Iron ore prices increased on Thursday July 15, supported by falling steel inventories in China, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $222.09 per tonne, up $3.43 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $223.75 per tonne, up $3.75 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $182.06 per tonne, up $3.65 per tonne65% Fe Brazil-origin fines,...Read More

The setting: Beijing, 1971. The characters: United States National Security Advisor Hank Kissinger and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.They are discussing diplomacy.At one point a pause broke their conversation. Mr. Kissinger then solicited his host's estimate of the French Revolution's impact upon the world."Too early to say," came the response.Premier Zhou was likely referring to the 1968 student agi...Read More

Philosophers and analysts use a principle called Occam's Razor (sometimes Ockham's Razor) to solve difficult problems. It says that when you are confronted with two possible solutions to a problem, one complicated and one simple, it's usually better to select the simple solution.There's always some attraction to the complicated solution because humans like intrigue and plot twists. But statistical...Read More

Yesterday we violated every decency, shocked every sensibility, offended every piety…That is because we maintained Donald Trump did the nation an incalculable good.An incalculable good? Here is a demoniac, argue his foes - an enfant terrible, a vicious scourge upon American democracy.Just so. And let it go into the record:We are not a Trump enthusiast. We find his economics badly informed, f...Read More

The London Metal Exchange has announced that John Glen MP, economic secretary to the UK Treasury, will be the guess speaker at the annual dinner during LME Week this year.Glen was first elected to parliament as MP for Salisbury in 2010 and has held his current position as economic secretary to the Treasury since January 2018.LME Week is due to take place face to face this year in London starting f...Read More

Hot-rolled coil prices across China's domestic market edged higher on Thursday July 15 while futures prices traded rangebound after Wednesday's sharp gains due to the increased likelihood of a drop in steel production in the second half of 2021, sources told Fastmarkets.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,860-5,920 yuan ($907-916) per tonne, narrowing upward by 20 yuan per tonneThe most-traded HRC...Read More

China's domestic rebar prices continued to rise on Thursday July 15, following a strong showing in the futures market in early trading.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,200-5,240 yuan ($805-811) per tonne, up by 20 yuan per tonneDeals were concluded at 5,200-5,240 yuan per tonne in early trading, with buyers expecting rebar prices to continue rise on seeing the futures...Read More

The European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will be generally supportive of aluminium premiums in Europe and will add further bullish sentiment to an already heated market, sources told Fastmarkets this week."A Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism will put a carbon price on imports of a targeted selection of products to ensure that ambitious climate action in Europe does not lead...Read More

Prices on the London Metal Exchange picked up on the morning of Thursday July 15, building on momentum from the early Asian trading session after the release of positive economic data out of China. Global investors remain confident that economic growth in China is relatively robust, even though its second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) showed signs of slowing with a 7.9% year-on-year uptick,...Read More

China's domestic stainless steel prices rose sharply over the week to Wednesday July 14 on concerns of tighter supply amid growing expectations for mills to cut production.Gains in the nickel market provided further support to stainless steel prices.The three-month nickel contract on the London Metal Exchange ended the official trading session on Wednesday at $18,698 per tonne, up by $381 per tonn...Read More

Entreprise G?(C)n?(C)rale Du Cobalt, a state-owned company in the Democratic Republic of Congo, will start to buy cobalt produced by the country's artisanal miners within eight weeks, it told Fastmarkets on Wednesday July 14.Cobalt is a key ingredient, alongside lithium and nickel, in batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs), demand for which was expected to boom in the medium term.Artisanal a...Read More

Glencore has described rioting in South Africa as a "force majeure event" in a letter to customers about a number of ores, alloys and metals exported from the country, although this is not a declaration of force majeure. In a notice to customers on July 14, seen by Fastmarkets, the trader-miner warned that ongoing violence in South Africa could potentially prevent them from fulfilling contracts wi...Read More

The Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb trade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets assessed Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb at 24.40-25.00 on...Read More

The Cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lbtrade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies....Read More

British Columbia has granted a permit for early construction work at the Blackwater gold project belonging to Artemis Gold (TSXV: ARTG). This is the first step in construction of a mine, allowing for site preparations and land cleaning at the site 150 km southwest of Prince George, B.C.Blackwater is estimated to be the largest gold mine development in the Cariboo region of B.C. in the last decade,...Read More

Planned and unplanned maintenance shutdowns at Nevada Gold Mines in the US and Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic have resulted in a 5.4% drop in the world's second-largest gold miner by reserves, Barrick Gold's (TSX: ABX, NYSE: GOLD) second-quarter output.Preliminary June-quarter results dropped to 1.04 million oz. gold, from 1.1 million oz. in the prior period. The latest figure was below th...Read More

A new report by IDTechEx states that the current trend of adoption of redox flow batteries (RFBs) should lead to a multi-billion market size in 2031.However, in the analyst's view, this massive adoption doesn't imply that Li-ion batteries will disappear. Rather, the two systems are expected to address different issues."IDTechEx expects Li-ion batteries to be mostly employed for a short duration of...Read More

Proudfoot Global CEO Pamela Hackett talks wrestling chaos with industry leadersSPONSOREDproudfootYandal building on discovery successSPONSOREDyandal resourcesEmerging producer Horizon Minerals eyes mid-tierSPONSOREDhorizon mineralsRumble growing with Earaheedy discoverySPONSOREDrumble resourcesMiners frequently cite a three-phase value model as the rationale for investing in the industry.   I...Read More

Vietnam is proposing to impose a 5% export tax on steel billet, which could make offer prices from the country's mills uncompetitive in key Asian markets, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday July 15.The proposal has been drafted by the Vietnam Ministry of Finance, but is not yet official policy as it is awaiting final government approval, according to key billet trading sources.News of the propos...Read More

LG Chem announced a 10 trillion KRW ($8.7 billion) investment in three engines of growth - eco-friendly materials, battery materials and innovative new drugs.Read full newsRead More