The G20 Summit, which takes place in Osaka, Japan, this weekend has cast a shadow over the Asian ferrous metals markets.Market participants are hoping a quick resolution to the trade war between China and the United States will provide much-needed relief both for steelmakers and downstream buyers at a time of squeezed margins and weak demand.One of the key themes at t...Read More
European steel mills could further reduce steel production should the volume of steel imported into the European Union continue to increase, market participants said at the European Steel Day in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday June 26."The markets for many steel products in Europe are rather weak. So nearly every steel company is forced in one way or another to cut production," Heinz J??rg Fuhrman...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Thursday June 27, up by about 2% amid continued buying momentum, with positive US GDP figures shoring up commodity investments. Three-month nickel futures closed at their highest level since April at $12,710 per tonne in the afternoon, improving by just under 9% from a June-low of $11,605 per tonne o...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday June 27 that are worth another look.European steelmakers are concerned about the future viability of the steel industry in the United Kingdom should it leave the European Union at the end of October without a deal, they said at European Steel association Eurofer's European Steel Day in Brussels on Wednesday June 26. A ...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
A decade ago, the Shanghai Futures Exchange launched its steel rebar futures contract. In the years that followed it has become the gold standard for steel derivatives, achieving a success that other exchanges aspire to emulate. And they are definitely trying, with a total of 11 steel derivatives contracts launched by the main trading exchanges since. SHFE, which launched a wire rod futures contra...Read More
Henrik Adam, who has been chief commercial officer at Tata Steel Europe since 2011, will replace Hans Fischer as ceo when he retires on July 1, the company said on Thursday June 27.Fischer will continue to serve on the board of Tata Steel Europe as a non-executive director, and will continue to act as an adviser to global ceo and managing director TV Narendran."During his tenure as ceo and be...Read More
The G20 Summit, which takes place in Osaka, Japan, this weekend has cast a shadow over the Asian ferrous metals markets.Market participants are hoping a quick resolution to the trade war between China and the United States will provide much-needed relief both for steelmakers and downstream buyers at a time of squeezed margins and weak demand.One of the key themes at t...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Thursday June 27, up by about 2% amid continued buying momentum, with positive US GDP figures shoring up commodity investments. Three-month nickel futures closed at their highest level since April at $12,710 per tonne in the afternoon, improving by just under 9% from a June-low of $11,605 per tonne o...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices strengthened further on Thursday June 27, with trading activity on the Singapore Exchange's (SGX) 65% Fe iron ore derivative contract also picking up. By 5.45pm Singapore time, 125,000 tonnes of the contract had been traded and cleared, according to SGX data. This compares with 175,000 tonnes traded in the whole of last week. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $118.02 per tonne cfr...Read More
Weakness persisted in the seaborne coking coal market on Thursday June 27 despite news of a suspension of mining activity at a mine in Queensland, Australia.An August-loading cargo of a top Australian brand was sold to an end user in southern China at $200 per tonne cfr China, according to various sources.A shipment of premium low-vol hard coking coal was heard offered at $198 per tonne cfr China,...Read More
A gallery collapse at Glencore's Kamoto Copper Company in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 19 people, the company said in a filing on the London Stock Exchange on June 27.The miners were working illegally at a project, which has had on average 2,000 illegal incursions onto its jurisdiction per day, the company said adding that further casualties were a possibility."The incident has no i...Read More
Henrik Adam, who has been chief commercial officer at Tata Steel Europe since 2011, will replace Hans Fischer as ceo when he retires on July 1, the company said on Thursday June 27.Fischer will continue to serve on the board of Tata Steel Europe as a non-executive director, and will continue to act as an adviser to global ceo and managing director TV Narendran."During his tenure as ceo and be...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday June 27 that are worth another look.European steelmakers are concerned about the future viability of the steel industry in the United Kingdom should it leave the European Union at the end of October without a deal, they said at European Steel association Eurofer's European Steel Day in Brussels on Wednesday June 26. A ...Read More
The US-China trade dispute has dampened selling appetite among copper scrap dealers in the United States, though China granting restricted quotas has spurred exports once again.Market participants were cautiously optimistic regarding renewing exports to China, as the ongoing tariff spat has altered the flow of material conspicuously. A seller source told Fastmarkets he is finding it "harder to sel...Read More
Monthly European alloy surcharges for July deliveries of stainless steel products will be lower than the June surcharge after the price of nickel continued to fall.Fastmarkets' alloy surcharge for July deliveries of grade-304 cold-rolled stainless sheet is set to fall to ?,?1,318-1,362 ($1,498-1,548) per tonne, down ?,?18-21 per tonne from June's surcharge levels, according to calcu...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange continued its uptrend during morning trading on Thursday June 27, with short-covering activity pushing the metal's outright price higher while trade optimism supports commodity investment. Building on Wednesday's gains, nickel futures are now trading 1.3% higher than Wednesday's closing price of $12,490 per tonne, reaching an intra-morning hi...Read More
While US officials have given the impression that they will attempt to defuse the ongoing trade dispute with China at the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) summit on Friday June 28, their Chinese counterparts were less upbeat.Despite the optimistic view shared by US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin that a trade deal with China is "90% completed", market sources in the Asian nation say that Chinese offic...Read More
Base metals prices on the Shanghai Exchange broadly weakened during Asian morning trading on Thursday June 27, dragged down by a firm dollar and persisting uncertainty surrounding US-China trade relations.The firmer dollar of late coupled with macroeconomic uncertainty has spooked investors, limiting trading activity this morning and causing the SHFE base metals complex to give back some of Wednes...Read More