The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:?EUR? There is no end in sight to the shortfall in flat steel supply that has characterized US markets in early 2021, and we expect record-high US pricing for hot-rolled coil to persist through the second quarter of 2021 and into the second half of the year. We are fo...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.In both Europe and the United States, the prices of most flat steel products have pushed to record highs in the weeks to Monday March 22. They remain slightly below their mid-2008 peaks in China, but are at multi-year highs there too.This illustrates in part the heavier consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for steelmakers in...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR? Impressive advances in ore and alloy prices persisted in March, with most markets posting significant price gains. Strengthening demand from steelmakers along with supply shortages and depleted inventories in numerous markets, as well as freight and transportation...Read More
Inner Mongolia, China's ferro-chrome production heartland, has imposed restrictions on its metallurgical sector in a move that has fueled the high-carbon ferro-chrome markets in China and Europe, and although this may ease off, the gains were unlikely to be lost while alloy ramp-ups continue, sources have told Fastmarkets.The decision to restrict energy consumption in Inner Mongolia since December...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR?In a strong start to the year, January saw ore and alloy pricing gains across all markets priced by Fastmarkets - with the exception of Chinese silicon metal export prices, which retreated slightly last month after posting impressive gains in December 2020.The combination...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices and margins for stainless steel producers have risen notably over the past few months in both Europe and the United States, but there are now signs that the rally is petering out.A clear reason for the halt to rising prices comes from the near 20% drop in nickel prices seen in late February/early March,...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.With nickel prices down by almost 20% over the space of around ten days during late February and early March, one might have been expecting us to be reporting sharply-lower prices of stainless steel, at least for the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel.This is not the case, at least in Europe and the Unite...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.We spoke in our previous tracker of stainless steel prices ending 2020 on a high. That trend has continued during early 2021 and, in fact, the upward rally in prices has increased its momentum.Compared with the monthly price increase of some 5% seen at the end of 2020, prices for grade-304 stainless steel in al...Read More
The price of stainless steel flat products in Europe surged this week with some sources attributing this to China's cancellation of an export tax rebate, Fastmarkets heard on Friday May 7.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for stainless steel cold-rolled sheet, 2mm grade 304, transaction domestic, delivered North Europe, was ?,?3,000-3,050 ($3,611-3,672) per tonne, up by ?,?200 per tonne week on...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday May 6 that are worth another look.Recent changes in Chinese tax policy have resulted in significant rises in the prices for steel billet and finished long steel products from the CIS and...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday May 5 that are worth another look.German steel companies Thyssenkrupp Steel and H? 1/4 ttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM) and the Port of Rotterdam Authority are to jointly investigate setting up international supply chains for hydrogen.AfriTin Mining will increase production at its fledgling...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices rose further on Friday May 7 with continuing support from bullish steel prices, refreshing the iron ore indices' record highs again.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $212.25 per tonne, up by $10.37 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $214.20 per tonne, up by $11.33 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $185.29 per tonne, up...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Market conditions are clearly extraordinary when we find ourselves adjusting the axis on our pricing charts to display the new record-high prices each month.After reporting record price highs in Europe and the United States with regards to coated steel products, we find ourselves repeating the same line this month. In Europe,...Read More
The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The upward momentum in United States' flat product prices is yet to show any signs of slowing, with US HRC prices hitting new record highs during April. Steel supply is forecast to remain short of demand due to no improvement in underlying supply and demand fundamentals, which is propelling US flat product prices higher...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange were for the most part stronger this morning, Friday May 7, as were broader markets.Friday's United States employment report is in focus because it could prompt Federal Reserve to change tackDow Jones Industrial Average sets new highs after US initial jobless claims fell below 500,000 on Thursday for the first time s...Read More
Proposed changes to the London Metal Exchange's market structure may actually have the opposite effect to its desired intention: destroying liquidity, not increasing it.Attention has been focused on the proposed permanent closure of the LME ring, the incentivization of electronic trade and changes to margin methodology, which were central issues in the exchange's recently closed discussion paper.B...Read More
The Shanghai Futures Exchange's plans to list ferro-chrome futures, potentially this year, will bring welcomed hedging opportunities and may weaken the dominance of China's stainless steel mills in the ore and alloy markets, participants told Fastmarkets.While no definite date or specifications of the ferro-chrome futures have been announced, Fastmarkets asked participants what changes these contr...Read More
Aluminium producer Rusal has appointed Bob Katsiouleris as director of market development and risk, it said on May 6.Katsiouleris previously held roles at Vale and Nyrstar and most recently was working at trading house Tiberius after being appointed to its executive management board in November 2020.He initially joined Rusal in 2015 as European sales director, before becoming export sales director...Read More
China's new and stricter steel capacity swap ratios will cool the overheated steelmaking raw materials market and pave the way for more electric-arc furnaces to be used in its mammoth steel industry, market sources told Fastmarkets this week.The country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) updated regulations for steelmaking capacity swaps on Thursday May 6 to firmly reduce ste...Read More
Rising steel billet import prices in China and last week's elimination of the country's import tax on billet are set to provide a large boost for exporters of the semi-finished product, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday May 5.Until May 1, Chinese importers had to pay a 2% import duty on billet produced outside the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). This meant that steelmakers from...Read More