Good morning from Metal Bulletin's offices in Asia as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Thursday May 17.Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were up across the board during Asian morning trading on Thursday after the dollar weakened, with copper seeing additional support from short-covering.Check Metal Bulletin's live futures report here.LME snapshot at 04:23.am Lo...Read More
New smelters and expansions at a suite of Chinese copper smelting companies will create fresh demand for concentrates from the third quarter of this year.Major smelters starting up in the coming months include Chalco's Ningde smelter and Lingbao Jincheng Metallurgical, while Tongling's Ausmelt project is due later this year.Having been beset by a series of delays, Chinese copper smelting expansion...Read More
The sharp rally in cobalt prices over the past two years has accelerated the adoption of cobalt scrap in the production of cobalt metal and salts, including cobalt sulfate, Chinese market participants told Metal Bulletin. The boom in cobalt scrap demand has come at a time when cobalt prices have almost doubled in a year due to a bullish outlook on electric vehicles (EVs) consumption. Cobalt is one...Read More
Base metals on the London Metal Exchange ended mostly higher at the close of trading on Thursday May 17, with aluminium's three-month price down 1% after a huge re-warranting of 138,650 tonnes at Port Klang this morning. The light metal's cash/three-month spread remains in a backwardation, moving from $23b per tonne earlier in the day to a current reading of $10b per tonne. The re-warranting...Read More
A large rewarranting of aluminium in Malaysia on Thursday May 17 stirred up slightly bullish sentiment in Europe's physical aluminium market. More than 138,000 tonnes were rewarranted in Port Klang in Malaysia on Thursday morning, pushing on-warrant stock in the Malaysian port up a meteoric 141% to 266,625 tonnes. Global on-warrant stocks jumped 18% overnight to 996,875 per tonne. The latest rewar...Read More
The CME Group's growing share of global trade in recent years has been driven by its increasingly global reach since its commercial push in base metals began in 2012, its global head of metals Young-Jin Chang told Metal Bulletin this week.In the first quarter, CME Group posted record trading volumes with average daily metals trading volumes up by 39% year on year and daily option volumes...Read More
Turkish domestic and export prices for steel billet have gone down over the past week in line with weakening rebar and scrap prices, while billet import prices have gone up because of positive sentiment in the CIS market, sources said on Thursday May 17.Domestic billet prices in Turkey have weakened with mills reducing their offers for the material under pressure from the falling rebar and scrap c...Read More
Turkish domestic long steel prices have gone down on a US dollar basis over the past week due to the weakening of the domestic lira, sources said on Thursday May 17.Metal Bulletin's weekly domestic price assessment for rebar in Turkey was $555-570 per tonne ex-works, down from the $565-570 per tonne of last week.The local rebar price in the Izmir region was $560-570 per tonne ex-works, while the I...Read More
Comex copper prices inched higher in the US morning on Thursday May 17 despite the dollar index rising and general uncertain conditions in the geopolitical space. Copper for July settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange ticked up 0.70 cents or 0.2% to $3.0775 per lb. "In geopolitical news, the US and China launch trade talks today in Washington, with the Chinese vice pr...Read More
The latest metal markets news and price moves to start the North American day on Thursday May 17.Base metals on the London Metal Exchange were split into two camps during morning trading after a large rewarranting of more than 138,000 tonnes of aluminium in Port Klang.Some 138,650 tonnes of aluminium were rewarranted this morning in the LME-listed warehouses in the Malaysian port while 17,725 tonn...Read More
Base metals on the London Metal Exchange were split into two camps during morning trading on Thursday May 17 after a large rewarranting of more than 138,000 tonnes of aluminium in Port Klang.Some 138,650 tonnes of aluminium were rewarranted this morning in the LME-listed warehouses in the Malaysian port while 17,725 tonnes were also delivered in. The move comes after a 109-day queue formed at the...Read More
New smelters and expansions at a suite of Chinese copper smelting companies will create fresh demand for concentrates from the third quarter of this year.Major smelters starting up in the coming months include Chalco's Ningde smelter and Lingbao Jincheng Metallurgical, while Tongling's Ausmelt project is due later this year.Having been beset by a series of delays, Chinese copper smelting expansion...Read More
Turkish rebar and wire rod export prices have weakened in the past week on sluggish demand in the country's export markets, sources said on Thursday May 17.Turkish steel producers had reduced their offers to $555-560 per tonne fob on an actual weight basis, while buyers' bids have fallen to $545 per tonne fob and below, according to sources.Only a...Read More
The price of imported steel billet in Egypt has gone up this week although local rebar prices are unchanged, sources told Metal Bulletin on Thursday May 17.The country's rebar biggest producer, Ezz Steel, is still offering material at E ?12,528 ($700) per tonne ex-works, including 14% VAT, while Beshay Steel, also a major domestic producer, is offering...Read More
The number of new passenger car sales in the EU jumped by 9.63% year-on-year in April 2018, following the decrease in March.New car sales in Europe totaled 1,306,273 units in April this year, compared with 1,191,494 vehicles sold in the corresponding month...Read More
Production of most pig iron and all steel products at ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR) facility in Ukraine has been halted due to worker protests that began on Wednesday May 16. The protests were started by railroad department workers and spread to all other departments on May 16. Protesters have demanded an increase to monthly salaries to ?,?1,000 ($1,181) and to assurances that all rolling stock...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices remained flat on Thursday May 17 amid thin trading.Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,980-4,030 yuan ($624-632) per tonne, unchanged Northern China (Beijing): 3,940-3,970 yuan per tonne, unchanged Rebar futures fluctuated between a narrow range of 3,658 yuan per tonne and 3,688 yuan per tonne during the day, which kept sentiment in the spot market neutral. Both sell...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
Key data from the Wednesday May 16 pricing session in Europe.Key drivers - The ferro-titanium spot market moved down within its trading range, with about 280 tonnes of alloy reported to have been traded. - Most of the tonnage was reported sold at above $5 per kg, delivered duty paid, with less than 50 tonnes sold at $4.25-4.65 per kg. There is a disparity between what most producers have reported....Read More
The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for ferrous scrap products.Latest transaction: HMS, bonusTurkey, import, 25,000...Read More