A summary of Glencore's preliminary financial results for the year ended December 2020, according to a company report published on Tuesday February 16.In briefGlencore reinstated its dividend to shareholders after a record year in commodities trading.Calls with analysts and media introduced Gary Nagle as the company's next chief executive officer, to take office after incumbent Ivan Glasenberg ret...Read More
A slight rebound in the US Dollar Index failed to stop rises in the prices for nickel (up by 1% at 5pm), aluminium and copper, but it triggered a slight decrease for the other half of the London Metal Exchange base-metals complex.Nickel's three-month price reached a new year-to-date high of $18,840 per tonne during afternoon trading on the LME on Tuesday February 16, and it was $18,814 per tonne a...Read More
Rio Tinto and Hydro have announced intentions to close the Aluchemie anode plant in Rotterdam, Netherlands after a strategic review. Production at Aluchemie is expected to finish at the end of 2021. The plant produces 216,000 tonnes per year of anodes, having previously discontinued operations at four of its seven anode baking furnaces. Anodes are high-grade blocks of carbon used in aluminium smel...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month copper price approached May 2012 levels and tin's futures contract was up by 1% on Tuesday February 16 morning, while a lower US dollar index helped the rest of the metals start to consolidate on their recent gains.The red metal reached $8,437 per tonne during early trading, its highest since May 2012 and up just 0.5% from Monday close price of $8,393.50 per t...Read More
With China still on holiday, base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange have been consolidating this morning, Tuesday February 16, even though broader markets remain upbeat. Optimism remains high while the market focuses on vaccine-enabled and stimulus-driven recoveriesWhile complacency is a risk, the pent-up enthusiasm from a year of Covid-19 may last a long timeBHP raises its outlook, citin...Read More
India's ministry of road transport & highways has made changes to its specifications for steel reinforcing bar to be used in road and bridge building, allowing participants in the secondary market to provide material, according to a recent government document.The previous requirement was for all steel to be procured from producers which manufacture steel billet directly from iron ore, and which ro...Read More
The export price for steel billet originating in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has moved up on fresh sales to Turkey, with offer price increasing as well, Fastmarkets heard on Tuesday February 16.A sizeable cargo of Ukraine-origin billet was sold to the Iskenderun area of Turkey earlier this week at $550 per tonne fob Black Sea, several sources reported to Fastmarkets. This price wa...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe increased day on day on Tuesday February 16, driven by a material shortage, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?727.50 ($882.53) per tonne on Tuesday, up by ?,?9.37 per tonne from ?,?718.13 per tonne on February 15.The index was also up by ?,?17.50 per tonn...Read More
A fire has interrupted operations at ArcelorMittal Gijon's rail mill in Spain, the company told Fastmarkets on Tuesday February 16. The short-lived fire broke out at one of the rolling stands at Gijon's steelworks rail mill, located in Asturias, Spain, on Saturday, prompting the company to issue a stop-work...Read More
Buyers of flat steel in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were making no deals while they waited for new prices from China, which will be back from a national holiday soon, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday February 16.China's Lunar New Year holiday runs February 11-17.Offers were heard from India, but buyers believed that the prices were too high.End-user demand in both countries was al...Read More
Most buyers for steel rebar and billet in the United Arab Emirates held back from the market in the week ended Tuesday February 16 because they wanted to see new rebar prices from local producers, sources told Fastmarkets.Rebar producers in the UAE were expected to announce new prices soon, and buyers have been waiting for them since last week.Buyers expected prices to hold steady or go down becau...Read More
The export price for steel hot-rolled coil from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) narrowed downward after deals were done at lower levels during the week to Monday February 15, but the general market mood improved due to higher scrap prices in Turkey. Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel HRC, export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $690-705 per tonne on Monday, down on the high en...Read More
Swedish state-owned iron-ore producer LKAB plans to reopen its iron ore mine in Lapland, Sweden, to meet the increased demand for iron ore products, Fastmarkets heard on Tuesday February 16.LKAB plans to reopen the Mertainen mine, which was mothballed in 2016 amid a change in the market situation, in the autumn 2021, the company said. The primary goal of the mine's reopening is to meet the increas...Read More
Turkish steel producers have extended their absence from the deep-sea scrap markets because they were focusing on finished steel sales, market sources said on Tuesday February 16.The daily scrap indices had risen by more than $22 per tonne week on week after two Turkish steelmakers booked US cargoes at $410 per tonne cfr on an HMS 1&2 (80:20) basis.Since the upturn in scrap prices, most Turkish st...Read More
Algerian Qatari Steel (AQS) started its own direct reduced iron (DRI) production on Sunday February 14, and thus will stop importing DRI, the company told Fastmarkets.The module has the capacity to produce 2.5 million tonnes per year of DRI. This is in addition to the 2.1 million tpy of crude steel and total rolling capacity of 2 million tpy of rebar and wire rod...Read More
With long-serving chief executive officer Ivan Glasenberg departing on a trade-fueled high, Glencore looks likely to continue along a familiar path while also tackling one of its biggest challenges to date.The world's largest commodity trader's marketing department beat analyst expectations to make profits before tax of $3.3 billion in the full year of 2020. This was 41% more than in the previous...Read More
Fob seaborne premium hard coking coal prices continued to slide on Tuesday February 16 due to weak demand from end users for seaborne spot cargoes, despite reports of some trader interest. Fastmarkets indices Premium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $141.76 per tonne, down $2.55 per tonne Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $217.23 per tonne, unchanged Hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $125.07 per tonne,...Read More
BHP released its results for the first half of its 2021 financial year on Tuesday February 16, while seaborne iron ore prices remained flat.Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $166.88 per tonne, unchanged62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $167.25 per tonne, unchanged58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $152.66 per tonne, unchanged65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qin...Read More
Belgian multinational Umicore is seeing strong demand for raw materials for battery production, spurred on by a resurgent electric vehicle (EV) market in China, according to comments by the company's chief executive in its 2020 full-year earnings call on Thursday February 11.Lithium prices have started to recover while cobalt prices have rallied hard since the start of 2021, both driven by improve...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 applies.Fastmarkets assessed Cobalt alloy grade,...Read More