An overview of the specialty steel raw materials markets in Europe and their latest price moves.Janie Davies and...Read More
The Turkish steel mills continued to limit their deep-sea scrap bookings in the week ended Friday July 16 due to weak finished steel sales, while the downturn in the country had a knock-on effect on prices in the global markets.Turkish mills restrict deep-sea purchases to put downward pressure on pricesSummer slowdown hits US export marketCovid-19 pandemic shuts down local long steel and scrap mar...Read More
Iron ore prices edged down on Friday July 23 amid weaker demand.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $201.33 per tonne, down by $1.30 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $202.86 per tonne, down by $1.76 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $165.45 per tonne, down by $1.43 per tonne65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qingdao: $236.10 per tonne, down by $3...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices increased in both the cfr and fob markets on Friday July 23 due to more trading activities, sources told Fastmarkets.Prices for seaborne pulverized coal injection (PCI) inched up in the cfr market in the week to July 23 due to tight domestic supply for high quality resources. The fob market also continued to increase due to strong coking coal prices, sources said.Fastma...Read More
Base metals prices on both the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were generally stronger this morning, Friday July 23, the exception was lead on the LME that was down by 0.5%, but that was after a strong gain on Thursday. Lead, tin and nickel all pushed the boundary on the upside on Thursday with gains of 1.5% or moreEuropean Central Bank projected a dovish outlook on monetary po...Read More
Global scrap prices remained broadly stable over the week to Friday July 23; trading remains subdued due to public holidays and a resurgence of Covid-19.Turkish mills remain silent on public holidayUnited States export market apprehensive of downward correctionChinese prices improve on rising demandVietnam market flat on lack of interestTaiwanese scrap prices impacted by Covid-19 related lockdownI...Read More
The inter-merchant light iron scrap market in the United Kingdom was steady in the week to Friday July 23, consolidating small gains from the previous week amid strong domestic fundamentals, despite quiet export sales to key destinations such as Turkey and the Indian subcontinent, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel scrap 5C, loose old light, domestic, delivered...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly higher at the close on Friday July 23, with nickel up 2.3%.Nickel traded in a wide range between $18,830 and $19,410 per tonne on Friday. The three-month contract closed at $19,372 per tonne, up from $18,922 per tonne on Thursday. Traded volumes were relatively low however, with just over 6,700 lots traded by the 5pm close."This has been...Read More
An overview of the new energy materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Susan Zou, Yingchi Yang, and Sybil...Read More
Spot copper concentrate processing charge rose to its highest level since June last year, with the market firming up levels after a month of volatility.Smelter deals concluded for clean spot concentrates at low-to-mid $50s, including shipment diverted as a result of a smelter outage in Yantai. Major smelters...Read More
China's alumina price has risen after severe floods in Henan province led to the closure of several local refineries, market sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for alumina metallurgical grade, exw China was 2,425-2,560 yuan ($375-397) per tonne on Thursday July 22, widening upward by 60 yuan per tonne from 2,425-2,500 yuan per tonne one week earlier, after offe...Read More
The flooding caused by torrential rains that have battered central China's Henan province since last weekend has disrupted logistics and deliveries there although production remains largely unaffected, market sources told Fastmarkets.Henan, one of China's most populous provinces, is a major production hub for base metals including lead, zinc, copper and nickel. Some regions of the province, inclu...Read More
Norwegian-based aluminium and renewable energy producer Norsk Hydro released a summary of financial and production results for the second quarter of 2021 on Friday July 23.In brief: Norsk Hydro reported a 36% increase in total revenue generated in the second quarter of 2021, compared with the same quarter in 2020. Adjusted earnings before financial items, tax, depreciations, and amortization (EBIT...Read More
London Metal Exchange tin prices traded at fresh all-time highs of $34,700 per tonne on Friday July 23, with base metals starting the day in an uptrend despite mixed data from Europe's manufacturing industry.The metal had continued to make gains after Thursday's 5pm close of $34,195 per tonne, and experienced small clips of buying beyond algorithmic trades during morning trading before the market...Read More
Inventories of the base metals diverged in Shanghai Futures Exchange-registered warehouses this week, with zinc gaining the most at 21.3% while copper stocks fell by 18.2%, according to the stocks report on Friday July 23.Zinc inventories stood at 36,440 tonnes on Friday, an increase of 6,387 tonnes from 30,053 tonnes on July 23.The inflows mainly came into warehouses operated by Quansheng Logisti...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States fell below$91 per hundredweight ($1,820 per short ton) on Friday July 23 after three consecutive business days above that threshold. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $90.80 per cwt ($1,816 per ton), down by 0.51% from $91.27 per cwt on Thursday July 22 and virtually unchanged from $90.75 per cwt one week earli...Read More
Crude steel production in Germany continued to rise in June, recording a fourth consecutive month of recovery, German steel federation WV Stahl said on Thursday July 23.German crude steel production totaled more than 3.42 million tonnes in June 2021, up from 2.47 million tonnes in June 2020, WV Stahl said.The sharp rise is partially explained, however, by a low comparative base - last year's domes...Read More
Indian domestic prices for secondary steel billet rose by about $13 per tonne during the week to Friday July 23 on stronger demand for finished products, particularly rebar, sources said.Fastmarkets assessed steel billet domestic, ex-works India at 42,200-42,400 rupees ($567-570) per tonne on Friday, up by 1,000 rupees from 41,200-41,400 rupees per tonne last week. "The billet price recovery is in...Read More
Trading activity in the hot-rolled coil markets across Europe was still limited on Friday July 23, with prices broadly stable despite gaining strength from short supply, Fastmarkets has heard.Firm offers were still scarce in the Northern European HRC market, sources said.Mills in the region had good order books and could only offer fourth-quarter production HRC, with some of them claiming to be so...Read More
A barrage of import steel billet deals have been concluded with Chinese buyers this week at progressively higher prices, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday July 23.Demand for imported billet has spiked at mills in China amid targets which would push down steel production in the country over the second half of 2021.Chinese steelmakers can use import billet to roll long steel products while simultan...Read More