The European Steel Association, Eurofer, has welcomed the European Commission's pledge of "appropriate and swift measures" after the United States finally announced Section 232 trade tariffs.US president Donald Trump announced the imposition of import duties of 25% on steel and 10% aluminium on March 1. "We welcome the [EC] announcement [that] appropriate and swift measures will be taken...Read More

After spending almost an entire day at underground refuge stations, 55 workers at The Mosaic Company's (NYSE:MOS) K2 potash facility in Saskatchewan made it safely to surface. Following a small underground fire, the workers were asked to stay at the safe spaces where they had access to drinking water and food items. In the meantime, staff just outside of the mine were running air monitoring tests....Read More

Prices in the global steel billet market continued climbing in the week ended Friday March 2 as market factors supported the upward trend.One of the major factors was the surge in domestic billet prices in China after the week-long lunar new year holiday.Steady growth in import scrap prices in Turkey was another supportive factor for the global billet market.Metal Bulletin's daily index for Northe...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

After spending almost an entire day at underground refuge stations, 55 workers at The Mosaic Company's (NYSE:MOS) K2 potash facility in Saskatchewan made it safely to surface. Following a small underground fire, the workers were asked to stay at the safe spaces where they had access to drinking water and food items. In the meantime, staff just outside of the mine were running air monitoring tests....Read More

U.S. President Donald Trump has spoken to world leaders about his planned tariff hike on steel and aluminum and is not considering any exemptions to the measure, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Sunday."I know he's had conversations with a number of the world leaders," Ross said in an interview with ABC's "This Week.""The decision obviously is his, but as of the moment as far as I know he's...Read More

Altamira Gold Corp. (TSXV: ALTA) has begun exploring for copper on its more than 200 sq. km land package in the Juruena Mineral Belt of eastern Brazil's Para and Mato Grosso states. The initiative marks an expanded vision for the Vancouver-based company, which had previously focused solely on gold exploration on that same land.Several of Altamira's properties have tested positive for copper gradin...Read More

Golden Arrow Resources Corp. (TSXV: GRG) - a member of the Gross Group of companies - is placing its precious and base metal exploration assets in Argentina into a new, 100%-owned subsidiary called New Golden Exploration, now that its more advanced Chinchillas silver project headed towards production under a new joint venture agreement with SSR Mining Inc. (TSX: SSRM; NASDAQ: SSRM).Chinchillas is...Read More

Victoria Gold Corp. (TSXV: VIT; US-OTC: VITFF) has completed its Phase 1 Construction de-risking program at its 2.7 million oz. Eagle Gold Project in central Yukon and is now preparing to launch its Phase 2 Construction Program for 2018."The Eagle Gold Project is unique amongst development projects because it is fully permitted, almost fully financed and in a safe political jurisdiction," says Vic...Read More

Commander Resources (TSX-V: CMD) announced today that Fjordland Exploration (TSX.V: FEX) will fund a $1.2 million exploration program on the company's South Voisey's Bay nickel-copper-cobalt project, located in northeastern Canada.The 29,400-hectare property is located in central Labrador, 80 kilometres south of Vale's Voisey's Bay Nickel mine. It covers parts of the Pants Lake Gabbro Complex.In a...Read More