The price of stainless steel in Europe was stable this week but mills were expected to try to push through increases because of higher energy costs, despite the fact that demand has slowed in recent weeks, Fastmarkets heard on Friday October 15.An Italian mill was said to be hoping to implement a ?,?20 ($23) per tonne energy surcharge in order to recoup some of its expenditure on rising energy cos...Read More
The entirety of copper's London Metal Exchange forward curve ended the day in a backwardated state on October 15, with fears of supply tightness taking over metals across the board. Zinc reached its highest prices in over a decade while tin climbed to new all-time highs. Copper's benchmark cash/three-month spread on LMESelect - the Exchange's electronic platform - touched a $350-per-tonne b...Read More
Key data from Fastmarkets' European secondary aluminium pricing session on Friday October 15.Key drivers:Prices for secondary aluminium ingots of DIN226 grade hit a record high on Friday October 15, the highest price reported for the grade since Fastmarkets began pricing it in 2002, and a 7.6% increase from the previous week.Record high prices for scrap, silicon and magnesium contributed to the up...Read More
An overview of the new energy materials markets and their price moves in the week to Friday October 15.Susan Zou, Yingchi Yang and...Read More
Fastmarkets copper concentrate treatment charge/refining charge (TC/RC) edged down this week, with few inquiries for spot tonnages, sources said on Friday October 15.TCs for smelters remain in the low-to-mid $60s, a level still well below the Chinese pricing floor of $70 per tonne/7 cents per lb.As for trader purchases, a tender for Escondida concentrate...Read More
Market participants in the bauxite industry in China, both metallurgical and non-metallurgical grades, have downplayed the effect of heavy rainfall in Shanxi earlier this month despite a temporary closure of alumina operation lines. But sources expressed concerns over operations in the coming winter because of the traditional environmental regulations and energy shortages.Heavy downpours started i...Read More
The three-month zinc price on the London Metal Exchange reached a 14-year high of $3,750 per tonne on Friday October 15, with prices and premiums spiking amid concerns over supply in Europe and the United States.Friday's price represents its highest level since 2007 and a 16.4% increase from the start of the week, with the contract closing at $3,222 per tonne on Monday. "The threat of further prod...Read More
A summary of global mining company Rio Tinto's third-quarter production results.In brief: Aluminium production was 3% lower than in the third quarter of 2020 due to strike action at the Kitimat smelter. On October 2, Rio Tinto reached a new Collective Labor Agreement for its British Columbia operations, which includes the Kitimat smelter and the Kemano hydropower facility. The smelter will steadil...Read More
Inventory changes of base metals in Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses were mixed during the week to Friday October 15, with zinc gaining the most in percentage terms at 16% and copper declining by 20.1%.Zinc inventories stood at 71,444 tonnes on Friday, an increase of 9,854 tonnes from 61,590 tonnes a week ago, according to the exchange's weekly report.The largest inflows came into warehouses o...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States dropped below $96 per hundredweight ($1,920 per short ton) for the first time since August, with rising inventories putting downward pressure on prices, according to market sources.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $95.47 per cwt ($1,909.40 per ton) on Friday October 15, down by 0.85% from $96.29 per cwt on Thu...Read More
Prices for cold-rolled and galvanized steel sheet in the United States mostly held steady after market participants said 2020-21's unprecedented availability crisis is over and inventories are sufficient enough to cease the panic buying. "Mills' spot numbers are still stagnant," one southern distributor said. Fastmarkets' weekly assessment for steel cold-rolled coil, fob mill US was unchanged at $...Read More
Coated steel coil prices increased sharply in Turkey during the week ended Friday October 15 and some producers stopped accepting new orders, sources told Fastmarkets.Producers stopped accepting orders because prices for hot-rolled coil, the base material for coated coils, continued to increase and producers wanted to reflect cost increases in their end-product prices.Fastmarkets' weekly price ass...Read More
A lack of trading across Europe kept domestic prices for hot-rolled coil fairly stable on Friday October 15, sources told Fastmarkets.Bearish sentiment is prevailing in the market, supported by poor demand from the automotive sector and good domestic supplies. Buyers and sellers have mainly been holding back from making deals, with only limited volumes traded in Europe during the week, sources sai...Read More
Hot-rolled and cold-rolled coil prices increased in Turkey during the week to Friday October 15, following the sharp increase in scrap prices, sources told Fastmarkets.Turkey's scrap import prices jumped during the week on new deals done at higher levels.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix) United States origin, cfr Turkey was $486 per tonne on October 14, up from $450.14 p...Read More
Steel wire rod prices in Poland were broadly flat in the week to Friday October 15, while market sources expect producers to increase prices in November due to higher energy costs, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel wire rod (drawing quality), domestic, delivered Poland remained at 3,800-3,900 zloty ($964-989) per tonne on Friday, unchanged from the previous we...Read More
The inter-merchant market for light-iron steel scrap in the United Kingdom was steady for a fourth week on Friday October 15, supported by strong export markets and tight availability of scrap in all areas, trade sources told Fastmarkets.Prices for light iron were further cemented on this week's settlement of monthly delivery prices into domestic steel mills, which were agreed at stable or higher...Read More
Record-high coking coal prices have been pressuring steelmakers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), mainly in Ukraine, because of a dependence on imports, sources told Fastmarkets.Global coking coal prices have been trending upward since October 2020, when the Chinese government imposed a ban on Australian materials.Fastmarkets' index for premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang -...Read More
The export pig iron market from the Commonwealth of Independent States improved in the week to Thursday October 14, with new sales to Italy and a bullish mood among suppliers.Fastmarkets' price assessment for high-manganese pig iron, export, fob main port Black Sea, CIS was $500-520 per tonne on Thursday, up by $10 from $490-510 per tonne the previous week.Several sales of Ukraine-origin pig iron...Read More
Turkish steel mills booked at another five cargoes on Friday to bring the total for the week to 10, market participants told Fastmarkets on October 15.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Baltic Sea cargo, comprising 21,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $487 per tonne and 4,000 tonnes of shredded at $507 per tonne cfr. The cargo was scheduled to be shipped on December 15.A steel mill in the...Read More
Prices for shredded steel scrap imported into Pakistan and India increased further on Friday October 15, with trading reported throughout the week, sources told Fastmarkets.PakistanFastmarkets calculated its weekly steel scrap, shredded, index, import, cfr Port Qasim, Pakistan at $546.22 per tonne on Friday October 15, up from 535.07 per tonne one week prior.Deals were heard at $535 per tonne, $54...Read More