China's Pangang Group has paused some vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) production at one of its three blast furnaces to conduct maintenance, a source at the company confirmed to Fastmarkets. The maintenance started last month and will last for 70 days, the source said. Around 1,000 tonnes of V2O5 will be taken out of production over this period at the company's Panzhihua production base. Pangang has two...Read More
Silicon and bulk alloys producer Ferroglobe has appointed Marco Levi as its chief executive officer, replacing Pedro Larrea, who leaves the company to seek new professional challenges, according to a company statement on Monday January 13. The new chief executive will be in charge of designing a new strategy that will lead the ferro-alloys maker, which has recently moved its headquarters to Madrid...Read More
Chinese auto output and sales continued to drop in 2019 despite recoveries in the second half of the year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said.The country produced 25.721 million units of vehicles in 2019, down 7.5% from a year earlier, while sales fell 8.2% to 25.769 million units, CAAM reported on its official website on Monday January 13.China remains the world's large...Read More
The China Iron & Steel Association (Cisa) expects Chinese steel consumption to rise by 2% to 890 million tonnes in 2020 based on anticipated growth in the construction, home appliance and railway sectors, according to a report it released on Tuesday January 11.Cisa's forecast is more optimistic than that of the China Metallurgical Industry Planning...Read More
China's finished steel exports in December tumbled on a year-on-year basis despite being higher compared with a month earlier.For the whole of 2019, exports are also lower in comparison with 2018, according to...Read More
The China Iron & Steel Association (Cisa) expects Chinese steel consumption to rise by 2% to 890 million tonnes in 2020 based on anticipated growth in the construction, home appliance and railway sectors, according to a report it released on Tuesday January 11.Cisa's forecast is more optimistic than that of the China Metallurgical Industry Planning...Read More
Ukrainian steel billet producer Dneprovskiy Dzerzhinsky Metallurgical Plant (DMKD) has restarted its 900,000-tonnes-per-year No12 blast furnace at its steelmaking facility in the port city of Kamianske on the Dneiper river.Trial pig iron production was started at the end of 2019 and normal operations resumed on Saturday January 4, the company said on January 10. Currently, the daily...Read More
An effort by domestic steelmakers to increase flat-rolled steel prices since late October 2019 has revived the hot-rolled index from multi-year lows, but it is unlikely to help mills to regain the high margins they achieved in 2018, market participants and industry experts told Fastmarkets.Flat-rolled steel mills in the United States have announced five price increases on sheet products in the las...Read More
A summary of base metals premiums from across the globe for the week to Tuesday January 14.Click on...Read More
Given the right impetus, copper has the best long-term prospects among the base metals complex, which was exhibited by the red metal's price rally in December.Copper prices began to rise on the London Metal Exchange in the run-up to year-end 2019, responding to the first signs of a thaw in the protracted trade war between the United States and China.The copper LME official three-month contrac...Read More
Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe remained largely unchanged on Tuesday January 14, but sentiment remains positive, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, ex-works Northern Europe, was at ?,?442.70 ($492.63) per tonne on Monday January 14, down by 23 cents from ?,?442.93 per tonne on January 13.The index...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday January 14 that are worth another look.ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, the major long steel producer in Ukraine, has called on the country's government to review its decision to impose an import tariff on rebar and wire rod steel imports from Belarus, referring to evidence of dumping.Nizi International has closed its base metals tradi...Read More
Silicon and bulk alloys producer Ferroglobe has appointed Marco Levi as its chief executive officer, replacing Pedro Larrea, who leaves the company to seek new professional challenges, according to a company statement on Monday January 13. The new chief executive will be in charge of designing a new strategy that will lead the ferro-alloys maker, which has recently moved its headquarters to Madrid...Read More
Starting in July this year, and for the first time, millions of tonnes of copper and aluminium scrap will be shipped into China not as waste but as merchandise, after the country announced its timetable for the renaming of high-purity non-ferrous scrap as recyclable materials.On Monday January 13, China's State Administration for Market Regulation said that the new specifications for secondary cop...Read More
London Metal Exchange copper bulls are turning to the options market to make cautious bets that copper's price will continue its rapid rise into March 2020, Fastmarkets learned.Open interest in March options has spiked and a total of 9,635 lots of call options - equivalent to over 240,000 tonnes of copper - are currently live with strike prices between $6,400 per tonne and $6,600 per tonne.Call op...Read More
The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Tuesday January 14, settling at its highest price since April 2019 against moderate turnover, with lead futures the afternoon's top performer. Copper's outright price on the LME closed at $6,302 per tonne on Tuesday afternoon, breaching nearby resistance over the afternoon despite turnover only being mo...Read More
London Metal Exchange copper bulls are turning to the options market to make cautious bets that copper's price will continue its rapid rise into March 2020, Fastmarkets learned.Open interest in March options has spiked and a total of 9,635 lots of call options - equivalent to over 240,000 tonnes of copper - are currently live with strike prices between $6,400 per tonne and $6,600 per tonne.Call op...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices strengthened further on Tuesday January 14 amid continued appreciation of the yuan against the dollar and lower shipments from Australia and Brazil. 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $97.03 per tonne, up $1.10 per tonne. 62% Fe Pilbara Blend fines, cfr Qingdao: $96.07 per tonne, up $1.10 per tonne. 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $97.53 per tonne, up $1.33 per tonne. 58% F...Read More
Fastmarkets proposes to discontinue the pricing of zinc ingot premiums on a cif India basis.Currently, Fastmarkets prices the following premiums:Zinc SHG min 99.995% ingot premium, cif dp India, $/tonne Zinc SHG min 99.995% ingot premium, cif dup India, $/tonneThe expansion of production capacity by Hindustan Zinc means there is currently no spot market for imported zinc in Ind...Read More
The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Tuesday January 14, settling at its highest price since April 2019 against moderate turnover, with lead futures the afternoon's top performer. Copper's outright price on the LME closed at $6,302 per tonne on Tuesday afternoon, breaching nearby resistance over the afternoon despite turnover only being mo...Read More