Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States climbed for the eighth consecutive business day while tight supply continued to bump up against rising demand.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $34.10 per hundredweight ($682 per short ton) on Monday October 26, up by 1% from $33.76 per cwt on Friday October 23 and 2.1% higher than $33.39 per cwt a week ago on...Read More
ArcelorMittal has restarted the No3 blast furnace at its Tubar??o facility in Brazil's southeastern Esp?-rito Santo state, on Sunday October 25, the company announced.The equipment has an output capacity of 2.8 million tonnes per year of crude steel and has been halted since April because of the adverse economic situation from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic."The decision aims to supply client...Read More
CIS-based suppliers of steel billet continued to increase their offer prices for foreign customers at the end of October with support from reduced availability of material scheduled for shipment in December.Fastmarkets' daily steel billet index, export, fob Black Sea, CIS, was calculated at $410 per tonne on Monday October 26, up by $4 per tonne day on day.The recent uptick in import scrap prices...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday October 26 that are worth another look.Major iron ore miners are racing to boost their output amid recovering demand and ahead of traditional mid-financial year reporting due by December, market sources told Fastmarkets this week.Uncertainty about next year's aluminium fundamentals and consumer hesitance...Read More
Now is not the time for Freeport-McMoRan to be thinking about mergers and acquisitions, the mining company's chief executive officer says.According to Richard Adkerson, the company - which is just over half-way through a mega-project to transform its giant Grasberg copper-gold mine in Indonesia from an open-pit to an underground operation - is on the verge of creating huge shareholder value."I jus...Read More
Plans for a London Metal Exchange spot trading platform have sparked intense debate within the aluminium industry. But opponents and supporters don't necessarily fall into the camps that one might expect. For starters, a decision by the LME not to change its futures contract, establish a new green aluminium contract or set thresholds to define what constitutes low-carbon metal is proving key in st...Read More
Sometimes it is better to let a situation speak for itself. Alcoa, Rio Tinto Aluminium, Novelis, Constellium, Arconic, Kaiser Aluminum, Tri-Arrows Aluminum, American Metal Chemical Corp, Hydro Extrusion North America, JW Aluminum, Real Alloy, Reynolds Consumer Products, Scepter, Silberline Manufacturing Co, Smelter Service Corp and Wagstaff. The US Aluminum Association, which represents more than...Read More
Limited availability and a solid outlook for electric vehicle (EV) demand have given annual contract negotiations for cobalt hydroxide a kick start, but discussions for cobalt metal may evolve over a longer period, market sources told Fastmarkets.While Covid-19 has hit global economies and dented consumer sentiment, it also put low-carbon economies at the forefront of government policy and expecte...Read More
The three-month price of tin on the London Metal Exchange was the laggard at the close of trading on Monday October 26, losing just under 2% of its price against the highest daily volume count since September 23, while selling pressure saw the LME copper price sink below nearby support levels over the afternoon.Tin's outright price on the LME closed at $18,050 per tonne on Monday, recovering from...Read More
The lithium market has grown to a stage where it can support a futures contract, especially in the context of significant price moves in recent years and forecasts of further growth, Robin Martin, head of market development at the London Metal Exchange, said during a Fastmarkets conference on Monday October 26. "In terms of size, [lithium] is now at a level where it can support an actively traded...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the LME were lower in morning trading on Monday October 26, with tin suffering the most after doubts emerged over the US coronavirus stimulus package and with a steady uptick in the US dollar index. Tin's outright price on the London Metal Exchange was recently trading at $17,865 per tonne on Monday morning, down by just under 3% from Friday's closing price o...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: SHFE tailwind for LME pricesAs we are entering the traditional strong demand season, we expect Chinese aluminium demand to show further recovery, and we expect demand from existing end-user sectors, new infrastructure projects and the export sector to show some increases. As a result, we believe that S...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view, including an upgrade to our aluminium price forecasts.Aluminium: Price forecasts raisedWe correctly expected the macro reflationary theme to raise the prices for all base metals but, with it being the base metal with by far the weakest fundamentals, we had expected the price of aluminium to underperform relative...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.These include an increase in our copper mine disruption estimates, upgrades to our production outlook for Indonesian nickel pig iron (NPI), a smaller refined zinc surplus, and an upgrade to our zinc price forecasts.Aluminium: Big disconnect between price and fundamentalsAluminium has extended its uptrend on the London Metal...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. We also review our price forecasting accuracy for the second quarter 2020.Q2 2020 price forecast performance review According to the results of Fastmarkets' Apex for the second quarter of 2020 published this week, Fastmarkets' base metals research team was the second most accurate price forecaster for nickel (99.06%), lead...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.US ERW OCTG edges higher, seamless could followRising substrate costs helped support US ERW OCTG prices this month, especially at the upper end of the range of offers. Seamless OCTG and linepipe prices, meanwhile, held firm compared with September prices. The fundamentals remain weak, with rig counts going up...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:US domestic prices for hot-rolled coil (HRC) moved sharply higher in September, in line with our expectations, but the magnitude of the rise exceeded our predictions. Domestic HRC prices averaged $566 per ton in September, exceeding our $540 per ton forecast price.A c...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Although we correctly forecast a significant rise in hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices in the United States in September 2020, our price forecast proved too conservative.An impressive V-shaped recovery in key economic fundamentals critical to steel consumption is driving stronger demand for steel at the start of the fourth quarte...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Across the regions, producers of welded linepipe and oil-country tubular goods (OCTG) saw their margins shrink with substrate costs increasing in the third quarter of 2020.Many have been attempting to protect margins with higher prices, with varying degrees of success. Europe-origin commodity-grade steel hot-rolled coil and...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloys forecast highlights:Prices across most ore and alloy markets trended higher in September, buoyed by improving demand from steelmakers with the end of the summer holiday season in Europe and the United States, as well as maintained demand from Chinese steel mills. Tightening of alloy inventories...Read More