The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The recent announcement about Vale's resumption of operations in Brazil, along with new concerns about a slump in demand because of heavy rainfall in China, has resulted in the end of the iron ore price rally. There has also been pressure from tight steel spreads, with the operating margins for Chinese steel mills shrinking...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron ore prices climbed further last week and we expect the elevated levels to remain into the next month. In particular, further upside will come from blast furnace (BF) capacity, which was reduced in Europe, Japan and the United States and has now come back online after restrictions started to be removed. With Covid-19 spr...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron ore prices have shot up as market participants have judged the supply risks from Covid-19 higher at this point in time when there is already a tight seaborne market. Despite the efforts to ramp up, Vale is struggling to catch up with its pre-dam disaster export volumes and its slow recovery has only been hit further by...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron oreSentiment in the iron ore market continues to be dominated by concerns about supply disruptions in Brazil. Prices spiked above $100 per tonne after reports that there had been a recent surge of Covid-19 cases at Vale's three mines in Itabira. A...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

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices have fared relatively well over the past couple of months in the face of the threat from the Covid-19 pandemic.In grade-304 material, the most common grade of stainless steel, prices were down by about 5-7% since the turn of the year - not bad, when compared with the falls in prices of other assets so f...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Having first hit Asia during early 2020, the Covid-19 viral outbreak is now having an even bigger impact on European countries and the US. Widespread lockdown measures have been put in place on people and industry, and economic activity has slowed markedly.For now, stainless steel markets in Europe and the US are yet to show...Read More

The new issue of the Seamless OCTG & Linepipe Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers analysis of seamless OCTG and linepipe across international markets:Covid-19 underscores pipe outlookUnsurprisingly, the concern in the seamless pipe markets across the regions is the effect of the spread of Covid-19 on public health and econo...Read More

RAPAPORT... De Beers and Alrosa continued to see rock-bottom sales in June as buyers rejected the miners' high rough prices in favor of cheaper goods from smaller suppliers."[The major miners] want to hold on to prices, so people don't see any [incentive] to buy because it's difficult to sell and make money," a sightholder told Rapaport News. "[Manufacturers and dealers] are already sitting o...Read More

RAPAPORT... Luk Fook's revenue and profit fell in fiscal 2020 as the coronavirus and social unrest in Hong Kong hampered sales.Overall revenue for the Hong Kong-based jewelry retailer dropped 29% to HKD 11.23 billion ($1.45 billion) for the year ending March 31, it reported last week. Net profit plunged 42% to HKD 867.7 million ($112 million).The company's retail revenue in mainland China slid 28%...Read More

European steelmakers have been insisting on price rises for domestic hot-rolled coil despite demand remaining low, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday June 29.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was calculated at ?,?395.00 ($443.07) per tonne on Monday, up by ?,?1.25 per tonne from ?,?393.75 per tonne on June 26.Monday's index was...Read More

RAPAPORT... Pandemic or not, Chow Tai Fook has no intention of slowing its expansion into China, with plans to open approximately 450 stores on the mainland during the current fiscal year, managing director Kent Wong told Rapaport News. A vast majority of those new locations will be in tier-4 and tier-5 cities, which have population sizes of around 200,000 to 300,000, and are growing at a fas...Read More

The Turkish steel mills continued to shy away from deep-sea scrap purchases at the beginning of this week, expecting lower prices soon, sources said on Monday June 29.The mills in Turkey booked only two deep-sea cargoes last week, which totaled 67,500 tonnes.Producers have been keeping their deep-sea scrap purchases at a low level because of the limited demand and, therefore, falling prices for lo...Read More

Brazilian aluminium consumption was likely to show a two-digit percentage decrease in 2020 amid the restrictions enforced in the country to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the president of local aluminium association Abal, Milton Rego, told Fastmarkets on Friday June 26.The country consumed 1.49 million tonnes of aluminium products last year, according to data from Abal. But since the pandemic hit B...Read More

Russian miner Nornickel has reported another industrial incident in the Norilsk region of Siberia - an overflow at the Talnakh concentrator, which the company said on Sunday June 28 presents "no threat of waste leakage.""The company is cooperating with Russia's ecology watchdog Rosprirodnadzor and the ministry of emergency situations to monitor the situation and assess whether any damage has occur...Read More

Steady buying over the afternoon brought the three-month zinc price on the London Metal Exchange higher at the close of trading on Monday June 29, eradicating the metal's morning price weakness, while nickel futures topped gains despite minimal volume traded on the day. Zinc's outright price on the LME closed at $2,061.50 per tonne, climbing from an intraday low of $2,020 per tonne, while turnover...Read More

Huaxing alumina refinery, in Shanxi province of northern China, has closed one alumina production line following an equipment accident, several sources told Fastmarkets on Monday June 29. It could take 20-30 days to return the production line to full operation, removing around 50,000-80,000 tonnes of alumina supply from the Chinese domestic market over the period, according to market estimates. Hu...Read More

Poor physical aluminium market conditions have forced people to store excess metal, pushing total aluminium stocks on the London Metal Exchange to more than 1.6 million tonnes.Aluminium stocks rose by 2.9% last week, up for a seventh consecutive week, with inventories now sitting at their highest level since April 2017.Current on-warrant stock levels now stand at 1.6 million tonnes - 108% higher t...Read More

The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange consolidated higher during morning trading on Monday June 29, although it remained firmly below the $6,000 per tonne threshold. Copper's outright price on the LME was recently at $5,956.50 per tonne, up from a morning low of $5,924 per tonne, but firmly below the $6,000 per tonne threshold, despite spiking above the resistance level on Frid...Read More

Prices for domestic and imported merchant bar quality (MBQ) steel in the United States again remained flat this month while market participants reported that demand was rising, although only modestly in some locations. Fastmarkets' monthly price assessment for steel bar 2 x 2 x 1/4 -inch angle merchant products, fob mill US was $33.80 per hundredweight ($676 per short ton) on Friday June 26, unc...Read More