Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday January 21 that are worth another look.China's hot-rolled coil market was quiet on January 21, with producers suspending their operations before the Chinese New Year, while concerns have emerged over post-holiday demand due to the spread of a mysterious respiratory virus that has claimed several lives.SolGold chief executive off...Read More

Beginning in 2020, Fastmarkets will review its pricing methodologies and price specifications across all its Price Reporting Agency (PRA) divisions - Metals & Mining and Forest Products - on an annual basis rather than twice per year. The decision is in line with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) principles for PRAs, which sets out global standards for orderly and fa...Read More

Zinc and lead smelter Nyrstar has appointed Simon Dent, a longtime sales manager and trader, as its new head of commercial as of January 2020.The role will see Dent leading a commercial team that is responsible for all acid and byproduct...Read More

The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange fell over 1.5% during morning trading on Tuesday January 21, declining below nearby support at the $6,200-per-tonne level, while nickel futures similarly weakened. Copper's outright price on the LME was recently at $6,152 per tonne, a 1.7% drop since yesterday's close and more than $100 per tonne against high turnover. A fresh inf...Read More

Profit-taking ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday and nervousness over the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China have led to the market becoming more risk-off this morning, Tuesday January 21.Asian equities are weaker, led by a 2.7% decline in the Hang Seng.Hong Kong's credit rating was cut one position to Aa3 by ratings agency Moody's for its handling of the unrest in the country.Base metalsThre...Read More

With the exception of those for tin, base metals prices on Shanghai Futures Exchange were down at the close of morning trading on Tuesday January 21, with investor sentiment dampened after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its global growth forecasts for this year and the next.The IMF on Monday downgraded its forecast for global economic growth in 2020 to 3.3%, down from its previous e...Read More

Recent mill price hikes have continued to drive up high-carbon wire rod prices in the United States, while rising ferrous scrap costs have boosted cold-heading quality (CHQ) wire rod prices.Fastmarkets' assessment for steel wire rod (high carbon), fob mill US, rose to $35 per hundredweight on Friday December 20, up 2.9% from $34 per cwt one month earlier.Over the same pricing period, Fastmarkets'...Read More

Brazilian steelmaker Usiminas has announced a 10% average price increase for all flat-rolled products effective from March, the president of national steel distributors' association Inda, Carlos Loureiro, said on Tuesday January 21.A mismatch between current global and domestic prices, coupled with the rising cost of slab purchases, would justify the rise, Loureiro said in an announcement on Monda...Read More

Sales volumes from Brazilian flat steel distributors rose by 34.2% in December over the corresponding month in 2018, while purchases increased by 47.9% on the same basis of comparison, distributor association Inda said on Tuesday January 21.Sales in December totaled 253,200 tonnes, against 188,600 tonnes the year before, amid unusually high activity at the year-end, Inda data showed. Purchases cam...Read More

Hot-rolled coil export prices from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) stabilized this week, with suppliers and buyers agreeing on a "workable price level", sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel HRC, export, fob Black Sea was $475-490 per tonne on Monday January 20, unchanged week on week.Ukraine-origin HRC was sold to Turkey at $490-495 p...Read More

A thaw in trade relations between the United States and China is lending broad support to commodity prices, with the yuan strengthening against the dollar.The Chinese currency was trading at 6.87 yuan to $1 on Tuesday January 21, down by 1.6% from a month earlier, and down by 3.8% from a peak reached in September 2019.The strength of the yuan against the dollar has been a barometer for US-China tr...Read More

RAPAPORT... BlueRock Diamonds reported the first annual profit in its history, as sales grew amid increased production and a higher average price, the miner said Tuesday.The improvement was the result of a new initiative the miner implemented at its Kareevlei deposit in South Africa to stabilize production and offset the impact of the rainy season, during which operations are difficult.Revenu...Read More

RAPAPORT... Alrosa's unusual diamond-within-a-diamond formed when material partially dissolved over millions or billions of years, according to a report by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).The GIA's team, which examined the stone at its New York lab, found that over time, approximately 0.11 carats of diamond disappeared through two small channels that extended from the surface of th...Read More

RAPAPORT... US retail sales increased 4.1% during the recent holiday season amid steady consumer confidence, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said.Total sales for the November-to-December period were $730.2 billion, according to the NRF, which bases its numbers on figures from the US Census Bureau. That total came in at the higher end of the NRF's forecast of $727.9 billion to $730.7...Read More

RAPAPORT... Luk Fook plans to scale back its Hong Kong store network and expand in mainland China and Macau, as events in the region have influenced consumer spending.The retailer expects a "single-digit" decrease in the number of rental leases it renews in Hong Kong in the current financial year ending March 31, and a "double-digit" drop the following year, it said Thursday. That comes after...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Holiday retail sales grew 4.1 percent year-over-year to $730.2 billion, reported the National Retail Federation (NRF). This result is in line with the NRF's October forecast that sales would rise between 3.8 percent and 4.2 percent for a total of between $727.9 billion and $730.7 billion.That forecast also called for online sales to increase between 11 percent and 14 percent t...Read More

Aim-listed BlueRock Diamonds turned a profit for the first time during the second half of the 2019 financial year, the success of which was based on the diamond producer having sold 12 675 ct of diamonds for the year, marking an increase of 118% over the year before.While grades and prices per cart had also improved, BlueRock on Tuesday noted that its production volumes had increased by 70% y...Read More

Access our research platformsSign-in to our platforms to access our extensive research, our latest insight, data and analytics and to connect to our industry experts.This year may prove to be a strong one for the refining sector, but 2020 has had a difficult start. Wood Mackenzie expects some turbulence this year as a number of factors come together – geopolitical risk, the impact of IMO 202...Read More

The artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector is in need of formalisation in order to establish itself as a legitimate source of diamond supply; however, faced with complex mining ecosystems and operating conditions that are vastly different from the large-scale diamond mining sector, De Beers says “the approach to supporting formalisation must be tailored, incremental and robust”....Read More

Cardinal heading down familiar gold roadSPONSOREDcardinal resourcesSarama right in the middle of big exploration, corporate build-upSPONSOREDsarama resources Exore excels in Cote d'IvoireSPONSOREDexore resourcesCase study: platform financeSPONSOREDminexiaThe company produced 60 million tonnes of iron ore in the December quarter, down 1% quarter-on-quarter and down on UBS' forecast of 69.9Mt.BH...Read More