RAPAPORT... Chow Sang Sang's profit soared in the first half of the year amid a recovery in the mainland China market, the company estimated.Profit increased between 145% and 155% year on year for the six months ending June 30, the Hong Kong jeweler said in a preliminary announcement last week. The figure ranged from HKD 518 million ($66.6 million) to HKD 539 million ($69.3 million), com...Read More

(IDEX Online) - LVMH sales of watches and jewelry more than trebled in the first half of 2021, the company said - up to $4.75bn.The French luxury conglomerate said Tiffany & Co, which it acquired earlier this year for $16.2bn after prolonged negotiations, had performed extremely well."The first half saw the integration for the first time of iconic jewelry maison Tiffany, which has benefited fr...Read More

Zinc and lead concentrate treatment charges (TCs) rose toward the end of July due to more mined tonnage hitting the market and pushing terms higher.Fastmarkets' assessment of zinc spot concentrate TC, cif China was $78-90 per tonne on Friday July 30, up from $75-88 per tonne three weeks earlier, and its highest level since last October.Terms have gradually increased since Chinese smelters took ext...Read More

(IDEX Online) - French police foiled an audacious bid by thieves to blow up glass cases at the city's Museum of Natural History (pictured) and steal a 217-ct necklace made for the Queen of Egypt.The $5.8m piece is among than 500 items in the Gems exhibition, which includes minerals, gemstones and objets d'art from the museum's collection, together with over 200 jewels by Van Cleef &...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Young couples are dispensing with engagement rings  -  and having a diamond pierced straight into their finger. It's called finger dermal. A small circle of flesh is removed from the finger, an anchor is inserted under the skin and the surrounding area has to be stitched to keep the gem in place. The process is, apparently, no more painful than piercing other parts o...Read More

Indian producer Vedanta Aluminium has purchased 354 million units of renewable energy for the 2022 financial year, it announced on Monday August 2.The energy, which will be from a mix of solar and non-solar renewable sources, will be used to help power aluminium production at its Jharsugada smelter in Odisha, India, to help the company achieve its carbon mitigation goals while producing "green," v...Read More

Hydrometallurgy company Hellenic Minerals has completed the construction of a nickel sulfate hexahydrate facility in Cyprus, paving the way for initial production there.The plant in Skouriotissa, about 30km west of the island nation's capital, Nicosia, is thought to be on the site of the world's oldest copper mine. It was expected to reach output of 44,000 tonnes per year of laterite ore, containi...Read More

BHP requested government mediation to reach an agreement and prevent a strike at the world's largest copper mine. Government mediation can last up to 10 days before workers can commence a strike.Read More

Four unions representing some 3,500 miners in Chile rejected the latest wage offers made by their companies in the week to August 2, initiating government-led mediation processes to avoid potential strikes, sources told Fastmarkets. The largest was the Number 1 union at Escondida, representing some 2,200 workers, who rejected BHP's latest wage offer and voted to go ahead with a strike on July 31.&...Read More

The recent Covid-19 outbreak across southeast Asia is weighing on Thai aluminium billet demand in the region after five months of price rises, sources told Fastmarkets. On-site labor restrictions in Thailand and the related closure of several extruder facilities in both Thailand and Vietnam due to Covid-19 restrictions have caused orders to temporarily stall followed by stock inventories inching u...Read More

The junior said the investment by Glencore was an endorsement of the wider Costa Fuego copper-gold, which is emerging as a globally significant, low-altitude development. Hot Chili describes its 451 million tonne Cortadera discovery in Chile as one of two major copper finds since 2016, the other being Rio Tinto's remote, deep Winu discovery in Western Australia.  Glencore's backing...Read More

US Steel has its best days ahead, the company's top executive said during an earnings call on Friday July 30."We can now truly say, US Steel... has its best days ahead. We can't get to the future fast enough," company president and chief executive officer David Burritt said on Friday's call.Burritt also said that the strength in steel prices and demand would continue, and predicted all-time r...Read More

Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States came close to crossing the $94-per-hundredweight ($1,880-per-short-ton) threshold once again, with several mill offers made in the mid- to high $90-per-cwt range reported by market sources.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $93.92 per cwt ($1,878.40 per ton) on Monday August 2, up by 0.23% from $93.70 per cwt on...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were generally trending higher this morning, Monday August 2, with copper the metal that seems to be struggling the most. Base metals trading on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gave a mixed performance, however.* Chinese equities rebound this morning after last week’s weakness* US Senate makes progress on $1 trillion infrastructure bill* China...Read More

Prices for domestic and imported merchant bar quality (MBQ) steel in the United States rose in July, when demand continued to outpace supply, extending lead times and depleting inventories across the supply chain.Fastmarkets' monthly assessment for steel bar 2 x 2 x 1/4 -inch angle merchant products, fob mill US was $55.80 per cwt ($1,116 per ton) on Friday July 30, up by 3.72% from $53.80 per c...Read More

(Recasts with updated prices) By Eric Onstad LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Copper prices slipped on Monday,weighed down by worries about demand after weak factory datafrom the United States and top metals consumer China. A weaker dollar, hopes for more stimulus in China andprospects for a strike in top producer Chile cushioned thelosses. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange wasdown 0.5% at...Read More

Prices for carbon steel plate in the United States strengthened for a second week while the latest wave of mill price increases ripples through the market.Fastmarkets' weekly assessment for steel cut-to-length plate carbon grade, fob mill US climbed to an all-time high of $82 per hundredweight ($1,640 per short ton) on Friday July 30 from $80 per cwt on July 23. The assessment has more than triple...Read More

Improved shipments and record-high hot band prices pushed US Steel's second-quarter net income to $1.012 billion, in contrast to a net loss of nearly $589 million in the equivalent quarter last year.The mini-mill segment generated $324 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) and had a 36% margin in the quarter, the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker said in an&...Read More

ArcelorMittal's forthcoming hot-strip mill in Mexico will change the profile of the steelmaker's Mexican flat steel business, the company's chief executive officer said during an investor call to discuss its second-quarter earnings on Thursday July 29.The new Mexican mill - which will add 2.5 million tonnes per year of hot-rolled coil production capacity to the current 4-million-tpy slab capacity...Read More

U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning S&P 500 Index futures wer up 16 points in pre-opening trade. Index futures responded to news that a Bi-partisan Committee finished text on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to be presented to the Senate this week. The Toronto Exchange is closed today for a holiday.Este Lauder dropped $0.56 to $333.27 after Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock fr...Read More