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
Oat futures' recent surge to 7-year highs wasn't caused by the oat milk craze; think "market psychology" instead Generally speaking, the idea of oats is about as exciting as, well, a bowl of steel cut oatmeal. But this chart of oat futures shows why this ordinarily ordinary grain has stolen the commodity spotlight. For starters, February 2021 saw oat prices soar to their highest level in 7 years....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
During the 1970's, the U.S. experienced adecade of below-trend economic growth combined with rising interest rates – andeventually – massively higher gold and silver prices.Some sectors boomed while others lagged,and then as now, the majority of the population struggled with rising home andcommodity prices, bookmarked by lofty interest rates.This stilted and challenging environmen...Read More
As you well know the PM complex has been trading at a very important inflection point for the last month or so looking for the next important move either up or down. I can make a case today for either direction but the Chartology is strongly suggesting the next important move is going to be to the downside. In the very short term, days to maybe a week or so we could see some backtesting to many im...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR?In a strong start to the year, January saw ore and alloy pricing gains across all markets priced by Fastmarkets - with the exception of Chinese silicon metal export prices, which retreated slightly last month after posting impressive gains in December 2020.The combination...Read More
As financial markets sold off this week, preciousmetals got dragged down in the selling. The culprit, once again, was risingbond yields.On Thursday, the 10-year Treasury climbed above 1.5%. While still low on ahistorical range, the upside momentum has investors concerned. Over the pastseven months, the 10-year yield has tripled from a low of just 52 basis points. The 10-year note serves as a bench...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Key ferro-alloy forecast highlights for the coming months:?EUR? A strong recovery in both bulk and noble alloys is expected in 2021 but the markets are unlikely to return to the levels seen before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. We have seen a quicker-than-expected recovery across various regions amid the economic fal...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Fastmarkets analysts were invited to present our outlook for the coking coal market at Coaltrans Asia, held online on November 23-25. One of the key topics at the event was the trade tensions between China and Australia, which overtook Mongolia to become the largest coking coal exporter to China this year...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron ore remains the most bullish commodity of the year, with prices fuelled by Chinese demand and supply disruptions in Brazil, along with bullish sentiment. But prices are expected to come down because Brazilian exports have begun to recover, and have reached their highest level since the Brumadinho dam disaster in 2019. W...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In the iron ore market, supply issues including heavy rains at the start of the year, followed by staffing problems during the Covid-19 pandemic, have affected exports from Brazil. This has helped Australia gain a larger market share, but since June, Brazilian export volumes have returned to levels last seen before the...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Chinese blast furnace (BF) utilization rates have stagnated and iron ore port stock volumes are rising, reaching their highest levels since March, which suggests that iron ore supply is becoming excessive while demand is not growing. Unsurprisingly, prices dropped last week and we expect the trend to continue. The market has...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 latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.We spoke in our previous tracker of stainless steel prices ending 2020 on a high. That trend has continued during early 2021 and, in fact, the upward rally in prices has increased its momentum.Compared with the monthly price increase of some 5% seen at the end of 2020, prices for grade-304 stainless steel in al...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Prices of stainless steel are generally set to reach highs for the year as 2020 comes to a close. For the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel, this upward trend is being driven above all by rising nickel prices, which themselves are hitting relatively high levels into the end of 2020.The price increases si...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.While much commentary has been written about Asian economies performing far better than those elsewhere this year during the global Covid-19 pandemic, it is stainless steel markets in Europe and the United States that are ending the year in better shape than their Asian counterparts.We do not talk of demand levels or demand g...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gemfields brought in $58.9 million at its first auction of rough rubies in more than a year, expressing optimism as operations at its Mozambique mine gradually resumed.The miner held seven small sales of high-, medium- and commercial-quality goods between March 15 and April 8, noting on Thursday that its last ruby auction had been in December 2019. Viewings took place in Bang...Read More
RAPAPORT... The US government has placed sanctions on an important state-owned gemstone company in Myanmar, its latest attempt to deprive the military of funding.American businesses may no longer transact with Myanma Gems Enterprise (MGE), an entity "responsible for all gemstone activities" in the country, the US Treasury Department said Thursday. A subdivision of Myanmar's Ministry of Mines,...Read More
RAPAPORT... Pandora's revenue increased in the first quarter, even as more than one-third of its stores remain shut due to Covid-19 restrictions.The company's sales rose 13% on an organic basis to DKK 4.5 billion ($719.3 million) versus the same quarter in 2020, the jeweler said last week. Like-for-like sales grew 21% year on year. Sales for the three months ending March 31, 2020, were impacted by...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa's sales grew last month as manufacturers continued to restock inventory amid rising consumer demand in the US and China."Jewelry sales results at key markets, including the US and China, indicate persistently high demand from end consumers," said Alrosa deputy CEO Evgeny Agureev. "Alrosa retains its commitment to a prudent sales strategy, aimed at keeping the industry balance th...Read More