SHANGHAI, Jun 26 (SMM) – This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last night and what is expected today.Last nightThe US dollar index dipped overnight on risk aversion and closed at 94.3. News reports suggested that companies with 25% or more Chinese ownership may be banned from buying US businesses with “industrially significant technology”.Base metals fell across the boar...Read More

   •  Struggles to register any meaningful recovery despite reviving safe-haven demand, amid concerns over a full-blown global trade war, and slightly oversold conditions.     •  An occurrence of death cross on the daily chart, 50-day SMA crossing the very important 200-day SMA from the top, adds credence to last week's bearish break below a medium-...Read More

SHANGHAI, Jun 25 (SMM) – Nonferrous metals futures saw mixed trading on Monday June 25 as the decision of China’s central bank to cut the required reserve ratio (RRR) by 0.5 percentage point provided only limited support. SHFE lead gained over 1.1%, nickel rose 0.72%, while zinc slumped over 1.8%. Other base metals inched down.In the ferrous market, iron ore jumped nearly 2%, coking co...Read More

Crude Oil prices surged 5% on Friday after OPEC agreed a modest hike in oil supply after Saudi and Iran compromised to compensate for losses in production at a time of rising global demand. Gold prices bounced off 6 month lows last week as the dollar slipped from 11 month highs whilst hedge funds and money managers trimmed their net long position in COMEX gold to the weake...Read More

SHANGHAI, Jun 25 (SMM) – China's output of ternary materials went flat month on month in May at 12,000 mt, SMM data showed. Supplies grew in Xiamen of Fujian province and in some cities in the north as new capacity commissioned at ternary materials plants on high downstream demand. However, output in Hunan, Henan, and Yunnan provinces dipped last month as producers sl...Read More

Ferro-chrome benchmark price negotiations for the third quarter of 2018 are revealing a fresh spin on some familiar topics and a more detailed look at regional price differences across the supply chain. Metal Bulletin reported last week that the widely-expected reduction in the third-quarter settlement is likely to be smaller than previously anticipated, due to strengthening ferro-chrome markets,...Read More

Switzerland-based miner-trader Glencore has settled a dispute over its Kamoto Copper Co (KCC) operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Now it's being singled out as a beacon of commitment to efforts by state-run mining company G?(C)camines to restructure its mining sector. Switzerland-based miner-trader Glencore has settled a dispute over its Kamoto Copper Co (KCC) operation in the Dem...Read More

Producing and then trading metal used to be the purview of just a few, with the supply chain more typically separated into silos and companies making occasional forays into different areas. But as the line between producer and trader has become increasingly blurred, the differentiator between companies is becoming the services they provide. As Christophe Allain, group portfolio director for non-fe...Read More

Nickel on the London Metal Exchange were down by more than 3% at the close of trading on Monday June 25 while other base metals prices also slumped. Nickel traded in an intraday range of $680 per tonne, eventually closing 3.6% by the end of trading below $15,000 per tonne.A sharp rise in the dollar index, which remains high, piled pressure on the base metals last week while added uncertainty about...Read More

The London Metal Exchange will introduce three regional hot-rolled coil contracts at the start of 2019, coinciding with a change in attitude towards risk management tools for the ferrous sector, according to the exchange's business development manager. The contracts are aimed at the domestic markets in the United States and in Europe as well as the Chinese export market, said Marko Kusigerski...Read More

Comex copper prices started another week in negative territory with global trade volatility preventing a recovery. Copper for July settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 1.40 cents or 0.5% to $3.0130 per lb. Volatile global trading conditions continue to dampen investment after the United States' most recent announcement of a 20% import tariff on EU car im...Read More

Although base metals are under pressure in the short term, we have a bullish bias to our 2018 price forecasts given the supportive background of solid global economic growth and the fact that all six base metal markets look set to be in fundamental deficit this year. But each has a slightly different supply-side story and this aspect should be the main differentiator. For example, zinc's narrative...Read More

Despite Chinese winter smelter production cuts generally falling short of expectations and domestic stocks continuing to climb - both of which suggest the market remains far more comfortably supplied at this point than aluminium bulls had been anticipating - prices still rallied into the year-end to reach $2,290/tonne for the first time since March 2012.And after a New Year pull-back the strength...Read More

Copper prices were working lower during most of December and in the absence of any bullish triggers we had been expecting that trend to continue. But in late December, fund buying picked up aggressively, driving prices to a fresh multi-year high of $7,203/tonne. There was little fundamental justification for this and we should consider it a warning that speculators and investors feeling optimistic...Read More

By Benjamin Parkin and David Hodari Copper prices fell to the lowest close in almost three months as tension between the U.S. and China continued to unsettle investors. Front-month contracts for June fell 1.3% to $2.992 a pound at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday, the lowest since March 27. Prices have fallen around 10% from a peak earlier this month. There is "c...Read More

Lead prices remain on their steady uptrend since the summer lows last year and in January have been eroding resistance around October's 6-year high above $2,600/tonne. We expect the underlying strengthening fundamentals, especially on the supply side, to maintain the uptrend this year. Primary producers may well struggle to respond to higher lead prices and we doubt there is much hoarded scrap aro...Read More

By Benjamin Parkin and David Hodari Copper prices fell to the lowest level this month as tension between the U.S. and China continued to unsettle investors. July-dated contracts fell 0.6% to $3.0105 a pound at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday, touching the lowest point since May. Prices have fallen almost 10% from a peak earlier this month. There is "concern glob...Read More

The Indian government's plans of hitting 300 million tonnes of steel capacity by 2030 sounds overambitious in the current scenario given that output only managed to reach the 101 million tonne mark in 2017 - indicating three-fold (Read More

After suffering for some seven years through to 2015, the world's steelmakers have had cause for cheer over the past couple of years. After some heavy losses and write-downs, they finally appear to have emerged from the wreckage of the global financial crisis. An economic upswing has taken root in most regions of the world, Chinese steel output and export growth has slowed noticeably, and steel pr...Read More

For a number of years problems at Ilva, the largest steelworks in Europe, have been casting shadow over the performance of the whole Italian steel industry. Will an acquisition of Ilva by a consortium led by ArcelorMittal, now in its final stage, be a game changer for the market?Following multiple reports of environmental and health problems caused by the Taranto plant, in 2013 Ilva was placed und...Read More