Domestic prices for steel hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe increased over the week to Friday February 26, supported by long lead times from domestic mills and good demand.At the end of last week, ArcelorMittal pushed its official offers for downstream products up by ?,?20 ($24) per tonne, but kept offers for HRC unchanged at ?,?750 ($905) per tonne ex-works.Some sources, however, had heard HRC o...Read More

CIS producers of steel rebar and wire rod have increased their offer prices to foreign customers amid the persistent uptrend in scrap and long steel prices globally, Fastmarkets heard on Monday March 1.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey, was $459.85 per tonne on Monday, up by $3.33 per tonne day on day and up by $26.44 per tonne week on week.Higher...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have might have missed on Monday March 1 that are worth another look.Brazilian iron ore exports increased by 10.9% in February versus the corresponding month in 2020, with a significantly higher average price, according to data released by the country's economy ministry...Read More

A key topic reverberating around the Asian steel market over the past month has been the possibility of China reducing steel export rebates to 9% from the current 13%, or possibly axing them altogether.Market chatter on this topic has grown increasingly louder, with industry sources in China hearing more and more details about these plans from late January onward."This is likely in line with China...Read More

A shortage of containers to ship commodities around the world and the consequent soaring in associated freight rates have led to a revival of interest in breakbulk cargoes. Producers and physical traders of metals, agricultural, chemical and timber products have been starting to book shipments in breakbulk vessels, which cost far less and doesn't require vast amounts of equipment in port. On the m...Read More

The Biden administration's focus on US manufacturing and domestic supply chains will benefit established and developing minerals and metals sectors, including steel, rare earths, graphite and lithium.US President Joe Biden's executive order on the strengthening of American manufacturing, which he signed during his first week in office, is expected to have a direct effect on demand for US-produced...Read More

Ecobat has hired Sebastian Rudow as managing director of Berzelius Metall, the holding group for the company's German and Austrian assets. Rudow joins from European lead rival Recylex, which he has led...Read More

The Silver Market is on the verge of being overwhelmed by investment demand... by Steve St Angelo of SRSrocco ReportThe Silver Market is on the verge of being overwhelmed by investment demand. While this has been a steady process over the past decade, the situation changed rapidly in 2020, and especially in the last two months. Since the WallStreetBets "SilverSqueeze" campaign, more investors are...Read More

The price of tin fell throughout the day on Monday March 1 to its lowest in two weeks at the close of trading on the London Metal Exchange, while the fortunes of the rest of the base-metals complex was mixed following strong losses on the previous Friday.Tin's three-month price was down to $23,460 per tonne on March 1, its lowest 5pm closing price since February 12.The metal was rallying until Fri...Read More

Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices in the fob and cfr markets diverged on Monday March 1, with buyers from China showing little interest in purchasing cargoes.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $127.05 per tonne, up $1.32 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $217.81 per tonne, down $0.74 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $119.17 per tonne, down $0.10 per to...Read More

Iron ore prices dipped on Monday March 1, in line with finished steel prices, with sentiment potentially affected by the Chinese government's commitment to reduce emissions by cutting crude steel output in 2021, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $174.55 per tonne,down $1.23 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $174.96 per tonne,down $1.31 p...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: SHFE tailwind for LME pricesAs we are entering the traditional strong demand season, we expect Chinese aluminium demand to show further recovery, and we expect demand from existing end-user sectors, new infrastructure projects and the export sector to show some increases. As a result, we believe that S...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view, including an upgrade to our aluminium price forecasts.Aluminium: Price forecasts raisedWe correctly expected the macro reflationary theme to raise the prices for all base metals but, with it being the base metal with by far the weakest fundamentals, we had expected the price of aluminium to underperform relative...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.These include an increase in our copper mine disruption estimates, upgrades to our production outlook for Indonesian nickel pig iron (NPI), a smaller refined zinc surplus, and an upgrade to our zinc price forecasts.Aluminium: Big disconnect between price and fundamentalsAluminium has extended its uptrend on the London Metal...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. We also review our price forecasting accuracy for the second quarter 2020.Q2 2020 price forecast performance review According to the results of Fastmarkets' Apex for the second quarter of 2020 published this week, Fastmarkets' base metals research team was the second most accurate price forecaster for nickel (99.06%), lead...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Chinese export prices for seamless oil country tubular goods (OCTG) and linepipe barely moved in February 2021, after rallying in January, because the holidays to celebrate the Lunar New Year curbed market activity sharply.With the holiday now ended, we have seen some sharp jumps in round billet prices and we expect there to...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:US hot-rolled coil prices moved in line with our forecasts in January, with actual prices modestly exceeding our forecasts for the month. Fastmarkets' US HRC index averaged $1,099 per ton in January, slightly above our forecast price of $1,075 per ton for the month. W...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.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