The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view, including an upgrade to our aluminium price forecasts.Aluminium: Price forecasts raisedWe correctly expected the macro reflationary theme to raise the prices for all base metals but, with it being the base metal with by far the weakest fundamentals, we had expected the price of aluminium to underperform relative...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.These include an increase in our copper mine disruption estimates, upgrades to our production outlook for Indonesian nickel pig iron (NPI), a smaller refined zinc surplus, and an upgrade to our zinc price forecasts.Aluminium: Big disconnect between price and fundamentalsAluminium has extended its uptrend on the London Metal...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.As we approach the end of the first half of 2021, steel markets in Europe and the United States continue to heat up. This six-month period is largely unprecedented, with both steel prices and steelmakers' margins hitting a number of new record highs throughout.The rally is likely nearing its end, however, with global steel ou...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:?EUR? US sheet prices hit record highs again in May, with upward momentum persisting into June. Actual US hot-rolled coil prices averaged $1,553 per ton in May, largely in line with our forecast of $1,540 per ton. Prices remain supported by strong underlying sup...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.United States sheet prices hit record highs again in May, with upward momentum carrying into June. Actual US HRC prices averaged $1,712 per tonne in May, largely in line with our forecast of $1,698 per tonne. Strong underlying supply-and-demand conditions both in the US and globally are supporting prices as well as long lead...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Global welded pipe prices surged in May as strong demand and still-insufficient supply lifted flat steel prices.The biggest jumps were seen in China, which was hit by the unexpected announcement of the elimination of export rebates on welded pipes in April. Chinese seaborne prices reached $1,570 per tonne fob for longitudina...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR? Impressive advances in ore and alloy prices persisted in March, with most markets posting significant price gains. Strengthening demand from steelmakers along with supply shortages and depleted inventories in numerous markets, as well as freight and transportation...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR?In a strong start to the year, January saw ore and alloy pricing gains across all markets priced by Fastmarkets - with the exception of Chinese silicon metal export prices, which retreated slightly last month after posting impressive gains in December 2020.The combination...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Fastmarkets analysts were invited to present our outlook for the coking coal market at Coaltrans Asia, held online on November 23-25. One of the key topics at the event was the trade tensions between China and Australia, which overtook Mongolia to become the largest coking coal exporter to China this year...Read More
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
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Chinese blast furnace (BF) utilization rates have stagnated and iron ore port stock volumes are rising, reaching their highest levels since March, which suggests that iron ore supply is becoming excessive while demand is not growing. Unsurprisingly, prices dropped last week and we expect the trend to continue. The market has...Read More
Some steel rebar and billet prices in the United Arab Emirates decreased during the week ended Tuesday June 15, although demand was better because of low stock levels, sources have told Fastmarkets.Local rebar producers kept their prices unchanged during the week, but gave some discounts.Domestic rebarThe country's biggest producer, Emirates Steel, was offering rebar at 3,067 dirhams ($835) per to...Read More
Keen selling was seen across the London Metal Exchange and throughout the day on Tuesday June 15, which took the price of copper to its lowest level since late April this year.Copper's three-month closing price was $9,569 per tonne, showing a 4% decrease from Monday's closing price of $9,971.50 per tonne.Its intraday low of $9,511 per tonne was the lowest price for copper since April 23, while the...Read More
Striking workers at Vale's mine in Sudbury, Ontario, rejected the company's latest offer on Monday June 14; the ongoing strike was the main contributor to a rise in nickel premiums in the United States on Tuesday June 15, sources said.The premium increases - including a 16.67% week-on-week jump for nickel briquette - came quicker than most participants anticipated, with the strike at Vale entering...Read More
Russian aluminium producer Rusal is to invest in the expansion and upgrading of its aluminium operations using capital raised through Nornickel's proposed share buyback scheme, the company said on Tuesday June 15. Rusal currently holds a 27.8% ownership in Nornickel, the Russian based high-grade nickel and palladium mining company. The exact amount of shares that will be repurchased by Nornickel h...Read More
Brazilian miner Vale has produced the first ore at its Voisey's Bay nickel operation expansion in Canada - exploring underground reserves - after 16 years of open-pit mining, the company said on Tuesday June 15.Located in the Canadian northern Labrador region, the underground operation has a capacity of 40,000 tonnes per year of nickel concentrate and will first explore the Reid Brook ore deposit,...Read More
The debut of Zijin Mining 's new Serbian copper mine has been postponed to the fourth quarter of 2021, local media See News reported on Tuesday June 15. Citing a statement from Serbia's mining ministry on Monday June 14, the mine in the Cukaru Peki Upper Zone of Serbia's Timok copper-gold project has received approval to construct the mining facilities and execute mining operations, the...Read More
Weakness was evident across the base metals in London and Shanghai on the morning of Tuesday June 15 despite pre-market Western equity index futures driving higher and high volumes traded on the London Metal Exchange.14,205 lots had been traded on the LME by 5.52am London time compared with typical volume of 6,000 lots at this timeMarkets seem to be nervous about the measures China's authorities m...Read More
The development and use of carbon-capture technologies for industrial sectors such as steel will be central to the push toward a decarbonized economy, according to John Kerry, the United States' Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.Reducing the cost of these technologies will also be critical in enabling access on a wider scale and to meeting net-zero carbon targets, Kerry told a webinar on Tues...Read More