Brazil-based miner Vale predicts 60 million tonnes of iron ore supply will be added to the seaborne market in 2021, with it being one of the main contributors to that volume, ferrous director Marcello Spinelli said on Tuesday April 27.Brazil alone will account for around 40 million tonnes of that production growth, Spinelli said.Iran, which was heavily pressured in 2020, will probably supply more...Read More
Turkish steel mills have started buying deep-sea scrap again at steady prices for shipment in June, market participants told Fastmarkets on Tuesday April 27.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Baltic Sea cargo consisting of 25,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $427.50 per tonne cfr.This compared with the most recent deep-sea transactions heard on April 21, when two Baltic Sea suppliers secu...Read More
Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices increased in the cfr market amid necessary procurement activity, which kept prices largely stable in the fob market on Tuesday April 27.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $113.46 per tonne, down $0.32 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $222.72 per tonne, up $1.11 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $105.37 per tonne, up $0...Read More
Prices for imported ferrous scrap in China edged up on Tuesday April 27 amid renewed interest in imports.Offer prices remained stable because of the approaching Golden Week holiday period in Japan, sources said. Offers for imported ferrous scrap were heard at $510-520 per tonne cfr north China - equivalent to around $500-510 per tonne cfr east China."Many sellers are either holding on to carg...Read More
Chinese steel mills are likely to import more pig iron, hot-briquetted iron (HBI) and steel scrap to feed basic oxygen furnaces in 2021 due to the stringent restrictions imposed on blast furnaces in China, market participants told Fastmarkets recently.The China Iron & Steel Association (Cisa) is actively advocating more cuts to the country's pig iron production to achieve this year's goal of reduc...Read More
Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao, rose to a new record high on Tuesday April 27 with iron ore prices all going up further. The 62% Fe index has been above the previous high of $183.59 per tonne, set in January 2011, since April 20.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $195.31 per tonne, up by $1.73 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $196.35 pe...Read More
Aluminium smelters are reeling in profits, with the London Metal Exchange aluminium price and premiums at multi-year highs and raw material prices depressed due to oversupply, sources said.The LME three-month aluminium price traded at a high of $2,412 per tonne so far on Tuesday, the highest since April 23, 2018, when the price hit a high of $2,531 per tonne."The light metal remains well supported...Read More
Copper and nickel were the leaders of the rally during morning trading on Tuesday April 27 on the London Metal Exchange, rising by 1.6% and 1.7% as of 9am from their Monday prices, which were also on an upward momentum.LME copper's three-month price is nearing its all-time high of $10,190 per tonne from February 2011, having hit $9,965 per tonne during early trading. It was at $9,911 per tonne at...Read More
A summary of South32's results for its third quarter ending March 31, 2021.In brief:Net cash increased by $242 million to $517 million in the quarter due to a strong operating performance combined with improving commodity prices. Brazil's sellable alumina production increased by 1% to a record 1,049,000 tonnes in the nine months to March 2021 while the refinery continued to benefit from strong pla...Read More
Copper is once again pushing ahead with its advance toward $10,000 per tonne this morning, Tuesday April 27, and such is the upward momentum now across most of the complex that it has woken nickel up from its two-month slumber in low ground. Market focused on economies that are recovering......less so on the areas where Covid-19 is ragingBase metalsMost of the LME three-month base metals prices we...Read More
Workers at silicon and manganese producer FerroAtlantica's Monzon plant in Spain have called a one-day strike on Thursday April 29, after a restructuring of the ferro-alloys production unit was announced, Fastmarkets learnt on April 27.A third meeting between employees and the company to negotiate collective redundancies heard a proposal by owner Ferroglobe that these would affect 63 workers at th...Read More
Ferroglobe will restructure its ferro-alloys production plants in France and Spain, which will affect manganese alloys, silicon and foundry alloys output near term, the company told Fastmarkets.Spain-based Ferroglobe has the production capacity for more than one million tonnes per year of ferro-alloys, such as manganese alloys, ferro-silicon, ferro-silicon magnesium, as well as foundry alloys such...Read More
The Cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lbtrade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it...Read More
The Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb trade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets assessed Cobalt standard grade, in-whs...Read More
A recent downturn in the spot price for cobalt was not causing alarm among sellers because they were still seeing plenty of demand from customers with long-term contracts, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' latest price assessment for cobalt, standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, was $20.50-22.00 per lb on Monday April 26. This compared with $15.40-16.00 per lb a year earlier.Prices have risen...Read More
With the exception of the June nickel contract, base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were weaker this morning, Wednesday April 28.This is after strong gains in recent weeks and likely reflects some caution ahead of the United States Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting and US President Joe Biden’s address to Congress.* US 10-year treasury yields climb...* ...US Dollar I...Read More
Mondelez (MDLZ), an S&P 100 stock moved above $59.98 to an all-time high extending an intermediate uptrend. The stock responded to higher than consensus quarterly results. Pre-opening Comments for Wednesday April 28thU.S. equity index futures were mixed this morning. S&P 500 futures were unchanged in pre-opening trade.The Canadian Dollar was virtually unchanged at US80.70 after releas...Read More
All base-metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were up by 1% or more at the 5pm close of trading on Monday April 26, with overarching bullish sentiment toward economic recoveries taking hold of the complex throughout the day.Copper and aluminium were the leaders of the rally on Monday, both reaching new 2021 highs during the day at $9,765 and $2,407 per tonne respectively.They closed at 5pm u...Read More
Copper's price reached $9,705 per tonne in the morning, while the rest of the London Metal Exchange base metals also started the week with higher prices on Monday April 26. Copper's price was up 1.6% on Monday morning to a new 2021 high - and its highest level since July 2011 - following a 1.9% rise over last week, when it closed at $9,551 per tonne on Friday. There were more than 11,000 lots...Read More
Copper led the London Metal Exchange base metals higher this morning, Monday April 26, and most of the base metals on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were up too, while the market continued to benefit from the strong purchasing managers' index (PMI) data that was out on Friday. US markets managed to shake-off concerns about US President Joe Biden's tax plans Base metalsLME three-month base metals pr...Read More