Prices for shredded steel scrap imported into India and Pakistan have risen on active purchasing that tailed off toward the end of the week, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday June 18.Fastmarkets' steel scrap shredded, index, import, cfr Nhava Sheva, India, was $533.93 per tonne on June 18, up from $516.47 per tonne on June 11.Offers heard this week were in the range of $520-540 per tonne cfr, whi...Read More
Brazilian slab export prices remained stable as buyers and sellers held their ground in negotiations for August-shipment batches amid high flat steel prices and raw material costs.Fastmarkets assessed the price for steel slab export, fob main port Brazil unchanged for the second consecutive week at $980-1,000 per tonne on Friday June 18.Sellers were holding offers at $1,000 per tonne fob to t...Read More
The EU member states have voted in favor of the proposed extension of the safeguard measures on imports of steel products, market sources told Fastmarkets on Friday June 18.The vote was supported by 17 member states, the sources said.The European Commission had not released an official statement at the time of publication.On June 11, the Commission sent a draft proposal to the World Trade Organiza...Read More
Prices for steel billet imported to China and Southeast Asia were largely unchanged during the week to Friday June 18, with bids falling but deals heard propping up prices across the week.Chinese buyers dropped their bid prices to $660-670 per tonne cfr China towards the end of this week, from $690 per tonne cfr on Monday, amid a downtrend in ferrous futures markets.Offers for Indonesia-origin 3sp...Read More
Gold had a remarkable 2020, gaining 22% for the calendar year on a “perfect storm” of factors, namely:Torrid safe haven demand driven by fear of the coronavirus and its economic fallout;Record-low sovereign bond yields, with many countries’ bonds actually offering negative returns. There is a strong correlation between the gold price and low yields, particularly the benchmark US...Read More
The US GDP has already recovered from the pandemic recession. What’s next for the economy and the gold market?Ladies and Gentlemen, the economic crisis has ended. Actually, not only is the recession over but so is the recovery! This is at least what the recent GDP readings are indicating. As the chart below shows, the US nominal GDP has already jumped above the pre-pandemic level . The real...Read More
European passenger car registrations in May 2021 increased by 53.4% year-on-year, yet remained significantly below the level seen two years ago in May 2019, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said on Thursday June 17."In May 2021, passenger car registrations in the EU rose [to] 891,665 units. Nevertheless, last month's result is still far below the 1.2 million cars that were...Read More
The EU member states have voted in favor of the proposed extension of the safeguard measures on imports of steel products, market sources told Fastmarkets on Friday June 18.The vote was supported by 17 member states, the sources said.The European Commission had not released an official statement at the time of publication.On June 11, the Commission sent a draft proposal to the World Trade Organiza...Read More
China has started cautioning state-owned enterprises (SOEs) regarding overdependence on imported commodities and overexposure in commodity-based financial derivatives, market sources told Fastmarkets this week.In the past few days, there had been rampant market chatter the country's State-owned Assets Supervision & Administration Commission (Sasac) asking SOEs to report their positions in commodit...Read More
Brazilian apparent steel consumption soared by 83% year on year in May, according to figures from national steel institute, A??o Brasil.Apparent steel use reached 2.50 million tonnes in May compared with 1.37 million tonnes in the same month in 2020, the institute said on Thursday June 17.Consumption of flat-steel products rose 98.90% to 1.45 million tonnes from 730,000 tonnes in the same comparis...Read More
Brazilian slab export prices remained stable as buyers and sellers held their ground in negotiations for August-shipment batches amid high flat steel prices and raw material costs.Fastmarkets assessed the price for steel slab export, fob main port Brazil unchanged for the second consecutive week at $980-1,000 per tonne on Friday June 18.Sellers were holding offers at $1,000 per tonne fob to t...Read More
This article has been deprecated due to an external error The newest Fed’s statement and dot-plot indicated a much more hawkish tone among the FOMC members than the markets expected, and gold dropped. On Wednesday (June 16, 2021), the FOMC has published its newest statement on monetary policy . The statement was barely changed. The main alteration is that the Fed has ceased saying that &ldqu...Read More
Prices for flat-rolled steel products imported into South America increased in the week ended Friday June 18 amid reports of higher freight rates and more expensive deals.Demand for August-shipment material was steady, and close to levels seen in previous months, according to market participants. But clients were still uneasy due to the possibility of tax changes in China.Most sources were expecti...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in China's domestic market edged higher on Friday June 18, while export prices fell as overseas buyers became more cautious due to the potential imposition of export taxes.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,500-5,530 yuan ($853-858) per tonne, up by 20-30 yuan per tonne.Northern China (Tangshan): weekly assessment: 5,450-5,480 yuan per tonne, down by 90-100 yuan per tonne.S...Read More
An overview of the new energy materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Susan Zou, Yingchi Yang and...Read More
Joe Deplorable just got sucker punched in the gut, again. And silver? Let's just say...(by Half Dollar) Step aside all you stinkin' worthless Deplorable Fathers because there's a brand new holiday that we're going to be celebrating instead this weekend, so happy Juneteenth National Independence Day, America!Ugh.Joe Deplorable is so far beyond totally screwed.Then there's the real power of the peop...Read More
A shortage of shredded scrap is squeezing major supplier markets and pushing up the prices of key grades in the world's export markets, sources told Fastmarkets this week.Lower inflows to scrapyards and stronger demand for key grades in the major supplier nations have made it much harder for overseas consumers to secure shredded scrap over the past month.The lack of available shredded scrap, combi...Read More
China has started cautioning state-owned enterprises (SOEs) regarding overdependence on imported commodities and overexposure in commodity-based financial derivatives, market sources told Fastmarkets this week.In the past few days, there had been rampant market chatter the country's State-owned Assets Supervision & Administration Commission (Sasac) asking SOEs to report their positions in commodit...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in China's domestic market edged higher on Friday June 18, while export prices fell as overseas buyers became more cautious due to the potential imposition of export taxes.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,500-5,530 yuan ($853-858) per tonne, up by 20-30 yuan per tonne.Northern China (Tangshan): weekly assessment: 5,450-5,480 yuan per tonne, down by 90-100 yuan per tonne.S...Read More
All base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were lower on Friday June 18 than at the start of the week, by an average of 5.6%, brought down by a mixture of macroeconomic factors that have stifled the complex's recent bullish run.The decline across the complex to Friday was led by copper's fall on the LME, down by 8.3% on Friday to $9,135 per tonne from Monday's closing price of $9,971.50 p...Read More