U.S. jewelers had great hope for 2020.  The 2019 end-of-year November-December holiday shopping season was strong, a trend that carried over to the January-February 2020 Valentine's Day selling period, when jewelry shoppers opened their wallets for their sweethearts.  Jewelry industry sales were up solidly by an estimated 7% in the first six weeks of 2020 through February 14, 2020 (...Read More

Turkish steel producers continued their deep-sea scrap purchases for late July and August shipments, although prices slipped back after spiking on Friday, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday July 6.A steel mill in the Iskenderun region booked a UK cargo, comprising 14,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $253 per tonne and 1,000 tonnes of shredded at $258 per tonne cfr late on Friday July 3. ...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The manager of a diamond unit in Surat, India, was arrested for allegedly breaching COVID-19 rules.Police say they found 26 employees working at a factory in the Katargam area of the city, which is in lockdown because of localized outbreak of coronavirus, according to a Times of India report.Municipal officers on a routine check reportedly found that the factory, at Gangotri Tower...Read More

The export market for flat steel products from the Commonwealth of Independent States was quiet during the week ended Monday July 6, on low trading activity.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil, export, fob Black Sea, CIS, was $400-415 per tonne on Monday, unchanged week on week.Both suppliers and buyers were inactive during the week, sources said."Everyone [in Turkey] se...Read More

Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesA strike would affect the mines of state copper company Codelco, as well as BHP's Escondida and Spence, and lithium producer SQM in the Antofagasta region. AES operates power generation plants at Nueva Tocopilla and Cochrane, as well as solar power plants, which only supply mining operations."We passed a regulated negotiation two m...Read More

The Shanghai Futures Exchange nickel price continued its gains on Monday July 6 after a strong performance last week, with positive macro sentiment supporting the price despite quiet spot demand, sources told Fastmarkets. SHFE's July nickel contract finished the day at 106,070 yuan ($15,022) per tonne, up by 1,170 yuan per tonne, or 1.12%, from 104,900 yuan per tonne on July 3. "It's a macro-...Read More

We are only a few days into the third quarter of 2020, but no benchmark premium has yet been set for the supply of aluminium ingots to Japan for the July-September period.Market participants remain at loggerheads, unable to agree on a fixed number for this quarter. This means that the MJP aluminium quarterly premium cannot yet be published by Fastmarkets.Typically, negotiations for the MJP quarter...Read More

Copper prices are poised to move above the $7,000-per-tonne level next year as the supply impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic last well beyond this year and the market enters a prolonged period of structural undersupply, the chief executive officer of Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) said. According to Benedikt Sobotka, around 700,000 tonnes of mined copper output has been lost to date due to disruptio...Read More

Zinc and lead miner Trevali has delayed the restart of its suspended Santander mine in Peru after more workers tested positive for Covid-19.Out of a total of 298 workers, 82 have now been infected according to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the company said on Friday July 3. The Canada-based miner halted mining and milling operations at the Santander...Read More

Freeport-McMoRan has beaten its revised copper sales target for the second quarter of this year by 8%, although its Cerro Verde and El Abra operations continue to operate in line with forecasts modified in April due to the Covid-19 pandemic.In April, the company amended its second-quarter copper sales forecast to 690 million lb or 313,000 tonnes. Before the pandemic, the company had forecast total...Read More

Brazilian vehicle manufacturers' association Anfavea recorded a 57.5% year-on-year decrease in production during June 2020, with plants still reopening from temporary idle periods while they readjusted to the fall in demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it said on Monday July 6.Output totaled 98,708 units in June, down from 233,150 units a year before. But it was up by 129% from 43,080 units produ...Read More

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) export slab prices remained unchanged over the week, with offers to foreign customers being limited because some mills were in no hurry to sell their allocations, sources said.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel slab, export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $370-375 per tonne on July 6, unchanged week on week.A large cargo of Russia-origin slab was, howev...Read More

Asian equities markets were stronger this morning, Monday July 6, and that has helped drive gains averaging 0.8% across the three-month base metals prices on London Metal Exchange.But the strength in markets is happening despite many headwinds with the out-of-control spread of Covid-19 in the United States and other parts of South America and while US-China relations are deteriorating.* Germany
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Domestic steel rebar prices in Russia's Central Federal District around Moscow were broadly stable in the week to Monday July 6, supported by good demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday July 6.Demand for rebar in the region was good over the assessment week, but still slower than last July, sources said."Volumes are healthy, construction is performing well, but we are still below the levels of...Read More

Domestic transaction prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe inched upward day on day on Monday July 6 with steelmakers insisting on further price rises, sources have told Fastmarkets."The mills are stubborn when it comes to price negotiations [and are] targeting higher prices. And the prices have been slowly moving up," a Northern European distributor said.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolle...Read More

Domestic sheet steel prices in Russia's Central Federal district around Moscow widened upward in the week to Monday July 6 due to higher offers from producers, although buying activity remained moderate, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday.Trading activity in the flat steel markets in the region was moderate because most buyers had enough material in stock. But producers remained bullish and intend...Read More

A deadly border clash which began in the cold and windy highlands of Ladakh, in northeastern Kashmir, has spilled over into steel trading between China and India.The market has been rife with chatter indicating that India will stop importing Chinese steel substrate, or that it will stop sending steel cargoes to Chinese buyers which had been actively purchasing India-origin hot-rolled coil (HRC) an...Read More

U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 40 points in pre-opening trade. Index futures were spurred by overnight strength in international equity markets. The Shanghai Composite Index was notably stronger, up 5.71% to a 30 month high of 3,332.88.Tesla added $69.34 to $1,275.41 after Deutsche Bank raised its target price from $900 to $1000.Harley Davidson (HOG...Read More

Brazilian ferrous scrap exports increased 1.7% in June, compared to the same month in 2019, due to lower domestic consumption that has lead to yards shipping more material to South Asia, data from the country's ministry of economy showed on Monday July 6.The country exported 76,649 tonnes of ferrous scrap last month, up from 75,344 tonnes a year before. Bangladesh, India and Pakistan were the main...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Judging by a recent webinar we conducted on Asian ferroalloys last week, many market participants believe the steel and steelmaking raw materials' world - outside of China - will record an 'L' shaped recovery, effectively failing to recover. With crude steel production outside of China falling close to a third in April and o...Read More