The import pig iron market in the United States was slow and soft in the week to Friday August 23, with most participants preferring to remain in wait-and-see mode amid price trend uncertainty, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US, slipped to $360-365 per tonne on August 23, down by $3-5 per tonne from $365-368 per tonne the week before...Read More
European alloy steel scrap prices widened downward this week to reflect lower nickel costs, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday August 23.This week, nickel prices retreated slightly from the four-and-a-half-year high reached on August 16. Given the rapid increases seen previously, traders were cautious and only some transactions reflected these losses in the prices of alloy steel scrap.The price...Read More
Turkish steel billet prices fell this week on sluggish demand and a downturn in imported scrap costs, sources said on Thursday August 23.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel billet import, cfr main port Turkey, was $410-415 per tonne on Thursday, August 22, down from last week's $420-425 per tonne cfr. Suppliers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have lowered their offer pri...Read More
Prices in Southeast Asia's steel billet market declined on Friday August 23 after Indian producers reduced their offer prices, although buying interest remained weak."Buyers in the Philippines are expecting prices to fall further and have [so far] resisted the lower offers because [off poor demand and low prices in] the domestic long steel market," a trader in the Philippines said."However, market...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices were stable on Friday August 23, with some restocking being done ahead of the weekend keeping the market supported.Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,660-3,690 yuan ($516-521) per tonne, unchangedNorthern China (Beijing): 3,600-3,630 yuan per tonne, unchangedTraders kept their prices flat despite gains in the figures market in an effort to secure more sales before t...Read More
Stainless steel prices in the European domestic market increased this week after a key mill announced that monthly alloy surcharges will rise sharply in September, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday August 23. Finland-based Outokumpu said its September surcharge for grade-304 stainless steel flat products will increase to ?,?1,557 ($1,726) per tonne, a gain of ?,?175 per tonne from the August valu...Read More
The Chinese government has revived a 25% tariff on imports of US automobiles and a 5% tariff on auto parts, set to take effect on December 15, which some market participants worry could imperil future investments as well as steel and base metals demand.Chinese tariffs on US-made cars and auto parts were placed on hold in April, but the Chinese government reinstated them on Friday August 23. Beijin...Read More
The steel billet import price in Egypt fell in the week to Thursday August 22, with market activity limited because buyers want to wait until the court makes a decision on safeguard duties. Egypt's Administrative Court suspended the temporary duties in July, prompting a flurry of court activity, which eventually led to the final session to discuss the matter being scheduled for...Read More
Turkey's military pension fund, OYAK, has reached a provisional agreement to buy steelmaker British Steel, OYAK said on Friday August 16. OYAK is the biggest shareholder of Turkey's largest steel producer, Erdemir Group, and this agreement is a step toward in its goal to become a regional leader in steel sector, OYAK said. British Steel entered into compulsory liquidation in May 2019 and rece...Read More
The Chinese government has revived a 25% tariff on imports of US automobiles and a 5% tariff on auto parts, set to take effect on December 15, which some market participants worry could imperil future investments as well as steel and base metals demand.Chinese tariffs on US-made cars and auto parts were placed on hold in April, but the Chinese government reinstated them on Friday August 23. Beijin...Read More
Global scrap prices trended downward during the week ended Friday August 23, negatively affected by lackluster demand with buyers taking a pessimistic outlook on scrap prices in the near term. Turkish import prices down on tepid demand US export prices flat on lack of trading Asian import prices decline, buyers wait for lower prices Indian prices hit new year-to-date low.TurkeyTurkish mills finall...Read More
The import pig iron market in the United States was slow and soft in the week to Friday August 23, with most participants preferring to remain in wait-and-see mode amid price trend uncertainty, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US, slipped to $360-365 per tonne on August 23, down by $3-5 per tonne from $365-368 per tonne the week before...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their latest price moves.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 London Metal Exchange has just finished its trial to calculate nickel prices using a volume weighted average price (VWAP) method on the exchange's electronic trading platform. If early indications are anything to go by, metals market participants did not embrace this method of price discovery in the way some had anticipated. For three months since Monday March 18, closing prices for nickel car...Read More
The United States Secretary of Commerce has joined the growing chorus of voices questioning the current method of setting the US Midwest aluminium premium. Wilbur Ross said the US Midwest aluminium premium is at inflated levels that do not justify the cost of transportation and logistical handling costs that it was originally designed to reflect. His view is being echoed by a number of...Read More
The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price lost gains made over the course of the trading day to close at $15,665 per tonne on Friday August 23, down 1.3% from the intraday high of $15,860 per tonne, despite a healthy 11,294-lot turnover, the highest since August 8. A significant 22,620 lots were traded on August 8 when a short-covering rally driven by Chinese investment buyers pushed the...Read More
Barring zinc and nickel, base metal stocks at Shanghai Futures Exchange-approved warehouses were lower week on week on Friday August 23, with the biggest fall in deliverable lead stocks, which slumped by 9.6% or 3,544 tonnes to 33,065 tonnes. According to the SHFE's latest inventory report, the Zhejiang Tianchuan warehouse in Zhejiang recorded the most lead stock withdrawals this week with 3,401 t...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices were flat on Friday August 23, leaving segments of the market wondering if they have bottomed out.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $153.67 per tonne, unchangedPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $166.12 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $138.76 per tonne, unchangedHard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $153 per tonne, unchangedLow-vol PC...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