Aluminium's three-month price set a new year-to-date high of $2,775.50 per tonne during early trading on Monday September 6, with political turmoil in Guinea - the world's top bauxite exporter - lending further supply-side support to the metal.The metal's three-month price was $2,755 per tonne on Monday morning, a 1% rise on the previous Friday's closing price of $2,727 per tonne, with more than d...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices and margins for stainless steel producers have risen notably over the past few months in both Europe and the United States, but there are now signs that the rally is petering out.A clear reason for the halt to rising prices comes from the near 20% drop in nickel prices seen in late February/early March,...Read More
Hot-rolled coil markets across Europe remained quiet on Monday September 6, with sentiment was increasingly bearish because of the decline in demand from the automotive sector, sources told Fastmarkets.Opinions differed between mills and buyers on the future direction of HRC prices, with trading activity in both Northern Europe and Italy remaining slow on Monday.Buyers were expecting prices to dro...Read More
The latest forecasts and analysis of the ferrous scrap and iron metallics market from the Fastmarkets research team are ready to be viewed.Stifled automotive output this year, driven by a supply shortage of semiconductor chips used in vehicles, has tightened prime scrap availability and widened the spreads between this grade of steelmaking raw material and obsolete scrap.While wide prime-over-obso...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were on divergent paths on the morning of Monday September 6, after a weaker-than-expected US jobs report on Friday sent out mixed signals.But base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were generally stronger this morning while they tracked the gains seen on the LME on Friday, which came despite the disappointing data from the United States...Read More
Zinc producers in China's southwestern province of Yunnan should be able to fully resume their operations by mid-June, sources said.Yunnan will remove its power restrictions by the end of June that have stunted local zinc output, the provincial energy bureau said.A few zinc smelters in Yunnan have already resumed production, however, sources that spoke to Fastmarkets said.Production capa...Read More
Stainless steel prices continue to register new highs around the end of the first half of 2021 and steelmakers continue to enjoy outsized margins.They have responded in recent months by increasing their output, which has now pushed above pre-pandemic levels and will eventually restore balance to the market.For now, though, supply gaps are still being filled and buyers find themselves competing aga...Read More
Export rebar and wire rod prices from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region continued to decrease in the week to Monday September 6, pressured by competition with Turkish mills, sources told Fastmarkets.Offers of Turkey-origin rebar for foreign customers have slid $10-20 per tonne over the past two weeks, to $670-675 per tonne fob Black Sea.Wire rod was available at $770-790 per tonn...Read More
As competition in the global steel markets remains fierce, Fastmarkets provides an update on the new, progressing and closed trade cases from around the world in August 2021.The case list below includes only updates. For other continuing cases this year, see the updates for January, February, March, April,...Read More
The European manganese alloys markets, currently trading around 13-year price highs, were likely to rise further - at least in the short term - due to firm fundamentals of tight availability and strong demand, Fastmarkets heard on Monday September 6.Other factors such as an acute shortage of shipping containers and record high freight rates were also making replacement costs very expensive, while...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.With nickel prices down by almost 20% over the space of around ten days during late February and early March, one might have been expecting us to be reporting sharply-lower prices of stainless steel, at least for the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel.This is not the case, at least in Europe and the Unite...Read More
The European manganese alloys markets, currently trading around 13-year price highs, were likely to rise further - at least in the short term - due to firm fundamentals of tight availability and strong demand, Fastmarkets heard on Monday September 6.Other factors such as an acute shortage of shipping containers and record high freight rates were also making replacement costs very expensive, while...Read More
Import prices for rebar in Singapore continued to trend downward in the week to Monday September 6 amid ample spot supply and weak demand among buyers.A trader offered a position cargo of Indian rebar at $720 per tonne cfr Singapore on a theoretical weight basis during the week.Turkish rebar was offered at $720-725 per tonne cfr Singapore on a theoretical weight basis following a recent drop in sc...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices across the board in both fob and cfr markets jumped on Monday September 6 on sustained tight supply and good overseas demand, reaching new highs since Fastmarkets established its coking coal indices. And the ninth round of Chinese domestic coke price hikes since the start of August was fully executed.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $450.61 per...Read More
The Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb trade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets assessed Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb at 23.50-24.40...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Bulk ferro-alloy prices have shown impressive gains again this month, with ferro-silicon, silicon metal and manganese alloy prices all making significant increases. Noble alloy markets also enjoyed upward momentum, with both vanadium and molybdenum prices rising sharply.Recovering demand from steelmakers globally, together w...Read More
Continued low demand for aluminium in Japan, unchanged since August, has weighed on fourth-quarter negotiations for the main Japanese ports (MJP) aluminium premium, which started around August 24.Multiple sources reported on Monday September 6 that the first producer to extend the offer of $230 per tonne has put back its quarterly negotiation deadline by one week to September 10, but it will not l...Read More
Hot-rolled coil markets across Europe remained quiet on Monday September 6, with sentiment was increasingly bearish because of the decline in demand from the automotive sector, sources told Fastmarkets.Opinions differed between mills and buyers on the future direction of HRC prices, with trading activity in both Northern Europe and Italy remaining slow on Monday.Buyers were expecting prices to dro...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:?EUR? US sheet prices hit record highs again in May, with upward momentum persisting into June. Actual US hot-rolled coil prices averaged $1,553 per ton in May, largely in line with our forecast of $1,540 per ton. Prices remain supported by strong underlying sup...Read More
Turkish domestic scrap prices dropped over the past week amid weakening imported scrap values, market participants told Fastmarkets on Monday September 6.Turkish mills continued their deep-sea scrap purchases last week, albeit at a slow pace.Fastmarkets' index for steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20 mix), North Europe origin, cfr Turkey was calculated at $ 440.25 per tonne on Friday September 3,...Read More