Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday December 22 that are worth another look.Russia is set to impose early next year a temporary increase to its export duty on ferrous scrap exports to combat the threat of a shortage of steelmaking raw...Read More
The base price for hot-rolled special bar quality (SBQ) steel in the United States edged up this month while that for cold-finished SBQ remained flat, but market participants expect higher surcharges to push up prices for all SBQ products starting January 1, 2021.On the hot-rolled side of the market, Fastmarkets' monthly price assessment for steel bar hot-rolled special bar quality 1-inch round 10...Read More
Steel rebar producers in the United Arab Emirates increased their prices on Tuesday December 22, but not by as much as expected due to the limited availability of imports, sources told Fastmarkets.Domestic rebarThe country's steel producers were offering rebar at 2,259-2,295.5 dirhams ($615-625) per tonne ex-works for orders to be produced in January, rising from 1,984,1,985 dirhams ($540) per ton...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday December 22 that are worth another look.Russia is set to impose early next year a temporary increase to its export duty on ferrous scrap exports to combat the threat of a shortage of steelmaking raw...Read More
Shipping problems faced by commodity market participants are likely to get worse ahead of Chinese New Year on February 12, 2021, sources told Fastmarkets.Freight rates for both bulk vessels and containers have soared to record highs in recent months amid a perfect storm of higher global shipping demand and rising crude oil costs.Those involved in the container trade have been particularly hurt, fa...Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market continued its upward trend with news of a fresh cargo from the Baltic Sea region, sources said on Tuesday December 22.Late on Monday, a steel mill in northern Turkey booked the cargo, comprising 12,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20), 6,000 tonnes of plate & structural scrap (P&S) and 5,000 tonnes of a mixture of busheling and oxy plates at an average price...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday December 21 that are worth another look.Market participants in Asia are bracing for sharp price corrections amid historically high prices for steel, iron ore and ferrous scrap in the region, industry sources told Fastmarkets this week.China's Zhuzhou zinc smelter has successfully met...Read More
Vale's permit for running operations in Brumadinho city was suspended for seven days following a landslide that caused the death of an employee from a third party contractor in the company's C??rrego do Feij??o mine in Brazil's southeastern Minas Gerais state.The Brumadinho city hall decided to suspend the permit after the accident, which occurred during maintenance activities in the mine on Frida...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday December 22 that are worth another look.Russia is set to impose early next year a temporary increase to its export duty on ferrous scrap exports to combat the threat of a shortage of steelmaking raw...Read More
Chilean copper producer Codelco signed a new 36-month labor agreement with supervisors and overall management at its Chuquicamata division, the company said on Tuesday December 22.The parties agreed to no pay raises and a 3.6 million Chilean pesos ($4,944) bonus, according to the miner. The new contract will go into effect on April 1, 2021.This followed a series of labor deals signed with no salar...Read More
A summary of base metals premiums from across the globe for the week to Tuesday December 22.Please click on the thumbnail...Read More
LME nickel's three-month price saw the biggest drop in the base metals complex on Tuesday December 22, with most metals correcting down from their recent 2020 highs in reaction to news of a new variant of Covid-19. Nickel's forward price fell 3.8% on Tuesday to $16,614 per tonne, down from Monday's 5pm close of $17,267 per tonne. On December 15, nickel set a year-to-date h...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday December 22 that are worth another look.Russia is set to impose early next year a temporary increase to its export duty on ferrous scrap exports to combat the threat of a shortage of steelmaking raw...Read More
Now is not the time for Freeport-McMoRan to be thinking about mergers and acquisitions, the mining company's chief executive officer says.According to Richard Adkerson, the company - which is just over half-way through a mega-project to transform its giant Grasberg copper-gold mine in Indonesia from an open-pit to an underground operation - is on the verge of creating huge shareholder value."I jus...Read More
Shipping problems faced by commodity market participants are likely to get worse ahead of Chinese New Year on February 12, 2021, sources told Fastmarkets.Freight rates for both bulk vessels and containers have soared to record highs in recent months amid a perfect storm of higher global shipping demand and rising crude oil costs.Those involved in the container trade have been particularly hurt, fa...Read More
The premium hard coking coal in the fob market continued to be active while the seaborne premium hard coking coal cfr price began to lose its price advantage over its Chinese domestic counterpart on Tuesday December 22. Fastmarkets indices Premium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $102.68 per tonne, up $0.29 per tonne Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $190.20 per tonne, unchanged Hard coking coal,...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices fell from their record highs on Tuesday December 22, after the market began "cooling off" following the introduction of new counter-speculation measures at the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $164.53 per tonne, down $11.92 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $165.07 per...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange was down by 1.6% during morning trading on Tuesday December 22, with the rest of the complex mostly trading lower given the spread of a new variant of Covid-19 across Europe. The LME nickel price was the most affected on Tuesday morning, dropping to $16,980 per tonne from Monday's 5pm close of $17,267 per tonne.The stainless-steel additive st...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