Vietnamese steelmakers are planning to return to importing deep sea cargoes after limited recent buying activity in the country, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday August 10. Vietnamese buyers are looking closely at deep-sea cargoesMajor Chinese steel mills lower domestic scrap purchase prices for the second time in five daysTaiwan secures containerized scrap at lower pricesVietnamBuyers are seek...Read More
Prices for domestic steel rebar in Russia's Central Federal District have continued to decline, losing another 3000-5000 roubles ($41-68) per tonne in the seven days to Monday August 9.Market participants expect the downward trend to prevail until the busy construction season ends in early November.Considering the high prices on offer from traditional suppliers in the Moscow area, stockists have b...Read More
Tianshan Aluminum has signed a cooperation deal with an unnamed Indonesia bauxite company, it said on August 10 - a move to secure more supply and boost its competitiveness.Tianshan will buy no less than 49% of shares of the bauxite company through direct or indirect acquisitions, the company told the Shenzhen Stock Exchange website, where it is listed.Tianshan hopes to expand its cooperation with...Read More
Tin's three-month price reached a new all-time high of $35,300 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange, with continued tightness continuing to grip the market, while the rest of the complex rose by an average of 1.3% on Tuesday August 10. Tin's three-month price has increased by around 9.5% in the last month, having had an intraday high of $32,250 per tonne on July 12. Around 470 lots of tin h...Read More
The Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb trade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets assessed Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb at 24.25-25.00 on...Read More
The waiting time to deliver aluminium out of Istim's London Metal Exchange-registered warehouses in Johor, Malaysia, has risen to 78 days, according to the LME's latest queue report.The 78-day queue at the end of July is up from just eight days at the end of June. Over July, no fresh units were delivered into Istim's Johor warehouses and only 34,275 tonnes were delivered out. Total stock now sits...Read More
The departure of Triland Metals Ltd from the ring of the London Metal Exchange does not trigger its permanent closure, with the floor still set to reopen on September 6, the exchange confirmed.Triland, one of the nine current Category 1 members of the LME, said in a letter to customers earlier on August 10 that it has applied to switch to Category 2 membership and will not return to the ring when...Read More
Mixed signals have emerged over the next direction for the US Midwest ferrous scrap market, but sources seem fairly certain that No1 busheling could face its first downward correction since August 2020 in the next round of trading.September's outlook is murky. Some feel shredded scrap could hold up due to strong demand, while others disagree; and while there is consensus that prime scrap could dro...Read More
The Cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lbtrade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparencyinto the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets assessed Cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam,...Read More
Turkish steel mills booked no new cargoes on Tuesday August 10, keeping prices stable, but older cargoes have been reported, sources told Fastmarkets.Despite a lack of new bookings on Tuesday, cargoes booked the previous week were reported by the market.A United Kingdom booking comprised of 25,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $460 per tonne cfr was traded late in the week to August 6....Read More
China's January-to-July copper import volumes dropped by more than a tenth compared with the first seven months of 2020, the latest Chinese customs data shows. The biggest copper buyer in the world bought 3.219 million tonnes of unwrought copper and copper products in the first seven months this year, down 10.6% compared with the same period in 2020 which was a record year for imports.The average...Read More
The nickel sulfate price remained steady at its highest level in the week to Friday August 6 amid continuous tight supply of raw materials, with LME nickel price volatility keeping market participants on the sidelines, sources said.Fastmarkets assessed the price of nickel sulfate min 21%, max 22.5%; cobalt 10ppm max, exw China at 37,000-38,000 yuan ($5,709-5,863) per tonne on August 6, unchan...Read More
Eight of the nine Category 1 members of the London Metal Exchange have indicated their support for continuing to trade official lunchtime prices in the open-outcry ring.Does this mean that one company does not support ring trading? And could one of the exchange's members be preparing to leave the trading floor?The exchange revealed on Monday August 9 that it had majority support for the ring, in a...Read More
Shipbreaking steel scrap prices in Turkey dropped during the week to Monday August 9, in line with prices for imported scrap, market participants told Fastmarkets.Turkish steel mills booked at least five deep-sea cargoes, with prices dropping through the week.Fastmarkets' assessment for steel scrap, heavy melting scrap 1&2 (80:20 mix) United States origin, cfr Turkey was calculated at $463.90...Read More
Australia-listed junior miner Core Lithium has signed a four-year binding offtake agreement with Chinese major Ganfeng Lithium, the companies announced Monday August 9.Over four years, Core Lithium will deliver 300,000 dry metric tonnes of spodumene concentrate from its Finniss project, at a rate of 75,000 tonnes per year, according to the agreement.Finniss is a lithium mine in development, locate...Read More
Stronger-than-expected United States employment figures on Friday August 6 turned the dollar higher, which weighed on prices, with most base metals weaker this morning, Monday August 9, but gold and silver underwent a 'flash crash' at the start of trading in Asia.Signs of a stronger US recovery weighed heavily on gold and silver on Friday, which led to a chaotic start to trading this morning. US 1...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday August 9 that are worth another look.On August 9, there was a blast at Novolipetsk Steel's (NLMK) oxygen plant in Lipetsk, Russia, but it will only have a minor impact on production, the company told Fastmarkets.The trade...Read More
The prices for low and high grades of seaborne manganese ore diverged further in the week ended Friday August 6, with extensive power restrictions across China continuing to disrupt operations at alloy smelters.Fastmarkets calculated its weekly index for manganese ore, 44% Mn, cif Tianjin, at $5.37 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on Friday, up from $5.14 per dmtu previously."High-grade ore miners...Read More
Trading activity in the European hot-rolled coil market has been low in the week to Friday August 6 due to the start of the summer slowdown.Sufficient buyer stocks and slow August activity have weakened trading but activity should recover between the end of August and the first half of September, sources said.Most domestic producers only had HRC available from fourth-quarter rolling material, whil...Read More
The London Metal Exchange will adapt its rule book to include new closure provisions for its open-outcry ring, Fastmarkets heard on Monday August 9. And the anonymous nature of responses to the recent pricing consultation means that the Ring's long-term prospects were still in doubt.The exchange operates Europe's last open-outcry market trading venue, known as the Ring, where brokers make markets...Read More