While US rebar prices remain stable, rising raw material costs and a tightening supply outlook in the colder months could provoke a price increase before the end of the year, according to market participants.Fastmarkets AMM's price assessment for domestic rebar held at $35-36 per hundredweight ($700-720 per short ton) fob Midwest mill on Wednesday November 7, unchanged since mid-April. Meanwh...Read More
Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Sider??rgica Nacional (CSN) maintained its third-quarter sales level after selling its rolling mill in the United States, its Wednesday November 7 earnings report said.Total sales for the country's third-largest flat steelmaker by volume fell from July to September to 1.29 million tonnes from 1.30 million in the same quarter of 2017, a drop of 0.8%. But whi...Read More
Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Sider??rgica Nacional (CSN) sees no likelihood of discounts on steel prices to the domestic market in the near term, commercial director Luis Martinez told analysts on Thursday November 8.Chinese prices were a beacon to other markets and still had upside potential, he believed.CSN has increased its prices by an average of 27.00% so far in 2018, Martinez said during a...Read More
Output of steel slab by Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Sider??rgica Nacional (CSN) went down during the July-September quarter of 2018 because of a short outage for maintenance work, according to an earnings report published on Wednesday November 7.The company produced 937,000 tonnes of slabs in the quarter, down by 12.30% from 1.07 million tonnes in the corresponding months of 2017. There were on...Read More
Turkish billet prices have increased over the past week, amid rising imported scrap values, but demand has remained limited due to high prices, sources said on Thursday November 8.Suppliers in the CIS region were offering billet into Turkey at around $485-490 per tonne cfr, but customers in Turkey were not bidding any higher than $475 per tonne.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for billet impor...Read More
Turkish domestic long steel prices have continued to soften because of the strengthening of the country's lira against the US dollar over the past week, sources said on Thursday November 8.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for domestic rebar on Thursday was TRY3,200-3,350 ($596-624) per tonne ex-works including 18% VAT, down from last week's TRY3,300-3,450 per tonne.The domestic rebar price in...Read More
The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for steel billet, slab and bloom.Latest transaction: billetBilletCIS, export,...Read More
Major steel mills in China have concluded their ferro-silicon tenders for November, which show little change from October prices, sources in China said. Hebei Steel's latest tender price is 7,010 yuan ($1,013.04) per tonne for November, for 5,400 tonnes of ferro-silicon. The parcel size is about 700 tonnes more than for October.For October, the mill's tender price was at 7,000 yuan per tonne.Meanw...Read More
Another 65,000 tonnes of US-origin ferrous scrap were booked for export to Turkey in two fresh East Coast deals reported on Thursday November 8 - with one of the cargoes priced up to $4.50 per tonne higher compared with earlier bookings.One sale was heard concluded at $338 per tonne cfr for 12,000 tonnes of an 80:20 mix of No1 and...Read More
Brazil's Companhia Sider??rgica Nacional (CSN) is still trying to sell assets in order to reduce its high debt loading, chief financial officer Marcelo Ribeiro told analysts on Thursday November 8.The company's mining division could secure a streaming deal or pre-payment contracts, and the trend for rising prices for iron ore would support this decision, Ribeiro said. There will be news on that be...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 transaction: iron oreIron oreVale, Beijing Iron Ore Trading Center (Corex), 170,000...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices and premiums advanced on Thursday November 8, on continuing concerns over Australian supplies and following a rebound in China's futures market.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $76.27 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $1 per tonne.MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $75.30 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $1 per tonne.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $79.90 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $1.52...Read More
Trading activity in the seaborne coking coal market remained scarce on Thursday November 8, leaving participants with a murky outlook in the absence of transactional cues.A bid was made for a cargo of premium hard coking coal at around $212 per tonne fob Australia during the day, but no firm offers were heard.The last transaction involving a cargo in the same bracket was concluded at $216.50 per t...Read More
Base metals on the London Metal Exchange were mostly lower during morning trading on Thursday November 8, with a stronger US dollar and resurfacing US-China trade tensions adding downward pressure to the complex. Three-month nickel was the biggest downward mover over the morning session, falling 1.1% and reaching intraday low of $11,585 per tonne, despite a strong push towards $12,000 per ton...Read More
Cobalt demand from the consumer electronics industry will continue to grow, with no shift away from lithium-cobalt-oxide (LCO) batteries on the cards, according to battery manufacturer ATL's procurement director, Xu Shihui. "The price of cobalt has been fluctuating and there have been questions about whether cobalt can be substituted by nickel, but for consumer electronics the direction is LCO bat...Read More
First Cobalt Corp has started testing cobalt hydroxide material as feedstock for its refinery in Ontario, Canada, with the goal of producing cobalt sulfate or metallic cobalt products for sale into the North American market. The company has retained inspection and certification firm SGS Canada to test the suitability of different cobalt feed material using the refinery's current flowsheet and is a...Read More
Asian stainless steel participants are increasingly looking to Taiwan and Indonesia as the region's new price-setters, while Chinese exporters struggle to catch up in the heated price war, participants told Fastmarkets MB.Competition among suppliers in the region has intensified in recent months amid lackluster demand, growing pessimism and the increased availability of cheap substrate triggered b...Read More
China's ferrous futures fell during morning trading on Thursday November 8 after prices in most of physical markets weakened a day earlier.Futures closing prices - morning session Shanghai Futures Exchange January rebar: 3,913 yuan ($565) per tonne, down 38 yuan per tonne January hot-rolled coil: 3,657 yuan per tonne, down 41 yuan per tonne Dalian Commodity Exchange January iron ore: 512 yuan per...Read More
China's domestic stainless steel prices were flat over the past week amid inactive trading.Fastmarkets MB's price assessment for benchmark 304 stainless cold-rolled coil in the major market of Wuxi was 15,400-15,700 yuan ($2,224-2,267) per tonne including VAT for the week ended Wednesday November 7, unchanged from a week earlier.Customers kept procurement rates low due to the soft demand for...Read More
Import prices for stainless steel in East Asia continued to fall during the past week, with exporters reducing their offers further amid shrinking regional demand and the soft nickel segment.Fastmarkets MB's import price assessment for 304 stainless 2mm trimmed cold-rolled coil was $2,030-2,100 per tonne cif East Asia for the week ended Wednesday November 7, down $10 per tonne from a week ear...Read More