RAPAPORT... Sales of jewelry and other luxury items climbed in greater Chinain May, driven by improved consumer sentiment and a higher rate of tourism toHong Kong, according to government sources. In China, retail sales of gold, silver and jewelry increased6% year on year to $3.05 billion (CNY 20.3 billion) for May, the NationalBureau of Statistics of China reported recently. Sales for the January...Read More

Turkish domestic rebar and wire rod prices have gone down over the past week due to sluggish demand, sources said on Thursday July 5.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for domestic rebar in Turkey was $550-560 per tonne ex-works on Thursday, narrowing downward from last week's $550-565 per tonne."Time has passed since the [presidential and parliamentary] elections [in Turkey on...Read More

LISBON – Angola plans to start recovering large funds held by citizens in overseas accounts toward the end of the year under a law meant to repatriate cash that was illegally moved abroad, President Joao Lourenco said.Lourenco said in December that the government wouldn’t ask any questions if wealthy Angolans return their funds and invest in the country, but he didn’t set a deadl...Read More

RAPAPORT... A mob of 300 to 500 people overran Gemfields Group'semerald-exploration operations in Ethiopia on Friday, forcing staff members toflee. Employees, contractors and service providers at Web GemstoneMining (WGM) were safely evacuated to a town a two-hour drive away, the companyreported Monday. Two WGM team members suffered minor injuries, with the gemstoneproducer expecting both of them t...Read More

The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for steel billet, slab and bloom.Latest transaction: billetBilletCIS,...Read More

Turkish rebar export prices have gone down slightly over the past week, amid sluggish buying. But market participants were generally optimistic and expected demand to improve, sources said on Thursday July 5.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for rebar exports out of Turkey was $545-555 per tonne fob on an actual weight basis, narrowing downward from the $545-560 per tonne of last week.Turki...Read More

Imported steel billet prices decreased this week in Egypt with lower offers heard in the market, but domestic rebar prices remained unchanged, sources told Metal Bulletin on Thursday July 5.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for domestic rebar in Egypt on Thursday July 5 was unchanged at E ?12,525-12,528 ($699) per tonne ex-works. The country's major rebar producer, Ezz Steel, continued offe...Read More

Metal Bulletin is proposing to amend the minimum tonnage used in the calculation of its CIS Billet Index.The index is a tonnage-weighted calculation intrinsically linked to market transactions. Following internal analysis, Metal Bulletin is proposing to lower the minimum tonnage included in the index in order to ensure that concluded transactions have the largest effect on the final index calculat...Read More

Baowu Steel, China's largest steelmaker, is adding 4.03 million tonnes to its hot metal capacity and 3.61 million tonnes to crude steel capacity at its Zhanjiang city production site in Guangdong province, south China.The increases come at the expense of production cuts at operations in Shanghai and in Jiangsu province.Baowu cut 1.18 million tons of capacity at its Nanjing-based subsidiary Shangha...Read More

Metal Bulletin proposes to divide its existing 0.10% C low-carbon ferro-chrome product into two products according to chromium content. At present Metal Bulletin includes all price points for low-carbon ferro-chrome with a carbon and chromium content of 0.10% and 60-70% chrome respectively into the existing low-carbon ferro-chrome (0.10% C avg 60-64.9% Cr) delivered consumer works Europe $/lb...Read More

Molybdic oxide prices in Europe have dropped slightly amid slow trading activity this week, while the ferro-molybdenum price range widened.Market participants with either long or short positions are jostling to set a price platform in readiness for expected renewed demand in the latter half of the current quarter.The likelihood is that prices are set to hold around the current range until August,...Read More

The latest ferro-tungsten and ammonium paratungstate (APT) transactions, bids, offers and assessments in Europe, Vietnam and China, with blue tungsten oxide (BTO) and yellow tungsten oxide (YTO) deals taken into consideration.To view the latest price quotations, follow the links below:China- APT, fob China- Ferro-tungsten, fob ChinaEurope- APT, cif Rotterdam- Ferro-tungsten, in-warehouse Rotterdam...Read More

(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices are modestly to slightly higher in early-afternoon U.S. trading Thursday, on mild corrective rebounds after both metals hit multi-month lows earlier this week. This afternoon’s release of the minutes from the latest meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) did not have a significant impact on precious metals prices. August gold futures were la...Read More

(Kitco News) - Gold prices continue to hold on to its gains even after the minutes from the June Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting showed overall optimism on the U.S. economy.According to the June minutes, participants saw the U.S. economy has "very strong" with inflation rising to 2% over the medium term. In this environment, the committee saw interest rates rising to slightly abo...Read More

Key data from Metal Bulletin's Wednesday July 4 pricing session in China.Molybdenum concentrate MB Chinese free market, 45% Mo, in-warehouse China, RMB/mtuKey drivers:- Demand from steel mills for downstream ferro-molybdenum picked up due to lower prices- As a result, prices for moly concentrates, feedstock of ferro-molybdenum, began to increase on...Read More

(Kitco News) - An escalating trade war could spiral out of control and bring the world to the brink of an economic collapse on the scale of the Great Depression of the 1930s, said John Doody, founder of Gold Stock Analyst.“We’re going to get a replay, to some extent, of the 1930s episode where the U.S. put the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, imposed taxes on 20,000 imports, and basically made...Read More

Editor's Note: Updating earlier story with more details from report. (Kitco News) - Goldman Sachs analysts are maintaining an “overweight” rating on commodities despite recent weakness in the complex. Commodities are still the top-performing asset class of 2018, although they fell in June due to weaker emerging-market demand, trade-war worries and supply concerns in the oil market, Gol...Read More

(Kitco News) - So-called “green technologies,” meant to better protect the environment while meeting the demands of consumers, should boost silver demand in the future, says a report from the Silver Institute.In particular, the report cited an expectation for exponential growth of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) and continued investment in solar photovoltaic energy. The combined demand fro...Read More

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar fell to three-week lows on Thursday as strong German industrial orders boosted the euro while U.S. data showed private sector jobs rose less than expected in June, weighing on the greenback along with nagging trade concerns.In recent weeks, the dollar benefited from mounting trade tensions, said John Doyle, director of markets, at Tempus Consulting in Washington. &l...Read More

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Friday July 6.Base metals on the London Metal Exchange were mixed at the close of trading on Thursday July 5, pressured by macroeconomic uncertainty amid continued sell-offs in copper, zinc and tin prices. Read more in our live futures report.Here are how prices looked at the close of trading:Metals packager Ball Corp plans to cease product...Read More