As extreme marketconditions drive tremendous volatility in silver spot prices,buyers are exerting unprecedented pressures on retail physical bullionproducts.Record-setting buyingvolumes pushed the silver price toward a multi-year breakout on Monday. Silverhit an eight-year high of over $30/oz during the day, closing at $29.41.On Tuesday, however, thesilver market got slammed – along with sto...Read More

South American import prices for flat-rolled steel were mostly down week-on-week on Friday February 5 on a persistent Chinese downtrend.The price of hot-rolled coil, on the other hand, increased on the same basis of comparison, with material from other origins such as Japan and Brazil returning to the market with April-shipment offers.China-origin HRC was also more expensive, with market participa...Read More

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

The uptrend in European vanadium prices continued to accelerate at the beginning of February while end-user demand increased amid tight prompt supplies, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' assessment for the ferro-vanadium basis 78% V min, 1st grade, ddp Western Europe price was at $28.25-29.50 per kg on Friday February 5, up 2.2% from the midweek assessment of $28-28.50 per kg, when prices had...Read More

Chinese steelmakers have been actively bidding for Japanese import scrap cargoes at prices above the China domestic market level in recent days, sources have told Fastmarkets.At least two major steelmakers were heard making inquiries for scrap with Japanese trading houses and suppliers on Friday February 5. The hive of activity comes just ahead of China's Lunar New Year holiday next week, with som...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange ended the first week of February on markedly positive figures, with nickel showing a day-on-day increase of 2% on Friday February 5 and zinc rising by nearly 4% since the start of the week, on a slowdown of the US Dollar Index.Nickel's three-month price showed the biggest reaction to the Dollar Index during the day on Friday, rising by 2.1% to $18,02...Read More

Customers should be given the choice to source aluminium on a spectrum of carbon levels and defining low-carbon aluminium by a numerical threshold could have unintended consequences, London Metal Exchange chief executive officer Matthew Chamberlain told Fastmarkets. Chamberlain noted the way of defining low-carbon aluminium by a number could be disruptive and counter-productive, during Fastmarkets...Read More

The seaborne premium hard coking coal price in the fob market declined on Friday February 5, while Australian coking coal cargoes that had been in anchorage at Chinese ports may lead the seaborne premium fob price down, sources said.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $156.53 per tonne, down $1.01 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $217.23 per tonne, unchangedHard...Read More

People will come to understand that paper is worthless in the long run...Egon von Greyerz on Palisades Gold RadioTom welcomes back Egon von Greyerz, Founder and Managing Partner of Matterhorn Asset Management AG based in Switzerland.Paper gold is traded by the banks at massive multiples to annual production every day. This vast amount of trading and gold swaps is 99% paper and is done to keep the...Read More

Sentiment in the pig iron import market in the United States remained negative during the week to Friday February 5 on bearish consumers, who are the only large pig iron buyers while China is out of the market ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday (February 11-17). Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US was $500-520 per tonne on Friday, widening up...Read More

Brazil's pig iron export market was calm in the week to Friday February 5 because suppliers wanted to wait and see where the market would turn after the Lunar New Year holiday in China.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, export, fob port of Vitoria/Rio, Brazil, was $480 per tonne on Friday, unchanged week on week.No new sales were reported during the week,...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange ended the first week of February on markedly positive figures, with nickel showing a day-on-day increase of 2% on Friday February 5 and zinc rising by nearly 4% since the start of the week, on a slowdown of the US Dollar Index.Nickel's three-month price showed the biggest reaction to the Dollar Index during the day on Friday, rising by 2.1% to $18,02...Read More

Customers should be given the choice to source aluminium on a spectrum of carbon levels and defining low-carbon aluminium by a numerical threshold could have unintended consequences, London Metal Exchange chief executive officer Matthew Chamberlain told Fastmarkets. Chamberlain noted the way of defining low-carbon aluminium by a number could be disruptive and counter-productive, during Fastmarkets...Read More

Copper concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) dropped marginally during the week to Friday February 5, with smelters continuing to stock up ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays.It is the second consecutive week that the Fastmarkets copper concentrates TC index, cif Asia Pacific has dipped below $40 per tonne / 4 cents per lb. It was calculated at $37 / 3.70 cents on Friday, compared...Read More

Base metals inventories went up in Shanghai Futures Exchange-registered warehouses in the week to Friday February 5, with the the sole exception of nickel, and with zinc showing the biggest rise in percentage terms, up by 34.9% over the week.Zinc inventories rose by 15,615 tonnes week on week to 60,361 tonnes, from 44,746 tonnes the week before.The inflows mainly came to warehouses operated by Nan...Read More

Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were up across the board on the morning of Friday February 5, led by a 1.4% gain in nickel, with the US Dollar Index easing after reaching a three-month high on Thursday.Nickel's three-month price was up to $17,900 per tonne on Friday at 9am, with dip-buying having emerged below the 40 daily moving average, at $17,600 per tonne, a price l...Read More

With the exception of tin, base metals prices on both the London Metal Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange were firmer this morning, Friday February 5, suggesting there is little appetite for follow-through selling after recent bouts of weakness. Asian-Pacific equities were stronger this morning......as was the US Dollar IndexBase metalsThree-month tin prices were down by 0.4% at $22,880 pe...Read More

Chinese battery raw material supplier Beijing Easpring Material Technology Co has inked a deal with Indonesia's Halmahera Persada Lygend (HPAL) for an eight-year supply of nickel and cobalt beginning in 2021."Nickel and cobalt [resources] have becoming more and more important amid robust demand following strong sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) globally... and the deal will help us secure a suff...Read More

Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil across Europe were stable day on day on Friday February 5, despite attempts by mills to achieve price rises, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at ?,?710 ($851.43) per tonne on Friday, unchanged from Thursday.The index was down by ?,?2.50 per tonne week on week, but up by ?,?43.75...Read More

Russian steelmaker Evraz has signed a contract with Italian equipment producer Danieli to supply equipment for expansion of the continuous casting machine (CCM) No 1 at its Nizhniy Tagil mill. Modernization will increase capacity at the CCM to 1.8 million tonnes from 700,000 tonnes previously, according to the company. The CCM makes billet for the production of railway wheels, rails and bandages....Read More