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 proposal by Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEX) to buy the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has raised a number of questions among metals market participants, most of whom are skeptical that the deal will go through during a time of political upheaval.HKEX's ?29.6-billion ($36.5-billion) proposal to acquire the LSEG was announced on Wednesday September 11, and comes seven years a...Read More
The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was lower at the close of trading on Thursday September 12, while considerable tightness in the metal's forward spreads prompted market questions of prospective deliveries into LME warehouses to ease trading conditions.Despite moderately low volumes at just over 6,000 lots exchanged by the close, nickel's benchmark cash/three-month spread s...Read More
The proposal by Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEX) to buy the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has raised a number of questions among metals market participants, most of whom are skeptical that the deal will go through during a time of political upheaval.HKEX's ?29.6-billion ($36.5-billion) proposal to acquire the LSEG was announced on Wednesday September 11, and comes seven years a...Read More
All base metal stocks at Shanghai Futures Exchange-approved warehouses, barring tin, fell in the week to Thursday September 12 as a result of a pick-up in activity at the start of the traditionally busy season of September and October for the non-ferrous metals sector. Copper registered the largest drop in percentage terms, tumbling by 6.1% or 9,871 tonnes to 152,188 tonnes as of Thursday. The lar...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
Trade log for battery-grade lithium carbonate in China including trades, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets. Unless otherwise stated, all prices are per tonne on an ex-works China basis. Delivered prices are netted back. Fastmarkets prices Click here for Fastmarkets price assessment for lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, spot price range exw China, yuan/tonne. Fastmarkets lith...Read More
The Turkish steel mills continued their silence in the deep-sea scrap markets on expectations of lower prices, while suppliers were keeping their offers firm, sources said on Thursday September 12.There have been no bookings confirmed since a steel mill in the Izmir region booked a Baltic Sea cargo of 25,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $240 per tonne cfr late on September 9.But the mills were see...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday September 12 that are worth another look.The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange closed lower on Thursday September 12, while considerable tightness in the metal's forward spreads prompted questions in the market about prospective deliveries into LME warehouses to ease trading conditions.The proposal...Read More
All base metal stocks at Shanghai Futures Exchange-approved warehouses, barring tin, fell in the week to Thursday September 12 as a result of a pick-up in activity at the start of the traditionally busy season of September and October for the non-ferrous metals sector. Copper registered the largest drop in percentage terms, tumbling by 6.1% or 9,871 tonnes to 152,188 tonnes as of Thursday. The lar...Read More
The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange approached its highest level since August 1 during morning trading on Thursday September 12 amid high morning turnover, while the nickel price also appreciated by 2%.Volumes traded this morning were high at 7,300 lots of copper exchanged as of 9:40am London time, more than half of Wednesday's total trading volumes of 12,240 lots.The copper...Read More
Domestic stainless steel prices in China narrowed over the past week amid a mixed outlook for demand in the next few weeks.Fastmarkets' price assessment for stainless steel cold-rolled coil 2mm grade 304 domestic, ex-whs China in the country's major market of Wuxi was 15,300-15,700 yuan ($2,150-2,206) per tonne including value-added tax for the week ended Wednesday September 11, narrowing on both...Read More
Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were little changed during the morning session on Thursday September 12, with trading activity light ahead of a national holiday in China on Friday to mark the Mid-Autumn Festival.While most of the SHFE base metals prices drifted higher following news that US President Donald Trump had agreed to postpone a latest round of tariff increases on Chin...Read More
Domestic rebar prices in Turkey fell over the past week due to falling scrap import values and limited demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday September 12.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) domestic, exw Turkey, was TRY2,825-2,920 ($490-507) per tonne ex-works, compared with the TRY2,910-2,940 per tonne of last week.Steel mills in the Istanbul region were...Read More
Import prices for steel billet in Egypt fell in the week ended Thursday September 12, amid lower offer prices from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in particular. While the lower offers are the result of limited market activity across all major sales outlets, in Egypt continuing uncertainty over the country's import safeguard duty has stifled market activi...Read More