Seaborne iron ore prices fell on Monday July 20, with slow trading activity and no clear trend emerging, sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $109.54 per tonne, down $0.77 per tonne. 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $111.44 per tonne, down $0.89 per tonne. 58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $97.86 per tonne, down $1.13 pe...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were subdued during morning trading on Monday July 20, with thin volume keeping most metals range-bound, while a continued downtrend in LME copper stocks kept the metal's underlying price elevated. Yet sideways trading comes amid continued caution surrounding the European Union's economic summit, which continues this week and sees economi...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Upside breakout last weekThe price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange surprised us with a break to the upside in the week ended July 10, when prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange raced to three-and-a-half-year highs. While we think there is more short-term upside potential if technical and liquidity fact...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Capped by oversupplyA lack of a meaningful supply adjustment to the Covid-19 demand hit is keeping the aluminium physical market oversupplied and weighing on prices, limiting the success of more buoyant macro and technical forces on prices. Our premium forecasts are under review in light of threats from the U...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Poised for a technical breakoutFears over a second wave of Covid-19 continue to grow, forcing prices of aluminium and the other base metals to take a pause. Our base-case scenario is that countries will respond more efficiently to contain the virus spread, so economic activity and metal demand should continue to r...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Demand outlook revisedWe are not surprised to see aluminium prices retreat from last week's high after flagging up in recent reports that they had become overbought. 'Sell-the-rally' traders will be targeting the April high now, down at $1,534 per tonne. This week we have reviewed our aluminium demand forecasts fo...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Prices hold, pipe buying stalls Seamless prices remained broadly stable in much of the world this month - with the notable exception of falling Japan fob prices, because oil and gas producers have been less inclined to fight for premium products as they cut their capital expenditure - but this was not the result of a balance...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:Upward momentum in US domestic sheet steel prices came to a halt in the second half of June, wiping out earlier gains. Although the prices of hot-rolled coil (HRC), cold-rolled coil (CRC) and hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG) increased on a monthly average basis, the d...Read More
In light of the recent turmoil in the oil market, the Fastmarkets research team has closely examined the correlations between the price of oil and the prices for ferrous scrap and finished steel products, to discover nuanced relationships and their changes over time.It is common for steel market participants to refer to high correlations between oil prices and the prices for scrap and steel. Among...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Price uptrend stumbles, but expected to resumeAs we expected, Chinese export and domestic steel prices moved upward in June, settling within the 2% range of our forecasts. Rebar prices trended downward in the second half of the month while heavy rains and floods in parts of the country meant that some construction sites had...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In previous reports, we noted that upside risks to our forecasts existed. These were based on Chinese steel production, and in turn alloy consumption, outperforming our expectations.Chinese crude steel production is rising each month in a year-on-year comparison, prompting our revised view that Chinese alloy consumption will...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The Covid-19 pandemic and the associated impacts on steel production, mining and manufacturing activity, end-use consumption, and trade and transportation continue to dominate ferro-alloy markets. US steel mills are operating at around 50% of capacity, with similarly low operating rates evident in Europe as well. Chinese ste...Read More
Ferro-alloys prices have generally retreated over the past month, with demand concerns gaining in prominence.The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Ferro-alloy pricing trends have generally diverged ove the past month, depending on the security of the supply-side position of the market. With most supply concerns fading with the resumption of industrial activity i...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:While the ferro-alloy industry's initial response to the Covid-19 outbreak was marked by rising prices primarily in response to supply-side concerns, focus has now shifted somewhat. As Chinese activity slowly returns to more normal levels, for alloys with a strong Chinese prod...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Prolonged flooding in China could limit the use of construction steel and drag down demand for steel rebar in the short term, which in turn could damp the demand for iron ore. So far, it has been reported that steel mills in the affected regions have continued to operate as normal. The floods have, however, caused a few days...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In a webinar we conducted on Asian ferro alloys, our research team discussed the Chinese authorities' announcing some major infrastructure investments that will increase demand for steel and steel raw materials, including iron ore. Our research shows that the recent infrastructure investment announcements are equal to about...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Judging by a recent webinar we conducted on Asian ferroalloys last week, many market participants believe the steel and steelmaking raw materials' world - outside of China - will record an 'L' shaped recovery, effectively failing to recover. With crude steel production outside of China falling close to a third in April and o...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices are relatively stable this month, showing little change since our previous tracker. Such stability masks growing issues for stainless steelmakers, however, who are increasingly unable to pass on rising costs to consumers and are, thus, facing cuts to their margins.In general, this is due to an excess of...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices are on the increase in June. As far as this market is concerned, it appears as though the Covid-19 pandemic has had little impact so far, with prices on the most common grades of stainless steel just 2-4% lower than they were at the turn of the year in most markets.Even in Asia, a region often talked ab...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices have fared relatively well over the past couple of months in the face of the threat from the Covid-19 pandemic.In grade-304 material, the most common grade of stainless steel, prices were down by about 5-7% since the turn of the year - not bad, when compared with the falls in prices of other assets so f...Read More