Boliden has stopped processing operations at its Kevitsa mine in Finland after a fire broke out overnight and caused "extensive" damage to a crushing plant there, it said on May 29."Production at the concentrating plant is halted until further notice [but] mining production is unaffected," the company said.Kevitsa produced 27,498 tonnes of copper in concentrates, 13,948of nickel in concentrat...Read More
Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia, Europe and the United States for the session ending Friday May 29.China UG2 chrome ore prices rose for a fourth consecutive week - deals at higher prices were reported, reflecting attempts to restock among ferro-chrome producers with low on-hand inventories. Domestic spot ferro-chrome prices stabilized - sentiment further strengthened after Taiyuan Iro...Read More
Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia, Europe and the United States for the session ending Friday May 29.China Domestic prices continued to rise, propelled higher by supply tightness. Market sentiment also improved after many steel mills set their June tender prices for ferro-silicon at 5,900-6,000 yuan ($824-838) per tonne for cargoes...Read More
Chinese copper smelters are still searching for spot raw materials to feed their furnaces while the supply of scrap and domestic blister copper remains crimped. The spot refining charge (RC) for 98-99% blister copper on a cif China basis dropped further to $115-125 per tonne at the end of May, according to Fastmarkets' assessment - the lowest since the monthly price was launched in February 2018.&...Read More
Prices for bulk ferrous scrap cargoes imported into Vietnam have continued to rise over the week ended Friday May 29 but some market sources were unsure whether the upward momentum would persist.Vietnamese scrap prices have performed strongly over the past seven days amid a combination of high demand from the South-east Asian country and Japanese sellers pushing prices upward.The high prices paid...Read More
Ferrous scrap buyers in South Korea have been forced to pay higher prices for Japanese material over the week ended Friday May 29 due to sell-side pressure, market sources have told Fastmarkets.Japanese scrap prices have moved up strongly through the week, with supplies of H2 heavy scrap coming under strain from exporters filling a backlog of existing orders from lower collection volumes.Strong de...Read More
Prices for heavy melting scrap (HMS) imports in Taiwan rose over the week to Friday May 29 due to an ongoing supply deficit, sources said. Fastmarkets' daily price assessment for containerized cargoes of steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20), US material import, cfr main port Taiwan was $233-234 per tonne on Friday, up by $5 per tonne from a day earlier and $2-3 per tonne higher than $230-232 per tonne cfr...Read More
Overcapacity in the aluminium industry is highly unlikely to be erased in the foreseeable future, according to the former head of Europe's largest aluminium producer, Norsk Hydro.Svein Richard Brandtz??g, who was Norsk Hydro chief executive for a decade from 2009, said the market will eventually revert to a more balanced supply-demand picture but that this will take time to emerge. "History shows...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday May 28 that are worth another look.Japanese carmaker Nissan intends to close three plants at its Nissan Barcelona operations in Spain from December 2020, the company said on May 28. The units affected will be at Zona Franca, Montcada and Sant Andreu.The Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) has begun an anti-dumping investigation in...Read More
The LME three-month copper price was again trading above the psychological $5,300-per-tonne level on Thursday May 28, ending the day up 1.3% day on day at $5,322.50 per tonne, buoyed by the fresh cancelation of 19,000 tonnes earlier in the day.Copper futures extended their gains today with support from a considerable fresh cancelation of 19,975 tonnes from warehouses at Busan in Sou...Read More
Aluminium producer Alcoa said it has started a consultation period for a collection dismissal process for staff, as well as the possible shutdown, of its San Cipri??n aluminium smelter in Spain."Alcoa met today with the representatives of the workers of San Cipri??n to inform them of the serious circumstances and of the unsustainable situation that the aluminium plant is going through due to inher...Read More
Aluminium producer Alcoa said it has started a consultation period for a collection dismissal process for staff, as well as the possible shutdown, of its San Cipri??n aluminium smelter in Spain."Alcoa met today with the representatives of the workers of San Cipri??n to inform them of the serious circumstances and of the unsustainable situation that the aluminium plant is going through due to inher...Read More
An employee of the Compagnie Mini??re de l'Ogoou?(C) (Comilog) manganese ore mine in Gabon, an Eramet subsidiary since 1996, has died of the Covid-19 infection, a company source told Fastmarkets on Thursday May 28."We learnt with great sadness of the death following Covid-19 of one of our Comilog employees at the regional hospital at Franceville," the source said. "Distancing measures are...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday May 28 that are worth another look.Japanese carmaker Nissan intends to close three plants at its Nissan Barcelona operations in Spain from December 2020, the company said on May 28. The units affected will be at Zona Franca, Montcada and Sant Andreu.The Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) has begun an anti-dumping investigation in...Read More
Prices for cobalt salts in China, including cobalt sulfate and tetroxide, continued their upswing in the first half of this week, but the upward momentum has slowed after suppliers found it increasingly difficult to conclude deals at higher levels. Fastmarkets' assessment for cobalt sulfate 20.5% Co basis, exw China rose to 46,500-47,500 yuan ($6,493-6,632) per tonne on Wednesday May 27, up by 500...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday May 28 that are worth another look.Japanese carmaker Nissan intends to close three plants at its Nissan Barcelona operations in Spain from December 2020, the company said on May 28. The units affected will be at Zona Franca, Montcada and Sant Andreu.The Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) has begun an anti-dumping investigation in...Read More
Bangladeshi steel mills are expected to return to the deep-sea market for steel scrap in bulk and containers in the coming weeks, market sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday May 28.Purchasing activity in Bangladesh has been extremely slow over the past three weeks, with demand decimated by the Ramadan period and the country's continuing Covid-19 lockdown.But signs of life are returning after Eid-a...Read More
Turkish deep-sea scrap import prices increased slightly on news of fresh cargo deals heard on Thursday May 28.A steel mill in the Izmir region booked a European cargo, comprising 20,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $246 per tonne, 5,000 tonnes of shredded at $251 per tonne and 5,000 tonnes of bonus at $256 per tonne cfr.Another steel mill in the same region...Read More
Prices for cobalt salts in China, including cobalt sulfate and tetroxide, continued their upswing in the first half of this week, but the upward momentum has slowed after suppliers found it increasingly difficult to conclude deals at higher levels. Fastmarkets' assessment for cobalt sulfate 20.5% Co basis, exw China rose to 46,500-47,500 yuan ($6,493-6,632) per tonne on Wednesday May 27, up by 500...Read More
Cobalt is the battery raw material most likely to face supply disruption or inefficiency during Covid-19, according to a poll conducted during a Fastmarkets webinar last week.About 50% of respondents to the poll said cobalt would be most prone to disrupted supply or limited availability as a result of Covid-19; nickel and lithium each received 20% of respondents' votes, while the remaining 10% wen...Read More