A summary of the 2020 fourth-quarter (October-December) operational results for Russia's largest steelmaker, Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), which also has assets in Europe and the United States.In brief In the fourth quarter, sales to the domestic market dropped to 2.58 million tonnes, down 7% from 2.77 million tonnes in the previous quarter amid lower steel product sales in Russia. Flat steel sal...Read More

Gold moved higher as the USD Indexmoved lower in today’s pre-market trading. Before providing you with mythoughts on why that happened and what the implications are, let’s see exactlywhat transpired. Figure1 - USD IndexIn yesterday’s (Jan. 19) analysis , I commented on the above USD Index chart in the following way:TheUSD Index is after a major breakout above the declining resist...Read More

An overview of the specialty steel raw materials markets in Europe and their latest price moves.Charlotte Radford, Cristina Belda...Read More

Anyone who owns precious metals, mining shares or metals' ETFsknows the drill.First, gold and silver begin toestablish an uptrend on the charts. Analysts (like us) start writing about howprices are getting ready to make an upside run.Then "out of nowhere" thousands of highly marginedfutures contracts hit the market on the short side, "re-painting" thecharts, sending terror into...Read More

An overview of the new energy materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Read More

Automakers are putting high hopes on 2021 amid a drive toward electrification and recovering demand.Mercedes Benz expects the share of hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs) in its sales portfolio to increase by 13% in 2021 after introducing four new Mercedes EQ models this year, including the EQA, EQB, EQE and EQS.The optimism is largely being supported by developments in Asia, which was a key driver...Read More

An overview of the new energy materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Read More

A summary of the 2020 fourth-quarter (October-December) operational results for Russia's largest steelmaker, Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), which also has assets in Europe and the United States.In brief In the fourth quarter, sales to the domestic market dropped to 2.58 million tonnes, down 7% from 2.77 million tonnes in the previous quarter amid lower steel product sales in Russia. Flat steel sal...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday January 21 that are worth another look.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)...Read More

Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States again edged lower, even as buyers have continued to struggle to find spot tonnage at the domestic mills.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $55.04 per hundredweight ($1,100.80 per short ton) on Friday January 22, down by 0.85% from $55.51 per cwt the previous day and 3.30% lower than $56.92 per cwt a week prior.I...Read More

Prices for Brazil-origin slab started to stabilize in the week ended Friday January 22, with buyers and sellers seeing a shift in the mood, amid fears that prices could fall in the future.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel slab, export, fob main port Brazil, was unchanged week-on-week at $760-780 per tonne fob on Friday.In the past couple of weeks, producers have raised their slab offe...Read More

Import prices for flat-rolled steel in South America softened in the week ended Friday January 22 with some Chinese mills accepting lower bids from clients."Some small-sized, privately owned mills in China are taking lower bids as long as they're in cash payment, in order to fund [their operations]," one trader source told Fastmarkets."Last week and this week," a source at a mill added, "we saw a...Read More

Indian domestic prices for secondary steel billet fell by 3,600 rupees ($49) per tonne in the week to Friday January 22, with the prices of both raw materials and finished products showing significant drops in the first half of the week.The price of steel billet, domestic, ex-works India, was assessed by Fastmarkets on January 22 at 35,200-35,400 rupees ($482-485) per tonne, down by 3,600 rupees p...Read More

A differentiated fee structure designed to drive member-to-member trade away from the telephone market is being proposed by the London Metal Exchange as part of its discussion paper. The goal is to incentivize trade on the exchange's electronic trading platform, LMESelect, and is proposed to be achieved by cutting fees to trade electronically while raising fees for the telephone market by around 5...Read More

Automakers are putting high hopes on 2021 amid a drive toward electrification and recovering demand.Mercedes Benz expects the share of hybrid and electric vehicles (EVs) in its sales portfolio to increase by 13% in 2021 after introducing four new Mercedes EQ models this year, including the EQA, EQB, EQE and EQS.The optimism is largely being supported by developments in Asia, which was a key driver...Read More

The London Metal Exchange base-metals complex finished the week to Friday January 22 on a broadly positive note, with most metals prices up from their Monday levels, albeit trading sideways from Thursday.Tin's three-month price showed the biggest rise of the week from Monday's closing price. Friday's 5pm price was $21,960 per tonne, up by 2.4% from Monday's closing price of $21,235 per tonne, but...Read More

Latest analysis from recent activity on the CME's cobalt metal futures contract, cash-settled against Fastmarkets' price assessment for cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam. Key data Jan 20, 2021, 30 tonnes (10 tonnes each for March ($17.95 per lb), April ($18.00 per lb), May ($18.05 per lb)) Jan 11, 2021, 15 tonnes (5 tonnes each for February, March and April, all at $17.45 per lb)&n...Read More

Seaborne premium hard coking coal price in the cfr market edged up on Friday January 22, on higher offers for Canada-origin coal, but fob prices remained relatively flat, with no transactions heard during the day.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $133.99 per tonne, down $0.48 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $212.95 per tonne, up $1.13 per tonneHard c...Read More

Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe were down slightly on Friday January 22, due to slow trading activity, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?711.25 ($863.64) per tonne on Friday January 22, down by ?,?1.75 per tonne from ?,?713.00 per tonne on Thursday January 21.The index was down ?,?...Read More

Chinese lithium spot carbonate prices have started to move higher and this is likely to underpin a recovery across the whole lithium complex, according to William Adams, Fastmarkets head of battery raw materials research and base metals."The Chinese spot price has led [lithium] prices on the way up and led prices on the way down, with the cif Asian prices and the Europe and North American prices f...Read More