Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were up across the board this morning, Wednesday July 7, suggesting dip buying after Tuesday’s weakness that saw copper, aluminium and nickel fall by 2%, or more.Tuesday's drop in the ISM services purchasing managers index (PMI) to 60.1, from 64, was partly blamed for the day’s weaker markets, as was the jump in the US Dollar Index.Bas...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday July 6 that are worth another look.Indian suppliers exhausted their third-quarter quota for shipments of hot-rolled coil into Europe on the first day of the new three-month period, according to data released by the European...Read More
Base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange mostly increased on Tuesday July 6, with a tepid dollar driving the complex up. The United States dollar index was at 92.29 on Tuesday, up 0.8 from an earlier reading on the same day, but lower than its peak of 92.76 during its late-May to early-July rally. The three-month LME lead price led the increase on Tuesday, up 1.2% compared to Monday's c...Read More
Prices for hot-rolled coil in the United States surged after domestic mills raised offers while buyers continued to aggressively vie for the few available spot tons. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $89.53 per hundredweight ($1,790.60 per short ton) on Tuesday July 6, an increase of 2.33% from $87.74 per cwt on Friday July 2 and up 4.13% from $85.98 per...Read More
Steel rebar and billet prices in the United Arab Emirates decreased during the week to Tuesday July 6 due to a global slowdown, sources told Fastmarkets.Global demand for long steel is moderate to weak, and prices are no longer increasing in Turkey, a key exporter of rebar.Emirates Steel, the biggest producer in the UAE, decreased its official rebar price by 55 dirhams ($14.97) per tonne to 3,012...Read More
The Zakat, Tax & Customs Authority in Saudi Arabia has decreed that all imports into the country will be subject to import duty, whether they come from free-trade zones or other member-states of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC).GCC countries normally have duty-free trade between each other. They are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.The Saudi Arabian decree...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday July 6 that are worth another look.Indian suppliers exhausted their third-quarter quota for shipments of hot-rolled coil into Europe on the first day of the new three-month period, according to data released by the European...Read More
Hot-rolled coil import prices into the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia decreased during the week ended Tuesday July 6 because of globally weakening prices, as well as the upcoming Eid al-Adha religious holiday, sources have told Fastmarkets.The Eid al-Adha holiday was expected to start in about two weeks' time, and some buyers were postponing their bookings until after that, sources said.HRC...Read More
The United States' steel import licenses climbed in June to the highest level since January 2020, according to government figures.The US was licensed to import 2.66 million tonnes of steel in June, up 16.01% from 2.29 million tonnes in May, according to data from the US International Trade Administration's steel import monitoring system. Import licenses were up 108.27% from 1.28 million tonnes in...Read More
Buyers' activity in the steel scrap import market remained low on Tuesday July 6 despite rising contracts for rebar and hot-rolled coil on the Shanghai Futures Exchange."Market chatter on mills cutting production has turned the finished steel markets bullish, so raw materials [markets] followed. This is why rebar and HRC rose higher than iron ore in the futures market today," a Zhejiang-based trad...Read More
Turkish prices for various flat steel products moved both upward and downward during June, with the future for the prices seeming to be unsure because of the broader global market uncertainty, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday July 1.The main reasons for this were that the traditionally slow summer season has started in most countries, China has not yet announced the rate for its planned export...Read More
Activity in the European hot-rolled coil market has been limited because buyers are refraining from making new deals to assess price trends and mills are holding back from trading on good order books, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday July 6.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at ?,?1,146.25 ($1,359.80) per tonne on Tuesday July 6, down by...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
Base metals production in Peru increased significantly year-on-year during May due to the strong effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, but figures were also up on a monthly basis on better performances by the largest mines, the country's ministry of energy and mines, Minem, said on Friday July 2.Copper output totaled 195,999 tonnes in May, up by 52.63% from 128,412 tonnes in the corresponding...Read More
The latest data for the global manganese ore market for the week ended July 2, 2021.Read More
Nearby lead spreads are again in backwardation, with the metal's futures continuing to trade at a discount to cash prices on the London Metal Exchange on July 5.The LME's cash-three month spread is currently backwardated at $19 per tonne although cash-July and cash-August remain in small contangos.The LME three-month lead price has gained $12 from Friday's 5pm close to $2,312 per tonne."It's causi...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices across China's domestic market cruised higher on Monday July 5, with the futures market riding an upward wave across the ferrous complex. DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,500-5,540 yuan ($851-858) per tonne, up by 60-70 yuan from 5,430-5,480 yuan per tonne. The most-traded HRC contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained more than 1% to end the day at 5,494 yuan per t...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
Turkish deep-sea scrap import markets were quiet on Monday July 5 with mills reluctant to buy scrap amid limited finished steel demand, while suppliers kept offers firm, market sources told Fastmarkets.Steel producers in Turkey booked four deep-sea cargoes last week, three of which were booked by a single steel mill.The most recent deep-sea transaction put the heavy melting scrap 1&2 (80:20) price...Read More
CIS export billet prices fell on Monday July 5, with customers pushing for lower rates because Russian mills are now looking to sell volumes ahead the introduction of an export duty in August.On Friday June 25 the Russian government approved a temporary export duties on 340 steel and non-ferrous metals sold outside the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The duties will apply from August 1 through to...Read More