Metal Bulletin has added four battery-grade lithium price assessments to its existing coverage of the battery raw materials sector. Metal Bulletin has established a dedicated, global team to track the lithium ion battery raw materials supply chain while it evolves and responds to demand from the electric vehicle (EV) sector. China is the world's largest consumer of lithium, and is expected to ramp...Read More

The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for ferrous scrap products. Latest transaction: HMS, shreddedTurkey, import; 13,000-17,000 tonnes...Read More

Seaborne iron ore prices outperformed portside values on Tuesday April 17.Metal Bulletin 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $64.51 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up by $0.58 per tonneMetal Bulletin 58% Fe Premium Index: $52.22 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up by $0.13 per tonneMetal Bulletin 65% Fe Iron Ore Index: $82 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up by $1 per tonneMetal Bulletin 62% Fe China Port Price Index: 458 yuan per wet ton...Read More

The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for iron ore, pig iron, direct-reduced iron and other steelmaking raw materials. Latest transactions: iron oreIron oreRio Tinto, tender, 170,000 tonnes of 61% Fe Pilbara Blend fines, sold at $63.33 per tonne cfr China, laycan May 3-12.Rio Tinto,...Read More

The seaborne coking coal market continues to weaken slowly but surely on Tuesday April 17, with lower offers made failing to generate much interest. At one point, a cargo of premium low-vol hard coking coal was offered at $190 per tonne cfr China but it was later retracted by the seller due to a lack of interest, sources told Metal Bulletin. A 135,000-tonne shipment of semi-hard coking coal was so...Read More

Domestic prices for ferrous scrap in Italy decreased this month after the price jump in March, sources told Metal Bulletin.In March, scrap prices increased ?,?30 ($37) per tonne month on month, yet the market has changed direction.Metal Bulletin's monthly price assessment for domestic grade E3 scrap in Italy was ?,?285-300 ($352-371) per tonne delivered in April, compared with ?,?290-310 per tonne...Read More

The arbitrage for copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel imported into China on Tuesday April 17*Copper -$107.39 (-675.63 yuan) Aluminium -$634.93 (-3,994.46 yuan) Zinc -$66.77 (-420.07 yuan) Nickel -$971.50 (-6,111.88 yuan) *The physical arbitrage numbers...Read More

China's hot-rolled coil prices edged up on Tuesday April 17 amid a strengthening of the paper market, particularly in the morning trading session.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,940-3,980 yuan ($627-634) per tonne, narrowed upward by 10 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,880-3,900 yuan per tonne, up 10 yuan per tonne In Shanghai, spot cargoes were traded at the higher end of range in th...Read More

The aluminium market has got an awful lot going for it as the stand-out metal on the London Metal Exchange, both in terms of price performance, at a six-year high near $2,370 per tonne, and record electronic outright turnovers which have been seen in excess of 30,000 lots daily. This scenario, based on a compelling and previously unpredicted perfect storm of supply-demand fundamentals, global trad...Read More

Antimony prices in Europe continued to edge lower last week amid increasing availability of stocks in Rotterdam, while Chinese prices fell on dull downstream demand and expectations of increased concentrate supplies. Metal Bulletin assessed the MMTA standard grade II antimony in-warehouse Rotterdam price at $8,400-8,550 per tonne on Friday, unchanged from Wednesday's assessment, when prices h...Read More

Base metals prices had a strong start to the trading week after a solid close on Monday April 16. Two metals dominated the headlines yesterday: the London Metal Exchange's three-month aluminium price continued its vertical surge, while nickel closed above $14,000 per tonne amid growing concerns that the United States could implement additional sanctions on Russia. But overnight news suggests that...Read More

Vietnam's ferrous scrap imports increased 14.4% to 423,214 tonnes in March 2018, up from 370,069 tonnes in the same period last year.Japan was the largest supplier of ferrous scrap, sending 126,695 tonnes in March, up from 113,251 tonnes sent in March last year.The United States was the second-largest supplier, sending 102,307 tonnes, up from 73,159 tonnes sent in March 2017.  Vietnamese...Read More

https://uk.reuters.com/SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Two leaks in a month, a 90-day outage and $58 million in fines is not enough to temper Anglo American's (AAL.L) ambition for its long-delayed, multi-billion dollar Minas-Rio iron ore mine in Brazil.Purchased at the height of the commodities boom a decade ago for $5.5 billion, Anglo American was once counting on Minas-Rio to produce 26.5 million ton...Read More

By Ira EpsteinMetals consolidating.https://www.iraepstein.com/ Read More

The federal government has borrowed and taxed $4,474,356,967,081 since Tax Day 2017, according to statements published by the U.S. Treasury.Continue...Read More

Times have been hard for Wall Street banks lately, what with record amounts of cash pouring in and causing all kinds of bookkeeping Continue...Read More

A global trade war is now in full swing. Many nations are involved, but the chief antagonists are the U.S. and China.China set up the conditions for a trade war by unfair dumping of steel on world markets and the theft of over $1 trillion of U.S. intellectual property. President Trump fired the first shots with tariffs on steel, aluminum, solar panels and dishwashers. China retaliated with its own...Read More

Friday's missiling of alleged Syrian chemical weapon sites served its purpose...It made for a good show - but worked only light damage.That is, the United States and its allies can gloat about their blow for civilization.But it didn't weaken the Assad regime or challenge the Russians.Thus WWIII has been postponed... until further notice.The markets breathed their sigh of peaceful relief yesterday....Read More

Apr 19, 2018 Guest(s): Jeffrey Christian Managing Partner, CPM Group Platinum-group metals (PGMs) have a dreary long-term outlook due to the electrification of cars, said Jeff Christian, managing partner at CPM Group. "In a long, long-term perspective, precious metals, platinum, palladium, and rhodium, have real risks of finding that the future of automotive technology obviates the need for PGMs...Read More

Apr 19, 2018 Guest(s): Jonathan Butler Mitsubishi Corporation One analyst was surprised that spot gold didn't push higher above its $1,365 an ounce peak a few weeks ago, given heightened geopolitical risks and the prospect of a trade war still looming on investors' minds. Gold rallied in early April, testing $1,360 an ounce, which is a key resistance level for many analysts, but lost momentum sh...Read More