The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for iron ore, pig iron, direct-reduced iron and other steelmaking raw materials. Latest transactions: iron oreIron oreVale, Global Ore, 170,000 tonnes of 62% Fe Brazilian Blend fines, traded at $89.50 per tonne cfr China, laycan April 10-19.Vale, Beijing Iron Ore Trading Center (Corex), 170,000 tonnes of 65% Fe Iron Ore Carajas, traded at $98...Read More
Iron ore prices jumped on Thursday March 14 amid a positive destocking of steel products in China and signs of loosening restrictions on steelmaking operations.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $87.26 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $2.48 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $86.38 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $2.48 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $89.50 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $2.80...Read More
Forward cargoes of seaborne coking coal continued to fetch lower prices on Thursday March 14, with some buyers in China saying that they would take a wait-and-see approach amid the emergence of what appears to be a downtrend.On the Global Coal trading platform, a June-laycan cargo in the branded segment of premium hard coking coal was traded at $202.40 per tonne fob Australia, lower than the trans...Read More
Import prices for steel billet in Southeast Asia moved up on Thursday March 14, amid an uptick in trading activity and higher scrap values, market participants said.Fastmarkets' daily import price assessment for billet in Southeast Asia was $485-495 per tonne cfr Manila on Thursday, up $5 per tonne from $480-490 per tonne cfr on Wednesday. Numerous deals involving Malaysian billet were concluded i...Read More
Base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange were almost universally trading down during the morning session on Thursday March 14 due to continually weakening data from China."We have Chinese industrial production slowing down and Chinese car sales for February down 14% [while] Chinese consumer buying has pretty much dried up," Malcolm Freeman of Kingdom Futures said. Only the three-month LME a...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed this morning, Thursday March 14, with copper, nickel, lead and zinc down by an average of 0.4%, while lead and tin were up by 0.1% 0.4% respectively.Three-month copper was recently quoted at $6,444 per tonne, down by 0.3% compared with Wednesday's close at $6,466 per tonne.Volume was below average, with 5,913 lots traded on LME...Read More
Exchanges have an important role to play in the growing push for the use of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria in investing, the chief executive officer of the London Metal Exchange said. Matthew Chamberlain said that the lack of a global regulatory body policing ESG criteria meant that sometimes it falls to exchanges and other market infrastructure players to step up and use thei...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More
South African state power utility Eskom has implemented load shedding for the first time this month amid lingering power constraints, sparking predictions of ferro-chrome price spikes if the situation deteriorates. Load shedding - controlled power outages - were last implemented in mid-February and were reported to have affected large industrial power users, including ferro-chrome smelters. After...Read More
Domestic stainless steel prices in China dropped over the past week , reflecting weakness in nickel futures, while demand for finished products was stable.Fastmarkets MB's domestic price assessment for benchmark 304 stainless cold-rolled coil in the major market of Wuxi was 14,700-15,200 yuan ($2,191-2,265) per tonne including value-added tax for the week ended Wednesday March 13, down 300-400 yua...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed this morning, Friday March 15, with copper, aluminium and nickel up by an average of 0.6%, while zinc, lead and tin were down by an average 0.6%. Three-month copper was recently quoted at $6,449 per tonne, up by 1% compared with Thursday’s close at $6,385 per tonne. Volume was significantly above average, with 19,661 lots...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 13 points in pre-opening trade. Oracle (ORCL $53.05) is expected to open lower after releasing lower than consensus fiscal fourth quarter earnings guidance.Broadcom (AVGO $268.20) is expected to open higher after reporting higher than consensus fiscal first quarter earnings. Adobe (ADBE $267.69) is expected to open low...Read More
Aluminium was one the best performers on the London Metal Exchange on Wednesday March 13, because of stock outflows from LME sheds.The price of the three-month aluminium contract was up by $28 per tonne to $1,905 per tonne at the close of trading on Wednesday.Around 7,425 tonnes of aluminium left LME warehouses on Wednesday, with most of the outflows from Port Klang, Singapore and Rotterdam. Overa...Read More
Skorpion Zinc's refinery in Namibia has to suspend its operations for five weeks on a lack of raw material feed following a mine strike, while the delivery of certain exports will have to be delayed, Fastmarkets has learned.The Namibian operation, Africa's largest integrated zinc operation, has run out of zinc oxide ore as a result of a strike at its mine that started on February 22, parent compan...Read More
Chinese and European zinc premiums fell over the past week amid lackluster demand and disappointing spread structures between the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange, while the Indian lead premium slid after increased availability of Iranian units in the spot market. The zinc premium in China moved down amid muted import demand in line with worsening import conditions and an oversu...Read More
Skorpion Zinc's refinery in Namibia has to suspend its operations for five weeks on a lack of raw material feed following a mine strike, while the delivery of certain exports will have to be delayed, Fastmarkets has learned.The Namibian operation, Africa's largest integrated zinc operation, has run out of zinc oxide ore as a result of a strike at its mine that started on February 22, parent compan...Read More
Market participants are confident of an increase in the monthly ferro-chrome tender prices offered by major Chinese stainless steel mills for April but warned of a possible downswing thereafter, Fastmarkets heard at its 20th Asian Ferro-alloys Conference in Hong Kong on March 10-12."Chinese mills will certainly raise their April tender prices [for ferro-chrome], and the only question is by how muc...Read More
The nickel market will hold a marginal deficit until 2021 after which the deficit is expected to expand again, Alex Khodov, principle nickel market analyst from Norilsk Nickel, said at Fastmarkets' 20th Asian Ferro-alloys conference in Hong Kong this week. In the near term, the global nickel deficit will narrow due to nickel pig iron (NPI) production ramp-ups in China and Indonesia and the resumed...Read More
After the ferro-alloys industry gathered in Hong Kong this week for Fastmarkets' Asian Ferro-alloys conference, our reporters present 10 of the key things we learned. 1. Vanadium is likely to regain momentum in 2019... Many market participants at the conference were bullish about ferro-vanadium in 2019, citing robust demand as a result of the revised rebar standard in China, which mandated an incr...Read More
The manganese ore market is likely to remain stable over 2019 after the previous two years of volatility, though profitability is liable to shrink, according to panelists at Fastmarkets' Asian Ferro-alloys conference in Hong Kong on Monday March 11."The market is less volatile compared to the last two years because while supply has gone up, demand has gone up too," Lei Fei, China Minmetals Corpora...Read More