Anglo American will gradually reduce operations at its Los Bronces copper-molybdenum works in Chile following a government announcement about tackling the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic, it said.It initially plans to minimize activity at the mine until March 31 when a 15-day period of national emergency in Chile is due to expire. This plan will be evaluated on a daily basis, however, the miner add...Read More
Glencore is not experiencing any material disruptions at its operating assets or within its supply chain due to the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), it said, but it has experienced an impact on certain smaller operations where governments have imposed restrictions.The Swiss mining and marketing company did not specify which smaller assets had been affected. Glencore operates in countries such as Per...Read More
The falling price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange, combined with a weakening supply picture in Europe, is putting pressure on smelters' profit margins, but there are no reports of production cuts in the market yet, Fastmarkets understands.The LME three-month aluminium price benchmark hit a low of $1,579 per tonne during trading on March 19, its lowest since September 2016. Although LME a...Read More
Most flat-rolled steel import prices in South America gave in to global downward pressure in the week to Friday March 20, as concerns about demand sustainability and persistently aggressive bids led to less expensive offers for May shipments.Market participants expressed fears regarding how long demand could hold amid government lockdowns across the continent to contain the novel coronavirus (2019...Read More
Prices for hot-rolled coil in the United States went down on Friday March 20, after certain buyers canceled their orders to prepare for worsened steel demand, market participants said.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $28.06 per hundredweight ($561.20 per short ton) on March 20, down by 1.2% from $28.40 per cwt on March 19 and down by 0.7%...Read More
Prices for cold-rolled coil and galvanized sheet in the United States held steady while market participants struggled to measure the impact of the Covid-19 disease on steel availability and demand.Mills did not lower their offers during the week to Friday March 20, while the public-health response to the pandemic in various states expanded restrictions on activities deemed non-essential. Market pa...Read More
Sentiment in the deep-sea scrap market has become even poorer following the sharp downturn in Turkish import prices amid the spread of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic, sources said on Friday March 20.The Turkish steel producers resumed their deep-sea scrap bookings for April shipment cargoes, sending prices down by almost $24 per tonne on March 18.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Can...Read More
Liberty Steel Group will halt operations at its Dudelange-Liege steelmaking sites tomorrow, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday, March 20.Liberty Steel Group will halt operations at its Dudelange-Liege steelmaking sites tomorrow, the company told Fastmarkets on Friday, March 20.A spokesman confirmed that all three Liberty Liege-Dudelange production sites - at Fl?(C)mal...Read More
The London Metal Exchange will temporarily close its open outcry trading floor and go to electronic price discovery from Monday March 23 as a precautionary measure amid the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pandemic, it said. The open-outcry floor, one of the last of its kind in the world, has been operating from its disaster recovery site in Essex for the past week.The exchange said last week it may move t...Read More
The pig iron market in the United States has weakened further due to the general economic slowdown caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pandemic, sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Friday March 20.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US, was $330-340 per tonne on Friday, down from $345-350 per tonne a week ago."Scrap prices will go down...Read More
The inter-merchant spot market for light iron scrap in the UK fell almost 19% over the week, marking an abrupt end to five weeks of stability, as major shredders cut their buying prices on expected weaker demand for steel from UK-based carmakers, sources told Fastmarkets.The move also follows a dramatic fall in European steel scrap export prices into Turkey this week which saw the market move down...Read More
Export prices for pig iron from Brazil softened during the week ended Friday March 20 because of the weakness of the country's Real and lower demand in the domestic market.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for pig iron, export, fob port of Vitoria/Rio, Brazil, was $315-320 per tonne on Friday, down from $320-325 per tonne a week before."A weak Real supports pig iron producers, which are focusin...Read More
The price of ferrous scrap imported into India has continued to fall after changes in exchange rates made imports unviable, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday March 20.Fastmarkets calculated the steel scrap, shredded, index, import, cfr Nhava Sheva, India, at $291 per tonne on Friday, down from $297.50 per tonne one week earlier.There were no deals heard for shredded material in the week, but offe...Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market was quiet on Friday March 20, following a sharp decline in prices that came earlier in the week, sources told Fastmarkets.On Wednesday, a steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Canadian cargo comprising 18,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (90:10), 20,000 tonnes of shredded and 12,000 tonnes of plate and structural (P&S) scrap at an average price of $255 per tonne c...Read More
The market for pig iron exports from the Commonwealth of Independent States softened further during the week ended Thursday March 20 because of buyers' pessimistic mood."Automotive producers [which consume flat steel products made from merchant pig iron in electric-arc furnace based steelmaking] are stopping all over the world due to quarantine measures," one trader said, in reference to the measu...Read More
South Korean steel producers entered the market to book cargoes from Japan and Russia over the past week due to uncompetitive offer prices from the United States West Coast, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday March 20.One steelmaker purchased 90,000 tonnes of Russia-origin A3 heavy scrap at $247 per tonne cfr South Korea on Wednesday, while another producer in the country bought a Japan-origin car...Read More
Lead stocks in Shanghai Futures Exchange-approved warehouses slumped the most of all the base metals in percentage terms - by 31.9% - to 22,514 tonnes in the week to Friday March 20. The outflow mainly came from the Zhejiang Tianchu warehouse in Shanghai, with a fall of 10,570 tonnes from 33,084 tonnes one week earlier. "Production decrease of secondary lead...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices plunged on Friday March 20 as concerns about the impact of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) on downstream businesses outside China emerged.Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $87.98 per tonne, down $3.38 per tonne 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $89.15 per tonne, down $3.22 per tone58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $76...Read More
Seaborne coking coking coal prices moved in different directions on Friday March 20, with the fob-Australia index dropping amid demand concerns, while cfr-China prices were pushed higher by a transaction, indicating improved demand for the raw material in the country.Fastmarkets IndicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $160.65 per tonne, down $2.50 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were markedly higher during morning trading on Friday March 20, with most three-month prices gaining more than 3% over the Asian trading hours, while a fresh inflow of some 65,175 tonnes of aluminium doused the light metal's price recovery. Topping gains over the morning, the LME tin price recently traded 4.5% higher at $14,150 per tonne, up from a m...Read More