South African manganese ore miner United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK) has declared force majeure on manganese ore shipments from the port of Saldanha, Fastmarkets MB understands.UMK, which produces just above 3 million tonnes per year of manganese ore, ships about half its monthly exports from Saldanha. South Africa's state transport...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Read More
Key data for the pricing session for the week ended Friday November 30. China The domestic ferro-chrome spot price stabilized on thin trading activity and sellers' unwillingness to cut their price further because current levels have been close to their production costs.The imported charge chrome market was lackluster this week while the market digested the consequences of a...Read More
South African transport operator Transnet is issuing force majeure notices to iron ore and manganese ore customers after a railway bridge was damaged near the port of Saldanha. All rail operation was suspended following the accident in the morning on Wednesday November 28 and will restart in two weeks, Transnet said. "The accident has damaged the railway line network and compromised the integrity...Read More
An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More
Global ferrous scrap prices continued to trend downward during the working week from Monday November 26 to Friday November 30, due to poor demand and lackluster sales of finished steel.Turkish scrap import prices and US export scrap prices fell due to weak market sentiment in Asia, while persistently poor demand continued to weigh on Asian scrap import prices. Indian import prices also slipped on...Read More
Sentiment in the European austenitic alloy scrap market has been negative and mills have continued to drag prices downward, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday November 30."Demand [for alloy steel scrap] is slow and sentiment in both the raw material and stainless steel markets is negative. The mills are trying to get...Read More
Turkish steel mills ended the week with no deep-sea scrap bookings amid poor demand for finished products in the domestic and export markets as well as concerns over Asian steel markets, sources said on Friday November 30.After booking three deep-sea cargoes from the United States and the United Kingdom at the end of last week, steel mills in Turkey stepped out of the deep-sea scrap markets.Those...Read More
Comex copper prices experienced further weakness ahead of world leaders converging in Argentina for the Group of Twenty (G20) meeting this weekend.The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 1.80 cents to $2.7735 per lb.Price movement is expected to be muted today with investors focusing on the weekend's G20 summit, where finance ministers.....Read More
Fastmarkets MB will change the names of its benchmark in-warehouse Rotterdam price assessments from January 2019. From January 2019, the name 'standard-grade' will replace the name 'low-grade'. The name 'alloy-grade' will replace the name 'high-grade'. The last date prices will be published under the names 'low-grade' and 'high grade' will be Friday December 28. Prices will be published under thei...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Read More
Domestic prices for coated-steel coil products in Turkey have increased slightly in the week ended Friday November 30 after producers ceased offering discounts, with local Turkish demand remaining limited.The local Turkish market has been slow for a long time. The initial reason was the weakening of the Turkish lira, which fell to a low of 10TRY to $1.44 on August 13, before staging a steady recov...Read More
Domestic and import prices for steel coil products in Turkey have shown different trends this week with demand being affected by a variety of factors, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday November 30."I believe prices have reached bottom. We may see slight rises or falls in the next few months, but no sharp falls are expected," a source said.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for Turkish domestic...Read More
China hot-rolled coil exporters continued to drop their offer prices, forced by overseas buyers who have been refraining from buying on bearish sentiment.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,590-3,610 yuan ($517-520) per tonne, up 10 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,470-3,480 yuan per tonne, down 20 yuan per tonneAlthough prices in eastern China picked up a bit on Friday as some downs...Read More
Demand for steel in the Middle East is expected to increase marginally over the next five years, mainly because of big construction projects, professionals from across the sector told Fastmarkets in a survey before the 22nd Middle East Iron & Steel Conference to be held in Dubai this December.Infrastructure construction is going on in the United Arab Emirates related to the Dubai Expo 2020 exhibit...Read More
China's rebar prices dropped in both the domestic and the export markets on Friday November 30, amid low trading activity. Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,800-3,830 yuan ($547-551) per tonne, down 20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Beijing): 3,520-3,550 yuan per tonne, down 10 yuan per tonneLow rebar futures prices led to little buying interest in the domestic market, pushing down prices. Stock...Read More
The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for rebar, wire rod, steel beams and other long steel products. Latest transaction: rebarRebar East China, domestic, grade...Read More
Global ferrous scrap prices continued to trend downward during the working week from Monday November 26 to Friday November 30, due to poor demand and lackluster sales of finished steel.Turkish scrap import prices and US export scrap prices fell due to weak market sentiment in Asia, while persistently poor demand continued to weigh on Asian scrap import prices. Indian import prices also slipped on...Read More
Sentiment in the European austenitic alloy scrap market has been negative and mills have continued to drag prices downward, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday November 30."Demand [for alloy steel scrap] is slow and sentiment in both the raw material and stainless steel markets is negative. The mills are trying to get...Read More
Turkish steel mills ended the week with no deep-sea scrap bookings amid poor demand for finished products in the domestic and export markets as well as concerns over Asian steel markets, sources said on Friday November 30.After booking three deep-sea cargoes from the United States and the United Kingdom at the end of last week, steel mills in Turkey stepped out of the deep-sea scrap markets.Those...Read More