The three-month lead price on the London Metal Exchange climbed by 0.5% during morning trading on Monday January 20, briefly breaching the $2,000 per tonne mark, while continued inflows of nickel have prompted minimal price reaction. Lead's outright price on the LME rose above $2,000 per tonne during morning trading before dipping back below the key resistance level to $1,985 per tonne. Trading vo...Read More
Fastmarkets will host a free web seminar on Wednesday February 26 at 10am London time, to discuss the current trends for alumina and the evolution of its pricing.Benchmark alumina prices have been static below $280 per tonne for the past month, with Chinese demand underpinning the market. Register here to join the webinar. Date Wednesday February 26, 2020Time 10am London timeJoin our market expert...Read More
Broader markets were generally firmer but quiet on Monday January 20, with equities in Asia mainly stronger, as were the base metals, while gold was holding up in high ground.Equities in Asia are consolidating recent gains, but multi-year highs in many regional equity indices suggests sentiment is bullish overall. Markets quiet ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, which start on Friday in China....Read More
Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were broadly down at the close of morning trading on Monday January 20, with market activity slowing as participants begin to depart ahead of theweeklong break for Chinese New Year (January 24-30)."Shanghai is beginning to empty as the weeklong Chinese New Year holiday starts on Friday... Queues at my local train ticket office have recently been...Read More
Offers for CIS-origin billet started to slide on Monday January 20, following last week's drop in scrap prices and weakening sentiment in the finished long steel market.Fastmarkets' daily index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), US origin, cfr Turkey, tumbled by around $15 to $288.80 per tonne last Thursday, after a steel mill in the Izmir region booked a US cargo of 35,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (9...Read More
A summary of the financial results for Russia's largest steelmaker, Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), for both the fourth quarter of 2019 and the full year.In briefOutput and sales over the full year of 2019 were both affected by the major works being carried out on the company's blast furnace at Lipetsk, but these began to recover in the fourth quarter once the work was completed.Full year 2019 Steel out...Read More
China's steel refining and rerolling industry's capacity utilization rate was 80.2% in the fourth quarter of 2019, above the national industrial average of 77.5%, according to figures from the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Friday January 17.The country's industrial capacity utilization rate of 77.5% was 1.5 percentage points higher than the corresponding period a year e...Read More
Falling ferrous scrap prices have dulled sentiment in Singapore's rebar import market over the past week. The weekly Fastmarkets price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) import, cfr Singapore - which mainly looks at cargoes sold into Singapore on a theoretical-weight basis - was $455-465 per tonne for the week to Monday January 20, widening from $465 per tonne a week earlier.Turkish reba...Read More
Prices in Asia's hot-rolled coil market are poised for more upticks immediately after the Lunar New Year holiday, according to industry sources."There is a sense of tightness in HRC supply in Asia, especially with fewer cargoes heading to the region from March and April," a source at a major re-roller in Vietnam said.This is largely due to an expected decrease in shipments from Indian steelmakers...Read More
China's hot-rolled coil market was quiet on Monday January 20, with most traders and mills having already suspended trading ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday at the end of this week.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,860-3,880 yuan ($563-566) per tonne, unchangedNorthern China (Tangshan): 3,590 yuan per tonne, unchangedTrading was thin throughout the day since there were not many participants...Read More
Gusa Brasil, formerly knows as Sidepar, partly restarted operations in the state of Par?? in northern Brazil in early January, with the first pig-iron sale made in the middle of the month, sources told Fastmarkets.The restart will add a small tonnage to the pig iron market, however, so participants only expect a minor impact, Fastmarkets was told."Pig iron prices have improved so that makes it rea...Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import markets remained quiet at the beginning of the week, following the sharp price decline that was seen late last week, sources said on Monday January 20.A steel mill in the Izmir region booked a US cargo of 35,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (95:5) at $295 per tonne cfr late on January 15.This would have put the HMS 1&2 (80:20) price at $288 per tonne, compared with a previou...Read More
Ferrous scrap prices in the global markets continued to weaken during the week ended Friday January 17, following the sharp decline in the Turkish market.Turkish prices decline sharply with fresh US tradeUnited States East Coast prices down; West Coast to followPrices in Taiwan and Vietnam fall steadily on soft demandInternational downturn drags down Indian pricesTurkeyPrices for ferrous scrap imp...Read More
Turkish domestic scrap prices have gone down over the past week amid falling imported scrap values, sources said on Monday January 20.Following the news of a US deep-sea scrap cargo sold at $295 per tonne cfr for HMS 1&2 (95:5), the daily scrap indices fell by $15.15 per tonne on Thursday January 16.Turkish steel mills and a major scrap yard in the Izmir region have reduced their buy prices for...Read More
The total traded volume for the high-grade 65% Fe iron ore futures on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) rose in January 2020, with 25,750 lots - or 2.575 million tonnes - being cleared as of January 20 at 2:30pm Singapore time. The latest total traded volume is the second highest recorded since its launch in December 2018, and represents a 13.9% increase from 2.26 million tonnes in September 2019, whic...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices were largely stable on Monday January 20, with Chinese participants gradually withdrawing from the market ahead of a week-long break for the Chinese New Year that starts on Friday.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $152.23 per tonne, down $0.84 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $160.13 per tonne, up $0.23 per tonneHard coking coal, fob...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices were unchanged on Monday January 20 amid a pre-holiday lull, though some optimism has emerged over demand for the long steel product after the Chinese New Year. Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,640-3,670 yuan ($531-535) per tonne, unchangedNorthern China (Beijing): 3,540-3,560 yuan per tonne, unchangedLocal governments in China have issued 655.7 billion yuan worth of speci...Read More
Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia, Europe and the rest of the world for the week ended January 17.ChinaKey drivers Export price for silicon increased by 1.3% week on week amid higher offer prices in the market.Overseas inquiries picked up. Exporters, on average, raised their prices by $20-30 per tonne given the appreciation of the yuan and tight spot supply. There were no deals...Read More
Kunming Rongke New Materials Co won 3,609.5 tonnes of indium formerly held by China's defunct Fanya Metal Exchange in an auction that ended at 10am Beijing time on Saturday January 18. As the only bidder at the auction, Kunming Rongke secured the stockpile with a bid of around 2.85 billion yuan ($415.4 million), which works out at a price of 790 yuan per kg, according to the official auction resul...Read More
Samancor Chrome has provisionally decided to restructure its mining and smelting operations in a move that will reduce staff and production levels due to the deteriorating chrome markets and rising power costs, Fastmarkets has learned. South Africa's largest ferro-chrome producer wrote to employees and unions on Friday January 17, in letters seen by Fastmarkets, warning that it had made the provis...Read More