The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The Covid-19 pandemic and the associated impacts on steel production, mining and manufacturing activity, end-use consumption, and trade and transportation continue to dominate ferro-alloy markets. US steel mills are operating at around 50% of capacity, with similarly low operating rates evident in Europe as well. Chinese ste...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Ultra-rare pink diamonds from the soon-to-close Argyle mine are expected to fetch $750,000 at auction in Australia.Rio Tinto's closure of the famed deposit in in Western Australia after 37 years is likely to boost demand and prices."This pink diamond is beyond rare and is in extremely high demand world-wide so we feel very privileged to see one a year but to have a few in the...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Tiffany & Co has reported encouraging signs of a recovery, with a rise in monthly worldwide net sales from May to July, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Retail sales in mainland China picked up in April and increased about 90 per cent in May, said the luxury jeweler in an earnings statement, and online sales more than doubled.   "Increased sales in mainland China and global...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The GIA could close its Antwerp lab with the loss of 51 jobs in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.Trades union bosses fear the premises in the Belgian city could become nothing more than a drop-off point for stones to be sent abroad."Apparently, over the past few months, they immediately forwarded incoming diamonds to the United States," Yves Toutenel, of ACV Transcom told the Provi...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In the year 2020 to date in late August, the Fastmarkets 62% Fe iron ore benchmark has powered along and reached six-year highs, supported by Chinese demand, and despite the global economic uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic. Iron ore demand has weakened almost everywhere except in China, where it has continued to...Read More

RAPAPORT... Rough trading does not incur India's new e-commerce tax, the country's Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) confirmed after meeting with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.India introduced the equalization levy on April 1 for all overseas e-commerce operators. The minister explained that the new tax applied only to digital consumer sales and not business-to-business...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.There has been an increasing bullishness in Chinese steel market sentiment recently, with rising post-Covid-19 optimism about the country's economy for the second half of 2020, especially after the government announced an infrastructure spending boost. Although we believe that high prices are justified, they remain far from...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 forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This year has come with several unexpected events which increased the bullish case for iron ore prices, while the Chinese government's spending on infrastructure is likely to boost iron ore demand and add upside support to prices. But supply disruptions and a demand surge which caused price spikes are now easing. We do not e...Read More

Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesDrilling hit 30.5m at 1.99% copper and 4.85% zinc (plus lead, silver and gold), as well as 10.6m at 4.15% copper and 8.Read More

Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesLos Andes said a court of appeals had granted a motion against the Servicio de Evaluación Ambiental (SEA), instructing the environmental evaluation service to conduct a public consultation process, before finalising the evaluation process of a permit - which had been announced in April - for upcoming drilling at Vizcachitas....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

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices are relatively stable this month, showing little change since our previous tracker. Such stability masks growing issues for stainless steelmakers, however, who are increasingly unable to pass on rising costs to consumers and are, thus, facing cuts to their margins.In general, this is due to an excess of...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices are on the increase in June. As far as this market is concerned, it appears as though the Covid-19 pandemic has had little impact so far, with prices on the most common grades of stainless steel just 2-4% lower than they were at the turn of the year in most markets.Even in Asia, a region often talked ab...Read More

U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 3 points in pre-opening trade.Tesla starts trading today on a five for one stock split basis.Apple starts trading today on a four for one stock split basis.Changes in content of the Dow Jones Industrial Average become effective today. Added to the Average are Amgen, Salesforce.co and Honeywell. Deleted from the Average...Read More

Seaborne prices for low-grade and high-grade manganese ore in China consolidated in the week to Friday August 28, with market participants awaiting direction from offers for October shipments and the release of the purchase price for September-delivery silico-manganese from Hebei Steel - China's second-largest steel mill - market sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' manganese ore index 37% Mn, ci...Read More

The active restocking activities among alloy smelters helped slow the falls in portside prices for both low- and high-grade manganese ore in China in the week to Friday August 28, market sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets' manganese ore port index, base 37% Mn, range 35-39%, fot Tianjin, China was 35.30 yuan ($5.14) per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on August 28 - equivalent to $4.40 per dmtu ex...Read More

A summary of miner-producer China Molybdenum Co's results for the six months of 2020, as released on Monday August 31.In brief Revenue for the company's mining and processing business totaled 9.1 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) in the first half of 2020, down by 4.86% year on year. ...Read More

A second deal for fourth-quarter aluminium ingot supply to main Japanese ports (MJP) was concluded at a premium of $83 per tonne cif MJP, market sources told Fastmarkets on Monday August 31.The deal was for 1,500-3,000 tonnes of aluminium ingot in total for October-December delivery, with 500-1,000 tonnes to be delivered each month. The premium is paid on top of the London Metal Exchange cash pric...Read More

Prices for carbon steel plate in the United States strengthened for the first time this year after mills announced that they would seek price increases.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel cut-to-length plate carbon grade, fob mill US climbed back to $26 per hundredweight ($520 per short ton) on Friday August 28 from $25 per cwt on August 21. The assessment had spent one week at $25 per...Read More