The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Chinese blast furnace (BF) utilization rates have stagnated and iron ore port stock volumes are rising, reaching their highest levels since March, which suggests that iron ore supply is becoming excessive while demand is not growing. Unsurprisingly, prices dropped last week and we expect the trend to continue. The market has...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.We spoke in our previous tracker of stainless steel prices ending 2020 on a high. That trend has continued during early 2021 and, in fact, the upward rally in prices has increased its momentum.Compared with the monthly price increase of some 5% seen at the end of 2020, prices for grade-304 stainless steel in al...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Prices of stainless steel are generally set to reach highs for the year as 2020 comes to a close. For the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel, this upward trend is being driven above all by rising nickel prices, which themselves are hitting relatively high levels into the end of 2020.The price increases si...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.While much commentary has been written about Asian economies performing far better than those elsewhere this year during the global Covid-19 pandemic, it is stainless steel markets in Europe and the United States that are ending the year in better shape than their Asian counterparts.We do not talk of demand levels or demand g...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.While a world leader in many areas, the United States is a relatively small player when it comes to stainless steel. It produces a small amount of material, both in absolute and relative terms (i.e. compared to the size of its population), while a large share of its industry is in the hands of bigger European companies. Never...Read More

The frenzy of buying activity in silver, attributed to a group of retail investors using the Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets and other social media sites, is waning.The silver surge - which began on January 27 and saw the price of the industrial metal soar to an eight-year high of more than $30 per oz before slipping to just below $27 per oz by Tuesday January 2 - followed a phenomenal upswell in th...Read More

Cynthia Carroll has been appointed an independent non-executive director of Glencore plc, according to a statement on the company's website on Tuesday Fenruary 2. Her appointment takes effect immediately.Carroll was chief executive officer of Anglo American from March 2007 until April 2013, and in 2015 she became chair of Vedanta Resources.She started her career as an exploration geologist with Am...Read More

United States President Joe Biden reinstated aluminium tariffs on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) less than two weeks after they were removed, which has convinced some participants that President Biden will keep the broader Section 232 tariff program in place."Since the tariff on aluminium imports was imposed, such imports substantially decreased, including a 25% reduction from the UAE, and domesti...Read More

RAPAPORT... Kendra Scott has left her position as CEO of her namesake jewelry brand after nearly two decades, and will instead focus on the design and consumer elements of the business.Scott will continue as executive chairwoman, majority owner, and leader of design, customer experience and philanthropy, the company said Monday. Tom Nolan, president of the company, will succeed her as head of the...Read More

RAPAPORT... A sharp rise in silver prices over the past week has shocked the jewelry industry and raised concerns that consumers will steer clear of the precious metal until the volatility ends.Prices have jumped around 9% since last Wednesday, according to Silverprice.org.The hike is thought to be a result of posts on the Reddit social-media platform encouraging amateur traders to bet on ass...Read More

RAPAPORT... The decline in Hong Kong retail sales deepened in December as the resurgence of Covid-19 cases and the continued ban on tourism weighed on the market.Retail sales of jewelry, watches, clocks and valuable gifts plummeted 41% to HKD 3.09 billion ($399 million) for the month, according to data Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department released Tuesday. Sales across all retail categorie...Read More

RAPAPORT... Firestone Diamonds will keep its Liqhobong mine closed as it works with its bondholders to restructure its debt and continues to test market prices for its rough.The miner has reached an agreement with Absa, one of its lenders, to allow it to defer repayment of its debt until September 2021, Firestone said Tuesday. The company is still in discussions with other bondholders about a long...Read More

The London Metal Exchange tin price continued its uptrend by setting a new 2021 high and a historic $1,510-per-tonne backwardation on its benchmark spread, while the rest of the base metals complex closed on a mixed tone on Tuesday February 2. Tin's three-month price kept up its unabated rise on Tuesday despite a rising dollar, with the fundamentals for the metal superseding macroeconomic concerns...Read More

RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds emerged from 2020 as one of the few miners to record revenue growth, benefiting from a sharp recovery in prices and sales during the second half.Sales rose 4% to $189.2 million for the year, the company reported Tuesday in a trading update. The average price jumped 17% to $1,908 per carat, outweighing an 11% decline in sales volume to 99,172 carats.Gem Diamonds had fe...Read More

Year-on-year diamond prices for January 2021 bounced 1.5 per cent, breaking through the x-axis for the first time since April 2019. They'd been hovering just below zero since October 2020 and last month came exactly in line with prices for the previous year. They were badly hit by the pandemic in March and April, when they were 4.8 per cent down, but have rising in fits and starts ever since....Read More

RAPAPORT PRESS RELEASE, February 2, 2021, Las Vegas... The diamond trade began the year with optimism following a relatively successful holiday season. Polished-diamond suppliers anticipated steady inventory replacement in the first quarter. December and January therefore saw strong rough buying. The subsequent increase in polished inventory levels led prices to soften in key categories.The RapNet...Read More

Chilean copper output plummeted in December amid lower activity at Codelco, Escondida and other major mines, data from the country's copper commission, Cochilco, showed on Tuesday February 2.Production hit 499,700 tonnes in December, down by 9.4% year on year from 551,500 tonnes. Additionally, full-year output reached 5.73 million tonnes in 2020, a 1% decrease from 5.79 million tonnes in 2019.Lowe...Read More

Aluminium producer Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) will supply BMW Group with its CelestiAL aluminium, the first aluminium brand made using solar power, it said on Tuesday February 2. EGA will supply 43,000 tonnes per year of CelestiAL aluminium to BMW Group. EGA has supplied metal to BMW Group since 2013 for use in the German carmaker's engines and other parts. EGA's CelestiAL metal will cover al...Read More

Slovakian steelmaker US Steel Kosice restarted operations at its blast furnace (BF) No3 in January this year, the company told Fastmarkets on Tuesday February 2."We adjusted our production and the range of our products to the current situation and demand from our customers. We do not make any forecasts," US Steel Kosice's spokesman said.The plant is now running with all three BFs in operation. The...Read More

Steelmaker ArcelorMittal is planning to restart blast furnace (BF) B at its Ghent plant in Belgium by the middle of February this year, the company told Fastmarkets on Tuesday February 2.The unit has been idled for maintenance since September 2020.BF B has capacity for 2.30 million tonnes per year of pig iron, according to market sources. The plant is equipped with two BFs with total capacity for...Read More