Merchant slab output at Ukraininan steelmaker Metinvest in the December-February period was below the production target due to repairs at the blast furnaces of Azovstal Iron & Steel Works and Illych Iron & Steel works, the company told Fastmarkets."The company's merchant slab output was 190,000 tonnes below the target because blast furnace repairs were rescheduled for these months," a company sour...Read More
Steel alloy surcharges in the European stainless steel market were widely expected to increase sharply for March because of recent rises in the price of nickel, Fastmarkets heard on Friday February 15.Alloy surcharges for March will be calculated based on alloy component costs between January 20 and February 20. That period has not yet finished, but from January 20 until February 15 nickel prices...Read More
The number of new passenger car registrations in the EU decreased by 4.62% year-on-year in January 2019, making it the fifth consecutive month of decline, the European Automotive Manufacturers Assn (ACEA) said on Friday February 15.New car sales in Europe totaled 1,195,665 units in January 2019, compared with 1,253,596 vehicles sold in the corresponding month of 2018."The European passenger car ma...Read More
Section 232 tariffs on aluminium and steel raised $3.6 billion in their first nine months, and revenues for the last two months are likely to push that figure up by around another $1 billion, US government data shows.That figure would be enough to cover the shortfall in funding sought by United States President Donald Trump for border security. In other words, aluminium and steel tariffs could fun...Read More
Detailed data for Chinese trade is still not available, but there are indications that the East Asian country may have become the biggest importer of pig iron in Asia last year, according to Fastmarkets' research team.We pointed out in June last year that the Chinese import pig iron market might revive to fill the widening gap between iron and steel production in China, alongside ferrous scrap.Hon...Read More
The process to exclude steel and aluminium from the Section 232 import tariffs applied by the United States is having some interesting consequences.Notably, in the event of a national security issue - which Section 232 was designed to address - the United States would theoretically rely on Japan for its steel and Saudi Arabia for its aluminium.Those countries have been granted the highest volume o...Read More
Steel alloy surcharges in the European stainless steel market were widely expected to increase sharply for March because of recent rises in the price of nickel, Fastmarkets heard on Friday February 15.Alloy surcharges for March will be calculated based on alloy component costs between January 20 and February 20. That period has not yet finished, but from January 20 until February 15 nickel prices...Read More
Domestic prices for rebar in Poland have increased over the past week due to higher ferrous scrap costs, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday February 15.Fastmarkets' price assessment for domestic 12mm B500B-grade rebar in Poland was 2,200-2,310 zloty ($572-601) per tonne ex-works on February 15, up from 2,180-2,250 zloty per tonne ex-works a week earlier. The assessment reflected deals and offers f...Read More
The price of austenitic alloy steel scrap imported into Europe decreased on Friday February 15 because of lower nickel prices, Fastmarkets has heard.The price of 18/8 steel scrap solids imports was assessed on Friday at ?,?1,000-1,040 ($1,128-1,173) per tonne cif, narrowing downward by ?,?10 per tonne.The modest scale of the price change was related to the fact that nickel prices only began decrea...Read More
Pig iron buyers in the United States have resumed purchases at higher prices, Fastmarkets learned on Friday February 15.Fastmarkets' import price assessment for pig iron in the US was at $355-360 per tonne cfr on Friday February 15, narrowing upward by $5 per tonne week on week.One deal for pig iron from the Commonwealth of Independent States was heard around $355 per tonne cfr early in the w...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were higher across the board at the close of trading on Friday February 15, with market sentiment continuing to improve amid US-China trade talks, while participants continue to short-cover after last week's price rally. Climbing furthest over the afternoon, zinc futures closed above $2,600 per tonne and continued to trade in a volatile trend after s...Read More
Comex copper prices turned positive on Friday morning in the United States with improving trade talk optimism boosting the entire base metals space.The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rebounded 0.80 cents to $2.7820 per lb."We expect the global refined copper market to become tighter...Read More
The London Metal Exchange's linked load-in/load-out (LILO) warehouse rule has not so far been activated at Istim's warehouses in Port Klang despite a large queue building at the warehouse, sources confirmed to Fastmarkets MB. An LME queue report published on February 11 stated there was a 118-day queue to withdraw aluminium at Istim warehouses in Port Klang, Malaysia, at the end of January. This c...Read More
Although base metals are under pressure in the short term, we have a bullish bias to our 2018 price forecasts given the supportive background of solid global economic growth and the fact that all six base metal markets look set to be in fundamental deficit this year. But each has a slightly different supply-side story and this aspect should be the main differentiator. For example, zinc's narrative...Read More
The Indian government's plans of hitting 300 million tonnes of steel capacity by 2030 sounds overambitious in the current scenario given that output only managed to reach the 101 million tonne mark in 2017 - indicating three-fold (Read More
After suffering for some seven years through to 2015, the world's steelmakers have had cause for cheer over the past couple of years. After some heavy losses and write-downs, they finally appear to have emerged from the wreckage of the global financial crisis. An economic upswing has taken root in most regions of the world, Chinese steel output and export growth has slowed noticeably, and steel pr...Read More
For a number of years problems at Ilva, the largest steelworks in Europe, have been casting shadow over the performance of the whole Italian steel industry. Will an acquisition of Ilva by a consortium led by ArcelorMittal, now in its final stage, be a game changer for the market?Following multiple reports of environmental and health problems caused by the Taranto plant, in 2013 Ilva was placed und...Read More
China ended steel production in all of the country's illegal induction furnaces by the end of June last year, it ha claimed.Most operators in China are primarily small private mills that use low-quality scrap to produce substandard rebar. This is mixed with grade III (HRB400) rebar and sold at a discount to construction contractors.For a long period, the government had neither a record of nor cont...Read More
China's month-on-month new electric vehicles (NEV) sales rebounded in August after month-on-month declines in June and July. The drop in sales between May and June was the first drop since September 2016, but Fastmarkets MB had expected Chinese NEV sales to dip temporarily after the June subsidy changes came into effect because consumers and NEV manufacturers would have to adjust to the new subsid...Read More
Iron ore prices fell sharply in the second half of November after climbing through October, with prices for higher-grade material pioneering the decline.Fastmarkets MB daily benchmark for 65% Fe fines dropped by 22% by Monday November 26 after peaking on October 29. The 62% Fe iron ore index declined by 16% over the period, as some Chinese steelmakers started to seek larger volumes of cheaper ores...Read More