Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange closed higher on Friday November 30, with zinc, lead and nickel the best performers of the day.Zinc was the strongest performer on Friday, with its three-month price rising 2.9% from Thursday to close at $2,542 per tonne. After consistently dipping since January, LME zinc stocks settled at a fresh 2018-low of 117,550 tonnes on Friday.W...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their price moves from the past week.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
South African manganese miner Assmang has declared force majeure on manganese ore shipments from the port of Saldanha, Fastmarkets heard on Friday November 30.Assmang has now joined fellow miner United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK) in making the declaration after South African state transport...Read More
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
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were firm on the morning of Friday November 30 despite the release of weaker-than-expected economic data from China earlier in the day. The three-month tin price led the gains with a 0.6% increase to $18,620 per tonne and was closely followed by zinc and nickel, which were both up by 0.4%. Copper and lead managed to eke out mild gain...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 6 points in pre-opening trade. Investors are waiting for news related to trade negotiations between China and the U.S. The Canadian Dollar dipped 0.25 to U.S.75.04 cents after September GDP was released. Consensus was annualized growth at a 2.3% rate. Actual was 2.1%. Hewlett Packard (HPQ $22.86) is expected to open h...Read More
Base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange made gains on Thursday November 29, following a rise in crude oil futures, but market sentiment remained uncertain with commodities facing macro-economic headwinds.Brent crude oil prices were firmer in afternoon trading, up by $1.80 to $60.16 per barrel. The recent low was $58.38 per bbl.For base metals, nickel was the highlight, with the three-month...Read More
Aurubis has resumed production at its Hamburg and Pirdrop primary copper smelting plants after both were suspended for unscheduled boiler maintenance earlier this week, the company said on Thursday November 29. "Our plants in Hamburg and Pirdrop are back in operation already, we expect L? 1/4 nen to be back by the end of next week," a spokesperson said in an...Read More
Comex copper prices were under pressure on Thursday morning in the US, in the aftermath of US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's dovish comments made on Wednesday.The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange reversed down 1.55 cents to $2.7980 per lb. Powell said interest rates were, "just below neutral levels" while speaking at the New...Read More
The European molybdenum-oxide market has climbed 20 cents in trading by mid-week, with deals and offer prices reported above $12 per lb and returning to a level unseen since the start of November.Some oxide trading, however, has been in South Korea where major steelmaker Posco settled a tender for around 100 tonnes of oxide last week at about $12-12.10 per lb. The company is due to settle another...Read More
Ferroglobe is set to idle almost one-fifth of its silicon metal production capacity in Europe and the United States, cutting it to an annualized rate of 341,000 tonnes from 417,000 tonnes, because of the weaker prices seen this year.The UK-based metals company is planning to idle 36,000 tonnes per year of production capacity in the US. This will be done its plant at Selma, in the state of Alabama,...Read More
Key data from the Wednesday November 28 pricing session in Asia.Key drivers: Buyers lowered their purchasing prices after the price of scrap - the raw material of ADC12 - went down in the United States. Japanese buyers also held off from purchasing capacity this week due...Read More
Metal Bulletin has corrected its UK domestic grade-316 stainless steel scrap solids price, which was published incorrectly on November 23 due to a reporter error. The price was originally published at ?1,230-1,250 ($1,572-1,579) per tonne, delivered to merchant. The price has now been corrected to ?1,220-1,300 per tonne, stable from the week before. Fastmarkets MB's price book and database have...Read More
Turkish steel mills extended their absence from the deep-sea scrap market on persistently poor demand for finished steel and with no recovery in sight, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday November 29.After booking three deep-sea cargoes from the United States and the United Kingdom at the end of the last week, steel mills in Turkey paused their buying activity because of the sluggish demand...Read More
The European molybdenum-oxide market has climbed 20 cents in trading by mid-week, with deals and offer prices reported above $12 per lb and returning to a level unseen since the start of November.Some oxide trading, however, has been in South Korea where major steelmaker Posco settled a tender for around 100 tonnes of oxide last week at about $12-12.10 per lb. The company is due to settle another...Read More