A raft of auto closures in the United States drove the lead premiums down further this week, moving the range for the 99.99% ingot premium for the first time in more than two years and sinking the 99.97% ingot premium to its lowest in seven-and-a-half years.Fastmarkets assessed the lead 99.97% ingot premium, ddp Midwest US at 8-9 cents per lb on Tuesday April 21, down by 5.6% from its previous ran...Read More
United States-based Ball Corp has announced that the Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi) has approved the company's targets for the reduction of absolute carbon emissions in its own operations by 55%, and within its value chain by 16%, by 2030 against a 2017 baseline.The metals packaging and aerospace supplier was the first in the can-making industry to have an approved science-based target, a...Read More
The lockdowns imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic were offering automotive manufacturers a rare opportunity to take a step back and to re-evaluate their long-term strategies, the chief executive officer of Eurasian Resources Group has said.Benedikt Sobotka said that although the world is currently facing distressing times, it was also a chance to restructure supply chains and to take more decisiv...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe were stable day on day on Tuesday April 21, although sentiment in the market remained downbeat, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was ?,?445.63 ($484.15) per tonne on Tuesday, up by only ?,?0.63 day on day from ?,?445 per tonne on...Read More
Flat steel import prices in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were stable this week, with market activity close to none because of the precautions taken due to the Covid-19 pandemic, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday April 21.No deals or new prices were heard during the week and steel consumption was very slow because of the curfew orders in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, sources said.The UAE...Read More
Italian long steel producer Alfa Acciai Group has resumed production this week following a month of downtime, sources told Fastmarkets on April 17.Last week Alfa Acciai had resumed steel product deliveries from stock, while this week the company has restarted production, several sources confirmed to Fastmarkets.The company is currently running at "more or less 20%" capacity utilization rate, the s...Read More
Steel billet and rebar prices in the United Arab Emirates remained unchanged over the past week, largely because of the lockdown introduced to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, market sources said on Tuesday April 21.The UAE introduced a two-week, 24-hour lockdown on April 4 and extended it for another week starting from April 17.Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has been subject to a&n...Read More
CIS export slab prices surged in the week to Tuesday April 21 with mills managing to achieve higher levels in recent sales.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel slab, export, fob Black Sea, CIS, was $325-330 per tonne on Tuesday, up from $305-320 per tonne a week earlier.Demand for semi-finished steel products in China continued to render support to CIS slab producers. A large cargo of Ru...Read More
Exporters of flat steel from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) reduced prices in further sales to Turkey, although later increased their offers in the week to Tuesday April 21 on full order books.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil, export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $345-365 per tonne on Tuesday, down from $360-370 per tonne a week before.Two sales of R...Read More
Mexican steel scrap prices decreased in the week ended April 17, with some buyers applying the first round of a series of price cuts planned for the month, and a second group of buyers keeping their prices stable.In Mexico's central Baj?-o region, steelmakers applied price cuts of 200-400 pesos ($8-17) per tonne last week, and have announced a second round of price cuts of 200 pesos per tonne to s...Read More
The Turkish steel producers went through the second working day of the week with no deep-sea bookings and they were expected to remain quiet for the rest of the week, sources said on Tuesday April 21.The mills in the country booked at least seven deep-sea cargoes last week, totaling almost 220,000 tonnes.Market participants believed that those cargoes will be enough to cover mills' urgent needs."I...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices dropped on Tuesday April 21, following the crash in US oil prices, which fell into negative territory late on Monday evening in Singapore for the first time on record, Fastmarkets understands.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $84.37 per tonne, down $3.08 per tonne 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $85.96 per tonne, down $3.15 per tonne58% Fe fines...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices dropped further on Tuesday April 21 due to inactive trading and persistent bearish sentiment among market participants.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $125.05 per tonne, down by $3.21 per tonne.Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $135.04 per tonne, down by $1.47 per tonne.Hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $116.01 per tonne, down by $1.00 per tonne.H...Read More
Japan's Nippon Steel will halt a third blast furnace due to an "immediate sharp drop in demand for steel products" caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.Company: Nippon SteelLocation: Kimitsu, Chiba prefectureEquipment: No2 blast furnace (BF), coke ovensDate: From mid-May The 8-million-tonnes-per-year Kimitsu steel works has...Read More
Steel production outside China could contract by a double-digit percentage in 2020, according to global miner BHP, but output in China may rise slightly in the same period if the country can avoid a second wave of Covid-19 infections. According to the miner, steel makers from a variety of regions, including Europe, the Americas, India and Japan, have announced or signaled full shutdowns or curtail...Read More
China's domestic hot-rolled coil prices dropped on Tuesday April 21, with market sentiment hurt by a slump in financial markets triggered by an oil crash in the United States.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,300-3,320 yuan ($466-469) per tonne, down 20-30 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tangshan): 3,240 yuan per tonne, down 20 yuan per tonneSellers across China lowered their offers in response to...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month copper price declined during morning trading on Tuesday April 21, threatening to dip below the key $5,000-per-tonne support level, while tin futures fell 2.5% despite a sizeable stock outflow.LME copper's outright price was recently at $5,069 per tonne, sinking from an intra-morning low of $5,182 per tonne, while turnover is moderately high at some 9,000 lots...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices slid further on Tuesday April 21 amid futures losses sparked by an oil market crash in the United States. Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,420-3,450 yuan ($483-488) per tonne, down by 10 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Beijing): 3,430-3,450 yuan per tonne, down by 20 yuan per tonne The May futures contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil fell as low as minus...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were weaker this morning, Tuesday April 21, and Asian-Pacific and pre-market major western equity indices were weaker too. On Monday we had thought poor corporate earnings data had the potential to rattle markets, but it seems that negative oil futures prices were the catalyst that caused traders concern. The soon-to-exp...Read More
Some metal-product cargoes can now be shipped out of Durban, almost one month after the biggest terminal in sub-Saharan Africa stopped handling such material amid a nationwide lockdown intended to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, Fastmarkets has learned.Several Asia-bound copper cargoes originally scheduled to leave the South African port one month ago departed over the past weekend, t...Read More