Import prices for stainless steel in East Asia weakened again during the past week, with exporters continuing to lower their offers amid intense competition in the region.Fastmarkets MB's import price assessment for 304 stainless 2mm trimmed cold-rolled coil in East Asia was $1,950-2,070 per tonne cif East Asia for the week ended Wednesday November 14, down $30-80 per tonne from a week earlier.Fas...Read More
China's domestic stainless steel prices moved down over the past week due to decreasing demand. Fastmarkets MB's price assessment for benchmark 304 stainless cold-rolled coil in the major market of Wuxi was 15,100-15,600 yuan ($2,171-2,243) per tonne including VAT for the week ended Wednesday November 14, down 100-300 yuan per tonne from a week earlier.Demand from...Read More
Key data from the Wednesday November 14 pricing session in Asia. Key drivers: The strong performance of the downstream vehicle sector in Japan in the fourth quarter was not enough to stoke greater buying interest from Japanese consumers due to the...Read More
Secondary aluminium producers in the UK are considering production cuts following a nine-week slide in ingot prices, which is cutting into profit margins.The low ingot price combined with scrap prices not falling at a fast enough rate could prompt production cuts in the coming months, UK producers said.LM24 pressure diecasting ingot on a delivered consumer works basis fell to ?1,390-1,440 ($1,776...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were either little changed or stronger on the morning of Friday November 16.Zinc and aluminium prices were up by the most with gains of 0.6% and 0.4%% respectively, while the rest were little changed with copper down by 0.1% at $6,195 per tonne. Volume has been above average with 6,330 lots traded as at 07.10am London time. This morn...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 22 points in pre-opening trade. The Shanghai Composite added 10.94 to 2,679.01 completing a short term bottoming pattern on a move above $2,676.01.NVIDIA plunged $35.37 to $167.02 after reporting lower than consensus third quarter revenues. The company also lowered its guidance. Target on the stock was lowered by JP M...Read More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has told some industry executives that another round of tariffs on Chinese imports has been put on hold as the two nations pursue talks, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing an unnamed person familiar with the situation.U.S. President Donald Trump has already imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese imports into the U...Read More
(Kitco News) - The digital currency market is attracting new attention of the wrong kind as market analysts warn that they see further declines in the near-term as the new downtrend picks up momentum.Bitcoin, the leader in the cryptocurrency sector, has fallen further below the $6,000 level as it trades near its lowest level in 13 months. According to Kitco.com aggregated charts, bitcoin last trad...Read More
(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve should hold off on raising interest rates to allow more workers to get jobs, adding that the central bank can always raise rates to head off inflation if it starts to rise too fast, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said on Thursday.Speaking at the Minnesota Ag and Food Summit, Kashkari said he sees no signs of overheating yet, or of inflation taking off....Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices are modestly higher in early-afternoon U.S. trading Thursday. Some worries about the health of the U.S. stock market, following the recent sell-offs and increased volatility, are supporting the safe-haven metals. The precious metals bulls are impressed their markets are able to post modest gains today in the face of a stronger U.S. dollar index. December gold...Read More
Exchange-traded fund investors have returned to the gold market, says Standard Chartered. Most precious-metals ETFs trade like a stock but track the price of the commodity, with metal put into storage to back the shares. Both central banks and ETF investors tend to be “resilient holders” of gold, Standard says. ETF buying of 23 tonnes in October and 13 so far in November, as a Wednesda...Read More
Editor's Note: Welcome to Kitco's new Bitcoin Daily Technical Alert. Every trading day veteran Kitco technical analyst Jim Wyckoff will provide you with a concise and easy-to-understand near-term technical brief on Bitcoin. Importantly, Jim will glean the short-term charts and technical studies, and then alert you to the signals he sees regarding upcoming potential bigger price moves or price tren...Read More
Primary aluminium stocks at the three main Japanese ports (MJP) of Osaka, Nagoya and Yokohama slipped 1% month on month in October, according to the latest data from major Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp. The data, which was published on Wednesday November 14, also shows that total aluminium stocks at the three ports came to 317,300 tonnes at the end of last month. On a y...Read More
Nickel premiums in China, the United States and Europe remained unchanged over the week amid limited activity, an unstable import window in Shanghai and participants' absence from the market. An open but unstable import window kept premiums in Shanghai flat Subdued activity in the US nickel market maintains premiums European nickel market quiet with long-term in focusShanghai nickel premiums uncha...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were predominantly higher at the close of trading on Wednesday November 14, boosted by a steady rebound in global benchmark crude oil futures and a marginal retreat in the dollar index.Following a decline in the oil price this morning due to increasing concerns over a global slowdown economic growth, it bounced 1.47% over the course of the...Read More
South African miners will continue to need road transportation to get their material to port, according to Thembalani Gantsho, joint chief executive officer of Kudumane Manganese Resources.Road freight will be needed to meet the shortfall in capacity offered by the country's rail freight company, Transnet, Gantsho told delegates to Fastmarkets International Ferroalloys Conference in Lisbon, held N...Read More
Manganese alloy smelters are under pressure to scale back production due to the smaller margins achieved on suppressed alloy prices, Ferroglobe chief executive officer Pedro Larrea said during Fastmarkets' International Ferro-alloys Conference in Lisbon.Ferroglobe has cut some production at its manganese alloy furnaces, because the company has faced difficulties in generating profits due to the st...Read More
Manganese alloy smelters are under pressure to scale back production due to the smaller margins achieved on suppressed alloy prices, Ferroglobe chief executive officer Pedro Larrea said during Fastmarkets' International Ferro-alloys Conference in Lisbon.Ferroglobe has cut some production at its manganese alloy furnaces, because the company has faced difficulties in generating profits due to the st...Read More
The first deals for special high-grade zinc supply in 2019 in Europe point to a decline in annual zinc premiums compared with this year's levels, but Nyrstar's financial troubles are complicating negotiations and raising concerns that supply may turn out to be tighter than anticipated."Not much has been done yet, but [the premium] seems to be lower than last year by at least $10-15 per t...Read More
Manganese ore prices are overheated compared with production costs and manganese alloy prices, making them prone to a decline next year, panelists said at Fastmarkets' 34th International Ferro-alloys conference in Lisbon this week. Manganese ore prices have trended higher since May this year. Fastmarkets MB's 44% manganese ore index was last calculated at $7.13 per dry metric tonne unit dmtu,...Read More