The benchmark cash/three-month spread in aluminium at the start of this week hit backwardation levels not seen since before the Global Financial Crisis, which is a landmark event but not necessarily a signal of a major shift in market dynamics.It is most probably a short-term aberration caused by the potent combination of February date shorts clashing with dominant longs but given added spice and...Read More

Apple has been experimenting with ways to recover cobalt from its lithium-ion batteries and to use recycled cobalt. The company says it could potentially recover 550 kilograms of cobalt from every 100,000 iPhone 6 devices it recycles. Now there are reports it's looking to secure cobalt directly from miners, marking a further move by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to ensure certainty of ra...Read More

The early-February sell-off in London Metal Exchange base metals seems to have run its course for now, but it may have not been as extreme as it could have been, ironically because of the growing influence of computerized trading systems.At the end of December last year, copper traded as high as $7,291.50 per tonne, and was pretty much maintained at solid levels comfortably above $7,000 for the fi...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

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

In the assumption that one of the three recommendations by the DOC (Dept. of Commerce) is adopted and unlike section 201 made permanent, US producer prices (FOB Midwest mill) are unlikely to fall in the short term but the degree of gains could be quite different.In this article we examine "option 3" - a quota regime, which restricts foreign steel to 63% of the 2017 total. In this scenario the pric...Read More

Kim Leppold, Senior Consultant, Metal Bulletin Research.Metal Bulletin Research (MBR) has examined the effects of the potential Section 232 actions on the US OCTG markets based on the recommendations set out by the Department of Commerce in mid-February.The three recommendations are essentially a blanket tariff up to 24% on all steel products imported to the USA from all countries, a blanket quota...Read More

On Friday February 16, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross revealed what recommendations were made after the Section 232 investigation was complete. Three alternative remedies were proposed: a global tariff of at least 24% on all steel imports; a tariff of at least 53% on all steel imports from 12 countries (Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia, South Africa, Thaila...Read More

During the past couple of years, US steelmakers, especially on the carbon flat-rolled side, have been consistently reporting better margins, albeit after a horrendous 2015 when falling demand was exacerbated by high import volumes.But with the US economy now booming and predicted to accelerate this year, it looks as if things can only get better through 2018. Unsurprisingly, some of the most profi...Read More

The closure of some induction furnaces in China in 2016 followed by the government's crackdown on all unlicensed IFs in mid-2017 freed up some scrap volumes, albeit arguably of low-quality material. Chinese domestic scrap prices came under pressure from the increased supply, which prevented them from keeping pace with the rise in steel and other raw material markets in the fourth quarter of 2016;...Read More

About a year ago, metallurgical coal embarked on a long journey of great volatility and disruption. It emerged as the best performing commodity in 2016 after several years of declining prices. Prices have dropped and spiked several times since then and the volatility continued in 2017 with a cyclone disrupting the market and eventually also affecting the way the commodity is priced. Although therm...Read More

The past year, soaring metallurgical coal prices have greatly affected the costs involved in producing pig iron, a form of crude iron which is the product of the blast furnace. Metal Bulletin Research's Global Steel Cost Service details how coking coal and coke costs usually averaged around 35% of total pig iron production expenditure in 2014 and 2015 while iron ore stood for the majority of costs...Read More

Bullishness in the iron ore prices seen during the start of the year has been replaced with greater volatility as supply outpaces demand. Chinese state-directed infrastructure spending and a strong construction market effectively drove bullish sentiment in the first quarter of 2017, fuelling steel production and iron ore consumption. However, with the steel run rates slowing down as the China Iron...Read More

This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.Here is a sample of this item:by Stockwatch Business Reporter West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery gained 26 cents to $61.25 on the New York Merc, while Brent for May gained 54 cents to $64.37 (all figures in this para U.S.). Western Canadian Select traded at a discount of $28 to WTI...Read More

This item is part of Stockwatch's value added news feed and is only available to Stockwatch subscribers.Here is a sample of this item:by Will PurcellThe diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Friday was a positive 92-82-116. The TSX Venture Exchange fell three points to 826 while rough diamond prices were flat. Dermot Desmond's Kennady Diamonds Inc. (KDI) dropped five cents to $2.95 o...Read More

US Federal District Court Judge Richard J. Leon has stayed Rusoro's $966.5-million International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes Expropriation award against Venezuela registered in the US. Following the World Bank agency's decision to grant the award on August 22, 2016, Rusoro took that judgment to the US Federal Court in Washington, D.C. on October 10, 2016. The idea was to regis...Read More

Vancouver-based Trevali Mining (TSX: TV) and Quebec-based Puma Exploration (TSX-V:PUMA) have entered into a Letter of Intent for the acquisition by the former of an option to acquire an interest in the Murray Brook Deposit and to form a proposed Strategic Exploration Alliance in the northern portion of the Bathurst Mining Camp in New Brunswick, Canada.Under the terms of the LOI, Trevali, at its op...Read More

https://uk.reuters.com/LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) – The London Metal Exchange (LME) copper price has risen 26 percent since the start of January 2016. That month saw a five-year downtrend bottom out at $4,318 per tonne. Three-month copper on Friday was trading above $6,900.The lift in price has been part of a broader revaluation of the base metals complex but also reflects specific concerns a...Read More