The new issue of the Steel Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers key insights and forecasts into the long and flat products markets.This week's risks to our latest flat-rolled forecasts:The Chinese government is stepping up help to the economy, increasing banks' liquidity. But the spread of the coronavirus worldwide is likely...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.This week Fastmarkets' analysts and price reporters shared their views and recent findings in a webinar revealing some distinct fundamental tensions for steel, refining alloys and, of course, steelmaking raw materials such as iron ore.While the outlook for chrome and manganese ores and alloys is balanced, as far as market pa...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.A 6% decline in the daily average 62% Fe iron ore fines benchmark last week contributed to the lowest quarterly price rise for the first quarter in five years, in spite of clear evidence of supply-side constraints. Although there were clear demand-related obstacles to iron ore suppliers raking in more typical, seasonal price...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Coronavirus continues to shape scrap markets but tighter supply may partly offset lower demandWe have downwardly revised our ferrous scrap price forecasts for the following few months and, as a result, for the whole year of 2020, with the Covid-19 outbreak outside China stalling the markets. The Fastmarkets' daily benchmark...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Although China is slowly returning to pre-outbreak activity, the same cannot be said for the rest of the world, which is grappling with the Covid-19 outbreak, with a fifth of the global population and counting under lockdown. Average blast furnace activity in China is recovering but iron ore demand from outside China is expec...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Having first hit Asia during early 2020, the Covid-19 viral outbreak is now having an even bigger impact on European countries and the US. Widespread lockdown measures have been put in place on people and industry, and economic activity has slowed markedly.For now, stainless steel markets in Europe and the US are yet to show...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Despite these unprecedented times, US sheet prices moved in line with our expectations over the past month. While we maintain our view on the direction of pricing during 2020 and the length of the pricing downturn, as the Covid-19 crisis deepens we have increased the magnitude of the price declines through the second quarter...Read More
Freeport-McMoRan has suspended operations at its Chino mine in the US state of New Mexico after a small number of its workers tested positive for Covid-19. Last week, three workers were confirmed to have contracted the novel coronavirus, but operations at the mine continued until the company learned of further cases. "Out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of our workers, we hav...Read More
Russian mining giant MMC Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) has allocated 10.5 billion roubles ($142.2 million) "to combat Covid-19 and ensure social stability" in the regions of its operations.In preparation for the potential spread of Covid-19 to cities in which Nornickel operates, the company has taken extensive measures to purchase all the necessary medication and medical equipment...Read More
Freeport-McMoRan Inc said the concentrator at its Cerro Verde facility in Peru has been operating at roughly one-third of planned rates since the start of April as a result of efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19.This implies a current annualized production rate of around 151,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate.The mine, in which Freeport has a 53.6% stake, is Peru's largest copper mine and t...Read More
A total of 222,020 tonnes of copper scrap has been approved for import into China in a fifth round of metal scrap import quotas, according to an April 10 release from the China Solid Waste & Chemicals Management Bureau.The latest quota is significantly larger than the 3,520 tonnes approved in the fourth round and brings the total amount of copper scrap approved by the bureau since July 2019 up to...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices declined in the United States while the public-health efforts to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus continued to diminish industrial production and demand for steel sheet. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US, was calculated at $24.42 per hundredweight ($488.40 per short ton) on Monday April 13, down by 0.6% from $24.57 per cwt on Thursday April...Read More
Prices for cold-rolled and galvanized sheet in the United States declined after the suspension of manufacturing operations throughout the country reduced the demand for steel. Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel cold-rolled coil, fob mill US fell to $35 per hundredweight ($700 per short ton) on Thursday April 9, down from $36.50 per cwt ($730 per ton) on Thursday April 2. Fast...Read More
Argentinian crude steel production fell by 26.7% year on year in March due to the closure of most plants during a mandatory quarantine enforced by the federal government to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus, national steel chamber Acero Argentino said.The country produced 286,200 tonnes of crude steel last month compared with 390,700 tonnes in the corresponding month of 2019, the associatio...Read More
Prices in the major global steel billet markets increased in the week to Friday April 10 because of scrap prices rising due to reduced availability; some deals were heard at higher prices during the week.In Turkey, scrap import prices increased strongly amid reduced availability of material in the deep-sea markets, caused by the closing of scrapyards especially in the United Kingdom and United Sta...Read More
The Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry has postponed a duty reduction on billet and rebar for a period of six months until October 12, 2020, Egyptian sources informed Fastmarkets on Sunday April 12.The duty was supposed to be reduced on April 12.The Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry announced a definitive safeguard duty of 16% of the cif price and a minimum of $74 per tonne for steel bi...Read More
China's hot-rolled coil prices continued to rise on Monday April 13, with sentiment lifted by strengthening futures, although some buyers decided to hold back amid mills' rising output.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,320-3,350 yuan ($472-476) per tonne, up 50-70 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tangshan): 3,230 yuan per tonne, up 30 yuan per tonneA Shanghai-based trader said that spot prices in t...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Read More
The United States' April ferrous scrap market has come into focus in a thinly traded month, with many scrap dealers refusing to accept unattractive offers in a month plagued by a historically late start and weak demand.Detroit settled with prices retreating by $30 per gross ton on prime grades and $50 per ton on cut grades and shredded scrap, with only one mill in the region buying material.Fastma...Read More