The inter-merchant spot market for UK light iron has remained flat for the fourth consecutive week due to stable market conditions, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday July 19.Fastmarkets' assessment of the price for steel scrap 5C, loose old light, domestic, inter-merchant, was ?80-100 ($100-125) per tonne on July 19, unchanged week on week.Market participants agreed that there had been no change...Read More
Physical iron ore prices rebounded on Friday July 19 amid gains in the futures markets.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $121.79 per tonne, up by $1.89 per tonne.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines, cfr Qingdao: $121.71 per tonne, up by $1.89 per tonne.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $122.81 per dry metric tonne...Read More
China's hot-rolled coil market softened on Friday July 19, but overseas buyers appear to be stepping up their purchases on expectations that export prices would stabilize or rise in the near term.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,860-3,880 yuan ($561-564) per tonne, down 20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,840-3,850 yuan per tonne, narrowing downward by 10 yuan per tonneSpot prices drop...Read More
Chinese buyers continue to procure seaborne coking coal cargoes, keeping prices in the segment supported in the face of downward pressure in the rest of the market.A cargo of premium hard coking coal was traded at around $184 per tonne cfr China, Fastmarkets learned on Friday July 19.Another cargo of a different brand in the same segment changed hands at around $180 per tonne fob Australia, source...Read More
China's rebar prices dipped on Friday July 19 after selling pressure picked up in the market. Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,960-3,990 yuan ($576-580) per tonne, down 10 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Beijing): 3,880-3,920 yuan per tonne, down 10-20 yuan per tonneSellers lowered their prices during the day in an attempt to secure more orders ahead of the weekend, sources said.A trader in Shan...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange was lower during morning trading on Friday June 19, with the metal's weeklong price rally cooling across Asian trading hours. Nickel futures were recently seen trading around $14,745 per tonne, with volume traded lower than in recent days at some 3,900 lots exchanged as of 9.00am London time. Price action in nickel had surpassed $15,000 per t...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More
The following Fastmarkets minor metals prices changed on Friday July 19:Minor metalsAntimony max 100ppm Bi, in-whs Rotterdam $/tonne: $5,950-6,150 per tonne from $5,950-6,200Bismuth 99.99% Bi min, in-whs China, yuan/tonne: 41,000-42,000 yuan per tonne from 40,500-41,500 yuanChromium alumino-thermic 99% min, in-whs Rotterdam, $/tonne: $7,350-7,600 from...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More
Comments from US Federal Reserve officials overnight appeared dovish after New York Federal Reserve president John Williams stressed at the annual meeting of the Central Bank Research Association that "it is better to take preventative measures than to wait for disaster to unfold". With the market already pricing in a 25-basis-point cut in the central bank's benchmark interest rate at the Federal...Read More
Austenitic alloy steel scrap prices increased over the week to Friday July 19 following a spike in the price of nickel, sources told Fastmarkets.The London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price increased strongly throughout the week, although by Friday it had begun to retreat again. Scrap traders were conscious that the price increase was unlikely to sustain and so were buying cautiously because...Read More
Spot prices for ferrous scrap in Asia picked up some strength this week on steady demand from end users in the region.While rising prices for scrap in Turkey provided support to the region's market, weak downstream demand for steel capped the increases.Fewer Japanese scrap offers were made to the region this week because scrapyards in Japan were making their domestic market a priority over the exp...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
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEX) will launch US dollar-denominated London Metal Mini Futures for six base metals starting August 5, the exchange said recently. The company, which has wholly owned the London Metal Exchange since 2012, said that the new Hong Kong-listed contracts will be available for aluminium, zinc, copper, nickel, tin and lead. The move is the latest attempt from HKEX and th...Read More
Production at South32's Hillside aluminium smelter in South Africa increased by 3,000 tonnes to a record 715,000 tonnes during its 2019 financial year ended June 30, 2019, the producer said on Thursday July 18. Sales at the smelter increased by 4% in the June 2019 quarter to 191,000 tonnes from 183,000 tonnes in the same quarter in 2018. "We achieved record annual production at Hillside... Th...Read More
China's 10 biggest copper smelters have set a treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) purchase price floor of $55 per tonne/5.5 cents per lb for the third quarter of this year, sources close to the matter told Fastmarkets on Thursday July 18.The latest price floor represents a 25% decrease compared with the second quarter's level of $73 per tonne/7.3 cents per lb and was set at the Copper Smelter...Read More
Fastmarkets has changed the frequency of publication of its Japan and South Korea high-carbon ferro-chrome price assessments from weekly to fortnightly, effective Thursday July 18.Following a one-month consultation, both the ferro-chrome high-carbon 57-65% Cr, cif dup Japan and ferro-chrome high-carbon 57-65% Cr, cif dup South Korea prices will be assessed and published every other Thursday. The m...Read More
Turkey's Kar Madencilik has started producing primary pure magnesium metal (grade min 99.95%) at a smelter rented from Esan Eczacibasi, now called Kar Magnesium Smelter. Kar Madencilik entered an agreement to rent the smelter in February 2018 for a period of 10 years. The smelter, covering a 30,000 square meter closed area and consisting of seven different units, stopped production at the end of 2...Read More
Key data from the Wednesday July 17 pricing session in Shanghai.Key driversThe price of cobalt metal in China stabilized this week amid rising spot buying interest following a wave of speculative buying on the Wuxi Stainless Steel Exchange in the week ended July 12. The price of cobalt metal in China's domestic market fell to a multi-year low,...Read More