Mexican steel scrap prices continued to decrease in the week ended on Friday August 27, as most steelmakers applied price cuts because of competition from imported material.Scrap consumers have been pushing through a series of weekly price cuts due to pressure from lower international prices.Fastmarkets' assessment of the steel scrap No1 busheling, consumer buying price, delivered mill Monterrey&n...Read More
Aluminium premiums increased on Tuesday August 31 across the globe, with tight supply, an opened arbitrage window in China, and overall bullish sentiment providing market tailwinds and supporting all-time highs.Premiums up in Rotterdam on insufficient supplyUS Midwest premium stable at record highPremiums rise in Shanghai amid wide arbitrage profitsImproved market sentiment drives MJP premiums upw...Read More
Manganese markets were quiet in the week ended Friday August 27, with buyers expecting miners to reduce their offer prices for October shipments to match the port markets."[Miners] must at least offer at a level equal to the port markets to attract buying interest, otherwise smelters will just buy from the spot market," a manganese ore buyer said. "And traders would further lower their purchase am...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday August 31 that are worth another lookWith Italian steelmaker AFV Beltrame Group's recently announced investment in a new green steel plant in Romania, chief executive Carlo Beltrame is looking to futureproof the company ahead of the upcoming green steel revolution. In...Read More
China's biggest metals conglomerate, Minmetals, has hired Julio Cesar Rojas Ramirez to develop its copper concentrates blending business and the utilitization of its copper smelting capacity, Fastmarkets has heard.Prior to joining Minmetals, Rojas was director for primary raw materials with Aurubis, Europe's biggest copper smelter.His previous roles include head of global sales at Nyrstar and seni...Read More
Aluminium's three-month price had the strongest growth in the complex this month, trading at $2,726.50 per tonne on Tuesday August 31, while most other prices on the London Metal Exchange were lower than on August 2. Aluminium closed at $2,718 per tonne on Tuesday, a rise of 2.6% from last Friday's price of $2,649.50 per tonne and up from $2,615 per tonne at the start of August. Bullish funda...Read More
The London Metal Exchange's new digital register for physical metals data, LMEpassport, will launch on October 1, starting with aluminium, the exchange announced on Tuesday August 31.LMEpassport will store electronic Certificates of Analysis (CoAs), which are specification and quality assurance documents that must accompany shipments of LME metals into and out of warehouses.It will also store sust...Read More
Domestic hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices in China edged lower on Tuesday August 31; futures prices pulled back due to the latest factory activity data prompting concerns over the country's economic recovery.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,700-5,730 yuan ($881-886) per tonne, down by 20 yuan per tonneThe most-traded HRC contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange came down from its highest leve...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:Bulk and noble alloys both moved largely in line with our price forecasts globally over the past month, though several markets surprised to the upside, exceeding our forecast gains. Stronger-than-forecast pricing momentum was primarily triggered by supply shortages in numerous...Read More
The mood in the European hot-rolled coil market soured in the week ended Friday August 27 after both buyers and producers started to return after the summer holiday in August.Trading activity has been limited while buyers follow a wait-and-see strategy.Buyers expect domestic coil prices to decline in September due to lower raw material costs.Demand outlook for the automotive segment - one of the k...Read More
The European hot-rolled coil (HRC) market remained calm on Tuesday August 31 while buyers remained in a "wait-and-see" mode, sources told Fastmarkets.Although both buyers and sellers have returned to the market after a traditionally slow August, they have been taking their time to assess market trends. Buyers' sentiment has been largely negative due to lower iron ore costs, uncertainty over automo...Read More
Aluminium's three-month price had the strongest growth in the complex this month, trading at $2,726.50 per tonne on Tuesday August 31, while most other prices on the London Metal Exchange were lower than on August 2. Aluminium closed at $2,718 per tonne on Tuesday, a rise of 2.6% from last Friday's price of $2,649.50 per tonne and up from $2,615 per tonne at the start of August. Bullish funda...Read More
The London Metal Exchange's new digital register for physical metals data, LMEpassport, will launch on October 1, starting with aluminium, the exchange announced on Tuesday August 31.LMEpassport will store electronic Certificates of Analysis (CoAs), which are specification and quality assurance documents that must accompany shipments of LME metals into and out of warehouses.It will also store sust...Read More
China's biggest metals conglomerate, Minmetals, has hired Julio Cesar Rojas Ramirez to develop its copper concentrates blending business and the utilitization of its copper smelting capacity, Fastmarkets has heard.Prior to joining Minmetals, Rojas was director for primary raw materials with Aurubis, Europe's biggest copper smelter.His previous roles include head of global sales at Nyrstar and seni...Read More
London Metal Exchange prices were mixed on the morning of Tuesday August 31, with aluminium and nickel leading on the upside due to tightening fundamentals but lead's three-month price under pressure. Aluminium's three-month price reached a peak of $2,726.50 per tonne on Tuesday morning, its highest since May 2011, when the metal reached $2,746 per tonne. It was down slightly to $2,697.50 per...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mainly firmer on the morning of Tuesday August 31, while those on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were more mixed.This comes despite the release of some weaker-than-expected Chinese manufacturing numbers. The US dollar index was, however, weaker. China's manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) fell to 50.1 in August from 50.4 in July. China'...Read More
Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States drifted lower - but still held above $96 per hundredweight ($1,920 per short ton) for a fourth straight business day - after service centers reported better availability and some shorter lead times. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $96.17 per cwt ($1,923.40 per ton) on Tuesday August 31, down by 0.78% from $96...Read More
Flat steel imports into the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were mostly at decreased offer prices during the week ended Tuesday August 31, while the uncertainty about the direction of prices continued, sources have told Fastmarkets.The uncertainty came because China has still not announced the level of an expected export duty to be applied to hot-rolled coil.Some buyers believed that new dut...Read More
With Italian steelmaker AFV Beltrame Group's recently announced investment in a new green steel plant in Romania, chief executive Carlo Beltrame is looking to futureproof the company ahead of the upcoming green steel revolution. In discussion with Fastmarkets' Carrie Bone, he outlined the changes and challenges anticipated for decarbonizing the steel industry."Why green? Because when we started on...Read More
Export prices for steel billet from the Commonwealth of Independent States region continued to decrease in the week to Tuesday August 31 with the market lacking support, Fastmarkets has heard.One of the principal negative factors weighing on prices was the dearth of trading activity in the major export outlets.Last week, CIS sellers covered the demand from Latin America...Read More