LME spreads tighten... The LME zinc forward curve has tightened recently with the cash/three-month backwardation flaring out to around $50 per tonne on Monday September 30, compared with $7 per tonne on September 20. While tighter spreads and the modest 0.7% decline in open interest across the week suggest an element of short covering, they also reflect falling availability; on-warrant stocks dipp...Read More
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Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday September 27 that are worth another look.The Chinese domestic spot battery-grade lithium carbonate market temporarily halted its downtrend on Thursday September 26 in the run-up to the National Day holiday (October 1-7), while the lithium hydroxide price in China held week on week on limited transactions in the spot market.China'...Read More
A lack of trading activity in most sales outlets coupled with the ongoing decline in the import scrap segment sent global billet prices down in the week ended Friday September 27.Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia remained the most active billet import market last week, with buyers continuing to book cargoes while demand from other parts of the world was soft.Several cargoes of Russian billet shipped to...Read More
A lack of trading activity in most sales outlets coupled with the ongoing decline in the import scrap segment sent global billet prices down in the week ended Friday September 27.Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia remained the most active billet import market last week, with buyers continuing to book cargoes while demand from other parts of the world was soft.Several cargoes of Russian billet shipped to...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday September 27 that are worth another look.The Chinese domestic spot battery-grade lithium carbonate market temporarily halted its downtrend on Thursday September 26 in the run-up to the National Day holiday (October 1-7), while the lithium hydroxide price in China held week on week on limited transactions in the spot market.China'...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday September 27 that are worth another look.The Chinese domestic spot battery-grade lithium carbonate market temporarily halted its downtrend on Thursday September 26 in the run-up to the National Day holiday (October 1-7), while the lithium hydroxide price in China held week on week on limited transactions in the spot market.China'...Read More
There will be no reports during first week of October. Come back on Monday, October 7th for the next report release. The Bottom LineWorld equity markets moved lower last week with elevated volatility. Equity markets have a history of elevated volatility at this time of year with a flat/downward bias from mid-July to mid-October. The weakest period for North American equity markets is f...Read More
The Mexican government has announced a plan to gradually eliminate an existing safeguard duty of 15% on several steel products.The duty on steel imports classified under 186 tariff codes will remain at 15% until September 2021, when it will be reduced to 10%, according to the country's...Read More
Steelmaking restrictions planned for China's northern region - where the concentration of mills are the highest in the country - during the autumn-winter period appear to be looser this year compared with the corresponding period of last year.While no official guidelines have emerged, a draft of measures to control air pollution in 28 cities in the region during the October-March period has been c...Read More
Turkey produced 22.55 million tonnes of crude steel in January-August 2019, down by 10.46% from 25.19 million tonnes in the corresponding eight-month period of last year, the Turkish Steel Producers Association (T???oeD) said last week.The drop in output was largely attributed to subdued end-user demand and weakening export markets for Turkish steel.The European Commission (EC) imposed definitive...Read More
Following a flip in global steel and ferrous trade flow trends last year caused by economic jitters in Turkey, trade defenses by the United States and production cuts in China, this year it is steel prices that are turning upside down. Hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices are now below rebar prices in a phenomenon rarely seen outside of the Chinese domestic markets. HRC import prices in Vietnam have...Read More
The whole battery supply chain will benefit from lithium benchmark pricing, Fastmarkets head of battery raw materials research William Adams says as he explores what is driving auto manufacturers to support this pricing mechanism. The auto industry is going through a period of unprecedented change due to companies introducing electric vehicles (EV) into their portfolios alongside internal combusti...Read More
The dream of building a new world-class copper-gold mine in Pakistan in an area bordering Afghanistan and Iran has been dashed, for now at least. The saga of Tethyan Copper Co's (TCC) efforts to develop the Reko Diq mine found resolution last week with an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ruling in favor of TCC following a dispute that has rumbled on for years.TCC,...Read More
China's month-on-month new electric vehicles (NEV) sales rebounded in August after month-on-month declines in June and July. The drop in sales between May and June was the first drop since September 2016, but Fastmarkets MB had expected Chinese NEV sales to dip temporarily after the June subsidy changes came into effect because consumers and NEV manufacturers would have to adjust to the new subsid...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
Iron ore prices fell sharply in the second half of November after climbing through October, with prices for higher-grade material pioneering the decline.Fastmarkets MB daily benchmark for 65% Fe fines dropped by 22% by Monday November 26 after peaking on October 29. The 62% Fe iron ore index declined by 16% over the period, as some Chinese steelmakers started to seek larger volumes of cheaper ores...Read More
The steel scrap sector in the United States still depends on exports to Turkey, a member of the Fastmarkets research team said during the ferrous session at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) conference in London.This dependence persists despite the changes in the international markets created by the US' imposition of its Section 232 tariffs on imports of steel products, metals analyst Le...Read More
Aluminium billet premiums in Europe and Brazil fell to new lows on Friday September 27, while spot market illiquidity in Asia and the United States left the premium in each of those regions unchanged. European premiums fall to multi-year lowsBrazilian premium dampened by weak demandThai premium extends inactivity to nine monthsUS premium flat for eight weeks; contract talks ongoingPoor demand plag...Read More