Zinc bears are betting that the London Metal Exchange zinc price will fall to $2,500 per tonne in June, with massive orders for put options placed in recent weeks, Fastmarkets learned.Current open interest on the LME Select platform shows 5,125 lots of put options are active for the June declaration at a $2,500-per-tonne strike price, representing an equivalent of 128,125 tonnes of the metal. Opti...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday May 2 that are worth another look.Peruvian tin producer Minsur resumed normal operations at its San Rafael mine in the southern province of Melgar, following the end of a workers' strike that was first announced on April 30, the company said on Wednesday May 1.Zinc bears are betting that the London Metal Exchange zinc price wil...Read More
Peruvian tin producer Minsur resumed normal operations at its San Rafael mine in the southern province of Melgar, following the end of a workers' strike that was first announced on April 30, the company said on Wednesday May 1."An agreement was made with our workers' trade union at San Rafael to finish the strike," Minsur said in a filing with the Peruvian stock exchange. "Work at the unit was...Read More
Zinc spot treatment charges (TCs) were expected to remain at their current high levels through the rest of 2019, because additional Chinese smelting capacity will only come online next year, Nexa Resources' chief executive officer Tito Martins told investors on Thursday May 2.But the price on the London Metal Exchange could rise in the second half of the year amid a global deficit of the metal, he...Read More
BMW Group has chosen Braidy Atlas - the joint-venture project between Russian aluminium producer UC Rusal and US holding company Braidy Industries - to supply aluminium sheet for North American manufacturing, due the venture's focus on a low-carbon footprint and using "green" inputs, Braidy Industries' top executive told Fastmarkets AMM.Once the greenfield aluminum rolling mill begins production,...Read More
Daily PDFs will be downloadable until Monday May 6. After that, because of the UK's early May bank holiday, the next daily PDF will be downloadable on Wednesday May 8.Read More
Comex copper prices sank further in morning trading on Thursday May 2 in the United States after a 3% selloff yesterday fueled by increased warehousing inflows, weak global data and a stronger dollar. The copper price for July settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 2.15 cents to $2.7810 per lb. "In line with our expectations, copper has come under downward p...Read More
Prices for imported flat-rolled steel have edged downward, but they aren't attracting US buyers because domestic prices are falling even faster, market participants said.And with US mill lead times short - a matter of weeks as opposed to as much as three months for import orders - there is little incentive to take the price and geopolitical risk associated with offshore deals, they said.Hot-rolled...Read More
Prices for reinforcing bar steel in the United States continued to soften on weak demand, sources told Fastmarkets AMM. Fastmarkets AMM's price assessment for domestic rebar is $34.25-35.25 per hundredweight fob mill as of Wednesday May 1, down 0.7% from $34.50-35.50 per cwt two weeks earlier and off 2.1% from $35-36 per cwt at the beginning of the year. At the same time, Fastmarkets' assessment f...Read More
Turkish billet prices have softened over the past week, with news of fresh export sales at lower prices confirming the downturn, sources said on Thursday May 2.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for billet exports out of Turkey was $425-430 per tonne fob on Thursday, down from last week's $450-455 per tonne.A steel mill in northern Turkey sold 40,000 tonnes of billet to Saudi Arabia at $425 per....Read More
Domestic long steel prices have gone up in Turkey over the past week but only because the country's lira has continued to weaken against the US dollar, sources said on Thursday May 2.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment on Thursday for domestic rebar in Turkey was TRY3,300-3,350 ($553-562) per tonne ex-works, including 18% VAT, up from the TRY3,240-3,340 per tonne of last week.The local rebar pric...Read More
Employees of Tata Steel Europe no longer support the creation of a joint venture with German steel conglomerate ThyssenKrupp, the company's European works council (EWC) has said.The council does not believe that such a merger would be in the best interests of the company's workers, it said in a statement issued on Wednesday May 1 but dated April 26."We confirm that the EWC does not support the pac...Read More
Turkish rebar and wire rod export prices have weakened over the past week on the back of limited demand and falling scrap import values, sources said on Thursday May 2.Turkish steel producers lowered their offers by $5 per tonne to $475-480 per tonne fob on actual weight basis, while their customers were bidding $470 per tonne fob and below.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment...Read More
Iron ore pellet-maker Bahrain Steel has signed a contract with UK-based mining company Anglo American for the supply of 8 million wet tonnes per year of iron ore pellet feed, the Middle Eastern company announced on Monday April 29.The contract will ensure supply of about 60% of the feedstock that Bahrain Steel would need to achieve its capacity of 12 million tpy of finished iron ore pellets from t...Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market remained quiet on Thursday May 2, with participants expecting lower prices following the sale of a cheaper billet cargo to Saudi Arabia, sources have told Fastmarkets.A steel mill in northern Turkey sold 40,000 tonnes of billet to Saudi Arabia at $425 per tonne fob, equivalent to $452 per tonne cfr, multiple sources reported on Thursday.Following news of th...Read More
The planned construction of a new steel mill in Whyalla, Australia by business group GFG Alliance will add to oversupply in the Asia-Pacific region, market sources told Fastmarkets MB this week."It's something which the region does not need, especially in the face of the many steel mega-projects which are being planned in Asia," an industry source in Southeast Asia said.GFG's planned "Next-Generat...Read More
Higher offers and concerns over possible supply disruptions gave the seaborne coking coal market a boost on Thursday May 2 despite the absence of Chinese participants during the day."I made an inquiry for a cargo of premium mid-vol hard coking coal for loading in June. But the miner told me that the particular cargo could fetch more than $205 per tonne fob Australia due to tight supply," an Indian...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices remained flat on Thursday May 2, with trading activity muted due to the ongoing Labor Day public holiday in China.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $94.17 per tonne cfr Qingdao, unchanged. MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $93.20 per tonne cfr Qingdao, unchanged. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $97.27 per tonne cfr Qingdao, unchanged. MB 58%...Read More
Fastmarkets topped the base metals leaderboard in the Apex first-quarter 2019 contest, with an accuracy rating of 98.41%, while Edward Meir of INTL FCStone was top of the precious metals table with 97.45% accuracy.For steel raw materials, Casper Burgering from ABN Amro topped the leaderboard, with 91.16% accuracy.Click on the image below to download the full report.Second in the base metals leader...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange consolidated during morning trading on Thursday May 2, with prices broadly range bound following the US Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates unchanged. Volumes traded over the morning session were moderate - despite the absence of China due to national holidays - with copper clocking more than 6,000 lots exchanged as of 9:45am London tim...Read More