ArcelorMittal will temporarily idle blast furnace (BF) A in Asturias and some other equipment "in around 15 days" in Spain, the company's spokesman told Fastmarkets on Thursday March 19.ArcelorMittal Asturias operates two BFs with a total capacity of 4.7 million tonnes per year, according to Fastmarkets' Capex quarterly service.The steelmaker will also stop operations at one of its two sinter plan...Read More
Copper and brass scrap discounts and prices have fallen across the board in the United States, weighed down by a 14% week-on-week drop in the Comex copper price and by concerns surrounding the rapidly evolving novel coronavirus pandemic situation.The speed of the coronavirus spread in the US - which has restricted public gatherings and movement across the country - has taken industry participants...Read More
Zinc and lead miners have had their silver lining taken out.The price of the precious metal fell abruptly to an 11-year low of $11.80 per oz in the week to Thursday March 19, having traded close to multi-year highs mere days previously.Investors dumped silver, a precious metal that in physical form is mostly used in industrial applications, as part of a wide selloff in liquid asset classes on fear...Read More
Downstream aluminium materials producer Constellium has announced that it will reduce or suspend activities at its manufacturing sites due to the disruption caused by the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic.Constellium, which produces aluminium products for the aerospace, automotive and packaging sectors, has plants throughout North America, Europe and Asia.The company would also be looking to reduce c...Read More
Key pricing data from the alumina index, fob Australia pricing session on Thursday March 19. Key drivers: Fastmarkets' daily alumina index, fob Australia declined 4.6% to $283.11 per tonne on Thursday, down from $297.23 per tonne the previous day and down 6.5% week on week when it was at $303.17 per tonne. A fresh deal concluded today for 30,000 tonnes of Indonesian material at $275 per tonne for...Read More
As of Thursday March 19, more copper, zinc and lead producers have reduced or halted operation in light of the rapidly changing conditions arising from travel restrictions in place across South American countries.Fastmarkets has summed up the latest list of disruptions and developments in South American base metals:Chile, the biggest copper producing country, restricted travel into the country and...Read More
US hot-rolled coil prices are in a holding pattern as the market waits for the shock of automotive plant shutdowns to spread across the steel supply chain.Fastmarkets' steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $28.40 per hundredweight ($568 per ton) on Thursday March 19, up 0.6% from 28.23 per cwt one day prior but down 2.4% from $29.09 per cwt a week earlier.Inputs were received...Read More
Tata Steel Europe will cut its steel output in the UK and the Netherlands to address the reduced flat steel demand in Europe, the company said on Thursday March 19.Widespread operational stoppages among EU car manufacturers have affected the demand for flat steel, and increasingly more steelmakers are either stopping or cutting their output.Tata Steel has already made production adjustments at som...Read More
Automotive manufacturers in Europe have announced temporary production shutdowns at sites across the continent because of the problems being created by the measures taken by governments to restrict the spread of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic.On Wednesday March 18, BMW, Toyota and Jaguar-Land Rover listed their sites that were intended for closure, while previous shutdowns included Groupe PSA,...Read More
Steel billet import prices in Egypt fell in the week to Thursday March 19, but there was no resulting pick-up in demand, sources told Fastmarkets.The spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Egypt has caused trade to decrease significantly, and many offices have been closed, sources told Fastmarkets.As of March 19 there were 210 confirmed infections in Egypt, with si...Read More
Prices in the Commonwealth of Independent (CIS) export billet market slumped on Thursday March 19 following the sharp drop in import steel scrap prices in Turkey a day earlier.Russia's Abinsk Electric Steel Works offered billet at $360-365 per tonne fob Black Sea, against $390-392 pertonne heard earlier in the week, while other CIS-based mills adopted a 'wait-and-see' mode."We are not offering at...Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market was quiet on Thursday March 19, despite a sharp decrease in prices the day before, sources have told Fastmarkets.On March 18, 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 cfr.Marke...Read More
Prices for bulk ferrous scrap cargoes imported into Bangladesh have fallen over the past week amid a deterioration in international scrap prices and heightened disruption created by the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic, market sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday March 19.Bangladesh has provided a rare bright spot for bulk scrap sellers over recent weeks, with a strong local steel market and high co...Read More
Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices showed little movement on Thursday March 19 while concerns about the global economic outlook persisted, although one trade involving a premium mid-vol cargo pushed the premium hard coking coal cfr China index up.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $163.15 per tonne, down $0.76 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $168.05 per t...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
Fastmarkets announces the launch of import ferrous scrap prices for the markets of Bangladesh and South Korea.These new price assessments, and accompanying written content, will significantly boost Fastmarkets' coverage of the Asia ferrous scrap complex, providing subscribers with accurate pricing data together with detailed and insightful market commentary.After undertaking an extensive consultat...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 three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange was lower during morning trading on Thursday March 19, with selling pressure and high turnover prompting a further 1% decline, while a fresh inflow of some 46,475 tonnes of aluminium saw the light metal top the losses over the morning. Copper's outright price on the LME was recently seen at $4,687.50 per tonne, up from a morning low of $4,3...Read More
The London Metal Exchange has approved Minara cobalt briquettes produced at Glencore's Murrin Murrin nickel-cobalt operations in Australia for delivery against the exchange's physically settled cobalt contract.Murrin Murrin produces about 3,000 tonnes per year of cobalt briquettes. The LME suspended brand-listing fees for new cobalt brands in March last...Read More
While risk-off dominates and even though governments are prepared to throw money at the financial system and into economies and households, the likelihood is that more factories will close, household spending will fall, as will demand for raw materials, but there may be some dead cat bounces along the way.Partial and full lockdowns will hopefully mean the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is brought u...Read More