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
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
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
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
Base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange are for the most part weaker on Wednesday January 3, led by a 1% fall in nickel prices to $12,530 per tonne. The rest are off between 0.4% for copper and 0.8% for aluminium, while tin is bucking the trend with a 0.5% rise. Volume has been light, with 5,367 lots traded as of 06:35 am London time. This comes after a mixed performance on Tuesday that sa...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)? 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
Buying activity in Iran's hot-rolled coil (HRC) and cold-rolled coil (CRC) import market has been sluggish in the week ending Wednesday January 3.Sources told Metal Bulletin this was largely due to national holidays affecting suppliers in the CIS region, which is the leading supplier of steel to Iran.However, had CIS mills been active in the market, trading activity with Iran would hardl...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
Most global nickel premiums were flat, while new Chinese import duties pushed free-trade briquettes to China from Australia to a historic high. Chinese full plate premiums were flat on thin trading. European market sees no effect from new Chinese import duties after quiet start to 2018. US market quiet as well to start the new year.Briquettes from Australia to China see historic high after new imp...Read More
Freight and FOT components moved marginally during December.MARKET COMMENTARY:The differential between cancelling aluminium from London Metal Exchange warehouses in Asia and shipping it into the US Midwest was largely steady, with only marginal higher FOTs because of slight currency swings, for the month of December according to the Metal Bulletin Arbitrage indicator.The freight and FOT component...Read More