Tin's cash/three-month spread came to a new historic backwardation on Wednesday February 10, on the same day that a low dollar index propelled the futures contracts for all London metal Exchange base metals prices - except for zinc - to new 2021 highs. Tin's benchmark spread widened to a $2,490 per tonne backwardation during trading on Wednesday, the most on record, further proving the ongoing squ...Read More

Base metals prices were putting in a strong performance on the last trading day before the Chinese New Year holiday, with all the metals, with the exception of an already strong tin, seeing gains this morning, Wednesday February 10.Bank loans in China were at new highs in January, with aggregate financing of 5.17 trillion yuan ($802 billion)Optimism grows while focus is on vaccine rollout and US s...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The uptrend in European flat steel prices continued in January 2021 as expected, with the prices for hot-rolled coil in the North and South of the region averaging ?,?698 and ?,?686 ($840 and $826) per tonne respectively, within 1% of the Fastmarkets research forecasts.With European HRC prices climbing to their highest level...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The conequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on energy demand affected oil and gas prices through much of 2020 and weighed on drilling rates and demand for oil-country tubular goods (OCTG) in most regions.These effects were most likely to continue well into 2021 and perhaps longer, according to Fastmarkets OCTG Intelligence Serv...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. buoyant flat steel market and rising raw material prices resulted in large price rises for welded pipe products across all regions in January 2021.Increases in the price assessments for helical submerged arc-welded (HSAW) pipes were of the magnitude of $140-190 per tonne, with the exception of Europe, where prices were...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.It was only a couple of months ago that contract buyers of coated steels - represented in large part by market participants from the automotive sector - were grudgingly resigned to paying as much as ?,?100 ($120) per tonne more for their contracted shipments in 2021 compared with in 2020. Increases in contract prices of...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR?In a strong start to the year, January saw ore and alloy pricing gains across all markets priced by Fastmarkets - with the exception of Chinese silicon metal export prices, which retreated slightly last month after posting impressive gains in December 2020.The combination...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Key ferro-alloy forecast highlights for the coming months:?EUR? A strong recovery in both bulk and noble alloys is expected in 2021 but the markets are unlikely to return to the levels seen before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. We have seen a quicker-than-expected recovery across various regions amid the economic fal...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Fastmarkets analysts were invited to present our outlook for the coking coal market at Coaltrans Asia, held online on November 23-25. One of the key topics at the event was the trade tensions between China and Australia, which overtook Mongolia to become the largest coking coal exporter to China this year...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

What is it with billionaires and gold?When billionaire Sam Zell warned at the end of December that the dollar’s status as the world’s principal reserve currency was in jeopardy, it nudged something in the back of the mind about the number of billionaires over the past year who issued similar warnings. The wealthiest among us, it seems, are also the most vocal and proactive about the da...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

Gold and silver continue tobe bullish, the gold miners are mixed and bitcoin continues to outperform. Despitethe unprecedented events of 2020 the precious metals have had a positive year,the pandemic brought volatility to the market with a sharp drop followed by acontinuation of the upward trend that had begun before Covid disrupted ourlives.Unprecendented globalliquidity since the pandemic has be...Read More

Well, it’s been a year like noother in so many ways. “Unprecedented” is an often-overused term. But theretruly is no precedent for much of what transpired in public health, politics,the monetary system, the economy, and markets.More than 300,000 Americansreportedly lost their lives while infected with COVID-19.  Less widely publicized was a spike in deathsof despair due to l...Read More

RAPAPORT... Hong Kong saw its first quarterly rise in polished-diamond imports for more than two years as global trading picked up following a slump in early 2020. Shipments into the municipality rose 4% year on year to $3.55 billion for the October-to-December period, according to calculations based on data released this week by the Diamond Federation of Hong Kong, China.Hong Kong Trade Data...Read More

Domestic prices in Europe for steel cold-rolled coil were fairly stable over the week to Wednesday February 10 because buyers have been holding back from making new deals until a settled price trend is seen, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel CRC, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was ?,?800-810 ($968-980) per tonne on February 10, unchanged over the week.The...Read More

RAPAPORT... Petra Diamonds has begun an investigation into new claims of violence at its Williamson mine in Tanzania following a lawsuit last year.The fresh allegations were of assaults and human-rights violations by Tanzanian guards and the miner's security contractor between November 2020 and January 2021, Petra said Wednesday. Many of the incidents required force to defend people and prope...Read More

RAPAPORT... Belgium's polished-diamond exports fell 10% year on year to $547 million in January, with both volume and the average price declining. That followed a positive December, in which shipments jumped 9% to $634 million, according to data the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) released this week. For 2020 as a whole, polished exports dropped 41% to $5.81 billion, as a second-quarter s...Read More

RAPAPORT... Alrosa's sales rose in January as manufacturers continued to restock inventory and consumer demand picked up in China and the US.Diamond revenues climbed 6% year on year to $430 million, with rough sales growing 8% to $421 million, the Russian miner said Wednesday. Polished sales dropped 39% to $9 million. While overall revenue was not as high as the previous month - manufacturers typi...Read More