Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mainly weaker on the morning of Monday November 8, but those on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mainly firmer as they followed the strength seen on the LME on Friday.* US Congress’ passing of the long-awaited infrastructure bill bodes well for the metals* Chinese trade data show a record surplus, but weaker than expected imports highligh...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
Major companies in logistics and heavy industry have come together as part of an initiative launched by the World Economic Forum at the the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference - COP26 - in Glasgow to create a critical mass of demand for low carbon technologies aimed at decarbonising heavily polluting sectors.The First Movers Coalition, announced on November 4, is a partnership between th...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
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday November 5 that are worth another look.ArcelorMittal will suspend production as its Sestao plant in Spain until early 2022 to carry out upgrade works to double capacity, a company representative told Fastmarkets.Low-carbon...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 three-month copper contract is trading near record highs on the London Metal Exchange, cash prices are rising even faster, and inventories are descending toward zero. Try running a hedge book in those conditions.It's been a very real quandary facing the physical trade and industry, which awoke on Tuesday October 19 to find copper's cash to November spread had flared to a backwardation of more...Read More
Sellers of physical copper are holding out for a higher premium for 2022 contracts in the United States.No major deals were reported by the end of the American Copper Council (ACC) fall meeting in Miami, Florida this past week, although there was talk of a US copper premium in the 10-cents-per-lb range.In the US, Fastmarkets assessed the copper grade 1 cathode premium, ddp Midwest US at 8-9 cents...Read More
Major companies in logistics and heavy industry have come together as part of an initiative launched by the World Economic Forum at the the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference - COP26 - in Glasgow to create a critical mass of demand for low carbon technologies aimed at decarbonising heavily polluting sectors.The First Movers Coalition, announced on November 4, is a partnership between th...Read More
The Commonwealth of Independent States' (CIS) billet export price declined on Friday November 5 amid limited buying interest; most producers continued to hold back from trading.Trading activity remained limited in the Black Sea basin this week amid bearish sentiment.Softening scrap and long steel prices in Turkey, one of the key buyers of CIS billet, has made buyers cautious."The steel market is s...Read More
An overview of the energy transition raw materials markets and their price moves in the week to Friday November 5.Susan Zou, Yingchi Yang and...Read More
Turkish steel producers ended the week with a total of five deep-sea scrap cargoes, with prices increasing throughout the week, market sources told Fastmarkets on Friday November 5.A steel mill in the Izmir region booked a Baltic Sea cargo consisting of 11,000 tonnes of heavy melting scrap 1&2 (80:20) at $500 per tonne and 15,000 tonnes of shredded and 3,000 tonnes of bonus at $520 per tonne cfr l...Read More
Most LME base metals prices were trading slightly higher on the morning of Friday November 5, following declines at the close on Thursday, but zinc's three-month price remained under pressure. The galvanizing metal dipped to $3,1248 per tonne on Friday during early trading, its lowest level since October 8. The price recovered to $3,197 per tonne shortly after 9am, but it was still 1.3% lower than...Read More
ArcelorMittal will suspend production as its Sestao plant in Spain until early 2022 to carry out upgrade works to double capacity, a company representative told Fastmarkets.With the company moving forward scheduled engineering works by a month due to high electricity costs, steel production at Sestao will stop from the end of November until early next year, the spokesperson said."Production...Read More
Low-carbon aluminium differentials in Europe have widened after this week's United Nations environmental conference, COP26, put sustainability in the spotlight.Fastmarkets assessed the aluminium low-carbon differential P1020A, Europe, at $0-10 per tonne, up from $0-7 per tonne in the previous assessment on October 1."We would be looking for $10 per tonne minimum right now, and I think that is tota...Read More
Fastmarkets' copper concentrate treatment charge/refining charge (TC/RC) indices were largely stable this past week. More tonnages are available on tender for shipment next year, while smelters' buying has been relatively limited ahead of annual negotiations. For clean concentrate, a 90,000-tonne Cozamin tender for 2022 production was due to be awarded later on Friday November 5, with winning ter...Read More
A summary of Spanish stainless steelmaker Acerinox's financial results for the third quarter of 2021, ending on September 30.In brief?EUR? Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) increased for the fifth consecutive quarter - its third-quarter results were the best since the second quarter of 2007, Acerinox said.?EUR? It attributed its strong performance in the third...Read More
Turkish steel producers ended the week with a total of five deep-sea scrap cargoes, with prices increasing throughout the week, market sources told Fastmarkets on Friday November 5.A steel mill in the Izmir region booked a Baltic Sea cargo consisting of 11,000 tonnes of heavy melting scrap 1&2 (80:20) at $500 per tonne and 15,000 tonnes of shredded and 3,000 tonnes of bonus at $520 per tonne cfr l...Read More
Ferrous scrap prices in the global markets were unstable in the week ended Friday November 5 because deep-sea import prices in Turkey, the biggest scrap importer, fell earlier. But they rebounded toward the end of the week, while suppliers in the United States were able to resist the decline because of strong domestic demand. Turkish import prices rebounded late in the week Strong domestic demand...Read More
An overview of the energy transition raw materials markets and their price moves in the week to Friday November 5.Susan Zou, Yingchi Yang and...Read More