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... Michael Hill's sales rose in the third fiscal quarter as robust e-commerce growth compensated for store closures in Australia and Canada.Group revenue climbed 12% to AUD 118.5 million ($91.5 million) in the three months ending March 31, the jeweler reported last week. During the quarter, the company was forced to close 72 stores in Australia, 16 in New Zealand and 46 in Canada temporar...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sotheby's garnered $53.9 million from its Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels auction, with two bracelets stealing the show.A diamond and rock-crystal bracelet by Cartier, featuring a pear-shaped, 63.66-carat, D-color, internally flawless diamond, brought in $6 million, Sotheby's said Wednesday. The piece, which took nearly 2,000 hours to create, was originally estimated to fetch up to $8.4 m...Read More
Market sentiment in the European hot-rolled coil segment has remained bullish so far this week, with buyers struggling to secure volumes from both domestic and overseas suppliers, sources told Fastmarkets in Wednesday April 21. Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at ?,?956.25 ($1,151.90) per tonne on Wednesday, up by ?,?2.50 per tonne fr...Read More
RAPAPORT... Revenue at Lucapa Diamond Company soared in the first three months of the year as the miner benefited from a rebound in the rough market.Sales from the company's Lulo mine in Angola increased 22% year on year to $9.5 million for the quarter ending March 31, Lucapa said Monday. An 89% surge in sales volume to 5,313 carats outweighed a 35% drop in the average price to $1,796 per car...Read More
RAPAPORT... Kering's jewelry and watch divisions grew strongly in the first quarter amid a market recovery in the North America and Asia-Pacific regions.Revenue from the company's "other houses" segment, which includes jewelry and watches, rose 29% year on year to EUR 714.3 million ($857.8 million) for the three months ending March 31, the company said Tuesday."The jewelry houses achieved an excel...Read More
RAPAPORT... India's polished-diamond exports more than doubled year on year in March, reflecting a release of pent-up demand and a favorable comparison with the start of the coronavirus crisis in 2020. Shipments stood at $2.16 billion for the month, up from $965 million a year earlier, according to data the country's Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) released in recent days...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Diamond manufacturers in Surat fear another exodus of migrant workers, as India suffers a second wave of coronavirus. The industry was crippled last March when as many as half its 750,000 artisans returned to their villages in Gujurat and beyond. The number of Covid cases across India is higher than ever. The daily average of new infections over the last week is 249...Read More
Prices for steel hollow sections in Europe moved higher on Wednesday April 21 because feedstock costs were continuing to climb, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel sections (medium), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was ?,?1,050-1,120 ($1,265-1,349) per tonne on April 21, up from ?,?950-1,050 per tonne on April 14."Prices have increased very quickly and aggressivel...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The biggest diamond ever auctioned in Australia has sold for a record USD $870,000.The square emerald-cut diamond weighing 25.02 carats (pictured) went to an absentee bidder at the Leonard Joel Important Jewels auction in Sydney yesterday.It just about broke the million dollar (AUD) barrier. The hammer price was AUD $900,000, but the buyer's premium and GST (goods and services...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Chinese police have seized diamonds worth over $6.1m and arrested 20 people suspected of smuggling them onto the mainland through Hong Kong.The customs' anti-smuggling bureau say 84 loose diamonds, 252 diamond items and more than 100 packages of smaller diamonds were hidden among goods being imported to the country.Officers believe gang members have been buying gems from...Read More
Bipartisan legislation intended to increase transparency in aluminium pricing has been reintroduced into the United States House of Representatives, a move welcomed by the country's consumer trade associations.If it is eventually approved, the legislation would provide the US regulator, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), with a clear mandate to conduct oversight of price reporting...Read More
American Zinc Products (AZP), a wholly owned subsidiary of American Zinc Recycling (AZR), has expanded its product range to include continuous-galvanizing-grade (CGG) zinc, the company said on Tuesday April 20.The company has completed two industrial-scale trials to produce CGG zinc, a zinc-aluminium alloy. The initial trial volume is seeing favorable market acceptance and cleared the way for...Read More
Tin premiums rose again in the week to Tuesday April 20 to new all-time highs in all regions as a result of the constrained supply situation that the tin market is facing globally, together with increased demand.Most premiums assessed by Fastmarkets in the United States, Europe and Taiwan were now around or above $1,000 per tonne, with deals in the US at more than $2,000 per tonne becoming common....Read More
Spot trading of zinc ingots in Taiwan was more active in the two weeks to Tuesday April 20, in contrast to other markets around the world where minimal activity kept premiums stable. Both London Metal Exchange zinc and lead spreads were in contango. LME's on-warrant lead stocks dropped by 5,125 tonnes from a week ago to 93,825 tonnes on Wednesday, while it was little changed in zinc. U...Read More
A summary of BHP's copper and nickel production review for the nine months to March 31, 2021, as released on Wednesday April 21.In brief Total BHP copper production decreased by 6% year on year because of the substantial reduction in operational workforce at the company's Chilean assets due to the continued effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company expects the reduced workforce to...Read More