Precious metals are among the best places to park your money in times of economic or political distress. Gold and silver offer stability during a period of extreme stock market volatility and low bond yields, and while they do not pay interest or dividends, they are not subject to inflation like paper currencies. It is also, in my opinion, a smart strategy to allocate a portion of gold a...Read More

A strategy to cool down commodity price spikes was top of the agenda China's weekly State Cabinet meeting on Wednesday May 19. Chaired by China's second most powerful politician, Premier Li Keqiang, the cabinet meeting discussed control measures to rein in the "unreasonable price rally", including ensuring sufficient supplies of main commodities. The aim is to prevent the rising costs pa...Read More

First Quantum Minerals has entered into a binding agreement to sell a 30% equity interest in the Ravensthorpe nickel-cobalt operation in Western Australia to South Korean steelmaker Posco for $240 million in cash, the company said on May 19.The Vancouver, Canada-headquartered company will retain a 70% interest in Ravensthorpe and continue to be the operator.Posco and First Quantum have also agreed...Read More

The world will need more than twice the amount of copper that it used in past three decades if it is to hit Paris Climate Agreement targets in the next 30 years, BHP's chief executive officer, Mike Henry said this week.Speaking at the Bank of America Metals, Mining & Steel conference on Tuesday May 18, Henry said demand for nickel will quadruple over the same timeframe.He added that meet...Read More

China's new tax regime for ferrous raw materials and steel exports will kick off a new era for the steel sector, one in which demand and supply will become more balanced and the country cuts its dependency on iron ore at a faster pace. Chinese authorities announced last week that, from May 1, import duties for metallics and semi-finished steel would be removed and that export duties for raw materi...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 Shanghai Futures Exchange's plans to list ferro-chrome futures, potentially this year, will bring welcomed hedging opportunities and may weaken the dominance of China's stainless steel mills in the ore and alloy markets, participants told Fastmarkets.While no definite date or specifications of the ferro-chrome futures have been announced, Fastmarkets asked participants what changes these contr...Read More

The situation with Silver due to Basel 3 is unique...by Korbinian Koller via Midas Touch ConsultingBasel 3, a voluntary regulatory framework to stress test central banks worldwide, requires banks to hold a percentage of assets back to deleverage their lendings. On June 28th, a new regulation will be set in place that disvalues unallocated gold paper contracts held against lendings. At the same tim...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Recent weeks have largely been a repetition of the weeks leading up to our previous tracker in mid-April. A flurry of price increases have been announced, and largely obtained, by leading steelmakers in both Europe and the United States while buyers struggle to secure spot tonnages.Although steel output is rising in both reg...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:Unprecedentedly high flat steel product pricing in the United States was forecast to persist through the current quarter and well into the second half of 2021.Actual US hot-rolled coil prices in April slightly outpaced our forecasts, with Fastmarkets' US HRC index ave...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The upward momentum in United States' flat product prices is yet to show any signs of slowing, with US HRC prices hitting new record highs during April. Steel supply is forecast to remain short of demand due to no improvement in underlying supply and demand fundamentals, which is propelling US flat product prices higher...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Market conditions are clearly extraordinary when we find ourselves adjusting the axis on our pricing charts to display the new record-high prices each month.After reporting record price highs in Europe and the United States with regards to coated steel products, we find ourselves repeating the same line this month. In Europe,...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR?  Impressive advances in ore and alloy prices persisted in March, with most markets posting significant price gains. Strengthening demand from steelmakers along with supply shortages and depleted inventories in numerous markets, as well as freight and transportation...Read More

Inner Mongolia, China's ferro-chrome production heartland, has imposed restrictions on its metallurgical sector in a move that has fueled the high-carbon ferro-chrome markets in China and Europe, and although this may ease off, the gains were unlikely to be lost while alloy ramp-ups continue, sources have told Fastmarkets.The decision to restrict energy consumption in Inner Mongolia since December...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices and margins for stainless steel producers have risen notably over the past few months in both Europe and the United States, but there are now signs that the rally is petering out.A clear reason for the halt to rising prices comes from the near 20% drop in nickel prices seen in late February/early March,...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

The growing market for electric vehicles is likely to see increased pressure for nickel, a critical component for the nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) batteries used in EVs, Ken Hoffman, senior expert at McKinsey's Basic Materials Institute, said during The Northern Miner's Global Mining Symposium in May.In an interview with Frik Els, executive editor of MINING.com, Hoffman said that sales of EVs rea...Read More

For months, human traffickers beat and drugged Blessing, hauling the 27-year-old from one gold mine encampment to the next, where each night she was forced to sleep with dozens of men for less than $2 a person.The madam who lured Blessing to the landlocked West African nation of Burkina Faso with promises of a hair salon job, threatened to kill her if she tried to run away."Nobody comes to your re...Read More

SECACO, Burkina Faso (AP) - For months, human traffickers beat and drugged Blessing,...Read full newsRead More

SECACO, Burkina Faso (AP) - For months, human traffickers beat and drugged Blessing,...Read full newsRead More