downloadable weekly base metal premiums table PDF effective June 1 as part of the transition to the Dashboard, its dynamic, real-time data and news delivery platform.We will continue to publish our global base metal wraps on a weekly basis, providing the informative context and market detail that customers are accu...Read More

Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States stayed above $70 per hundredweight for a second day in a row, with market participants warning that the price will continue to climb to new highs.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $70.28 per cwt ($1,405.60 per short ton) on Thursday April 22, down 0.35% from $70.53 per cwt on Wednesday April 21 but up 2.26% fro...Read More

Less than a month after the start of the April-June 2021 safeguard quota period for imports of steel materials into Europe, the quotas for a number of products have been either completely exhausted or almost filled.And in February this year, the European Commission started an investigation into the possible extension beyond June 30 this year of existing safeguard measures affecting 26 steel produc...Read More

Prices for steel reinforcing bar in the United States have remained stable, with market participants sharing mixed sentiments about the possibility of a looming upswing.Fastmarkets' weekly assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), fob mill US was steady at $41.75 per hundredweight ($835 per short ton) on Wednesday April 21, unchanged since March 10.US marketSome sources continued to hear marke...Read More

Huntsman Set to Expand Nickel Sulphide Discovery at CanegrassSPONSOREDhuntsman explorationBrazil has one of the world's worst COVID-19 outbreaks, and Cole revealed today that while OZ was working in areas that were less affected than other provinces, its workers were not immune.Read More

Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau will restart operations at its Arauc??ria unit, in the country's southern Paran?? state, after 6.5 years of downtime, the company said on Thursday April 22.Production will resume at a gradual pace, depending on domestic market developments, Gerdau said. Total crude steel capacity at the site is 420,000 tonnes per year, it added in a filing to Brazil's securities and exc...Read More

Turkish prices for hot-dipped galvanized (HDG) and pre-painted galvanized iron (PPGI), or color coated coil, were more or less stable in the week to Thursday April 22, while demand remained strong, sources told Fastmarkets.Most coated coil producers were fully booked until August, with some accepting orders for September production.Demand was strong in both the local and export markets because of...Read More

The steel billet and rebar market in Egypt remained slow this week amid the uncertainty surrounding the country's construction ban and a slow market because of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, sources said on Thursday April 22.All markets in most Muslim countries tend to slow down over Ramadan, which started on April 12 and will end around mid-May, due to reduced working hours.Market participant...Read More

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) has confirmed plans to resume hot-rolled coil production at its MMK Metalurji subsidiary in Turkey in the third quarter of 2021.The Iskenderun-based plant will restart HRC production in September 2021 after almost nine years of operating solely as a reroller."We have made a decision to go ahead with launching the hot end [and] we have started preparatory works...Read More

Hot-rolled coil (HRC) and cold-rolled coil (CRC) prices in Turkey kept increasing over the week to Thursday April 22, while producers have said they will start offering September-production material next week, sources told Fastmarkets.Demand was strong in the local and export markets for Turkish flat steel because of low stock levels, sources said.Global prices have also been increasing sharply as...Read More

Aluminium prices on the London Metal Exchange set fresh multi-year highs on Wednesday April 21, while copper and tin shied away from previous highs, and the rest remain rangebound this morning.* India reported 315,000 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday* Haven assets on the riseBase metalsLME three-month base metals prices were down across the board by an average of 0.4% this morning, but volume...Read More

A summary of Swedish state-owned iron-ore producer LKAB's financial results for the first quarter of 2021 ending March 31.In briefLKAB's production volumes were about the same as in the first quarter of 2020, while deliveries where slightly lower.Company has benefited from historically high spot price levels for iron ore during the period.Fastmarkets' iron ore index for 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao a...Read More

Danaher (DHR), an S&P 100 stock moved above $248.62 to an all-time high extending an intermediate uptrend.Visa (V), a Dow Jones Industrial Average stock moved above $248.62 to an all-time high extending an intermediate uptrend. AT&T (T), an S&P 100 stock moved above $31.81 and $30.99 resuming an intermediate uptrend.Pre-opening Comments for Thursday April 22ndU.S. equity index futures...Read More

The price of high-grade 65% Fe iron ore fines looks set to break through the $230-per-tonne-cfr-Qingdao price ceiling amid tight supply of seaborne cargoes and hefty mill margins, industry sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qingdao stood at $221.90 per tonne on Wednesday April 21, up 12.6% from $197.10 per tonne on April 1. The price spre...Read More

Prices for higher grades of steel scrap exported from Japan continued to increase over the past week, underpinned by a strong appetite in the domestic market, sources told Fastmarkets this week.Large blast furnace (BF) mills in the country have boosted their intake of scrap recently - heavy scrap (HS) in particular - putting pressure on buyers overseas to match local steelmaker buy prices.Key dome...Read More