The European Commission (EC) will terminate the anti-subsidy investigation into hot-rolled coil (HRC) from Turkey without imposing duties, according to a letter sent from the EC to the interested parties on April 7 and seen by Fastmarkets.This decision, however, will come into force only after the Official Journal of the European Union is published, Fastmarkets understands.In February 2021, t...Read More
Market participants in Egypt continued to wait for the easing of construction regulations, leaving rebar prices unchanged since 2020, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday, April 8.Demand for rebar in the country has remained weak since the imposition of a construction ban in May 2020 and has stayed that way despite a slight relaxation of the rules in September 2020.The Egyptian government is expec...Read More
ArcelorMittal Europe has again increased its official offer prices for all steel coil products across Europe, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 8.New offers for hot-rolled coil were heard at ?,?920 ($1,093) per tonne ex-works, up by ?,?20 ($23.75) per tonne from ?,?900 per tonne ex-works. This increase followed three price hikes in March.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled c...Read More
Light vehicle production in Mexico rose 12.52% year on year in March, despite a large drop in exports, according to data published by the local automotive association, Amia, on Thursday April 8.Mexican automakers produced 303,545 units in March, up from 269,774 units a year before, Amia said. Production numbers were already showing signs of weakening toward the end of March 2020, when the Covid-19...Read More
Bangladeshi steelmakers have continued to book United States-origin deep-sea scrap cargoes over the last week, with prices moving up slightly, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 8.A Bangladeshi mill bought two cargoes of 30,000 tonnes from the US West Coast at an average price of $465 per tonne cfr for a composite cargo of heavy melting scrap 1&2 (80:20) and shredded scrap last week, Fastm...Read More
Turkish steel mills continued with their deep-sea scrap purchases for May shipments at steady prices on Thursday April 8, sources told Fastmarkets.A steel mill in the Iskenderun region booked a US cargo, comprising 32,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $433 per tonne, 3,000 tonnes of shredded at $438 per tonne and 3,000 tonnes of bonus scrap at $443 per tonne cfr.A steel mill in the Izmir region boo...Read More
The month-long inspections on steel mills outside Tangshan that started on April 6 have eroded already weak iron ore demand in China, keeping iron ore price movements largely rangebound on Thursday April 8. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $173.10 per tonne, down $0.53 per tonne 62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $173.71 per tonne, down $0.45 per tonne 58% Fe fines high-...Read More
The premium hard coking coal price kept largely steady in the cfr market on April 8 due to the large gap between offers and bids due to supply tightness and weak demand while the fob premium hard coking coal price slightly slipped amid low trading, market sources said.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $114.96 per tonne, down $0.15 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtan...Read More
The import price for heavy scrap (HS) into China stabilized on Thursday April 8 due to softer downstream steel markets, although importers were still actively seeking cargoes, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' daily price assessment for steel scrap, heavy recycled steel materials, cfr China was unchanged at $475-480 per tonne on Thursday. Major steel product prices dropped in China's domestic...Read More
Ukraine's Ferrexpo produced 2.71 million tonnes of high-grade iron ore pellet in the first quarter of 2021, the company said this week.Of the total, 2.7 million tonnes were 65% Fe Ferrexpo Premium pellets and 35,000 tonnes 67% Fe Direct Reduction (DR) pellets.The January-March production figure was just 0.4% shy of 2020's first-quarter total of 2.73 million tonnes, but was down by 12% from the 3.0...Read More
China's hot-rolled coil prices fell on Thursday April 8 amid moderate trading activity, but exporters were able to secure orders at higher prices on restocking demand overseas.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,480-5,520 yuan ($838-844) per tonne, down 50-70 yuan per tonneA Shanghai-based trader said sellers in the spot market sold HRC at 5,480-5,500 yuan per tonne in the morning, but they were a...Read More
China's domestic rebar prices decreased further on Thursday April 8 amid an increase in output and weaker demand. DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 5,000-5,040 yuan ($764-770) per tonne, down by 30 yuan per tonneA local industry information provider reported that rebar output in the week to Thursday was 3.57 million tonnes, up by 38,000 tonnes from the preceding week. An industry analyst said...Read More
Cobalt metal prices edged down on Thursday April 8, while profit taking, weak consumer demand and wait-and-see attitudes led to a weaker tone in the assessment of the daily benchmark.The downturn ended a period of flatness that saw the bottom end of the range holding at $22.50/lb since March 26 (although this included two public holidays in the UK on April 2 and April 5 when prices were rolled ove...Read More
Silicon consumers in the United States have resorted to buying non-standard sizes without the usual discount amid a shortage of spot silicon metal, sources told Fastmarkets this week.There have also been reports that even the usually unpopular size, "half by down," could not be found.Never mentioned in previous years, this smaller-size silicon is still standard in terms of purity (5-5-3 grade) and...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...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.Read More
The announcement of a 1.529 billion yuan ($233.6 million) limited partnership agreement between major Chinese manganese miners and traders has left many in the market weighing up the significance of such a move.South Manganese Investment, formerly Citic Dameng Holdings, entered into a limited partnership agreement with 10 participants involved in manganese mining and trading, according to a notice...Read More
Michael Insulan has joined First Cobalt as vice president, commercial, tasked with advancing the company's offtake strategy and the marketing of its refinery's cobalt sulfate production to electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers and battery cell makers. Based in Europe, Insulan was most recently at a senior market analyst at cobalt producer Eurasian Resources Group. He has previously held roles at CRU...Read More
Tata Steel's recycling business in India is to offer domestically produced shredded material to the Indian market, adding to its existing offering, the company told Fastmarkets on Wednesday April 7.Yogesh Bedi, chief of Tata Steel Recycling Business, told Fastmarkets the company was in the final stages of commissioning a shredder, which would let the company offer domestically produced shredded sc...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were mixed this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 2 points in pre-opening trade.The Canadian Dollar added 0.17 to US79.64 cents following release of Canada's March Employment Report at 8:30 AM EDT. Consensus was an increase of 100,000 versus a gain of 259,200 in February. Actual was an increase of 303,100. Consensus for the March Unemployment Rate was an increase to 8....Read More