The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:?EUR? US sheet prices hit record highs again in May, with upward momentum persisting into June. Actual US hot-rolled coil prices averaged $1,553 per ton in May, largely in line with our forecast of $1,540 per ton. Prices remain supported by strong underlying sup...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:Bulk and noble alloys both moved largely in line with our price forecasts globally over the past month, though several markets surprised to the upside, exceeding our forecast gains. Stronger-than-forecast pricing momentum was primarily triggered by supply shortages in numerous...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Bulk ferro-alloy prices have shown impressive gains again this month, with ferro-silicon, silicon metal and manganese alloy prices all making significant increases. Noble alloy markets also enjoyed upward momentum, with both vanadium and molybdenum prices rising sharply.Recovering demand from steelmakers globally, together w...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR? Impressive advances in ore and alloy prices persisted in March, with most markets posting significant price gains. Strengthening demand from steelmakers along with supply shortages and depleted inventories in numerous markets, as well as freight and transportation...Read More
Inner Mongolia, China's ferro-chrome production heartland, has imposed restrictions on its metallurgical sector in a move that has fueled the high-carbon ferro-chrome markets in China and Europe, and although this may ease off, the gains were unlikely to be lost while alloy ramp-ups continue, sources have told Fastmarkets.The decision to restrict energy consumption in Inner Mongolia since December...Read More
The latest forecasts and analysis of the ferrous scrap and iron metallics market from the Fastmarkets research team are ready to be viewed.Stifled automotive output this year, driven by a supply shortage of semiconductor chips used in vehicles, has tightened prime scrap availability and widened the spreads between this grade of steelmaking raw material and obsolete scrap.While wide prime-over-obso...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Fastmarkets analysts were invited to present our outlook for the coking coal market at Coaltrans Asia, held online on November 23-25. One of the key topics at the event was the trade tensions between China and Australia, which overtook Mongolia to become the largest coking coal exporter to China this year...Read More
Stainless steel prices continue to register new highs around the end of the first half of 2021 and steelmakers continue to enjoy outsized margins.They have responded in recent months by increasing their output, which has now pushed above pre-pandemic levels and will eventually restore balance to the market.For now, though, supply gaps are still being filled and buyers find themselves competing aga...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Recent weeks have brought two key developments with regard to trade policy on stainless steel products that will be to the detriment of consumers.In China, the country's stainless steelmakers no longer enjoy a 13% export rebate as of May 1, reducing greatly their incentive to export and instead leading them to focus on supply...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices and margins for stainless steel producers have risen notably over the past few months in both Europe and the United States, but there are now signs that the rally is petering out.A clear reason for the halt to rising prices comes from the near 20% drop in nickel prices seen in late February/early March,...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.With nickel prices down by almost 20% over the space of around ten days during late February and early March, one might have been expecting us to be reporting sharply-lower prices of stainless steel, at least for the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel.This is not the case, at least in Europe and the Unite...Read More
Prices for flat steel products continued to increase in Russia's Central Federal District around Moscow during the quiet holiday week ended Monday November 8, on limited offers from the mills, sources have told Fastmarkets.Some believed that prices have reached their peak and would remain flat until the end of the year, due to rumors about planned short-term maintenance stoppages at mills and the...Read More
The Russian Federation's Ministry of Finance is preparing a list of machine-building plants to be excluded from a liquid steel excise tax, Aleksey Sazonov, Russian Federation deputy minister of Finance said on November 8 during a State Duma committee meeting on budget and taxes."A number of Russian machinery-building plants have their own small steelmaking capacities...They will be excluded from e...Read More
Base metal futures prices were largely down across the London Metal Exchange complex at the 5pm close of trading on Tuesday November 9, despite gains made on Monday.Prices reversed across the board on the LME, initially trending higher before eventually scaling back by the close.The US Dollar Index rose throughout the day, supporting this price move. It was up to 94.05 by 5pm, from 93.96 at 9am.Th...Read More
Growing consumer appetite for sustainable products and tighter regulations on carbon-intensive primary aluminium production, such as the EU's recent proposal for a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), have seen greater investment in scrap-processing facilities across Europe, providing long-term support for scrap prices as a result.CBAM calls for EU importers of steel and aluminium to pay for...Read More
The recent downward correction in aluminium prices and premiums was expected after a strong uptrend in 2021, but tighter supply from China is set to continue supporting high prices, Brazilian aluminium producer Companhia Brasileira do Alum?-nio (CBA) said on Tuesday November 9.Chinese aluminium output cuts, meant to reduce carbon emissions, deepened a global supply deficit in the third quarter. Es...Read More
US-based aluminium producer Alcoa announced on Tuesday November 9 its adoption of a three-stage "technology roadmap" intended to assist in the decarbonization of upstream aluminium supply and to help achieve the target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.The roadmap has three key elements. These are the decarbonization of the alumina refining process, new processes to enhance the use of post-cons...Read More
China will ban the creation of additional capacity for some energy-intensive industries - including for steel, coke, alumina and aluminium - in a bid to control pollution, the state council said in a guideline issued on Sunday November 7.The guideline did not specify the areas to be subject to the ban or the date that the measures will take effect.This comes alongside the statement that the supply...Read More
A summary of the financial performance of Brazilian aluminium producer Companhia Brasileira de Alum?-nio (CBA) for the third quarter of 2021, according to its earnings report released on Monday November 8.In brief?EUR?Sales volumes rose during the quarter, on an annual basis, amid stronger demand from the transportation sector, especially for heavy vehicles and equipment, and from construction.?EU...Read More
London Metal Exchange aluminium stocks dropped below the 1-million-tonne mark for the first time since October 2019 and on-warrant volumes were at their lowest in nearly 16 years on Tuesday November 9, while the metal complex's prices were little changed from the end of trading on Monday.There was a 21,925-tonne fresh cancellation of aluminium on Tuesday, spread mostly between warehouses in Singap...Read More