The European Commission is to set provisional anti-dumping duties on hot-rolled stainless steel imports from Indonesia, China and Taiwan on April 12.The provisional duties relate to an investigation started on August 12, 2019, following a complaint lodged two months earlier by the European Steel Association Eurofer.The investigation applies to "flat-rolled products of stainless...Read More
Sales of passenger cars in the EU dropped by 7.41% year on year in February 2020, the second consecutive monthly decline.New car sales in Europe totalled 957,052 vehicles in February 2020, down from 1,033,608 units sold in the corresponding month of 2019, the European Automotive Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said on Wednesday March 18."This...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday March 19 that are worth another look.Automobile manufacturers General Motors (GM) and Mercedes-Benz have enforced "collective holidays" at their Brazilian operations starting from March 30, in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak (2019-nCoV), the companies said on Wednesday March 18.Japan's demand for aluminium is the highes...Read More
Domestic prices in Europe for hot-rolled coil have fallen by ?,?7.31 per tonne day on day following a slump in demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday March 19.Demand for flat steel drastically decreased after a number of automotive manufacturers temporarily closed some or all of their operations due to the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domesti...Read More
Luxembourg-headquartered stainless steel producer Aperam will pause production at some of its European production lines because of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, the company announced on Thursday March 19. The company said it was taking the measures, "following stringent measures introduced by several governments in terms of health and safety, hygiene, [and] border closures which are heavil...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month copper price slightly improved at the close on Thursday March 19, up by 2% but firmly below the $5,000-per-tonne resistance level, while nickel recorded its highest daily trading volume since November 2016. Copper's underlying price on the LME closed at $4,830 per tonne this afternoon, while turnover was once again just below 30,000 lots over the day.Yet buyin...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday March 19 that are worth another look.Automobile manufacturers General Motors (GM) and Mercedes-Benz have enforced "collective holidays" at their Brazilian operations starting from March 30, in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak (2019-nCoV), the companies said on Wednesday March 18.Japan's demand for aluminium is the highes...Read More
While countries start to lock down their borders to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), mining companies are beginning to halt production, delay projects and withdraw staff. It is a natural response to a very unexpected situation that would only worsen if left unchecked. For the mining sector, it means a raft of production from projects and operations around the world is being...Read More
If global financial markets had been operating under a pervading sense of uncertainty due to the impact of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), they now appear to be veering on panic.Oil prices have suffered their biggest one-day collapse since the 1991 Gulf War following Saudi Arabia's declaration of a price war on Russia through a shock move to hike oil production. S&P Dow Jones Indices was forced...Read More
The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is set to accelerate what the trade wars started: the diversification of global supply chains. Both events have demonstrated just how interconnected the global economy is and have provided a wake-up call to businesses worldwide that it might be time to reduce their reliance on China as the workshop of the world. Of course, that's easier said than done. China is th...Read More
Japan's demand for aluminium is the highest in Asia but recently has been falling fast due to a slowing economy and the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak affecting downstream demand. Japan is the biggest buyer of aluminium in Asia, typically ratcheting up to more than 1 million tonnes per year of imports, but the industry is now experiencing a period of increasingly weak demand. According to t...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month copper price slightly improved at the close on Thursday March 19, up by 2% but firmly below the $5,000-per-tonne resistance level, while nickel recorded its highest daily trading volume since November 2016. Copper's underlying price on the LME closed at $4,830 per tonne this afternoon, while turnover was once again just below 30,000 lots over the day.Yet buyin...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices dropped on Thursday March 19, though uncertainty about supply persisted and the futures prices on the Dalian Commodity Exchange regained some losses made earlier in the morning. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $91.36 per tonne, down $0.35 per tonne 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $92.37 per tonne, down $0.83 per tone58% Fe fines high-grade pr...Read More
Physical trading for copper in China has ground to a halt after the tumbling copper price on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) startled the market, Fastmarkets heard.Copper, a bellwether for the global economy, lost its cool following the rout across global financial markets amid the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) fallout. SHFE copper rapidly fell to the daily down limit after it opened on Thursday Ma...Read More
The new issue of Aluminium Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers key insights and forecasts into aluminium markets around the world.Aluminium price down 2.3% week-on-week amid stock market sell-offGlobal markets remain rattled by the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCOV) across Europe and the United States. Panic-sellin...Read More
Copper has attempted to rebound since early September following a marked sell-off in the summer months where macro and fundamental forces have been prevalent.On the macro front, copper has benefited from a slight easing in US-China trade tensions and more monetary policy easing across the globe - including China, where copper consumption is the most exposed - that has shored up investor sentiment....Read More
The new issue of the Seamless OCTG & Linepipe Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers analysis of seamless OCTG and linepipe across international markets:Covid-19 underscores pipe outlookUnsurprisingly, the concern in the seamless pipe markets across the regions is the effect of the spread of Covid-19 on public health and econo...Read More
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 increasing consumption of scrap and a potential shift toward the electric-arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking route from the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) route in China are medium- to long-term threats to demand for steelmaking raw materials, while in the near team coking coal import volumes will continue to be affected by iron ore procurement strategies.This was the basis of Fastmarkets research team...Read More
Japan's demand for aluminium is the highest in Asia but recently has been falling fast due to a slowing economy and the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak affecting downstream demand. Japan is the biggest buyer of aluminium in Asia, typically ratcheting up to more than 1 million tonnes per year of imports, but the industry is now experiencing a period of increasingly weak demand. According to t...Read More