Glencore International has agreed a letter of intent for cobalt metal supply to battery cell producer Freyr, the company said on Monday February 1.The Swiss trader-producer will supply up to 3,700 tonnes of high-purity cut cobalt cathode produced at its Norwegian operations, Nikkelverk, to Freyr's planned facilities in Mo i Rana in Norway, it said without disclosing the time period for the intende...Read More
The China Iron & Steel Association (Cisa) has suggested preferential tax policies to stimulate domestic supply and imports of steel scrap to meet rising demand in China.For example, one method could be to increase the refund rate of the 13% value-added tax applied on the domestic prices, which buyers pay, Cisa vice president Luo Tiejun said at a press conference last week. He said that the governm...Read More
The Pilbara Ports Authority (PPA) issued three advisories over the weekend to clear ports in the Pilbara region in Western Australia ahead of a tropical low.The PPA said it instructed the ports of Port Hedland and Dampier to be cleared on Saturday January 30, and the Port of Ashburton the following day due to strong winds and heavy rainfall forecast across the region due to tropical low 12U.The Au...Read More
Base metals prices on both the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were mixed, albeit with a downside bias, during morning trading on Tuesday February 2, while silver was consolidating below highs but above its recent trading range.Silver prices spiked up to around the $30-per-oz level on Monday, before ending the day around $28.50 per oz – the metal is now looking for directi...Read More
Salesforce.com (CRM), an S&P 100 stock moved above intermediate resistance at $233,18DexCom (DXCM), a NASDAQ 100 stock moved above $396.98 extending an intermediate uptrend.Pre-opening Comments for Tuesday February 2ndU.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 30 points in pre-opening trade. Pfizer added $0.07 to $35.87 after reporting higher than consensus...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday January 29 that are worth another look.South America's import prices for flat-rolled steel were mostly down during the week ended January 29, with China-origin material offered at lower levels for April shipment.The arrival of around a quarter...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday January 29 that are worth another look.South America's import prices for flat-rolled steel were mostly down during the week ended January 29, with China-origin material offered at lower levels for April shipment.The arrival of around a quarter...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday January 29 that are worth another look.South America's import prices for flat-rolled steel were mostly down during the week ended January 29, with China-origin material offered at lower levels for April shipment.The arrival of around a quarter...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday January 29 that are worth another look.South America's import prices for flat-rolled steel were mostly down during the week ended January 29, with China-origin material offered at lower levels for April shipment.The arrival of around a quarter...Read More
Swedish steelmakers SSAB no longer plans to acquire the Ijmuiden plant in the Netherlands off of Tata Steel, SSAB said on Friday January 29.Tata Steel initiated discussions with SSAB on the sale of its IJmuiden plant in the Netherlands and related downstream assets in November 2020. After the announcement, market sources said it would have allowed SSAB to increase its presence in Northern Europe.A...Read More
China's Baowu Steel Group, the world's largest steelmaker, is in talks with Shandong Iron & Steel Group Co for a potential merger.While a small segment of the steel market already had some knowledge of this development, particularly after Baowu Steel sent some of its company officials to Shandong Steel to conduct surveys on the topic of a merger, the matter became public after local media reported...Read More
General Motors (GM) plans to transition its entire light-duty vehicle fleet to electric vehicles (EVs) by 2035, bringing an end to its production of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles. The automaker aims to go carbon neutral by 2040.A GM spokesperson told Fastmarkets that the company has set a goal to exclusively produce EVs in its light-duty fleet and discontinue producing internal combustion...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday January 29 that are worth another look.South America's import prices for flat-rolled steel were mostly down during the week ended January 29, with China-origin material offered at lower levels for April shipment.The arrival of around a quarter...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday January 29 that are worth another look.South America's import prices for flat-rolled steel were mostly down during the week ended January 29, with China-origin material offered at lower levels for April shipment.The arrival of around a quarter...Read More
A differentiated fee structure designed to drive member-to-member trade away from the telephone market is being proposed by the London Metal Exchange as part of its discussion paper. The goal is to incentivize trade on the exchange's electronic trading platform, LMESelect, and is proposed to be achieved by cutting fees to trade electronically while raising fees for the telephone market by around 5...Read More
The London Metal Exchange and its clearing house are revisiting a proposal to transition to a different way of calculating its clearing methodology. The exchange announced its discussion paper on the topic on Tuesday January 19. The last attempt was made in 2017 and was rejected by LME members because it would make the provision of credit lines expensive and result in the rapid withdrawal of...Read More
Covid-19 appears to have claimed another casualty: the London Metal Exchange ring trading floor. The closure of the floor, now entering its 144th year, has been proposed in a discussion paper issued by the exchange earlier on Tuesday January 19.The open outcry floor may be old, but it didn't appear to have serious underlying health issues. It has successfully fought back against talk it was set to...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: SHFE tailwind for LME pricesAs we are entering the traditional strong demand season, we expect Chinese aluminium demand to show further recovery, and we expect demand from existing end-user sectors, new infrastructure projects and the export sector to show some increases. As a result, we believe that S...Read More
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