Flat steel sales from Brazilian distributors increased by 3% year on year in November, amid a slow recovery in the steel market.Sales from distributors amounted to 262,100 tonnes last month, compared with 254,400 tonnes in November 2017, the Brazilian flat steel distributors association (Inda) said on Tuesday December 18.Flat steel consumption in Brazil is mostly being spurred by a positive perfor...Read More
Turkish scrap import prices increased on Thursday December 20 on positive sentiment although no new deals were heard, sources told Fastmarkets MB. Several new bookings were heard on December 18, including a steel producer in the Iskenderun region booking a European cargo comprising 25,000 tonnes of heavy melting scrap (HMS) 1&2 (75:25), 7,000 tonnes of a mixture of bonus and shredded...Read More
The benchmark in-warehouse Rotterdam aluminium premium fell to its lowest since January 2010 on Thursday December 20, the day after after the US Treasury announced its intention to lift sanctions on Russian aluminium producer UC Rusal in January. Fastmarkets assessed the duty-unpaid premium at $55-65 per tonne on Thursday, down from $60-75 per tonne the day before. Participants told Fastmarke...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed at the close of trading on Thursday December 20, with a continued retreat in the US dollar index failing to spur upward price action amid broadly moderate volumes.Closing at a fresh 2018 low of $1,912 per tonne, the three-month aluminium price fell to its lowest level since August 2017 at $1,905.50 per tonne amid announcement of the US Tre...Read More
The lack of trading activity in the second half of December continued to put pressure on Turkish long steel exporters, and on rebar in particular, which has forced suppliers to further decrease offers.The European Commission's decision to extend safeguard regulations until February 1, 2019 has added more uncertainty into the market, leaving the question of how much rebar will be allowed to be supp...Read More
The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Friday December 21.Base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed at the close of trading on Thursday December 20, with a continued retreat in the United States dollar index failing to spur upward price action amid broadly moderate volumes. Read more in our live futures report.Here are how prices looked at the close of trading:It...Read More
The latest metal markets news and price moves to start the North American day on Thursday December 20.Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were predominantly higher during morning trading, with a weaker dollar index sustaining buying momentum while the potential removal of US sanctions against UC Rusal pressured aluminium to a fresh 2018 low.Reaching an intraday low of $1,905.50 per ton...Read More
Good morning from Fastmarkets MB's offices in Asia as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Thursday December 20. Most base metals traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rebounded during Asian morning trading on Thursday as relations between Washington and Beijing appear to improve, thus ushering risk-on sentiment back into the market.Check Fastmarkets MB's live futures report here....Read More
Years ago, the idea that machines would replace humans on the trading floor seemed far-fetched and the suggestion that algorithms might replace humans entirely ridiculous.But both have happened in some shape or form, making the advent of blockchain - now being vaunted as the next game-changer in technology - a lot more realistic than naysayers might initially think.Dozens of trials and projec...Read More
Since its merger with Xstrata, Glencore - previously a trading and marketing firm - has become a mining firm whose earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization is dominated by earnings from its industrial activities. The recent appointment of Peter Freyberg as head of the company's industrial mining assets, a newly created position with oversight and responsibility for all Glenco...Read More
Fastmarkets MB looks back at a year of changes in the ores and alloys markets.Manganese ore market stabilityManganese ore prices were relatively stable in2018, following two years of unprecedented volatility. This was the first yearsince 2016 that did not end in a sharp rally, resulting in a dull year fortraders, but a lucrative time for producers. The market has been underpinned bystrong demand f...Read More
A requirement for a higher energy density for new EV battery projects has been removed from the official regulations on automobile industry investment published by the country's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on its website. The energy density threshold was removed from the final version of the regulations on Tuesday December 18 owing to the fact that current technology is not d...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed at the close of trading on Thursday December 20, with a continued retreat in the US dollar index failing to spur upward price action amid broadly moderate volumes.Closing at a fresh 2018 low of $1,912 per tonne, the three-month aluminium price fell to its lowest level since August 2017 at $1,905.50 per tonne amid announcement of the US Tre...Read More
The Comex copper price failed to maintain momentum after the US Federal Reserve increased interest rates and signalled a hawkish monetary policy strategy for 2019.The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 2.00 cents to $2.69 per lb."Both the Fed's policy statement and Jay Powell's news conference came across as more hawkish than...Read More
The London Metal Exchange has initiated a process of market feedback following the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) intention to remove sanctions against UC Rusal and En+ Group, issuing both a member note and press statement on Wednesday December 19. In accordance with OFAC's decision to notify Congress of its plans to terminate sanctions - inclusive of...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
Despite Chinese winter smelter production cuts generally falling short of expectations and domestic stocks continuing to climb - both of which suggest the market remains far more comfortably supplied at this point than aluminium bulls had been anticipating - prices still rallied into the year-end to reach $2,290/tonne for the first time since March 2012.And after a New Year pull-back the strength...Read More
Copper prices were working lower during most of December and in the absence of any bullish triggers we had been expecting that trend to continue. But in late December, fund buying picked up aggressively, driving prices to a fresh multi-year high of $7,203/tonne. There was little fundamental justification for this and we should consider it a warning that speculators and investors feeling optimistic...Read More
Lead prices remain on their steady uptrend since the summer lows last year and in January have been eroding resistance around October's 6-year high above $2,600/tonne. We expect the underlying strengthening fundamentals, especially on the supply side, to maintain the uptrend this year. Primary producers may well struggle to respond to higher lead prices and we doubt there is much hoarded scrap aro...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