Australia-listed IGO Ltd has completed a transaction to form a new lithium joint venture with Chinese lithium producer Tianqi Lithium over the latter's Australian lithium assets, the company said on Wednesday June 30.In December 2020, the companies signed an initial investment agreement which saw Tianqi's wholly-owned subsidiary Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia Pty Ltd (TLEA) bring in IGO as a stra...Read More

I hit a Tesla this morning, and I liked it... again.The moment I felt the jolt from bumping into it, an overwhelming wave of d?(C)j? vu washed over me. I knew I'd been in this situation before.Of course, my seasoned readers here at Energy and Capital know full well that this wasn't my first minor scrape with a child of Musk.My last run-in with a Tesla occurred nearly four years ago, except back...Read More

Domestic prices for cold-rolled coil in Europe inched up over the week to Wednesday June 30, despite slow trading activity, sources have told Fastmarkets.The number of transactions for domestic material has been minimal.Buyers have been refraining from purchases due to long lead times from domestic mills. They preferred to remain in 'wait-and-see' mode until the price trend became clear. Full cred...Read More

Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil moved down across Europe on Wednesday June 30, but market participants were in disagreement over whether the decline indicated a change of trend.Buyers have been holding back from purchasing bigger tonnages of HRC, preferring to book lots of less than 500 tonnes if they needed to re-stock or when doing back-to-back business.In addition, buyers believed that a so...Read More

Export prices of hot-rolled coil from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have dropped for prompt shipments in the week to Tuesday June 29 due to implementation of new export duties in Russia, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil, export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $955-985 per tonne on June 29, down from $980-995 per tonne one week previousl...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday June 30 that are worth another look.BHP announced in 2018 that the depletion of its 80-million-tonnes-per-year Yandi mine in its Western Australia iron ore operations would begin from the second half of 2021. Fastmarkets explores how the low-grade fines landscape...Read More

Prices for steel hollow sections in Europe remained flat on Wednesday June 30, with mills continuing to struggle to obtain feedstock material, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel sections (medium), domestic, delivered Northern Europe, was ?,?1,370-1,420 ($1,631-1,690) per tonne on June 30, unchanged week on week.Hot rolled coil, the feedstock for hollow sections,...Read More

Steel rebar prices in the north of Europe have remained firm at a high level over the past week, supported by strong demand, low stocks at buyers and limited imports, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday June 30.Producers in the region were reported to have no spare volumes for July, sources said.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, delivered Northern...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday June 30 that are worth another look.BHP announced in 2018 that the depletion of its 80-million-tonnes-per-year Yandi mine in its Western Australia iron ore operations would begin from the second half of 2021. Fastmarkets explores how the low-grade fines landscape...Read More

Turkish steel producers continued their deep-sea scrap purchases, but at a slow pace dictated by limited long steel demand, market sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday June 30.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a US cargo, comprising HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $501 per tonne, along with shredded and bonus scrap at $521 per tonne cfr late on Tuesday June 29, the seller told Fastmarkets.But some mar...Read More

Iron ore prices rose on Wednesday June 30 when concerns were raised about China's overall crude steel output for 2021, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $214.08 per tonne, up by $1.75 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $217.85 per tonne, up by $2.91 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $180.95 per tonne, up by $1.33 per t...Read More

China's domestic rebar prices remained flat on Wednesday June 30 on weak demand while the futures price gained.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,860-4,880 yuan ($752-755) per tonne, unchanged day on dayThe purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the steel industry was 45.1 points in June, down by 1 point from May, according to the China Federation...Read More

The gap or spread between high yield debt (junk bonds) and investment grade corporate bonds is now the most narrow it has been since 2007. And what happened in 2007? A number of hedge funds owned by former famous investment bank, Bear Stearns, started failing thanks to too many bad (over leveraged) bets on subprime housing and mortgage backed securities.The Inverse Relationship Between Interest Ra...Read More

Supply disruptions that began during the outbreak of COVID still linger and continue to cause shortages of physical silver deliveries, driving premiums up, according to Rick Harrison, owner of the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop as featured in the hit reality TV show "Pawn Stars". "It's very hard to keep any bullion in stock and the bullion I do have I'm selling them for $4, $5 over spot when it comes to...Read More

The Federal Reserve gave U.S. banks a thumbs up as all 23 lenders easily pass the 2021 stress test. Best-selling author Nomi Prins says this is "not-so-shocking news... the biggest banks are OK after nearly 13 years of zero interest rate policy." Speaking with our Daniela Cambone, she explains, "the Fed 'only' had to buy $8 trillion of assets with fabricated money along the way. So now Wall Street...Read More

Facebook anti-trust case thrown out of court.Breaking up monopolies protects the competitors, not the consumers.John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil was a perfect model of free market efficiency.Consumers are indirectly price gouged by labor unions.Labor unions destroyed jobs and wages for laborers.Government unions should be illegal.San Francisco buys $70,000 tents for the homeless.Peter Schiff is...Read More

The Basel III date of June 28th has come and gone, with little movement in gold or silver prices. But what's really going on behind the scenes? Will Basel III have any impact? And perhaps more importantly, is it a reflection that behind the scenes, the banks have, or are close to finally running out of silver??>>?Known primarily by his nickname "Turd Ferguson," Craig Hemke is the founder and edito...Read More

0:00 - Introduction0:35 - Bad Habits & Gov't8:28 - Defining Inflation12:00 - Fed & Rate Control17:46 - Power & Wokeness19:07 - Auditing The Fed (Edits)23:16 - Personal Responsibility28:38 - Fed Endgame & Chaos34:44 - U.S. Gold Reserves?37:10 - Confiscation?42:14 - Protecting Wealth44:15 - Fixing The System47:40 - Morality & Sound Money48:37 - Optimism & Liberty55:09 - Concluding ThoughtsTalking Po...Read More

President of Miles Franklin Andy Schectman answers your questions about whether there is in fact a shortage in physical silver, how to keep your options open by storing metals even if you decide to relocate internationally, and whether the wealthiest people and organizations in the world are requesting delivery on COMEX.0:00 Intro1:06?EUR< Silver shortage5:02 Product shortages11:04 Storage16:27 Ma...Read More

With the Chinese government setting 2030 as the target for China's carbon emissions to peak and 2060 for it to achieve carbon neutrality, the country's steel sector will have to change the way it does business.Fastmarkets speaks to market participants for their views on what these changes might be, and what challenges lie ahead.1. Reduce hot metal productionReducing hot metal output - such as via...Read More