Huaxing alumina refinery, in Shanxi province of northern China, has closed one alumina production line following an equipment accident, several sources told Fastmarkets on Monday June 29. It could take 20-30 days to return the production line to full operation, removing around 50,000-80,000 tonnes of alumina supply from the Chinese domestic market over the period, according to market estimates. Hu...Read More

The latest data for the global manganese ore market for the week ended June 29, 2020.Read More

The Minerals Council South Africa said the industry currently screened about 272,000 employees every time they reported for work and had conducted 15,994 tests, at June 25.By Friday, the number of mining employees who had tested positive for COVID-19 was 1,950 and the death toll had risen to seven.The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, which successfully fought for mandatory COVID-...Read More

The PM stocks have moved nicely over the past 2 weeks. Many gold investors wanting in on the next big move have been left on the sidelines under invested. It's my view that this has occurred because everyone and his brother has had one eye on the often published gold and silver seasonality chart. This chart is a composite of 40 years of action and shows gold weak until late July and silver...Read More

Trend is bullish for gold and silver on fears of rapid spread of coronavirus in USA. June month is not yet over. One still needs to watch for some large sellers in gold as a part of the profit booking. Overall it still a buy on sharp dips strategy in gold and silver. This week? On Tuesday US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will speak about the stimulus and lending facilities to sup...Read More

Covid-19 has exposed the overdependence and vulnerability in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain, which supports the development of other regional battery production hubs in the coming years, panellists said in a Fastmarkets webinar last week."There is growing nationalism and regionalism [and] coronavirus has been a wake-up call for how dependent industries are on China," Emily Hersh, managing...Read More

The Turkish steel mills continued to shy away from deep-sea scrap purchases at the beginning of this week, expecting lower prices soon, sources said on Monday June 29.The mills in Turkey booked only two deep-sea cargoes last week, which totaled 67,500 tonnes.Producers have been keeping their deep-sea scrap purchases at a low level because of the limited demand and, therefore, falling prices for lo...Read More

Turkish domestic scrap prices have gone down over the past week in line with the latest downturn in imported deep-sea scrap values, sources said on Monday June 29.Several steel producers decreased their domestic buy prices for both auto bundle and shipbreaking scrap last week.Long and flat steelmaker ??olakoglu cut its buy price for auto bundle scrap by 60 lira per tonne to 1,885 lira ($275) per t...Read More

Asian-Pacific equities and pre-market European equity index futures were weaker this morning, Monday June 29, but base metals prices were for the most part firmer. Nikkei led on the downside this morning with losses of 2.21%.Covid-19 surges in some southern US states, with 2.5 million confirmed cases reported in the country.Profits in China's industrial sector showed growth of 6% year on year in M...Read More

A summary of Australian lithium-spodumene producer Altura's operational results for the second quarter of 2020, released by the company on Monday June 29.In briefThe company achieved record total sales and shipments of 58,208 dry metric tonnes (dmt) of lithium concentrate in the second quarter of 2020, up around 23% from the previous quarter and the best quarterly sales result since the company st...Read More

Canada-based Sigma Lithium Resources has secured the last tranche of the funds needed to begin construction of its commercial spodumene carbonate plant in Brazil, expected to start producing in 2022, chief strategy officer Ana Cabral-Gardner told Fastmarkets on Friday June 26.The company has signed an agreement for a $45-million project finance facility led by French bank Soci?(C)t?(C) G?(C)n?(C)r...Read More

Covid-19 has exposed the overdependence and vulnerability in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain, which supports the development of other regional battery production hubs in the coming years, panellists said in a Fastmarkets webinar last week."There is growing nationalism and regionalism [and] coronavirus has been a wake-up call for how dependent industries are on China," Emily Hersh, managing...Read More

Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V: BAY; OTCQB: ATBHF) is a mineral exploration company, exploring for gold and base metal deposits in Virginia, USA, and Nunavut, Canada. We learned from Thomas Ullrich, CEO and Director of Aston Bay Holdings, that they have a brand new high-grade, near-surface discovery at the Buckingham Gold Project, Virginia, in the best jurisdiction in the world. In the near-term,...Read More

European producers of hot-rolled coil have increased their offer prices despite low trading activity in the week ended Friday June 26.Fastmarkets' daily steel HRC index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was ?,?393.75 ($441.67) per tonne on Friday, up by ?,?3.75 per tonne from ?,?394.38 per tonne week on week, but down by ?,?13.75 per tonne month on month.Friday's index was based on workable prices a...Read More

Thank you for joining us in a weekly technical look at the mid-cap oriented INK Canadian Insider (CIN) Index. Last week, the Index could not move far above 960 before its momentum buckled and it slipped 22.19 points or -2.34% to close at 923.36.MACD dropped 0.5 points or 5.3% to -5.31. RSI tried but could not cross 60 and dropped 8.78 points to 48.53.Support is at 900.53 (50-day moving average) a...Read More

European steelmakers have been insisting on price rises for domestic hot-rolled coil despite demand remaining low, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday June 29.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was calculated at ?,?395.00 ($443.07) per tonne on Monday, up by ?,?1.25 per tonne from ?,?393.75 per tonne on June 26.Monday's index was...Read More

Prices for domestic and imported merchant bar quality (MBQ) steel in the United States again remained flat this month while market participants reported that demand was rising, although only modestly in some locations. Fastmarkets' monthly price assessment for steel bar 2 x 2 x 1/4 -inch angle merchant products, fob mill US was $33.80 per hundredweight ($676 per short ton) on Friday June 26, unc...Read More

Domestic steel rebar prices in Russia's Central Federal District around Moscow increased over the past week, supported by demand exceeding supply, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday June 29.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, cpt Moscow, Russia, was 34,000 roubles ($487) per tonne on June 29. This was up by 1,000-1,500 roubles per tonne week on...Read More

Egypt consumed 312,000 tonnes of rebar in May 2020, 35.36% less than the 482,700 tonnes consumed in May 2019, Egyptian sources told Fastmarkets.This is the lowest rebar consumption figure for the last ten years, sources noted. Comparatively, Egypt consumed 452,800 tonnes of rebar in April 2020, sources said.If consumption continues to fall at this rate, market sources expect the country's annual r...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday June 29 that are worth another look.Mining company BHP Group and steel producer China Baowu Steel Group have completed their first iron ore trade on MineHub Technologies Inc's blockchain-based platform.Poor physical aluminium market conditions have forced people to store excess metal, pushing total aluminium stocks on the London Met...Read More