The Turkish steel producers continued to hold back from the deep-sea scrap import markets on the second working day of the week due to limited demand for finished long steel products, market participants told Fastmarkets on Tuesday July 6.The mills in the country booked four deep-sea cargoes last week, three of which were booked by a single steel mill.The most recent deal was concluded at $495 per...Read More

RAPAPORT... Alrosa has introduced a provenance program that allows customers to trace diamonds back to their origin using nanotechnology. The Russian miner will place a permanent, noninvasivelaser marking on rough and polished stones, which participants can "read" using a special scanning machine that Alrosa will provide, it said Tuesday. This will enable people along the supply cha...Read More

RAPAPORT... There is a buoyancy about the diamond market that has surprised many at the halfway point of the year. Considering the struggles the industry has endured in the past decade, diamantaires aren't necessarily used to the positive forces shaping the trade in 2021."Coming off a difficult last year, there's no doubt the diamond industry performed better than most [industries]," says Pau...Read More

RAPAPORT PRESS RELEASE, July 6, 2021, Las Vegas... Robust retail sales are driving positive sentiment in the diamond market. Polished prices continue their upward momentum even as inventory levels gradually rise in some sizes. Steady demand, shortages in certain categories and high rough costs are supporting prices. The RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI?,,?) for 1-carat diamonds climbed 2.7% in June...Read More

Global recycling company TES plans to build its first lithium-ion battery recycling plant at the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, according to a joint statement made on Monday July 5.The new plant will have capacity for 10,000 tonnes per year, and will be the first of its kind in the European country, TES and the port authority said in the announcement. It should be fully operational by late...Read More

RAPAPORT... UK-based auction house Bonhams has appointed Kate Flitcroft as senior specialist in its London jewelry department.  Flitcroft will begin the new role immediately, working out of the company's New Bond Street office, Bonhams said Monday. She joins from Scottish auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull, where she was head of the jewelry and silver department.The qualified auctionee...Read More

The zinc price in Shanghai rose on Tuesday July 6 despite the state's latest attempt to cool down the price of the galvanizing metal by auctioning off inventory.The daily zinc Shanghai Futures Exchange price closed at 22,310 yuan on Tuesday, up 0.6% day on day.There was minimal price reaction after the Chinese government sold its 30,000 tonnes of zinc ingots reserve at the first-ever public tender...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Demand for men's engagement rings has risen 69 per cent year-on-year, says research for a British jeweler.The increase is being driven by the popularity of LGBTQ+ marriages and the growing trend of women proposing.London-based Taylor and Hart said its research revealed the number of women proposing had trebled since 2010. It also said seven out of 10 men would be happy to rece...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Alrosa is applying an indestructible "nano mark" to the atomic structure its diamonds to guarantee their provenance.   It says the application of a minuscule physical mark is more reliable than existing diamond-tracing technologies such as laser engraving, which can be polished off.   The Russian miner says the application of nano mark to the atomic structure of the diamo...Read More

The United States' Department of Commerce announced on July 2 that they will sanction China's Wanbao Mining and its entities for supporting Myanmar's military regime.The entities are involved in copper mining and satellite services. They are Wanbao Mining Ltd., its two subsidiaries - Myanmar Wanbao Mining Copper, Ltd. and Myanmar Yang Tse Copper, Ltd. - and King Royal Technologies Co., Ltd.Read More

Base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange mostly increased on Tuesday July 6, with a tepid dollar driving the complex up. The United States dollar index was at 92.29 on Tuesday, up 0.8 from an earlier reading on the same day, but lower than its peak of 92.76 during its late-May to early-July rally. The three-month LME lead price led the increase on Tuesday, up 1.2% compared to Monday's c...Read More

Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, apart from those for lead, were up during morning trading on Tuesday July 6. Those on the London Metal Exchange were mixed, but that was after a generally positive day on Monday.Brent crude oil climbs after Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries fail to agree a production increaseBase metalsLME three-month base metals prices were mixed th...Read More

Prices for hot-rolled coil in the United States surged after domestic mills raised offers while buyers continued to aggressively vie for the few available spot tons. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $89.53 per hundredweight ($1,790.60 per short ton) on Tuesday July 6, an increase of 2.33% from $87.74 per cwt on Friday July 2 and up 4.13% from $85.98 per...Read More

Prices for carbon steel plate in the United States have stabilized after four consecutive weeks of increases, and market participants expect a flat period followed by more price hikes.Fastmarkets' weekly assessment for steel cut-to-length plate carbon grade, fob mill US was at $75 per hundredweight ($1,500 per short ton) on Friday July 2, unchanged from the previous week but nearly tripl...Read More

The United States' steel import licenses climbed in June to the highest level since January 2020, according to government figures.The US was licensed to import 2.66 million tonnes of steel in June, up 16.01% from 2.29 million tonnes in May, according to data from the US International Trade Administration's steel import monitoring system. Import licenses were up 108.27% from 1.28 million tonnes in...Read More

The Zakat, Tax & Customs Authority in Saudi Arabia has decreed that all imports into the country will be subject to import duty, whether they come from free-trade zones or other member-states of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC).GCC countries normally have duty-free trade between each other. They are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.The Saudi Arabian decree...Read More

Indian suppliers exhausted their third-quarter quota for shipments of hot-rolled coil into Europe on the first day of the new three-month period, according to data released by the European Commission (EC).The EU's HRC import quota of 169,717 tonnes assigned to suppliers from India was fully exhausted on July 1.About 13,798 tonnes of HRC from India were awaiting allocation on July 5.European buyers...Read More

Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, apart from those for lead, were up during morning trading on Tuesday July 6. Those on the London Metal Exchange were mixed, but that was after a generally positive day on Monday.Brent crude oil climbs after Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries fail to agree a production increase.Base metalsLME three-month base metals prices were mixed t...Read More

Ferrous scrap prices in Mexico increased in the week ended Friday July 2, after being mostly stable in the previous week, amid consumers fighting to secure supply.After a week of stability, most steelmakers in Mexico's northern Monterrey region and central Baj?-o region applied price increases to all grades due to limited material availability.Price movements were reported in a wide range, between...Read More

Seaborne coking coal prices were largely stable in both the cfr and fob markets on Tuesday July 6, with most market participants still on the sidelines after the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party on July 2, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $202.52 per tonne, down $0.68 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $308.55 per tonne, up $0.70...Read More