The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:US domestic prices for hot-rolled coil moved down in line with our expectations, averaging $461 per ton in July versus our forecast price of $460 per ton. Although domestic HRC prices slipped to less than $450 per ton in late July/early August, we maintain the view th...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:Prices across most ferro-alloy markets trended stable to lower in August as demand remained subdued in major markets, apart from China where steel output continues to rise at a rapid pace, supporting demand for ferro-alloys. As alloy makers seek to remedy supply/demand imbalan...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:Numerous ore and alloy markets enjoyed upward pricing momentum in the first half 2020, with supply-side constraints supporting prices despite collapsing demand from steelmakers and other key end users. While supply side issues related to Covid-19 lockdowns have been resolved,...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In the year 2020 to date in late August, the Fastmarkets 62% Fe iron ore benchmark has powered along and reached six-year highs, supported by Chinese demand, and despite the global economic uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic. Iron ore demand has weakened almost everywhere except in China, where it has continued to...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.There has been an increasing bullishness in Chinese steel market sentiment recently, with rising post-Covid-19 optimism about the country's economy for the second half of 2020, especially after the government announced an infrastructure spending boost. Although we believe that high prices are justified, they remain far from...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Heavy rains in China, which can negatively affect iron ore supplies and pig iron production, and bolster demand for scrap, continued in July 2020. Although this was more an upside risk to our bearish base case one month ago, Chinese scrap prices remained strong. The firm prices gained support from the rains and from a more g...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This year has come with several unexpected events which increased the bullish case for iron ore prices, while the Chinese government's spending on infrastructure is likely to boost iron ore demand and add upside support to prices. But supply disruptions and a demand surge which caused price spikes are now easing. We do not e...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. A look at stainless steel price movements through August reveals the ongoing battle being faced by stainless steelmakers in Europe and the United States while they try to pass on rising costs to consumers. In these regions, prices on most grades of stainless steel are little changed from July, rising by around 2% at most -...Read More
The latest forecast from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.As we enter the summer season across the northern hemisphere, almost half a year has passed since the Covid-19 pandemic began to seriously affect Europe and the United States.One would not really be able to tell that such a dramatic event had occurred by looking at stainless steel prices, however, because they are more or less...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
Turkish steel mills have continued their deep-sea scrap purchases for September-October shipments at higher prices, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday September 3.A steel mill in Northern Turkey booked a Baltic Sea cargo comprising 10,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $300 per tonne, 13,000 tonnes of shredded at $305 per tonne and 4,000 tonnes of bonus at $310 per tonne cfr late on Wednesday.Anot...Read More
Peru's copper production continued to increase on a monthly comparison in July but output was still lower than a year ago, while the reopening of zinc mines drove output higher compared with the same month of 2019, the country's energy and mines ministry, Minem, said on Wednesday September 2. Copper output reached 198,796 tonnes in July, down by 2.2% from 203,321 tonnes a year before, Minem's data...Read More
Chile produced 462,000 tonnes of copper in July 2020, a 5.1% year-on-year drop from 486,800 tonnes with several operations halted, notably Codelco's, national copper commission Cochilco said on Wednesday September 2.Despite the lower production in July, the year-to-date output for the country was still up year on year after seven months. Chile produced 3.29 million tonnes in January-July 2020, up...Read More
Extreme tightness of duty-unpaid aluminium units in Rotterdam has pushed the P1020 duty-unpaid premium to its highest since March. With a lack of imports and material in tight hands, participants are concerned the tightness will not ease in the near term. "There is no unpaid material, simple as that. There is nothing new coming in and those holding the material are not willing to let it go at low...Read More
China's latest amendment to its solid waste law took effect on Tuesday September 1 and its stricter enforcement of solid waste import rules could push up downstream aluminium alloy prices, market participants told Fastmarkets. The new law, aiming to have zero waste imports, not only set legal requirements for solid waste importers but also claims carriers will hold joint liability for smuggling so...Read More
A post-summer return to the lead market enlivened spot activity in India and Vietnam in the week to Tuesday September 1. But while Indian lead premiums were buoyed by an increase in spot demand, the Southeast Asian lead premium narrowed over the period, with most countries remaining on the sidelines. Indian buyers came back to the lead market in full force, driving deals higher and premiums u...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States have moved closer to $26.50 per hundredweight ($530 per short ton), reaching their highest since early April - the same month the index plunged to a more than four-year low on the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $26.44 per cwt ($528.80 per ton) on Thursday September 3, up b...Read More
Imported billet prices increased slightly in Egypt because of the higher offer prices heard from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) although no deals were done, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday September 3.Export billet prices from the CIS region have been increasing, supported by rising prices in the scrap segment and the revival of customer interest, particularly in North Africa.Fa...Read More
Turkish billet prices have increased over the past week on rising imported scrap values and improving demand, sources said on Thursday September 3.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel billet, domestic, exw Turkey was $425-430 per tonne on Thursday September 3, up from $420-425 per tonne ex-works last week. "I already heard a steel mill sold billet to a local customer at $429 per tonne ex...Read More
Domestic long steel prices in Turkey have increased over the past week in line with rising imported scrap values, sources said on Thursday September 3.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, exw Turkey, was 3,950-3,960 lira ($535-536) per tonne on Thursday, up from the 3,860-3,870 lira per tonne of last week.The long steel...Read More