China's output and sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) continued to increase month on month in May but figures are still down on an annual comparison, reflecting the sharply reduced subsidies. China produced 84,000 NEVs in May, including pure electric vehicles (PEVs) and plug-in hybrids. This was up by 5% from April, but down by 25.8% from May 2019, according to data released by the China Associat...Read More
The price of stainless steel in Europe has remained unchanged despite the attempts by mills to incorporate higher monthly alloy surcharges into transaction prices, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday June 12.Demand is too weak to support any price rises, they added. Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for stainless steel cold-rolled sheet 2mm grade 304 transaction domestic, delivered North Eu...Read More
Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia, Europe and the United States for the week ended Friday June 12China The five-week uptrend in UG2 chrome ore prices stalls on softer buying interest, with market participants on both sides reporting a slowdown in inquiriesThe domestic spot ferro-chrome price narrowed downward on...Read More
High offers for Japanese and United States-origin ferrous scrap saw Vietnamese buyers stay away from the spot import market in the week to Friday June 12, with some market participants suggesting that prices have peaked and are likely to move down from now on.There was a confirmed transaction at $278 per tonne cfr southern Vietnam this week and rumors of a transaction at $275 per tonne cfr souther...Read More
Prices for steel billet in Southeast Asia rose over the past week amid costlier steelmaking raw materials, sources said.Iron ore prices rose above $100 per tonne cfr China for the first time this year on May 29 due to concerns over a shortfall of Brazilian material, and have mostly stayed above that level so far in June. Scrap prices in the bellwether Turkish import market have also been on an upw...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday June 11 that are worth another look.GFG Alliance is to create its first "Greensteel" facility in Europe at its Liberty Steel facility in Galati, Romania, as part of its plan to become carbon neutral by 2030, the company said this week.A deal for third-quarter aluminium ingot supply to Japan has been concluded at a premium of $68 p...Read More
All base metals lost ground during trading on Thursday June 11, with the London Metal Exchange three-month aluminium price falling by 2% to close at $1,601.50 per tonne.There were 15,086 lots of aluminium traded on Thursday, and the underlying aluminium price touched an intraday high of $1,629.50 per tonne, although that is still lower than Wednesday's closing price of $1,638 per tonne.LME alumini...Read More
The London Metal Exchange has bolstered efforts to explore low-carbon initiatives this month, emphasizing green aluminium production as its target, but at a time of unprecedented distortions across the global raw materials supply chain, market sentiment remains mixed. The exchange is set to begin exploring steps to incorporate diversified aluminium production into its systems, LME chief executive...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday June 11 that are worth another look.GFG Alliance is to create its first "Greensteel" facility in Europe at its Liberty Steel facility in Galati, Romania, as part of its plan to become carbon neutral by 2030, the company said this week.A deal for third-quarter aluminium ingot supply to Japan has been concluded at a premium of $68 p...Read More
Zambian blister copper producer Chambishi (CCS) has brought forward its 43-day maintanence plan after being hit by a furnace outage since early June, Fastmarkets understands.With a 250,000 tonne-per-year copper capacity, the CCS plant is one of the biggest copper smelters in Zambia to supply blister copper to the export market. The subsidiary of China Nonferrous Mining Corp (CNMC) h...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday June 11 that are worth another look.GFG Alliance is to create its first "Greensteel" facility in Europe at its Liberty Steel facility in Galati, Romania, as part of its plan to become carbon neutral by 2030, the company said this week.A deal for third-quarter aluminium ingot supply to Japan has been concluded at a premium of $68 p...Read More
A slew of extensive stimulus measures to boost the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in Europe in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic is unlikely to provide any immediate support to prices for cobalt and lithium in China, according to market participants. In the past two weeks, several European countries, including Germany and the United Kingdom, either announced schemes to encourage the adop...Read More
Turkish steel mills took a break from deep-sea scrap purchasing on Thursday June 11, after booking significant volumes in recent weeks, sources told Fastmarkets.Turkish steelmakers have booked at least 14 deep-sea cargoes since the beginning of the month, totaling around 450,000 tonnes.They have been booking deep-sea scrap since the easing of Covid-19-related restrictions led to an...Read More
China's schedule to rename copper and aluminium scrap metal as renewable materials in July is not likely to be met, Fastmarkets has learned."There are only two weeks to go and nothing has been heard from Chinese customs yet," a source familiar with the matter said, adding that the delay could be more than one month.Currently, copper, brass and aluminium scrap imports are sold to the country under...Read More
Risk assets were weaker this morning, Thursday June 11, with the base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange down across the board, as were Asian-Pacific equities and pre-market major western equity index futures. US Federal Reserve projections suggest no rate rise until end of 2022......hints they expect a long drawn out recovery, implying less of a V-shaped one.Concerns rise about a second s...Read More
A slew of extensive stimulus measures to boost the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in Europe in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic is unlikely to provide any immediate support to prices for cobalt and lithium in China, according to market participants. In the past two weeks, several European countries, including Germany and the United Kingdom, either announced schemes to encourage the adop...Read More
Chinese domestic smartphone shipments declined by 10.4% year on year in May 2020, resuming its downturn following year-on-year growth of 17.2% in April, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) data - released on June 10 - shows.Mobile phone shipments in China totalled 32.7 million in May, while total shipments so far this year amounted to 121 million, down by 16% year on...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday June 11 that are worth another look.GFG Alliance is to create its first "Greensteel" facility in Europe at its Liberty Steel facility in Galati, Romania, as part of its plan to become carbon neutral by 2030, the company said this week.A deal for third-quarter aluminium ingot supply to Japan has been concluded at a premium of $68 p...Read More
European producers of hot-rolled coil will announce domestic price increases in the middle of June despite low demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday June 11.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was calculated at ?,?396.70 ($450.74) per tonne on Thursday June 11, down by ?,?1.22 per tonne from ?,?397.92 per tonne on Wednesday June 10.The index w...Read More
Liberty Steel plans to replace the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) at its Galati plant in Romania with two electric-arc furnaces (EAFs), with the aim of becoming carbon-neutral by 2030, the company announced this week.Within the next three to five years Liberty also plans to install a 2.50 million tonnes-per-year direct reduced iron (DRI) module at the Galati plant, a Liberty Galati...Read More