The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The price for steel scrap in China has risen recently, amid high mill operating rates and at a time of heavy rain, but it remains at a premium to hot metal, we estimate. Heavy rains in China tend to increase the moisture content of iron ore stockpiles, which can cause issues during the sintering process, and this may have en...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Trading activity at a minimumWelded pipe trading activity has been slow globally over July 2020, and while the holiday-period slowdown is partly to blame in several countries, disruptions to projects caused by the Covid-19 pandemic were obviously the main cause. In this context, substrate costs were driving much of the prici...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Global markets for coated steel continue to run at different speeds with regards to pricing at the start of the summer season in the northern hemisphere. In Asia, prices continue to rise although, as we note in our Asia analysis this month, much of this is merely cost inflation with steelmakers passing on higher substrate cos...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:Numerous ore and alloy markets enjoyed upward pricing momentum in the first half 2020, with supply-side constraints supporting prices despite collapsing demand from steelmakers and other key end users. While supply side issues related to Covid-19 lockdowns have been resolved,...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Heavy rains in China, which can negatively affect iron ore supplies and pig iron production, and bolster demand for scrap, continued in July 2020. Although this was more an upside risk to our bearish base case one month ago, Chinese scrap prices remained strong. The firm prices gained support from the rains and from a more g...Read More
The latest forecast from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.As we enter the summer season across the northern hemisphere, almost half a year has passed since the Covid-19 pandemic began to seriously affect Europe and the United States.One would not really be able to tell that such a dramatic event had occurred by looking at stainless steel prices, however, because they are more or less...Read More
RAPAPORT... The killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in May and the subsequent protests split US society in a way that few other events have. While companies in all sectors have increasingly engaged in corporate activism in recent years, the latest debate over race has prompted countless brands to weigh in on the issue.Yet for jewelers, it's not so simple. They have seen how even th...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucara Diamond Corp. reported a loss for the second quarter amid weaker demand and a planned halt on regular tenders of large stones from its Karowe mine.The company recorded a net loss of $13.9 million for the period ending June 30, compared with a profit of $700,000 during the same period the year before, the company said Monday. Revenue from the Botswana deposit plunged 82% yea...Read More
RAPAPORT... Consumers are showing strong interest in buying diamonds for their loved ones this holiday season, seeing a need to give something special following an uncertain year, according to a survey by De Beers.In the US, almost 60% of men said they planned to buy their significant other a diamond for the festive season, while nearly a third of women expressed an intention to purchase diam...Read More
The three-month price of lead on the London Metal Exchange was the standout performer at the close of trading on Tuesday August 11, climbing by 3% and breaking past nearby resistance, while a continued uptick in producer inflation from the US further supported buying momentum in the afternoon.Lead's outright price on the LME closed at $1,960.50 per tonne on Tuesday afternoon, recovering from an in...Read More
(IDEX Online) - There is light at the end of the tunnel for the diamond industry, says WFDB acting president Yoram Dvash.COVID-19 has become a fact of life, he tells members in a newsletter, but there is cause for optimism.Mr Dvash (pictured) heads the World Federation of Diamond Bourses and is also president of the Israel Diamond Exchange.He praises the two biggest diamond miners, Alrosa an...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa has recovered a 236-carat, intense-yellow-brown diamond, the largest natural colored diamond found in Russia.The stone, which the miner recovered from its Ebelyakh deposit in Yakutia, is an estimated 120 million to 230 million years old, Alrosa said last week. The company's United Selling Organization unit is currently studying and evaluating the diamond to decide whether it wil...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Canadian miner Mountain Province Diamonds plunged into the red, reporting Q2 losses of $21.8m as COVID-19 brought demand to a virtual halt.But as the pandemic closed markets, globally, a "vital liquidity lifeline" negotiated with shareholder Dunebridge Worldwide allowed it to carry on selling.Almost all its sales ($22.6m out of ?, ?25m) were to Dunebridge, the Bahamas-registered co...Read More
Domestic prices for ferrous scrap in Italy moved down slightly in the month to Tuesday August 11, with demand for the raw material reduced by scheduled maintenance outages during the month.Most Italian steel producers stopped production for summer maintenance work in August, but some have changed their schedules this year and planned shorter stoppages with demand recovering from the Covid-19-relat...Read More
Zinc premiums in Singapore and Malaysia have dropped to their lowest annual level - and since Fastmarkets began assessing the market - while stocks begin to pile up in regional warehouses, trading sources said.Fastmarkets assessed the zinc SHG 99.995% ingot premium, fca Singapore at $85-95 per tonne on Tuesday August 11, down from $90-100 per tonne the week previously and $100-110 per tonne at the...Read More
The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange was slightly lower during morning trading on Tuesday August 11, after failing to close above the psychological level of $6,400 per tonne on Monday, while the forward curve has tightened over the day. Copper's outright price on the LME was recently trading at $6,371.50 per tonne, 0.4% lower than Monday's closing price of $6,396.50 per tonne....Read More
The dip in base metals prices at the end of last week was a one-day wonder for copper and aluminium after prices for both metals rebounded yesterday, while consolidation has set in again this morning, Tuesday August 11, and the other metals continue to consolidate too.Asian-Pacific equities and pre-market western equity index futures were upbeat this morning. But gold prices are down by 0.9% at $2...Read More
Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesThe company said it was the first drill programme made possible in nearly 20 years at Warintza, where the Equinox Gold spin-out is aiming to expand the Warintza Central zone, discovered by the late David Lowell in 2000. The first hole returned 567m from 1m, grading 0.8% copper, 0.04% molybdenum and 0.1g/t gold.Artemis all set...Read More
Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesThe project was suspended in mid-March as a preventative measure in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teck vice president Amparo Cornejo told a Chilean mining forum on Monday the company was working closely with local authorities and hoped to reach full staffing levels at the project within three months, Reuters reported.Arte...Read More
Improving end-market demand has pushed the price of hot-rolled coil in the United States back above $23 per hundredweight, Fastmarkets has learned. Fastmarkets' daily hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $23.08 per hundredweight ($461.60 per ton) on Tuesday August 11, an increase of 0.9% from $22.87 on Monday August 10 and up 1.9% from $22.64 per cwt one...Read More