China's crude steel, hot metal and finished steel output all rose to historical highs in May, according to data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday June 15.These exceeded the previous highs set in May 2019.May outputCrude steel: 92.27 million tonnes, up by 4.2% from a year earlier, up by 8.5% from April Hot metal: 77.32 million tonnes, up 2.4% year on year, up b...Read More

Strengths? The best performing precious metal for the week was gold, up 2.78 percent. After its 1.7 percent drop last Friday, gold rose back above $1,700 an ounce this week as investors took advantage of buying the dip. Commerzbank AG analyst Carsten Fritsch told Bloomberg that gold price declines are still seen as a buying opportunity. "Central banks are not expected to revers...Read More

- Dave Kranzler, Mining Stock Journal"No one ever loses equity in a bankruptcy case," U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones said during a status conference in the J.C. Penney case last month. "Equity gets lost long before the case is filed."Hertz filed Chapter 11 under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code after the market closed on May 22nd. The filing was well telegraphed. The next day the stock took a cliff...Read More

Investment manias are nothing new on Wall Street, but this time the heavy betting is on the mania itself. Speculating on volatility is the latest fad, and it is metastasizing so quickly that in just two short months wagers that the stock market will grow even crazier have become the actual cause of its craziness. The bets mainly involve derivatives, including options and ETFs that are ti...Read More

Steve St. Angelo, SRSrocco Report The U.S. Shale Oil Industry is in serious trouble, even without the negative impacts of the global contagion. While it's no secret that shale oil wells suffer high decline rates, what is taking place in the country's largest oil field is quite alarming. The rate at which shale oil production is declining in the Permian should worry investors. In just three...Read More

We are on the horns of a dilemma, caught between the Scylla and Charybdis, a rock and a hard place, the devil and the deep blue sea, the anvil and the hammer. The walls are closing in. We're in a tight spot.All those metaphors (I could list more but will spare you) fit the present economic situation (some are now calling the omni-crisis) and I think will also describe the 2020s.Thanks to forces...Read More

Workers at Tata Steel IJmuiden in the Netherlands will continue industrial action after negotiations with the company's management fell through, the trade union FNV Metaal said on Sunday June 14.A strike on the night shift started on Sunday June 14 at 22:00 local time and affected pickling, cold rolling, an annealing furnace, continuous annealing lines 11 & 12 and tinning lines."The entire pr...Read More

Saudi Arabia General Customs Authority has postponed its planned increase in duties on steel imports, it said on Thursday June 11. Import duties on several steel products were scheduled to increase on June 10, Saudi Arabian market sources told Fastmarkets on May 29. The customs authority now says the...Read More

China's crude steel, hot metal and finished steel output all rose to historical highs in May, according to data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday June 15.These exceeded the previous highs set in May 2019.May outputCrude steel: 92.27 million tonnes, up by 4.2% from a year earlier, up by 8.5% from April Hot metal: 77.32 million tonnes, up 2.4% year on year, up b...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday June 15 that are worth another look.Jaguar-Land Rover will cut up to 1,100 employees in the UK, while posting a pre-tax loss amid the coronavirus pandemic, it announced on June 15 in its financial results.Latin American steelmakers were operating at 42% capacity in April after at least seven blast furnaces were halted to balance sup...Read More

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a ?,?125 million ($140 million) loan to Belgium-based global material technologies and recycling group Umicore to partially finance the construction of a battery cathode material manufacturing facility in Poland.The EIB loan will cover approximately half of the project costs in the initial phase, with cathode materials produced supplying battery manuf...Read More

Workers at Tata Steel IJmuiden in the Netherlands will continue industrial action after negotiations with the company's management fell through, the trade union FNV Metaal said on Sunday June 14.A strike on the night shift started on Sunday June 14 at 22:00 local time and affected pickling, cold rolling, an annealing furnace, continuous annealing lines 11 & 12 and tinning lines."The entire pr...Read More

Saudi Arabia General Customs Authority has postponed its planned increase in duties on steel imports, it said on Thursday June 11. Import duties on several steel products were scheduled to increase on June 10, Saudi Arabian market sources told Fastmarkets on May 29. The customs authority now says the...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday June 15 that are worth another look.Jaguar-Land Rover will cut up to 1,100 employees in the UK, while posting a pre-tax loss amid the coronavirus pandemic, it announced on June 15 in its financial results.Latin American steelmakers were operating at 42% capacity in April after at least seven blast furnaces were halted to balance sup...Read More

Exporters of hot-rolled coil in Turkey and the Commonwealth of Independent States have been redirecting volumes to Asia from their traditional markets such as Europe.Steel demand and prices in Asia, notably China, started to recover in April after a slump in consumption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This revival happened earlier than in the other regions, where sellers in both Turkey and the CI...Read More

To nobody's surprise, silver's finally got its meaningful "pullback", but it's not likely to last long or cut very deep...I'd like to speak to a few things that, of course, are my own personal experiences, but perhaps will shine some light on why the so-called "V"-shaped recovery is not only a myth, but a bold-faced lie.Gasoline/Consumption/Consumer SpendingI have now officially used half of a tan...Read More

Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices increased on Monday June 15, with market participants from China active in the spot market. Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $108.47 per tonne, up $1.11 per tonne Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $117.58 per tonne, up $1.06 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $89.32 per tonne, down $0.10 per tonneHard coking coal...Read More

Base metals price on the London Metal Exchange were lower during morning trading on Monday June 15, pressured lower by weaker-than-expected industrial data out of China, while a fresh inflow of 16,175 tonnes was an added headwind for copper futures prices. Weighing on prices across the complex was economic data out of China released this morning , which showed industrial production year on year fo...Read More

Equity markets started to show some weakness last week, although dips were being bought, but this morning, Monday June 15, the mood seems to have become more concerned about the rise in second waves of Covid-19 in many countries and the socio-economic implications of these. Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were weaker, as were most on the Shanghai Futures Exchange. Asian-Pacific equ...Read More

RAPAPORT... The Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE) has recommenced business following a restructure of its trading floor to comply with health and safety guidelines.The bourse, located in the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), plans to resume all normal trading activities, including tenders, it said Monday. DDE has posted social-distancing signs, erected plastic shields between trading stations...Read More