An overview of the new energy materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Susan Zou, Yingchi Yang, and Sybil...Read More
Key data from Fastmarkets' Friday April 30 pricing sessions in China, India, Europe and the United States. China Lower offers for seaborne manganese ore prices led the seaborne ore markets to resume their steady downtrend after a short-lived bounce the previous week. Portside low- and high-grade manganese ore markets rose with smelters looking to replenish feedstock ahead of the Labor...Read More
Fastmarkets' benchmark copper concentrate treatment and refining charge (TC/RC) index rose for the third consecutive week on Friday April 30. At $26.90 per tonne / 2.69 cents per lb, the index has reached its highest level in a month and has rebounded from its record lows of $21.90 per tonne / 2.19 cents per lb on April 9. Smelter...Read More
Key data from Fastmarkets' Friday April 30 pricing sessions in China, Europe and the United States.China Fears of production cuts in Ningxia due to its energy-conservation and emission-reduction ambitions, coupled with the rise of electricity fees in Inner Mongolia, added to the tight availability of ferro-silicon. Active deals and inquires, along with the bullish ferro-silicon futures, all underp...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
Fastmarkets' benchmark copper concentrate treatment and refining charge (TC/RC) index rose for the third consecutive week on Friday April 30. At $26.90 per tonne / 2.69 cents per lb, the index has reached its highest level in a month and has rebounded from its record lows of $21.90 per tonne / 2.19 cents per lb on April 9. Smelter...Read More
While the whole London Metal Exchange base metals complex ended the month on solidly higher prices than at the start of April on a recent bullish streak, a dollar index at its highest in a week pushed down copper and aluminium prices at the close on Friday April 30. The dollar index reached 91.29 on Friday during afternoon trading, its highest since April 23 after bottoming at 90.42 on Thursday, r...Read More
China's spot blister copper refining charges (RCs) rose in April to their highest level since September 2019 amid increased competition from domestic units and surging scrap availability.Fastmarkets' price assessment for copper blister 98-99% ,RC spot, cif China, was $185-200 per tonne on Friday April 30, up from $170-185 per tonne a month ago. Few tonnages were sold and offered in the $180s...Read More
Key data from Fastmarkets' monthly pricing session in London and Shanghai on Wednesday April 28.Key drivers Supply constraints in Australia persisted, with the Altura project remaining on care and maintenance, and no ramp-up of output expected in the...Read More
Tight spot supply and the upward momentum of lithium raw material prices continued to support lithium hydroxide prices in Asia in the week to Thursday April 29.Battery-grade lithium hydroxide prices in both the domestic Chinese and seaborne Asian markets edged up amid tight availability and robust demand. The battery-grade lithium carbonate price in China continued its marginal downturn amid a sup...Read More
South American flat-rolled steel import prices were generally up in the week to Friday April 30, but have hit a temporary ceiling since the effects of the export tax rebate cut in China had been mostly factored in previously, market participants said.The majority of the assessments increased slightly, but the top end of the ranges were lower or unchanged, depending on the product.The increases com...Read More
The London Metal Exchange will announce the results of its discussion paper on market structure on or around June 8 and has not yet made any decisions on the whether to reopen the ring, it said. If the exchange decides to reopen the ring, which temporarily closed in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the earliest possible date would be the end of June, when social distancing criteria are exp...Read More
Ukrainian steelmaker Metinvest is considering to build a 2.50 million-tonne-per-year flat steel rolling plant in Trieste, in the north of Italy, Italian equipment producer Danieli told Fastmarkets on Friday April 30. "Metinvest is seriously considering the opportunity to build a sophisticated and cost and quality competitive 2.5 million tpy plant. It should serve North Italy and Europe market. The...Read More
The pig iron import market in the United States was silent during the week to Friday April 30, although market indicators such as hot-rolled coil prices continued to increase.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US, was $585-595 per tonne on Friday, up by $10 per tonne from $575-585 per tonne the previous week."It was predictable that the market would be silent t...Read More
Turkish deep-sea scrap import prices have increased sharply since China decided to remove the export tax rebate on some steel products. But demand among major scrap importers in Asia was still limited because of upcoming holiday periods in the region.Turkish scrap import prices jump $22 per tonne at the end of the weekUS scrap export prices remain fairly stableSlight improvement in Vietnamese scra...Read More
Pig iron export prices from Brazil went up again during the week to Friday April 30 despite long lead times.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, export, fob port of Vitoria/Rio, Brazil, was $545-560 per tonne on Friday, up from $540-545 per tonne the previous week.Offers were reported from only one...Read More
The UK Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate (TRID) is to review two existing European Union anti-dumping cases to determine if they are fit for purpose in a post-Brexit United Kingdom.The two cases in question relate to cold-rolled coil from China and Russia and into high fatigue performance (HFP) rebar from China, TRID said on Thursday April 29.The reviews will...Read More
A summary of the financial results for Turkey's largest steelmaking group, Erdemir, for January-March 2021.In brief Turkey's biggest steel producer Erdemir Group produced 24% of Turkish crude steel in January-February 2021. The group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) increased by 262.53% in January-March 2021, because of strong demand for steel in Turkey and...Read More
Domestic and imported steel beam prices in the United States rose on Thursday April 29, in line with recent mill price increase announcements due to rising demand and tightening supply.Fastmarkets' monthly assessment for steel beams 8- x 8-in, fob mill US was $52.50 per hundredweight ($1,050 per short ton) on April 29, up 5% from $50 per cwt on March 25, and up 10.53% from $47.50 per cwt in Februa...Read More
Brazilian flat steel producers are poised to raise domestic prices by 10-18% in May, due to rising global steel and raw materials values, along with resilient local demand, market participants told Fastmarkets this week.Companhia Sider??rgica Nacional (CSN), the country's second-biggest flat steel producer, led the way when commercial executive director, Luis Martinez announced a 16-18% incre...Read More