Sentiment in the CIS export steel billet market has been negatively affected by recent developments in import scrap prices in Turkey, with buyers being inactive and expecting prices to fall, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday January 14.Buyers had mostly prepared to adopt a wait-and-see approach, considering the recent reverse of sentiment in the Turkish import scrap market [LINK], and were expe...Read More
Turkish billet prices made a downward correction on Thursday January 14 in line with negative sentiment in the scrap market and limited demand for the material. Market participants said they expected a slight downward correction in scrap prices, which resulted a slight decrease in billet prices in Turkish domestic, export and import markets. Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel bill...Read More
The long steel market in Egypt was slow during the week ending Thursday January 14 because of soft end-user demand, with prices unchanged, market sources have told Fastmarkets.The main reason for the weak demand was the construction ban in Egypt, they added.Egypt imposed a ban on construction in May 2020, but eased the rules in September.Contractors and real estate developers were allowed to resum...Read More
China's iron ore imports increased by 9.5% in 2020 in comparison with 2019, Chinese customs data shows.The country imported 1.17 billion tonnes of the steelmaking raw material last year, compared with 1.07 billion tonnes in 2019, according to the statistics released on Thursday January 14.This is despite a 4.5% year-on-year drop in imports in December to 96.74...Read More
China's steel imports increased sharply in 2020 but exports declined from 2019 levels, according to Chinese customs data released on Thursday January 14.2020 imports: 20.23 million tonnes, up by 64.4% from 2019. ...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday January 14 that are worth another look.In 2020, the global pig iron market faced the threat of a demand slump due to the reduction in steel production from all major outlets under the pressure of the Covid-19 pandemic.Rio Tinto is...Read More
Cobalt metal prices have continued to rally so far this week, with the latest round of Chinese buying tightening supply and emboldening sellers to hold out for higher prices. "Metal continues to move upward day by day, and you can't get the same low offers you got the day before," a distributor source told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets' price assessment for cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam moved...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States have reached their highest level in at least 60 years, Fastmarkets has learned. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $58 per hundredweight ($1,160 per short ton) on Thursday January 14, up by 6.7% from $54.38 per cwt on Wednesday January 13 and an increase of 7.1% from $54.17 per cwt one week earlier on...Read More
Mills in Bangladesh purchased three bulk cargoes in the last week, with prices easing gently, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday January 14.Low scrap inventory, together with continuing difficulties in obtaining containers and ballooning shipping rates, led several steelmakers in the South Asian country to inquire for tonnages in bulk.A Bangladeshi mill booked a 38,000-tonne composite cargo at a...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday January 14 that are worth another look.In 2020, the global pig iron market faced the threat of a demand slump due to the reduction in steel production from all major outlets under the pressure of the Covid-19 pandemic.Rio Tinto is...Read More
In an era of historically low interest rates, investors are desperately looking for value. If current activity is anything to go by, they believe it lies in commodities.That is because prices of key commodities are steadily gaining; copper has hit eight-year highs above $8,000 per tonne, nickel is at six-and-half year highs near $18,000 per tonne, and iron ore prices are at levels last seen in 201...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price rallied over 3% in the second half of the day on Thursday January 14 on building expectations for President-elect Joe Biden to announce a $1.5 trillion deal stimulus package for the United States. The nickel price rose to $18,281 per tonne at 5pm, the metal's highest closing price of the year so far and a rise of 3.4% from Wednesday's 5pm price of...Read More
The London Metal Exchange's latest off-warrant stock data showed an increase of 3.9% in material held outside the LME warehouse network in November 2020. The amount of metal held off-warrant increased by 72,640 tonnes in November, a similar rise to that seen in October, when it rose by 78,092 tonnes. Data collected by the LME showed there was a total of 1.96 million tonnes of metal held off-warran...Read More
Iron ore prices went up on Thursday January 14, sources told Fastmarkets, supported by a rebound in futures, with lump performing well at Chinese ports due to tight supplies. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $172.36 per tonne, up $2.25 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $172.78 per tonne, up $1.88 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao:&...Read More
Italian re-rollers have been targeting higher prices for heavy steel plate because of rising costs for steel slab feedstock, while German mills have kept their offers largely unchanged, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday January 14.Official offers of heavy plate from Italian producers have been heard at ?,?620-650 ($755-792) per tonne ex-works. But no deals have been concluded in this range beca...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price rallied over 3% in the second half of the day on Thursday January 14 on building expectations for President-elect Joe Biden to announce a $1.5 trillion deal stimulus package for the United States. The nickel price rose to $18,281 per tonne at 5pm, the metal's highest closing price of the year so far and a rise of 3.4% from Wednesday's 5pm price of...Read More
Copper scrap discounts in the United States rose this week in response to the strong Comex copper price, along with slowing demand as some mills finished purchasing scrap metal for the month."There has been a little widening of spreads due to the high Comex," a scrap seller said.A copper scrap trader said that "some spreads had tightened from mid-December, but now that a couple of mills have fille...Read More
Rio Tinto is to become the first producer of high-quality scandium oxide in North America and will produce around one-fifth of the current level of world supply from a planned plant in Qu?(C)bec, Canada.The plant, currently under construction at the company's Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (RTFT) metallurgical operation in Sorel-Tracy, will begin commercial production in June this year. The RTFT Research...Read More
Russian mining company Nornickel is to join the Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network (RSBN), an industry collaboration across the minerals supply chain that uses blockchain to support responsible sourcing and production practises from mine to market.The move will see Nornickel's supply chains - including each stage of the company's vertically-integrated operations, from Russian mines to refiner...Read More
The London Metal Exchange's latest off-warrant stock data showed an increase of 3.9% in material held outside the LME warehouse network in November 2020. The amount of metal held off-warrant increased by 72,640 tonnes in November, a similar rise to that seen in October, when it rose by 78,092 tonnes. Data collected by the LME showed there was a total of 1.96 million tonnes of metal held off-warran...Read More