SHANGHAI, Jan 4 (SMM)? 1/4 ? Production at zinc smelters in Huayuan County, Hunan province remained suspended or restricted even though zinc prices have performed well, SMM learned.Smelters in the region have been in suspension since early December due to environmental inspections, as SMM reported. Such activities appeared to have been ongoing, sources said.Huayuan County is one of China’s l...Read More

Originally published at The Boock ReportAt the individual investor level there is certainly a lot of excitement heading into the new year. AAII said Bulls rose to 59.8 from 52.7 last week. That is the highest level since December 2010. Bears are nowhere to be found, falling to 15.6 from 20.6 and that is the least amount since November 2014 by .5 pt. Another drop by more than .5 pt would put t...Read More

SHANGHAI, Jan 4 (SMM)? 1/4 ?Copper: LME copper was under pressure to move towards the 10-day moving average and it is expected to trade at $7,130-7,180/mt today. The main contract SHFE copper is to trade at 54,500-55,500 yuan/mt. In the spot market, the discounts are likely to be narrowed to 90-50 yuan/mt today.Nickel: Nickel futures saw downward correction pressure as Chinese domestic stainless s...Read More

Base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange are for the most part little changed this morning, Thursday January 4, apart from nickel and copper prices that are up by 0.8% and 0.6%, with the latter at $7,220 per tonne.Volume has picked up with 9,663 lots traded as of 07:01 am London time. This follows a diverse performance on Wednesday that saw copper, aluminium, nickel and zinc close down an a...Read More

The Dow failed to OPEN above the 2017 Intraday high so we are not yet ready for prime time. This is still a 0ff-Broadway play, but we are getting closer. The dollar still finished neutral so it too is not yet ready for its move higher. Gold closed in a positive position for the end of 2017 confirming the posture in the dollar.We will review all the world markets for 2018 in the coming Outlook Re...Read More

A solar system learning park designed by a group of Mines students could soon come to life in Denver's Northeast Park Hill neighborhood. The students of Team Naztek designed the scaled solar system - with an interactive sundial representing the sun and fiberglass planets placed to scale to represent their true distances in the solar system - for their Capstone Design project. They met with Denver...Read More

Turkish domestic wire rod prices inched up over the past week with rising imported scrap costs, while domestic rebar prices remained comparatively stable, sources told Metal Bulletin on Thursday January 4.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for domestic wire rod in Turkey was $600-620 per tonne ex-works, widened upward from the $600-610 per tonne...Read More

Copper bulls may have set the metal's prices up for a fall in 2018 after a staggering December rally saw prices reach four-year highs, market analyst told Metal Bulletin. The London Metal Exchange's three-month copper price ended 2017 up 30.8% for the year having peaked at $7,312.5 per tonne on December 28. Concerns that up to 40% of global copper mine supply has the potential to be disrupted thro...Read More

European zinc premiums have gone up slightly for 2018 contracts compared with a year ago, multiple sources told Metal Bulletin, citing an increase in transportation costs.In 2018, the bulk of European deals were settled at premiums of $135-150 per tonne on a duty-paid fca basis via Rotterdam and Antwerp, while delivered premiums in Italy for long-term contracts were around $190-210 per tonne, acco...Read More

The current tightness in the lithium market is set to remain for up to a decade due to delays in securing the appropriate regulatory framework in Chile, a senior executive at Canada-based junior mining firm Wealth Minerals said.Demand for lithium has skyrocketed in recent months following a boost to demand for the batteries used in electric vehicles. But Chile, which has the world's second largest...Read More

Brazil's primary aluminium exports fell by 35% in 2017, reaching the lowest level on record as the two remaining local producers focused on the domestic market. Shipments totaled 210,201 tonnes in 2017 compared with 323,322 tonnes in 2016, according to figures from the country's foreign trade ministry, MDIC. This is the lowest annual aluminium export volume since 1989, the initial year on the mini...Read More

Kaz Minerals will invest $1.2 billion in expanding its Aktogay copper processing facility to bring an extra 80,000 tonnes of copper capacity to the market by 2022. The London-listed company said on December 21 it had approved the construction of a new concentrator, doubling the annual sulphide ore processing capacity at Aktogay in Kazakhstan to 50 million tonnes. Copper production from sulfide ore...Read More

The latest metal markets news and price moves to start the North American day on Thursday January 4.The latest metal markets news and price moves to start the North American day on Thursday January 4.Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were universally higher during morning trading, with copper and nickel climbing more than 1%."After weakness and consolidation in the base metals in rec...Read More

Copper was one of the biggest winners of 2017; the catalysts that fueled that rally are reappearing this year.A scorching Chinese property market, extended outages at some of the world's largest copper mines and upbeat global growth prospects all led to the unexpected rally to its highest price since August 2014 high in mid-October.And those exact same bullish arguments remain for this year; wheth...Read More

Brazilian flat steel import volumes nearly doubled year-on-year in 2017, mostly because of increased shipment volumes of heavy plate, cold-rolled coil (CRC) and hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG).Imports reached a total of 1.31 million tonnes, against 665,386 tonnes in 2016, according to figures released by the country's foreign trade ministry, MDIC, on Thursday January 4.China was...Read More

Indian prices for steel and ferrous scrap are likely to increase after a significant price rise was brought in by state-run iron ore producer National Mineral Development Corp (NMDC), sources told Metal Bulletin on Thursday January 4.NMDC's price for Indian lump ore rose to 3,100 rupees ($49) per tonne while fines have increased to 2,760 rupees per tonne, the company said in a filing to the Bombay...Read More

Turkish domestic and export billet prices have increased slightly in line with costlier imported scrap, while billet import prices were unchanged over the past week, sources said on Thursday January 4.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for domestic billet on Thursday was $545-550 per tonne ex-works, up from the $540-545 per tonne of last week.However, the...Read More

Turkish long steel export prices have continued to climb over the past week, in line with increasing scrap costs, sources said on Thursday January 4.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for rebar exports out of Turkey was $570-580 per tonne fob, actual weight. This was up from the $560-570 per tonne of last week.But Turkish...Read More

Turkey has reduced the import duty applied to incoming shipments of hot-rolled coil (HRC) intended for re-rollers to 3.5% from the previous 5%, with effect from Monday January 1.The duty remains at 9% for other HRC imports, Metal Bulletin has heard.Market...Read More

Egypt's import billet and domestic rebar markets were slow in the week ended Thursday January 4, after the new year break."The market is so quiet [because of] the holiday season," a trader told Metal Bulletin on Thursday January 4.Now buyers expect local rebar prices to increase, another market participant said.They have...Read More