(IDEX Online) - Petra reported an eight per cent slip in gross revenue for the six months to December 2020, down to $178m.But it said like-for-like prices at its tender earlier this month - 382,000 carats of rough sold for $30.5m - were up by eight per cent, and had returned to pre-COVID-19 levels.  It raised $40m from the sale of the 85.6-ct Letlapa Tala Collection of blue diamonds (pic...Read More

Hidden under the big headline of the ring closing, the London Metal Exchange's recent discussion paper also asked market participants for feedback on stocks, physical movements and market squeezes. The discussion paper on Tuesday January 19 caught people's attention because of its proposal to close the open-outcry trading ring, but participants told Fastmarkets other topics are far more controvers...Read More

A summary of China's alumina and aluminium ingot imports for December 2020 and the full-year 2020 from China customs data released on January 20.Alumina:December total: 408,511 tonnes, up 0.4% year on...Read More

Lotte Aluminium has been certified against the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) Chain of Custody (Coc) Standard at its rolling facility in Ansan, South Korea, it said on January 21.This marks the first ASI CoC certification in South Korea and the facility's operations include rolling, sepa-slitting and annealing for the production of aluminium foil.Earlier this week, Audi became the first or...Read More

Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States have eased somewhat after soaring to a record high one week ago.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $55.51 per hundredweight ($1,110.20 per short ton) on Thursday January 21, down by 1.02% from $56.08 per cwt the previous day and a decrease of 4.29% from a historic high of $58 per cwt one week earlier. Input...Read More

Continued supply tightness has pushed prices for flat steel imports in the United States higher, with prices for imported hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and steel plate rising to their highest in more than 12 years and that for offshore galvanized steel surging to a record high."Prices are changing sometimes multiple times in the same day," a Midwest distributor said. There's "almost a bidding...Read More

Rebar prices in Egypt remained unchanged over the week to Thursday January 21, while there was no billet import activity because of the recently imposed safeguard duties, sources told Fastmarkets.Some re-rollers want the duties on billet imports to be removed because they cannot compete with the integrated mills, Egyptian sources told Fastmarkets.Egypt cut the duty to a 13% safeguard duty on the c...Read More

Turkish rebar prices have gone down over the past week amid soft demand for material, sources said on Thursday January 21.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, exw Turkey, was 5,450-5,550 lira ($732-746) per tonne on Thursday, down from last week's 5,650-5,720 lira per tonne, including 18% VAT.Read More

Prices in the Commonwealth of Independent States' (CIS) export billet market dipped on Thursday January 21 amid a lack of demand and falling scrap costs, sources said.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey was calculated at $432.61 per tonne on Thursday down by $1.38 per tonne day on day andby $43.38 week on week.Fastmarkets' corresponding da...Read More

Turkish export prices for steel rebar and wire rod have gone down over the past week amid soft demand and falling scrap costs, market sources said on Thursday January 21.Turkish deep-sea scrap import prices continued to fall in the latest Baltic Sea transaction heard on January 20.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey, was $439.18 per tonne on Wednesd...Read More

Neo Lithium moving closer to productionSPONSOREDneo lithiumPantoro charging towards second gold mineSPONSOREDpantoro limitedMaximus ready to resume search for more Wattle Dam richesSPONSOREDmaximus resourcesDecade of performance: Pitram delivers diamond standard for Argyle diamond mineSPONSOREDmicromineOngoing negative real interest rates and excess liquidity will see gold rise gradually in the fi...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were up across the board this morning, Thursday January 21, showing dips and pauses are attracting further buying, with tin and nickel leading on the upside.US equity futures and many Asian-Pacific equity indices are setting record or multi-decade highs.Base metalsThree-month base metals prices on the LME were up by an a...Read More

Brazil-based miner Vale and Japanese trading company Mitsui have signed a heads-of agreement to take the first step toward exiting their investment in the Moatize coal mine and the Nacala Logistics Corridor (NLC) in Mozambique, Vale said on Wednesday January 20.The heads-of agreement said that Vale would acquire Mitsui's 15% stake in the mine as well as 50% in equity and minority credits of the lo...Read More

More deep-sea bulk cargoes have been sold to Bangladesh from the United States, with prices easing following the sales, market participants told Fastmarkets on Thursday January 21. Three bulk cargoes from the US West Coast were booked in recent weeks within a range of $495-500 per tonne cfr for HMS 1&2 (80:20) to a major mill in the country, with sources saying the total quantity of the deals come...Read More

The Singapore Exchange's (SGX) 65% Fe iron ore derivatives contract - which is settled against Fastmarkets' daily index for iron ore 65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qingdao - set a new record for traded volumes at 5.9 million tonnes so far in January, according to SGX published data on Thursday January 21. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $171.51 per tonne, up $0.96 per tonn...Read More

U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 8 points in pre-opening trade.Index futures were virtually unchanged following release of economic news at 8:30 AM EST. Consensus for December U.S. Housing Starts was an increase to 1.560 million units from 1.547 million units in November. Actual was 1.669 million units . Consensus for Weekly Jobless Claims was a drop...Read More

Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices in both the fob and cfr markets increased on Thursday January 21, after a new trade and an offer at higher prices, sources said.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $134.47 per tonne, up $2.22 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $211.82 per tonne, up $3.38 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $107.78 per tonne, up $3 per tonne...Read More

Austrian steelmaking group Voestalpine has decided to relight the second blast furnace (BF) at its Donawitz site to meet growing demand for long steel, the company said on Thursday January 21.The Donawitz site has two BFs with a total capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year of pig iron, however, for the past seven months only one of the furnaces was operational.One of the two BFs in Donawitz, with...Read More

The London Metal Exchange three-month tin price surpassed the $22,000 per tonne mark during early trading on Thursday January 21, while the complex as a whole moved up due to a weaker dollar, rising equity markets and bullish sentiment after Joe Biden's inauguration as the 46th US president on Wednesday.The semiconductor metal price rose to as high as $22,360 per tonne in the morning of Thursday....Read More

China's domestic rebar prices stopped decreasing on Thursday January 21 amid higher trading activity and a strengthening futures market.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,260-4,280 yuan ($659-662) per tonne, unchangedChina's commodity futures, including the rebar contract, rose during the day in response to gains in the United States stock market on Wednesday, the inauguration of US President Joe...Read More