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
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday April 26 that are worth another look.Liberty Steel Dudelange-Liege has been cancelling orders and shipments to customers that had agreed deals for cold-rolled coil and hot-dipped galvanized coil, sources have told Fastmarkets.Metal...Read More
The latest data for the global manganese ore market for the week ended April 26, 2021.Read More
Renewed demand, sparked by lower offers in the past two weeks, shifted the seaborne manganese ore market to an uptrend this week, against the backdrop of support for portside prices and a strengthening performance in silico-manganese futures.Fastmarkets' manganese ore index 37% Mn, cif Tianjin, ticked up by 9 cents to $4.36 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on Friday April 23, from $4.27 per dmtu a...Read More
China's leading stainless steel producers, Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Tisco) and Baosteel Group, have both slashed their ferro-chrome tender prices for May delivery by 1,050 yuan ($162) per tonne from the previous month.The latest high-carbon ferro-chrome tender prices released by Tisco and Baosteel on Sunday April 25 are 7,300 yuan per tonne and 7,495 yuan per tonne respectively. This marks a decrease...Read More
China's magnesium prices increased by about 9% in both the domestic and export markets in the week to Friday April 23, with producers raising their offers amid low inventories, market sources told Fastmakets.In the domestic market, Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for magnesium 99.9%,exw China was 17,000-17,100 yuan ($2,617-2,632) per tonne on Friday April 23, an increase of 1,400 yuan per ton...Read More
Turkish domestic scrap prices have remained fairly stable over the past seven days, with most mills keeping their buy prices unchanged week on week, market participants said on Monday April 26.Long steel producers in the Izmir region continued to buy domestic auto bundle and ship scrap at stable prices over the past seven days.Only two mills in the Marmara region cut...Read More
As the current surge in coronavirus cases in India takes hold, Fastmarkets looks at the possibility that the steel industry could lose its impressive growth.New cases of coronavirus in India have surpassed 350,000 per day and steel plants in the country have been supplying liquid medical oxygen (LMO) to hospitals because of the ongoing shortage of available oxygen. Diverting supplies of oxygen awa...Read More
Metal companies transporting material in containers are facing fresh disruption to shipping following the blockage of the Suez Canal last month, sources told Fastmarkets. The main immediate legacy of March's Suez Canal obstruction has been worsening congestion at several global ports following major disruptions to vessel scheduling. These delays to shipping times have also exacerbated shortag...Read More