The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron ore remains the most bullish commodity of the year, with prices fuelled by Chinese demand and supply disruptions in Brazil, along with bullish sentiment. But prices are expected to come down because Brazilian exports have begun to recover, and have reached their highest level since the Brumadinho dam disaster in 2019. W...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In the iron ore market, supply issues including heavy rains at the start of the year, followed by staffing problems during the Covid-19 pandemic, have affected exports from Brazil. This has helped Australia gain a larger market share, but since June, Brazilian export volumes have returned to levels last seen before the...Read More
Stainless steel prices continue to register new highs around the end of the first half of 2021 and steelmakers continue to enjoy outsized margins.They have responded in recent months by increasing their output, which has now pushed above pre-pandemic levels and will eventually restore balance to the market.For now, though, supply gaps are still being filled and buyers find themselves competing aga...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Recent weeks have brought two key developments with regard to trade policy on stainless steel products that will be to the detriment of consumers.In China, the country's stainless steelmakers no longer enjoy a 13% export rebate as of May 1, reducing greatly their incentive to export and instead leading them to focus on supply...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices and margins for stainless steel producers have risen notably over the past few months in both Europe and the United States, but there are now signs that the rally is petering out.A clear reason for the halt to rising prices comes from the near 20% drop in nickel prices seen in late February/early March,...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.With nickel prices down by almost 20% over the space of around ten days during late February and early March, one might have been expecting us to be reporting sharply-lower prices of stainless steel, at least for the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel.This is not the case, at least in Europe and the Unite...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were down across the board on Tuesday September 21 with uncertainty related to Chinese construction company Evergrande continuing to cast a shadow over the market."This week's sell-off was triggered by a sharp negative turn in global risk sentiment, with the world keeping a close eye on the collapse of Chinese property developer Evergrande and trader...Read More
The Malaysia Smelting Corporation, one of the largest tin producers in the world, is currently operating its main smelter with 80% of its staff present, one company representative confirmed to Fastmarkets on September 21. MSC declared force majeure in early June after the third wave of Covid-19 cases began to rapidly affect the country. The spokesperson for the company noted that the force ma...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday September 21 that are worth another look.ArcelorMittal is preparing to invest $100 million from its innovation fund into a company founded by Bill Gates, best known as the founder of Microsoft, to develop decarbonization technologies, it announced on Monday September...Read More
Teck Resources has trimmed its 2021 production guidance figures for refined zinc and concentrate and said that its copper concentrate shipment timing had been affected by wildfires and logistics disruptions in its home region of British Columbia, Canada.The company now expects its Trail operations to produce 285,000-290,000 tonnes of refined zinc in 2021, down from 290,000-300,000 tonnes previousl...Read More
Aluminium producer Alcoa has decided to begin to restart production at its Brazilian smelter Alumar immediately, with first output expected in the second quarter of 2022, the United States-headquartered company said on Monday September 20.The unit, located in Brazil's northeastern Maranh??o state, has a capacity of 447,000 tonnes per year of aluminium, but production was completely halted in March...Read More
Base metal prices on the morning of Tuesday September 21 stuck near the levels seen at the sell-off on Monday, triggered by continued uncertainty over the fate of Chinese property developer Evergrande.Copper's three-month price was at $9,053 per tonne, for example, a small rise from its closing price of $9,033 per tonne on Monday, a 3% drop from last Friday's 5pm price. The red metal dropped to $8...Read More
Base metals prices have generally been under pressure in recent days while broad-based risk-off has weighed on the market, but the metals were looking more mixed on the morning of Tuesday September 21, suggesting consolidation after Monday's average loss of 1.6% across the London Metal Exchange base metals. The risk-off sentiment seems to be tied in with concerns about whether Chinese property gia...Read More
Flat steel sales from Brazilian distributors declined by 26.60% year on year in August, with the market normalizing from supply constrains seen earlier in the year, according to national steel distributors' association Inda.Brazilian distributors sold 274,500 tonnes of flat steel last month, down from 373,800 tonnes in August 2020, according to the figures released on Tuesday September 21. The rea...Read More
Flat steel buyers in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia preferred to wait for prices to stop coming down before they placed any new orders, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday September 21.Most imported flat steel prices to the two countries have decreased during the past week, because of lower offer prices. End-user demand remained weak because of the lack of big new projects, sources adde...Read More
After a one-month consultation period, Fastmarkets will amend the timing specifications for its assessment of the China import steel billet price from Tuesday September 28.The frequency of the assessments, which are currently weekly, will move to a twice-weekly basis after the next assessment date on Friday September 24.The change would have been due to take place on Tuesday September 21, as per t...Read More
The market for steel rebar and billet in the United Arab Emirates was silent in the week to September 21 because buyers were waiting for new local rebar prices to be announced, sources told Fastmarkets.Most market participants expect prices to follow the global downtrend.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $700-710 per tonne on Sep...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in northern Europe and Italy declined on Tuesday September 21 due to low trading activity, sources told Fastmarkets.Spot buyers have been holding back from making new orders because they have sufficient stocks and they expect domestic prices to move down further. Negative sentiment has been supported by reduced demand from the automotive segment. Car manufacture...Read More
CIS wire rod export prices had an up-and-down week in the seven days to Monday 20 September, particularly in Russia, where mill offer prices went in different directions, sources told Fastmarkets.Russia's Abinsk Electric Steel Works continued to drop its offer prices to attract customers and outflank competitive offers from Turkey.The most recent offers from the mill were heard at $767-772 per ton...Read More
Activity in the Asian import markets for steel billet has been stifled over the past few days amid continued weak demand in the Philippines market and China's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday September 21.Offers from traders for 125mm 5sp-grade billet, made of steel from electric-arc furnaces (EAFs) and originating from Russia's Far East province, were heard at $700...Read More