Good morning from Metal Bulletin's offices in Asia, bringing the key news and market stories on Wednesday January 3. Zinc prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) were well supported by falling overseas stock levels in Asian morning trading on Wednesday January 3, while copper pared overnight gains. Check Metal Bulletin's live futures report here. LME snapshot at 0202 London timeLatest 3M&nb...Read More
RAPAPORT... Robust retail sales during the recent holiday period willlead to growth in Hong Kong's export market in 2018, the Hong Kong TradeDevelopment Council (HKTDC) said. Strong sales figures at the end of 2017 in both traditionaland emerging markets will result in higher shipments of products from Hong Kongto these locations, the organization predicted in a study it released last week. US ho...Read More
RAPAPORT... The president and chief financial officer of Alex and Anihave left the jewelry brand, according to reports. The one-year contracts of company president CindyDiPietrantonio (pictured) and chief financial officer Bob Woodruff expired, ProvidenceJournal reported last month. Both of them joined Alex and Ani in 2016:DiPietrantonio was chief operating officer until her promotion to president...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The international auction house Bonhams has appointed Jean Ghika as its new Global Head of Jewellery. As part of her new role, Ghika will oversee sales in Bonhams offices in London, New York, Hong Kong and Los Angeles. She has worked at Bonhams for 25 years and is a leading jewelry expert, the auction house said. She was appointed Director of Jewellery for UK &...Read More
RAPAPORT... This year's edition of the Miami Beach Jewelry & WatchShow will move to a new venue, organizers said. The event, scheduled to run from February 1 to 4, will now takeplace at the waterfront location of One Herald Plaza, a popular area in Miami known for prestigious art fairs, the Palm Beach Show Group noted. Last year's event was at the Deauville Beach Resort.Organizers had pla...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sarine Technologies Ltd said that its Galaxy (R) family of scanning and inclusion mapping systems surpassed the milestone of having scanned 10 million stones worldwide in one year in 2017. Since its release into the market in late 2009, Sarine's internal inclusion mapping technology, the Galaxy family of systems (today encompassing the Galaxy, Galaxy XL, Galaxy Ultra, Solari...Read More
Zinc and lead concentrate treatment charges (TCs) were little changed throughout December despite Glencore's decision to restart production at its Lady Loretta mine in Australia in 2018.Glencore will add 100,000 tonnes of zinc - or roughly 200,000-220,000 tonnes of zinc concentrates - to the market in 2018 via the restart at Lady Loretta and will subsequently ramp up another 60,000 tonnes per year...Read More
RAPAPORT... Bonhams has appointed Jean Ghika as global director of finejewelry, the London-based auction house announced. She will supervise sales inLondon, New York, Hong Kong and Los Angeles.Ghika's promotion comes after 25 years at Bonhams, where shewas most recently director of jewelry for the UK and Europe. She has beenresponsible for several world records the company achieved during her...Read More
The zinc industry in the United States is likely to remain fairly balanced in 2018, with continued strong demand for material offsetting new production coming online.Barring any major developments or setbacks, market participants expect spot market premiums, assessed at 8-9 cents per lb in mid-December, to remain in a similar range next year, according to market participants.Although mil...Read More
The prospects for aluminium in 2018 appear tied to global trade concerns - particularly protectionist rhetoric coming from the United States as well as the future of supply cuts by Chinese smelters.In the US, the primary question mark dominating market attention is the fate of the Section 232 investigation into national security issues surrounding primary aluminium imports. According to recen...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly lower at the close on Wednesday January 3, with lead the only metal to finish the day in positive territory. "Lead put in a steady performance while the rest of the metals faltered, underpinned by a positive fundamental picture and tighter LME conditions," Sucden Financial said. "With FOMC minutes from the December meeting due for release...Read More
2017 was a strong year for base metals on the London Metal Exchange with zinc, copper and aluminium all setting multi-year highs.The latest rally took place within the last few days of the year, with aluminium climbing to a yearly high of $2,290 per tonne on the last trading day of 2017, and just in time to make it the strongest performer of the year. "Copper [was] trading close to a four-year hig...Read More
The prospects for aluminium in 2018 appear tied to global trade concerns - particularly protectionist rhetoric coming from the United States as well as the future of supply cuts by Chinese smelters.In the US, the primary question mark dominating market attention is the fate of the Section 232 investigation into national security issues surrounding primary aluminium imports. According to recen...Read More
Money Morning Resource Specialist Peter Krauth predicts gold prices could climb as high as $1,500 by the end of 2018, roughly 14% above current levels.Because of our bullish outlook, Money Morning readers have been asking us, "What is the best gold ETF to buy in 2018?"We're going to show you the best gold ETF to invest in this year in just a bit.But first, here's why we are so bullish on the prec...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 3 (SMM)? 1/4 ? Nonferrous metals mostly moved lower today although lead was up 1.6%.The ferrous complex saw mixed trading with coking coal leading the gain with 2% rise and coke edging up. Rebar, hot-rolled coil and iron ore all dropped close to 1%.Copper: LME Copper dropped today and is expected to test support at the 10-day moving average. The US ISM manufacturing index in December...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 3 (SMM)? 1/4 ? Nonferrous metals mostly moved lower today although lead was up 1.6%.The ferrous complex saw mixed trading with coking coal leading the gain with 2% rise and coke edging up. Rebar, hot-rolled coil and iron ore all dropped close to 1%.Copper: LME Copper dropped today and is expected to test support at the 10-day moving average. The US ISM manufacturing index in December...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 3 (SMM)? 1/4 ? Nonferrous metals mostly moved lower today although lead was up 1.6%.The ferrous complex saw mixed trading with coking coal leading the gain with 2% rise and coke edging up. Rebar, hot-rolled coil and iron ore all dropped close to 1%.Copper: LME Copper dropped today and is expected to test support at the 10-day moving average. The US ISM manufacturing index in December...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 3 points in pre-opening trade.IBM gained $0.63 to $47.26 after RBC Capital upgraded the stock to Outperform from Sector Perform. Wendy's added $0.13 to $16.45 after SunTrust raised its target price to $22 from $17.McDonald's advanced $1.02 to $174.24 after SunTrust raised its target price to $205 from $178. Scana jumpe...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 3 (SMM)? 1/4 ?Copper: LME copper prices continued to see corrections as longs took profits. We expect LME copper to trade at $7,170-7,280/mt today and SHFE copper at 54,800-55,400 yuan/mt. Spot copper discounts are to narrow to 150-90 yuan/mt following lower futures prices.Aluminium: Weaker momentum is seen for LME aluminium to trade higher and it is expected to hover in the range of...Read More
SHANGHAI, Jan 3 (SMM) – The workshop that caught fire at Jinchuan Group’s nickel smelter on New Year’s Eve has an annual production capacity of 30,000 mt and it produces both refined nickel and electrowinning nickel, SMM understood.Total nickel production for Jinchuan’s smelter is targeted at 135,000 mt for 2018.The workshop, No.3, produces sulphide ore products and interme...Read More