The domestic price of flat-rolled stainless steel in Northern Europe increased further in the week ended Friday September 3, supported by continued supply tightness, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for stainless steel cold-rolled sheet, 2mm, grade 304, transaction domestic, delivered North Europe was ?,?4,000-4,200 ($4,742-4,979) per tonne on September 3, up by ?...Read More
"Supply and demand" does not always determine the price trend of crude oil As you probably know, Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana on August 29, the exact date that Hurricane Katrina made a Louisiana landfall sixteen years earlier.On August 30, the Wall Street Journal said:Oil Industry Surveys Damage After Hurricane Ida Slams LouisianaThe storm disrupted fuel supplies, and the speed of the recovery will...Read More
The anticipated agreement between the European Union and the United States on Section 232 tariffs would boost flat-steel export sales to the US and, consequently, reduce domestic EU availability, triggering a price rise in Europe, European buyers told Fastmarkets.The US and EU will reach an agreement on the exemption from Section 232 of European imports of steel and aluminium by November 1. The US...Read More
Turkish prices for flat steel products kept decreasing during August because of the holiday season and a global downtrend in prices, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday September 2.Iron ore prices in particular decreased significantly in August, leading to price falls for steel end products. Fastmarkets' daily calculation of the index for iron ore 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao was $142.02 per tonne o...Read More
The supervisory board of Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe has extended Bernhard Osburg's contract as chairman for another five years to June 30, 2027, the company said earlier this week.Osburg has been chairman of the executive board since March 2020, succeeding Premal Desai. He has been a member of the executive board since June 2019 with a focus on sales and innovation.In a meeting on August 31,...Read More
Some flat steel prices in Turkey fell in the week to Friday, September 3, with demand starting to improve on buyer restocking activity, sources told Fastmarkets.But while some market participants said they now expect prices to fall further because of the global price downturn, others said prices were likely to remain stable because of the improvement in demand.Prices in the Commonwealth of Indepen...Read More
Prices in the Commonwealth of Independent States' pig iron export market fell during the week to Thursday September 2 on bearish buyers in all outlets.Fastmarkets assessed the price for high-manganese pig iron, export, fob main port Black Sea, CIS at $490-505 per tonne on Thursday, down from $510-520 per tonne the previous week."Activity has appeared in China, that will stimulate sales in all othe...Read More
The market for pig iron imports in the United States went down during the week to Friday September 3 on active bookings at lower prices.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US, was $530-535 per tonne on Friday, down from $545-550 per tonne cfr a week before.Russia-origin pig iron was booked at $530-535...Read More
Three-month aluminium futures on the London Metal Exchange closed at their highest level for a decade on Friday September 3, with the base-metals complex broadly making gains despite jobs data from the United States coming in dramatically lower than expected.The LME aluminium contract closed at $2,727 per tonne on Friday, up by 1.1% from Thursday's close and its highest since May 3, 2011. This cam...Read More
If any member was going to leave the London Metal Exchange ring trading floor, the exchange was probably hoping it wouldn't be Triland Metals Ltd.The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi, is one of the exchange's longest serving Category 1 members, having joined in 1972 after being founded in the prior year. Having a unit of Japan's largest trading company as a ri...Read More
Eight of the nine Category 1 members of the London Metal Exchange have indicated their support for continuing to trade official lunchtime prices in the open-outcry ring.Does this mean that one company does not support ring trading? And could one of the exchange's members be preparing to leave the trading floor?The exchange revealed on Monday August 9 that it had majority support for the ring, in a...Read More
London Metal Exchange ring dealing members have a decision to make - whether to remain one or not.The LME has just announced it will reopen the open outcry trading floor, which was temporarily closed due to Covid-19, on September 6.Its plan, however, comes with a twist; some ring dealers say, a knife.The official prices - which the global trade and industry use as the global reference for physical...Read More
Switzerland-based metals trader MRI Trading has hired Anant Mishra to head its office in South Africa, Fastmarkets heard on Friday September 3.Mishra will join MRI later this month from Vedanta Resources, where he has worked since 2004,...Read More
Three-month aluminium futures on the London Metal Exchange closed at their highest level for a decade on Friday September 3, with the base-metals complex broadly making gains despite jobs data from the United States coming in dramatically lower than expected.The LME aluminium contract closed at $2,727 per tonne on Friday, up by 1.1% from Thursday's close and its highest since May 3, 2011. This cam...Read More
Premium hard coking coal fob prices jumped on the latest trade on Friday September 3, indicating a promising outlook for the fob market. And the low-volatility pulverized coal injection (PCI) price in the cfr market soared due to tight supply from Russia, sources said.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $441.97 per tonne, down by $1.05 per tonneHard coking coal, cfr Jingtang...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices rebounded on Friday September 3 following an uptick in China's steel market, sources said.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $144.71 per tonne, up $2.69 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $145.30 per tonne, up $2.71 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $114.54 per tonne, up $2.52 per tonne65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qi...Read More
Zinc producers in China's southwestern province of Yunnan should be able to fully resume their operations by mid-June, sources said.Yunnan will remove its power restrictions by the end of June that have stunted local zinc output, the provincial energy bureau said.A few zinc smelters in Yunnan have already resumed production, however, sources that spoke to Fastmarkets said.Production capa...Read More
If you believe the jobs numbers, they're ugly. Surely the Fed's Apologists, Enablers, Shills, Sympathizers, and Worse are all giddy that "the Fed can't taper" because of this report... (by Half Dollar) The latest Employment Situation Report, commonly called the Jobs Report, has just been released for August, 2021.On Wednesday, the ADP Employment Report was released, and that report was generally c...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: SHFE tailwind for LME pricesAs we are entering the traditional strong demand season, we expect Chinese aluminium demand to show further recovery, and we expect demand from existing end-user sectors, new infrastructure projects and the export sector to show some increases. As a result, we believe that S...Read More
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