An overview of the Chinese minor metals markets and the reasons for their latest price moves. Read More
Government incentives will help solidify a future shift to cleaner energy, in addition to buffering electric vehicles (EVs) from the trend of declining sales faced by the wider automotive sector during the Covid-19 pandemic, attendees heard during a Fastmarkets webinar this week. "The question with incentives is always whether they just pull sales forward, and to some extent, we do feel like that...Read More
The Baowu Steel Group, China's largest steelmaker, is now the controlling shareholder of the Taiyuan Iron & Steel Group (Tisco), the country's second-largest producer of stainless steel, the latter has announced.Shanxi province's State-owned Assets Supervision & Administration Commission, which owned all of Tisco's shares, transferred 51%...Read More
Prices for steel scrap imported to South Korea moved upward over the past week following a rise in demand from steelmakers, market sources told Fastmarkets on Friday August 21.Most buyers had been out of the market over the past few weeks, largely due to holidays in Japan and high offer prices from the United States West Coast.But the market gained ground in recent days following the increase in J...Read More
Strong demand for ferrous scrap imports in the key Southeast Asian market of Vietnam has resulted in prices in the country catching up with those in Bangladesh, a major buyer in South Asia.Keen interest was reported for deep-sea bulk cargoes of heavy melting scrap from the United States West Coast this week, and at least four cargoes have been sold to Vietnam in the past two weeks - three to the s...Read More
Sellers of imported containerized scrap from the United States West Coast to Taiwan abstained from offering material over the past week because of continued bullish sentiment in the spot market.Fastmarkets' daily price assessment for containerized cargoes of steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20), US material import, cfr main port Taiwan was $262-265 per tonne on Friday August 21, unchanged from a day...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday August 20 that are worth another look.The domestic hot-rolled coil price in Northern Europe moved up on August 20, following producers' bullish pricing policy, sources told Fastmarkets.China's domestic stainless steel prices rose for an eighth...Read More
The three-month price of copper on the London Metal Exchange was the underperformer at the close of trading on Thursday August 20, with the price holding above nearby support despite losing more than 1.2% over the day.Meanwhile, zinc futures struggled to hold ground above the $2,500-per-tonne threshold.Copper's outright price on the LME closed at $6,601.50 per tonne on Thursday afternoon, falling...Read More
The LME three-month copper price was the biggest faller in morning trading on Thursday August 20, dropping by 1.7% against a slight uptick in the US dollar index, while a fresh cancellation supported the nickel price.Copper's outright price on the London Metal Exchange was recently trading at $6,575.50 per tonne on Thursday morning, wiping out gains made on Wednesday after closing at its highest l...Read More
Key information from the pricing session for Fastmarkets' daily alumina index, fob Australia, on Thursday August 20.The index was $284.30 per tonne on Thursday, its highest since March 18 this year when it was $297.23 per tonne, and was up by 7% since the beginning of this week.Key drivers Production at Norsk Hydro's Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil has been reduced to 35-45% of capacity. Hydro...Read More
A summary of producer South32's financial results for the year ended June 30, 2020.In briefSouth32's underlying earnings were down by 81% in the 2020 financial year at $193 million, compared with $992 million in the prior financial year, with volatile macroeconomic conditions affecting the prices of key commodities. Statutory profit after tax declined by $454 million to a loss of $65 million in 20...Read More
China's domestic stainless steel prices rose for an eighth week reach their highest since February 19, while export prices too have risen to levels not seen since late last year.A weakening of the US dollar pushed up prices for commodities, including nickel, which then drove up stainless steel prices, an industry analyst in Shanghai said.The three-month nickel contract on the London Metal Exchange...Read More
Tight intermediates availability and a rally in the cobalt hydroxide market brought cobalt metal back in favor with cobalt sulfate refineries looking to cut risk in their feedstock inflows in late July. Until then, cobalt hydroxide payables - the percentage of the metal price buyers pay sellers for cobalt intermediates - had been capped at 70% for at least a year and a half, reflecting ample suppl...Read More
Turkish steel producers continued to stay out of the deep-sea scrap market on Thursday August 20, due to continuing weak demand in the domestic and export finished long steel markets, sources told Fastmarkets.Having booked some US and Baltic Sea cargoes at $285 per tonne cfr for HMS 1&2 (80:20) on August 7, mills in Turkey paused their deep-sea activity due the l...Read More
The cascade of cargoes booked by Bangladeshi mills from United States recyclers continued over the past week to Thursday August 20, with two more deals heard, sources told Fastmarkets. Demand for scrap in Bangladesh has ballooned over the past month, with mill capacity utilization rising at the country's three largest mills, and scrap stocks at steelmakers depleting. A Bangladeshi mill bought a bu...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly weaker this morning, Thursday August 20, as were Asian-Pacific and pre-market major western equity index futures. Gold prices are rebounding after Wednesday's 3.3% sell-off.US equities retreated on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve minutes highlighted concerns about the US recovery.Base metals The three-month base metals pri...Read More
A summary of results for the lithium division of Chilean producer Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM) for the first six months of 2020, as shown in its half-year report published on Wednesday August 19.In brief Sales from the lithium division were up by 45% quarter-on-quarter in the April-June quarter despite being down by around 7% year-on-year overall in the first half of 2020. Lithium sales totaled...Read More
For the first time since the boom began in China's new energy vehicles (NEVs) sector in 2014, Europe is taking the lead, according to Al Bedwell, director at Global Powertrain, part of independent sector services provider LMC Automotive."Europe is certainly the star of the show and is responsible for the overperformance of the battery electric vehicle [BEV] segment this year," Bedwell said during...Read More
China's Ganfeng Lithium has signed a cooperation agreement with Jiangxi Special Electric Motor (Jiangte Motor) to manage and operate its lithium production lines from October this year.Ganfeng signed the lithium production line cooperation agreement with Jiangte Motor and its subsidiaries including wholly-owned subsidiary company Jiangte Mining and Jiangte Mining subsidiary Yichun Yinli New Energy...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday August 20 that are worth another look.The domestic hot-rolled coil price in Northern Europe moved up on August 20, following producers' bullish pricing policy, sources told Fastmarkets.China's domestic stainless steel prices rose for an eighth...Read More