The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.As we approach the end of the first half of 2021, steel markets in Europe and the United States continue to heat up. This six-month period is largely unprecedented, with both steel prices and steelmakers' margins hitting a number of new record highs throughout.The rally is likely nearing its end, however, with global steel ou...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:?EUR? US sheet prices hit record highs again in May, with upward momentum persisting into June. Actual US hot-rolled coil prices averaged $1,553 per ton in May, largely in line with our forecast of $1,540 per ton. Prices remain supported by strong underlying sup...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.United States sheet prices hit record highs again in May, with upward momentum carrying into June. Actual US HRC prices averaged $1,712 per tonne in May, largely in line with our forecast of $1,698 per tonne. Strong underlying supply-and-demand conditions both in the US and globally are supporting prices as well as long lead...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Global welded pipe prices surged in May as strong demand and still-insufficient supply lifted flat steel prices.The biggest jumps were seen in China, which was hit by the unexpected announcement of the elimination of export rebates on welded pipes in April. Chinese seaborne prices reached $1,570 per tonne fob for longitudina...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Bulk ferro-alloy prices have shown impressive gains again this month, with ferro-silicon, silicon metal and manganese alloy prices all making significant increases. Noble alloy markets also enjoyed upward momentum, with both vanadium and molybdenum prices rising sharply.Recovering demand from steelmakers globally, together w...Read More
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
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
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
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 is ready to view.Recent weeks have brought two key developments with regard to trade policy on stainless steel products that will be to the detriment of consumers.In China, the country's stainless steelmakers no longer enjoy a 13% export rebate as of May 1, reducing greatly their incentive to export and instead leading them to focus on supply...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices and margins for stainless steel producers have risen notably over the past few months in both Europe and the United States, but there are now signs that the rally is petering out.A clear reason for the halt to rising prices comes from the near 20% drop in nickel prices seen in late February/early March,...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
RAPAPORT... De Beers' rough sales reached a three-month high at its June cycle as retail demand remained strong and India's Covid-19 crisis eased.The miner saw proceeds of $470 million at its fifth trading session of the year, up from $385 million in May, it reported Wednesday. A year earlier, the company registered sales of only $56 million for the fourth and fifth cycles combined, as the co...Read More
RAPAPORT... Lucara Diamond Corp. has recovered a 1,174.76-carat rough diamond from its Karowe mine in Botswana and believes it was originally part of a stone weighing more than 2,000 carats. The clivage diamond - which needs to be split before processing - came from the site's south lobe EM/PK(S) area, known for its large, high-quality rough, Lucara said Tuesday. The rough contains "significa...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A huge 1,174-carat diamond has been recovered in Botswana - just days after the announcement of a 1,098-carat stone.The newly-discovered stone (pictured), from Lucara's Karowe mine, is a clivage gem, which will need to be split before being processed further.It weighs 1,174.76 carat, but could well have been part of an even bigger rough stone - of more than 2,000 carats."On th...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Bulk sampling for high-value fancy yellow to orange yellow diamonds is about to start in Canada's northernmost territory.Field crews for Vancouver-based North Arrow Minerals will collect up 2,000 tonnes in a $4.5m program funded by partner Burgundy Diamond Mines.Eight kimberlite pipes have been identified at the Naujaat Project near the community of Naujaat, Nunavut, in the Ca...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers sold $470m (provisional) of rough at Sight 5, which has just ended in Gabarone, halting a four-month slide in sales.In a statement released today the miner said sentiment was "increasingly optimistic", despite ongoing Covid concerns.Sales at its fourth sight of 2021 were $385m, the lowest this year. Sales in January peaked at $663m, a three-year-high. They fell to $550m in...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A rough tender held in Dubai last week raised around $30m, with all 18,655 carats sold, said Trans Atlantic Gem Sales (TAGS).All qualities and sizes were in "extraordinarily strong demand", it said, especially single stones and exceptional specials.First-time customers from Israel attended, as well buying teams for Indian clientele.TAGS said it achieved record pricing across all ra...Read More
Domestic transaction prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe went up on Wednesday June 23, driven by the continuing shortage of material, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?1,185.04 ($1,411.73) per tonne on Wednesday, up by ?,?30.04 from ?,?1,155.00 per tonne on June 22.The index was up by ?,?50.04...Read More