Turkish domestic rebar and wire rod prices have gone down over the past week due to sluggish demand, sources said on Thursday July 5.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for domestic rebar in Turkey was $550-560 per tonne ex-works on Thursday, narrowing downward from last week's $550-565 per tonne."Time has passed since the [presidential and parliamentary] elections [in Turkey on...Read More
Turkish rebar export prices have gone down slightly over the past week, amid sluggish buying. But market participants were generally optimistic and expected demand to improve, sources said on Thursday July 5.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for rebar exports out of Turkey was $545-555 per tonne fob on an actual weight basis, narrowing downward from the $545-560 per tonne of last week.Turki...Read More
Imported steel billet prices decreased this week in Egypt with lower offers heard in the market, but domestic rebar prices remained unchanged, sources told Metal Bulletin on Thursday July 5.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for domestic rebar in Egypt on Thursday July 5 was unchanged at E ?12,525-12,528 ($699) per tonne ex-works. The country's major rebar producer, Ezz Steel, continued offe...Read More
The import market for hot-briquetted iron (HBI) in Italy was flat during the week ended Thursday July 5 on low demand, according to sources in the market.Metal Bulletin's import price assessment for HBI in Italy was $320-330 per tonne cfr on Thursday, unchanged week on week."The market [for HBI] is totally flat here, because everyone involved in the metallic trade is waiting for the results of the...Read More
Export pig iron prices from the Black Sea have gone up this week with Italian buyers accepting higher prices after a long silence in the market. But export prices from the Baltic Sea region were unchanged because buyers considered current offers to be too high.Metal Bulletin's export price assessment for high-manganese pig iron from the CIS region rose to $390-395 on Thursday July 5, from $385-390...Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market remained silent on Thursday July 5, due to continuing weak demand in the country's finished steel markets, according to sources.After finishing bookings for July deliveries, Turkish steel producers have gone quiet as demand for finished steel in both the local and export markets has failed to bounce back after the country's presidential and general election...Read More
Turkish billet import prices have gone down this week on sluggish demand, while domestic and export prices have remained largely stable, sources said on Thursday July 5.Metal Bulletin's weekly price assessment for billet imports into Turkey was $520-530 per tonne cfr, down from last week's $530-540 per tonne.The downward movement in the assessment came after CIS suppliers lowered their offers to $...Read More
Metal Bulletin is proposing to amend the minimum tonnage used in the calculation of its CIS Billet Index.The index is a tonnage-weighted calculation intrinsically linked to market transactions. Following internal analysis, Metal Bulletin is proposing to lower the minimum tonnage included in the index in order to ensure that concluded transactions have the largest effect on the final index calculat...Read More
Baowu Steel, China's largest steelmaker, is adding 4.03 million tonnes to its hot metal capacity and 3.61 million tonnes to crude steel capacity at its Zhanjiang city production site in Guangdong province, south China.The increases come at the expense of production cuts at operations in Shanghai and in Jiangsu province.Baowu cut 1.18 million tons of capacity at its Nanjing-based subsidiary Shangha...Read More
Metal Bulletin proposes to amend the delivery timing noted in the specification for its weekly domestic base price assessments for three European domestic stainless steel markets.Metal Bulletin proposes a minimum delivery time of four weeks to reflect the growing divergence in lead times for both flat and long stainless steel products in Europe. Lead times for stainless long products have been rep...Read More
Metal Bulletin proposes to launch a weekly domestic transaction price assessment for 2mm grade 304 cold rolled stainless sheet delivered in Northern Europe. Metal Bulletin understands from preliminary market engagement that the assessment of an overall transaction price would be a complementary addition to Metal Bulletin's existing pricing coverage of the European stainless market. Subject to mark...Read More
Molybdic oxide prices in Europe have dropped slightly amid slow trading activity this week, while the ferro-molybdenum price range widened.Market participants with either long or short positions are jostling to set a price platform in readiness for expected renewed demand in the latter half of the current quarter.The likelihood is that prices are set to hold around the current range until August,...Read More
Baowu Steel, China's largest steelmaker, is adding 4.03 million tonnes to its hot metal capacity and 3.61 million tonnes to crude steel capacity at its Zhanjiang city production site in Guangdong province, south China.The increases come at the expense of production cuts at operations in Shanghai and in Jiangsu province.Baowu cut 1.18 million tons of capacity at its Nanjing-based subsidiary Shangha...Read More
The world's largest coking coal producer, BHP, is "cautiously optimistic" about India's economic potential, with the country on the brink of becoming the top importer of the steelmaking raw material. India's coal imports are expected to hit 69 million tonnes by 2020, when it will overtake China as the top importer of coking coal, according to the Australian government's latest Energy and Resources...Read More
China's Hebei province plans to cut its annual crude steelmaking capacity by 40 million tonnes in three years' time, provincial party secretary Wang Dongfeng said at a meeting discussing capacity cuts on Wednesday July 4, according to the country's national news agency Xinhua. Three cities in what is China's largest steel-producing province - Baoding, Zhangjiakou and Langfang - will be cleared of...Read More
The import market for hot-briquetted iron (HBI) in Italy was flat during the week ended Thursday July 5 on low demand, according to sources in the market.Metal Bulletin's import price assessment for HBI in Italy was $320-330 per tonne cfr on Thursday, unchanged week on week."The market [for HBI] is totally flat here, because everyone involved in the metallic trade is waiting for the results of the...Read More
In his final column for Metal Bulletin, Lord Copper looks over the events that have shaped the metals industry during his tenure and considers and what might be in store over the coming years.ValeteWell, it's been a good run since December 2009 but now has come the parting of the ways. This is the last time Lord Copper will grace the pages - or, rather, the pixels - of Metal Bulletin. Looking back...Read More
Export pig iron prices from the Black Sea have gone up this week with Italian buyers accepting higher prices after a long silence in the market. But export prices from the Baltic Sea region were unchanged because buyers considered current offers to be too high.Metal Bulletin's export price assessment for high-manganese pig iron from the CIS region rose to $390-395 on Thursday July 5, from $385-390...Read More
Base metals on the London Metal Exchange were mixed at the close of trading on Thursday July 5, pressured by macroeconomic uncertainty amid continued sell-offs in copper, zinc and tin prices.While zinc prices continue to be hampered by a flurry of short-covering, the metal's three-month price avoided another drop below the nearby support level of $2,700 per tonne at the afternoon close. In ad...Read More
The latest metal markets news and price moves for the start of the North American day on Thursday July 5.Base metals on the London Metal Exchange ticked higher across the board during morning trading with lead prices climbing by 1.7% after a fresh 15,000 tonne cancelation in Antwerp. Here's how base metals prices look at 12:12pm London time:Read our live futures report here."With the LME nearby sp...Read More