Optimism among China's hot-rolled coil exporters led to them resisting the pressure to lower their prices on Thursday July 18 despite a retreat in the domestic market.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,880-3,900 yuan ($564-567) per tonne, down 10 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,840-3,860 yuan per tonne, widening downward by 10 yuan per tonneSpot prices weakened across the country with t...Read More
Steel reinforcing bar prices in the United States have fallen to pre-Section 232 levels, with import prices also declining due to fresh offers from Europe. Fastmarkets' price assessment for steel rebar, fob mill US, widened downward to $31.50-32.50 per hundredweight ($630-650 per short ton) on Wednesday July 17 from $32-32.50 per cwt two weeks earlier, with the price also down by 9.9% fr...Read More
The rebar and wire rod prices in Turkey's domestic markets have softened over the past week due to sluggish demand in the slow summer period, sources said on Thursday July 18.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, exw Turkey, was TRY3,070-3,100 ($538-544) per tonne on Thursday, including 18% VAT, down from last week's TRY3,100-3,130 per tonne.The prices w...Read More
Turkish long steel export prices have gone down slightly over the past week in line with the limited demand for the materials, sources said on Thursday July 18.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) export, fob main port Turkey, was $450-460 per tonne on an actual weight basis on July 18, down from last week's $455-465 per tonne.The mills in Turkey have generally re...Read More
Export prices for pig iron from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) increased in deals this week, due to reduced availability, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for high-manganese pig iron exports, fob main port Black Sea, CIS $/tonne was $340-345 on Thursday July 18, up by $5 per tonne week on week. Several sales were heard done to the United States&...Read More
The Turkish steel mills have broken their recent silence in the deep-sea scrap markets and have accepted higher prices, sources said on Thursday July 18.Despite the falling prices for finished and semi-finished long steel, the Turkish mills agreed to pay higher prices for scrap because of their requirements for August-shipment cargoes.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Baltic Sea cargo la...Read More
Physical iron ore prices continued to fall on Thursday July 18 with market participants becoming cautious about rising steel inventories and weaker prices in China.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $119.90 per tonne, down $1.37 per tonne. Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines, cfr Qingdao: $119.82 per tonne, down $1.37 per tonne. Fastmarkets' index for...Read More
Steel billet prices in Turkey have gone down slightly over the past seven days due to weak demand and a downturn in finished steel prices, sources said on Thursday July 18.The mills in Turkey were showing no interest in billet imports because of the sluggish sales of finished steel this week.Suppliers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) lowered their offers to $435-440 per tonne cfr Tu...Read More
The price of steel billet imported into Egypt decreased in the week to Thursday July 18 because of lower offers and bids, while demand remained poor because of uncertainty about the application of import duties."Offer prices have fallen but there are no bookings because of the uncertainty about safeguard duties," a local market source told Fastmarkets.In April, Egypt imposed a temporary additional...Read More
The export price for CIS-origin steel billet has tumbled with several new bookings done at lower prices, Fastmarkets heard on Thursday July 18.Fastmarkets' daily steel billet index, export, fob Black Sea, CIS, was $420 per tonne on July 18, down from $425 per tonne the day before. The price was in the range of $422-423 per...Read More
BHP expects its Western Australia Iron Ore operations to produce 273-286 million tonnes of the steelmaking raw material on a 100% basis over the next 12 months amid a significant maintenance program at the Port of Port Hedland, from which it ships its cargoes abroad."As part of this, a major car dumper maintenance campaign is planned for the September 2019 quarter, with a corresponding impact expe...Read More
Czech steelmaker Liberty Ostrava is increasing its steel prices by ?,?20 ($23) per tonne to partially offset an increase in production costs, the company told Fastmarkets on Tuesday July 16. "Recent increases in raw materials and energy costs and the prevailing steel prices in Europe necessitate an immediate response to avoid further margin squeezes for our steel business," the company said.O...Read More
Turkish steel producers remained quiet in the deep-sea scrap markets, awaiting some signs of recovery in the finished steel sector, sources said on Tuesday July 16.The last verified scrap deal was on July 9 when a steel mill in the Iskenderun region booked a UK cargo at $288 per tonne cfr for HMS 1&2 (80:20).Since then, Turkish steel mills have stayed away from the deep-sea markets...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange continued its rally throughout afternoon trading on Thursday July 18, closing just below $15,000 per tonne amid a continued flurry of technical buying and a seven-year low in LME stocks. Nickel's three-month price on the LME closed at $14,850 per tonne, climbing over 5% from an intraday low of $14,300 per tonne to trade at an intraday high of...Read More
Ecuador's first large-scale open pit mining operation Mirador copper mine, in which Chinese copper smelter Tongling Non-ferrous owns a 70% stake, has been commissioned as of July 18, a report on Tongling Non-ferrous' website said.Construction of the project, located in the Zamora Chinchipe province of Ecuador, started on December 21, 2015.The facility is an entirely China-invested, designed, built...Read More
Export prices for pig iron from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) increased in deals this week, due to reduced availability, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for high-manganese pig iron exports, fob main port Black Sea, CIS $/tonne was $340-345 on Thursday July 18, up by $5 per tonne week on week. Several sales were heard done to the United States&...Read More
The Turkish steel mills have broken their recent silence in the deep-sea scrap markets and have accepted higher prices, sources said on Thursday July 18.Despite the falling prices for finished and semi-finished long steel, the Turkish mills agreed to pay higher prices for scrap because of their requirements for August-shipment cargoes.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Baltic Sea cargo la...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday July 18 that are worth another look.Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing will launch US dollar-denominated London Metal Mini Futures for six base metals starting Monday August 5, the exchange said recently. Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange continued its rally throughout afternoon trading on Thursday J...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