SHANGHAI, Jun 29 (SMM) – Treatment charges (TCs) of imported clean copper concentrate for the week ended Friday June 29 rose $3/mt from a week ago to stand at $83-90/mt, according to SMM assessment.This led to higher refining charges by 0.3 cent/lb, to 8.3-9.0 cent/lb on the week. These marked the sixth consecutive week of increase. Read More
SHANGHAI, Jun 29 (SMM) – Nonferrous metals futures saw mixed trading on Friday June 29. SHFE nickel gained nearly 1.1%, while zinc and lead inched up. Copper lost 0.21%, aluminium fell 0.32%, and tin closed 0.39% lower. The ferrous complex rose across the board with coke leading the gains with a rise of nearly 3.1%. Rebar jumped 1.9%, iron ore grew 1.6%, hot-rolled coil at 1.4% higher,...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jun 25 (SMM) – Spot copper was mostly offered at a discount of 190-140 yuan/mt to the SHFE 1807 contract in the Shanghai market on Friday June 29. This narrowed from a discount of 200-150 yuan/mt a day earlier.The SHFE 1807 contract faced pressure at 51,600 yuan/mt after rising to a high of 51,590 yuan/mt in the afternoon.On the last trading day of June, transactions were mostly co...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jun 29 (SMM) –Copper: LME copper fell to a low of $6,589.5/mt during the European trading hours as longs saw limited support both from the macro and fundamental fronts. The SHFE 1808 contract rose above the daily moving average after touching a low of 51,080 yuan/mt. Copper prices remained under pressure in the short term given the strong US dollar and bearish sentiment in emerging...Read More
Prices for alloy steel scrap in the United Kingdom and Europe were unchanged this week despite falls in the price of both ferro-chrome and nickel.The third-quarter ferro-chrome benchmark settled at $1.38 per lb this week, a drop from the second-quarter price of $1.42 per lb.Meanwhile, the London Metal Exchange three-month official nickel bid/offer spread was at $14,795/15,000 per tonne on Friday,...Read More
Indian flat steel producers are likely to roll over domestic prices of commercial-grade hot-rolled coil (HRC) for July sales.Officials from at least two major flat steel mills confirmed a rollover of HRC prices for July while pointing out that a reduction in HRC prices is unlikely because production costs for mills will rise to reflect the significant weakening of the rupee against the dollar. The...Read More
Zorba suppliers in the United States are pounding the pavement in search of new outlets, with evaporating demand from China creating a supply overhang that is beginning to erode some domestic secondary aluminium scrap prices."There's a huge overhang of zorba in the market. The China impact has caught up. There are people getting shipments rejected, so they're cautious. Containers are on hold, reje...Read More
Australia's Lucapa Diamond (ASX:LOM) has found an 89-carat yellow diamond at its 70%-owned Mothae mine in Lesotho during the current bulk sampling program.The company's managing director, Stephen Wetherall, said the recovery of such a large diamond so early in the bulk sampling program provided further proof that, just like the neighbouring Let??eng mine, Mothae is another source of large diamon...Read More
Correspondent Dalton Barker recaps the week in the non-ferrous markets.Read More
Bluerock Diamonds was up 7.87% to GBX1.27 (CAN0.02) a share after announcing production had resumed at its South African diamond mine, Kareevlei. The company announced that it had found a long-term fix for its cone crusher which had been affecting throughput. The company says that changes made to the crushing circuit will positively impact the plant's performance, improving throughput rates and wi...Read More
Metal Bulletin rounds up some of the key news and price moves from the past week in the world's metal markets. Base metals The persistent widening backwardation on the July/August spread has pushed aluminium premiums in Rotterdam to their lowest this year, with bearish sentiment sweeping the market. Premiums for the supply of aluminium to main Japanese ports (MJP) for the third quarter of 2018 hav...Read More
JSE-listed Rockwell Diamonds will not be able to file audited versions of its annual financial statements for the year ended February 28, by the required deadline of June 30, the company said in a statement on Friday.The embattled company's shares were delisted from the TSX at the end of August 2017 and concurrently listed on the NEX, a separate board of the TSX Venture Exchange.AdvertisementT...Read More
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diamond miner Lucapa Diamond Company has recovered an 89 ct yellow diamond from the current bulk sampling programme at its Mothae project, in Lesotho.The bulk sampling programme is designed to expand and improve the current Mothae resource by processing areas of the kimberlite pipe which are either not included in the resource, or where Lucapa believes there has be...Read More
LSE-listed Gem Diamonds deputy CEO Johnny Velloza intends to leave the company as an executive on September 15.A search for his successor is under way, but in the interim, Gavin Beevers will join the company as technical adviser from July 1, during the handover period and beyond.Advertisement“We are sorry to see Johnny leave our company as an executive but look forward to his ongoing contrib...Read More
The Midwest aluminium premium in the United States logged a second consecutive drop, with market participants pointing to the growing backwardation of aluminium prices on the London Metal Exchange as the primary driver. American Metal Market assessed the spot P1020 premium at 20.5-21 cents per lb on Friday June 29, down from 21.25-21.5 cents per lb on June 26 and the lowest lev...Read More
Nickel prices on the London Metal Exchange have been volatile throughout June, with macroeconomic-driven price dips clouding investor sentiment. The three-month nickel price has fluctuated by $1,340 between a monthly low of $14,505 per tonne and the June high of $15,845 per tonne so far this month. Trade tensions and a strong dollar are weighing on nickel prices, while market participants are expe...Read More
Slab export prices from Brazil edged down as buyers continued struggling to get better-priced deals and competition among steelmakers to book orders to the United States was stiff. Metal Bulletin's weekly assessment of Brazil export slab was $570-585 per tonne fob on Friday June 29, down from $580-595 per tonne in the previous week. Offers from Brazilian mills were heard slightly below...Read More
Price trends for cold-rolled and coated flat-rolled steel in the United States are mixed on divergent market outlooks.While some industry sources think prices for value-added products will shoot higher with hot-rolled coil tags, others said gains could be less pronounced because there is more import competition on the cold-rolled and galvanized fronts than in the hot band arena.American Metal Mark...Read More
US hot-rolled coil prices resumed their upward march on a supply squeeze that could intensify as materially normally sourced from mills in Canada and Mexico leaves the domestic market, industry sources said.American Metal Market's hot-rolled coil index stands at $45.78 per hundredweight ($915.60 per ton), up 0.6% from $45.52 per cwt previously and up 4% from $44.03 per cwt at the beginning of the...Read More