A downturn in global ferrous scrap prices and negative sentiment in most global steel markets continued to drag down billet prices during the working week from Monday September 16 to Friday September 20.Export prices for steel billet from the Commonwealth of Independent States region have been under pressure from weak demand and falling scrap prices internationally, which lead mills in the region...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday September 20 that are worth another look.Uptrends in the spot aluminium premiums in Rotterdam have faltered with backwardations in the London Metal Exchange December/three-month and January/three-month spreads starting to put material pressure on the physical market.Some large Chinese metal scrap buyers that have been granted imp...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday September 20 that are worth another look.Uptrends in the spot aluminium premiums in Rotterdam have faltered with backwardations in the London Metal Exchange December/three-month and January/three-month spreads starting to put material pressure on the physical market.Some large Chinese metal scrap buyers that have been granted imp...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 2 points in pre-opening trade.U.S. steel stocks and its related ETF are expected to open lower after JP Morgan downgraded AK Steel , Nucor, Steel Dynamics, Commercial Metals and U.S. Steel and lowered their target prices.Nvidia was unchanged at $172.63 despite an increase in target price by SunTrust to $216 from $210....Read More
Domestic price sentiment for hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG) in Europe has continued to be negative in the week ended Thursday September 19 due to slow market activity, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel HDG, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was unchanged over the week at ?,?550-570 ($608-630) per tonne ex-works on September 19, reflecting the latest deals...Read More
Brazilian import volumes of flat and long steel displayed opposite tendencies in August, according to figures from the country's economy ministry published last week.Import volumes of flat steel declined year on year by 11.29% to 95,116 tonnes in the month, from 107,216 tonnes, mostly because of lower volumes imported from China.Imports of flat steel from China fell to 41,950 tonnes in August 2019...Read More
India has given the go-ahead to the state-owned Steel Authority of India (SAIL), to sell up to 7 million tonnes of iron ore annually , to maintain security of raw material supplies ahead of the expiration of 31 mining leases in the country next year. "The Ministry of Mines has allowed SAIL to offload in a year up to a quantity equivalent to [a] maximum [of] 25% of [the] total iron ore production i...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
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
The three-month lead price on the London Metal Exchange rose by 1.2% at the close of trading on Friday September 20, climbing beyond the $2,100 per tonne support level, while forward spreads in LME nickel tightened over the afternoon. Lead futures closed at $2,120 per tonne, its highest closing price since March, while just under 4,000 lots were exchanged by the close. Reports of a restart at Nyrs...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their latest price moves.Read More
Uptrends in the spot aluminium premiums in Rotterdam have faltered with backwardations in the London Metal Exchange December/three-month and January/three-month spreads starting to put material pressure on the physical market. Fastmarkets assessed the benchmark aluminium P1020A premium, in-whs dup Rotterdam at $100-110 per tonne on Friday September 20 from $105-115 per tonne the day before wh...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their latest price moves.Read More
Diego Zanuso will begin a transition plan to take over as chief executive officer of Evraz' trading arm, Switzerland-based East Metals AG, while the current East Metals chief executive officer Joe Vazquez is set to retire as of July 2020.Zanuso has spent 12 years with Evraz, most recently serving as the global head of vanadium sales since...Read More
Chinese nickel consumers may be deterred from guaranteeing long-term ore supply by investing in Philippine ore production, delegates said during a panel discussion at the 18th International Stainless and Special Steel Summit in Seville, Spain, on Wednesday September 18.This is despite prevailing opinion that Philippine material is more easily refined and cost effective than Chinese nickel pig iron...Read More
Questions about the fate of stocks held by the defunct Fanya Metal Exchange have been a weight on negotiations in many minor metals markets since the bourse collapsed in 2015, and have contributed to the uncertainty that has stifled trade for much of 2019.Buying appetite in the spot market has weakened, and prices for some minor metals including indium, bismuth and antimony have reached multi...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and their latest price moves.Read More
Global scrap prices continued to fall in all major markets during the week ended Friday September 20, under pressure from persistent negative sentiment and with market participants seeing no prospect of relief. Turkey import prices fall further; suppliers accept lower prices US export prices down for cargoes sold off both coasts Asian import prices decline on oversupply Indian import prices down i...Read More