RAPAPORT... De Beers is allowing rough-diamond customers to skip all purchases at next week's sight, as shutdowns of manufacturing and retail markets have led to minimal demand.The sight will be the second consecutive sale at which the miner has allowed clients to push their allocations to later in the year. Appetite for rough is at rock bottom as the trade seeks to avoid taking on unsellable...Read More
Indian steel mills are unlikely to cut domestic hot rolled coil prices for sales in May, private mill sources in the country told Fastmarkets this week."We are likely to continue with current prices for the next month,," an official from a private sector mill said, "[because] any reduction in prices will [lead to] a big loss to our dealers and distributors."Fastmarkets' price assessment...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Bharat Diamond Week is going digital after organizers were forced to cancel the physical event, scheduled for August, because of coronavirus. Buyers and sellers at the "diamond-only" show will be able to meet on a secure digital platform. The Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB) canceled the three-day event because of travel restrictions but says it wanted to provide the industry with a muc...Read More
The Russian Steel Association has called for equal access to the country's railway infrastructure so that its members can export goods to eastern destinations, according to a local news report published earlier this week.Russian Steel unites the country's largest mining and steel companies.It filed an appeal to Russia's first deputy prime minister, Andrei Belousov, asking him to ensure that there...Read More
Latin American steel group Ternium expects to delay the start-up of some projects in order to preserve cash during the Covid-19 pandemic.The company will delay start-up of a hot-rolling mill in Pesquer?-a, a northeastern Mexican city near Monterrey, Mexico, to April 2021.The company previously planned a fourth-quarter 2020 launch of the new hot-rolling mill, which is designed to hav...Read More
RAPAPORT... India's polishing revenues will plummet to their lowest in a decade this year, as prices have dropped and inventory has built up, a credit agency has warned.Diamond sales will decline up to 32%, to $13 billion to $15 billion, in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, India-based Crisil Ratings estimated Tuesday. This compares to approximately $19 billion in the fiscal year...Read More
Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesThe company said it received more than 320 orders, which equated to demand in excess of $10 billion, the highest ever for a Codelco bond, some 13-times oversubscribed.Read More
Artemis all set thanks to unique approachSPONSOREDartemis resourcesCopper production fell by 9% year on year in Q1 to 293,000t, with volumes from the company's African assets down 29% year on year.Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market was almost silent again on Thursday April 30, with mills expecting even lower prices, sources told Fastmarkets.Overall demand for deep-sea scrap remains poor because of lower steel output and weak demand for finished steel, due to the measures put in place to curb the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak.At least six steelmakers have halted produc...Read More
Prices in the seaborne iron ore market continued to gain ground on Thursday April 30, in line with higher futures curves for steel rebar, but trading activity in the seaborne and Chinese portside markets slowed down before China's Labor Day holiday on May 1.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $84.04 per tonne, up by $1.54 per tonne.62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $86.70 p...Read More
Buying activity for ferrous scrap cargoes imported into South Korea has increased over the past week, with steelmakers looking to acquire Japanese material, market sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 30.South Korean scrap demand has not held up over recent months. The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic across the country has seriously reduced high-grade steel demand and even led to major produ...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices dropped slightly day on day on Thursday April 30, one day before the five-day Chinese Labor Day holiday, Fastmarkets heard.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $107.12 per tonne, down $0.18 per tonne Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $117.33 per tonne, down $1.17 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $93.26 per tonne, down $1.75 per tonneHard coki...Read More
Base metals prices and global equity indices were holding up in high ground this morning, Thursday April 30, helped by the US Federal Open Market Committee’s message of continued support, an expansion in manufacturing activity at China’s larger factories, a stronger oil price and because state-sponsored inventory buying in China bodes well for the metals. * Asian-Pacific and pre-market m...Read More
Prices for ferrous scrap imports into Bangladesh declined over the past week with buying activity held back by high stocks of material as well as the start of the Islamic celebration of Ramadan, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 30.Prices in the Bangladesh market had been strong since the start of April, with higher offer prices from the US West Coast due to the low supply of material, to...Read More
China's domestic hot-rolled coil prices edged up on Thursday April 30, with sentiment lifted by news that the country's manufacturing activity continued to grow in April.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,270-3,300 yuan ($462-466) per tonne, widening upward by 20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tangshan): 3,240-3,250 yuan per tonne, widening upward by 10 yuan per tonneA Shanghai-based trader said p...Read More
The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange held on to support above $5,200 per tonne during morning trading on Thursday April 30, while a fresh cancellation of 10,000 tonnes did little to support aluminium futures prices. The LME three-month copper price was recently at $5,251.50 per tonne, but has traded as high as $5,294.50 per tonne over the morning, while turnover remained thin...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices increased slightly on Thursday April 30 on rising futures following the release of the latest steel purchasing managers' index (PMI).Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,410-3,440 yuan ($481-486) per tonne, up by 10 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Beijing) - weekly assessment: 3,390-3,440 yuan per tonne, down by 30 yuan per tonne from last FridayChina's steel PMI for Ap...Read More
U.S. equity index futures moved lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 13 points in pre-opening trade. Index futures were virtually unchanged following release of economic news at 8:30 AM EDT. Consensus for March Personal Spending was a drop of 5.0% versus a gain of 0.2% in February. Actual was a drop of 7.5%. Consensus for March Personal Income was a drop of 1.5% versus a gain of 0.6%...Read More
Base metals prices and global equity indices were holding up in high ground this morning, Thursday April 30, helped by the US Federal Open Market Committee's message of continued support, an expansion in manufacturing activity at China's larger factories, a stronger oil price and because state-sponsored inventory buying in China bodes well for the metals. Asian-Pacific and pre-market major western...Read More
Demand for Umicore's products dropped significantly in the first quarter of 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the producer anticipates global automotive production to slump by 25% this year. The "coronavirus-induced recession" is "significantly affecting demand in cobalt and specialty materials and precious metals chemistry," the Belgium-headquartered technology company said in its results sta...Read More