CIS export billet gained $10 per tonne in the week to Friday December 6, with customers accepting deals at higher prices in response to rising scrap costs.Fastmarkets' daily steel billet index, export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $400 per tonne fob Black Sea on Friday, against $390 per tonne fob on the same day last week.Sales of CIS-origin billet were done to North Africa...Read More
Indian importers have started booking hot-rolled coil after a break of three months, after the latest round of domestic price increases made HRC imports commercially viable.Fastmarkets' assessment for steel HRC, import, cfr main port India, was $480-485 per tonne on Friday December 6, compared with $450-455 per tonne last week. The latest assessment is based on South Korea-origin HRC import bookin...Read More
Turkish prices for hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG), and color-coated coil or pre-painted galvanized iron (PPGI), increased in the week to Friday December 6, and most producers stopped accepting new orders because they are planning to raise prices further, sources told Fastmarkets.Steel prices have increased due to higher raw materials and hot-rolled coil prices, they added.Fastmarkets' daily inde...Read More
The import pig iron market in the United States was calm during the week ended Friday December 6, but sentiment was positive due to an increase in scrap prices.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US was at $330-340 per tonne on Friday, up from $325-326 per tonne a week earlier."Higher scrap [prices] will drive pig iron prices up, but it is a quest...Read More
The export pig iron market in the Commonwealth of Independent States was calm during the week ended Thursday December 5, with suppliers sold out and waiting for higher prices.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for high-manganese pig iron, export, fob main port Black Sea was $305-310 per tonne on December 5, increasing by $5 per tonne week on week."Mills have nothing to sell for this ye...Read More
The price of ferrous scrap imported into India moved up again this week ahead of a seasonal slowdown for the European holiday season, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday December 6.Fastmarkets' steel scrap, shredded, index, import, cfr Nhava Sheva was $286.46 per tonne on Friday, up from $282.56 per tonne one week previous.One deal was heard for shredded material into India at $291 per tonne this w...Read More
The inter-merchant spot price for light iron scrap in the UK moved higher in the week ended Friday December 6, resuming price gains to a level last seen in late October after two consecutive weeks of stability.The market has been on a upward path in general during the quarter, against strengthening export prices from Europe into Turkey and the Indian subcontinent, which has resulted in more compet...Read More
Turkish steel producers stayed out of the deep-sea scrap market on Friday December 6 after booking several cargoes earlier in the week to push prices up by more than $10 per tonne since Monday, sources told Fastmarkets.No new cargoes have been booked or come to light during the last two days of the working week. On Monday, it emerged that a steel mill in the Marmara region had booked a U...Read More
Stability remained the theme of the seaborne coking coal market at the end of the week, with little interest in buying activity outside of China.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $136.21 per tonne, down $0.58 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $147.22 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $121.33 per tonne, up $0.50 per tonne ...Read More
Ron Mitchell, sales director at lithium producer Tianqi Lithium Corporation, has been appointed chairman of the London Metal Exchange's lithium committee. The LME announced it had established a lithium committee at the end of October, during LME week. The committee is intended to represent the views and interests of lithium stakeholders, while the exchange plans the launch of a lithium futures con...Read More
Asian equities and most of the base metals are in positive territory after United States President Donald Trump sounded more positive on a US-China trade deal when he said talks are "moving right along".With the news flow on trade ebbing and flowing, the day of reckoning is likely to be whether Trump follows through with his threat to put 15% tariffs on another $160 billion of Chinese imports from...Read More
Sir Brian Bender has seen three London Metal Exchange chief executive officers, the sale to Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing and a great number of other changes over more than nine years as the exchange's chairman, he told Fastmarkets in an interview, but the open outcry system will remain for as long as members support it. Bender was on holiday in Australia when a headhunter emailed to ask whether...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and their latest price moves.Read More
Fastmarkets will maintain the frequency of publication of its European germanium metal and tellurium assessments and Chinese germanium dioxide assessment following a consultation.Fastmarkets will continue to publish these three price assessments on a twice-weekly basis on Wednesdays and Fridays. After receiving market feedback during a one-month consultation, Fastmarkets has decided to maintain th...Read More
An overview of the Chinese minor metals markets and the reasons for their latest price moves. Read More
Prices have continued rising in the Asia ferrous scrap markets, with buyers in Taiwan and Vietnam accepting higher prices on tighter supply and expectations of further increases.Bullish sentiment in the domestic scrap markets in the United States has also led to expectations that offers from scrapyards on the US West Coast will increase further in the short term.VietnamFastmarkets' price assessmen...Read More
The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was the biggest gainer at the close of trading on Thursday December 5, staging a modest recovery after reaching a five-month low earlier in the day, while turnover topped the complex over the day. The LME nickel price closed at $13,275 per tonne at 5pm, recovering from an intraday low of $13,030 per tonne but failing to close near its daily...Read More
The first deal for first-quarter aluminium ingot supply to Japan in 2020 has been concluded at a premium of $83 per tonne basis cif main Japanese ports (MJP), market sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday December 5. This deal marks the lowest quarterly deal since the fourth quarter of 2016, when the benchmark settled at $75 per tonne, and it is 14.4% lower than the 2019 fourth-quarter benchmark of...Read More
The UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating miner-trader Glencore, it said on Thursday December 5. "The SFO confirms it is investigating suspicions of bribery in the conduct of...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday December 5 that are worth another look.Chinese stainless steel prices in both the domestic and export markets fell over the past week amid bearish sentiment stemming from the high inventories held at a major mill in eastern China.More of the world's copper looks likely to be priced in China from next year, with the Shanghai Int...Read More