Market participants in the aluminium industry are calling for more transparency in low-carbon aluminium pricing, following recent global initiatives to lower carbon emissions that have created greater demand for such products. One point of discussion has been whether low-carbon aluminium can fetch an additional premium for its 'green' status or whether there is zero difference at this moment in ti...Read More
Base metals prices on both the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were mainly weaker this morning, Wednesday February 3, with zinc prices bucking the trend.Silver’s rally turn into a spike on Tuesday and stronger pre-market major western equity index futures this morning suggest equity markets are turning more risk-on again.* While three-month tin prices on the LME were off t...Read More
Check Point (CHKP), a NASDAQ 100 stock moved below $125.32 completing a double top pattern. Pre-opening Comments for Wednesday February 3rdU.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 13 points in pre-opening trade. Index futures moved slightly higher following release of the January ADP Non-farm Employment report at 8:15 AM EST. Consensus was an increase of...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday February 1 that are worth another look.Chinese nickel sulfate prices have made steady gains since the start of 2021, rising again last week to set the highest level since Fastmarkets began tracking the market in July 2018.More than 67,000 lots of the Singapore Exchange's 65% Fe iron ore swaps...Read More
The price of tin on the London Metal Exchange closed above $23,000 per tonne on Monday February 1, while aluminium's forward price was under the most pressure from the rising US Dollar Index, dropping by more than 1% from last week's closing prices.Tin's three-month price rose by 1.4% to $23,103 per tonne from Friday's 5pm closing price of $22,779 per tonne, ending the day above the $23,000 per to...Read More
Fastmarkets proposes to amend the frequency of the publication of its copper cathode premium cif Rotterdam. Rotterdam continues to be a major location for copper cathode imports into Europe, but premiums for that business rarely change between a typical range, historically between $35 per tonne and $55 per tonne over London Metal Exchange prices. As such, Fastmarkets is proposing to amend the freq...Read More
The latest data for the global manganese ore market for the week ended February 1, 2021.Read More
South African manganese miner UMK has declared force majeure on some shipments after heavy rain caused similar declarations by logistics suppliers, the company confirmed on Monday February 1.South African state transport provider Transnet declared force majeure on Friday, Fastmarkets understands."Please note that in response to force majeure...Read More
Metals analyst Vivienne Lloyd has joined Trafigura where she will focus on the zinc and lead markets, Fastmarkets understands.Lloyd joins after several years at Australian bank Macquarie in London where she covered base and...Read More
Standard-grade cobalt was trading at a premium over alloy grade for the first time since February 2019 on Friday January 29 amid demand for briquettes and rallying payables for cobalt hydroxide. Some market participants had identified the potential for the standard grade price to gain ground ahead of alloy-grade in recent weeks due to demand for metal from China's cobalt salts sector, but the two...Read More
As competition in the global steel markets remains fierce, Fastmarkets provides an update on the new, progressing and closed trade cases from around the world in January 2021.The case list below includes only updates. For other continuing cases from 2020, see the updates for December,...Read More
The price of tin on the London Metal Exchange closed above $23,000 per tonne on Monday February 1, while aluminium's forward price was under the most pressure from the rising US Dollar Index, dropping by more than 1% from last week's closing prices.Tin's three-month price rose by 1.4% to $23,103 per tonne from Friday's 5pm closing price of $22,779 per tonne, ending the day above the $23,000 per to...Read More
Prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed on Monday February 1 morning, with nickel the only metal to make a substantial gain of nearly 1%, given the weaker-than-expected Chinese manufacturing data released on Sunday. Nickel's three-month price was up 0.95% at 9am on Monday to $17,860 per tonne, from Friday's closing price of $17,691 per tonne.The metal fell 3% over the last week of January,...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were up across the board this morning, Monday February 1, this despite weaker-than-expected manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) data out of China over the weekend.But perhaps most noteworthy has been the 8% rally in spot silver that has surpassed $29 per oz to challenge last August's high. March tin lower on Shanghai Futures Exchange despi...Read More
The spodumene price cif China posted a sharp month-on-month increase at the end of January after a pick-up in customer inquiries, and market participants expect further rises against a backdrop of bullish supply-demand for the raw material and rising lithium chemical prices in China.Fastmarkets assessed the spodumene 6% Li2O min, cif China price at $450-460 per tonne on Wednesday January 27,...Read More
Standard-grade cobalt was trading at a premium over alloy grade for the first time since February 2019 on Friday January 29 amid demand for briquettes and rallying payables for cobalt hydroxide. Some market participants had identified the potential for the standard grade price to gain ground ahead of alloy-grade in recent weeks due to demand for metal from China's cobalt salts sector, but the two...Read More
Glencore International has agreed a letter of intent for cobalt metal supply to battery cell producer Freyr, the company said on Monday February 1.The Swiss trader-producer will supply up to 3,700 tonnes of high-purity cut cobalt cathode produced at its Norwegian operations, Nikkelverk, to Freyr's planned facilities in Mo i Rana in Norway, it said without disclosing the time period for the intende...Read More
Hot-rolled coiled prices in the United States held essentially flat to begin February.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $56.56 per hundredweight ($1,131.20 per short ton) on Monday February 1, up by 0.1% from $56.50 per cwt on Friday January 29 and an increase of 2.7% from $55.07 per cwt one week earlier. Inputs were collected in a range of $54...Read More
Fastmarkets publishes trade logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparency into the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US averaged $56.15 per hundredweight ($1,123 per short ton) for the week ended Friday January 29, up by 0.5% from an average of $55.87 per cwt the previous week. The index wa...Read More
Some European steel producers pushed their official hot-rolled coil offer prices upward in the week ended Friday January 29, with buyers likely to accept some transaction price increases in the short term.On January 28, ArcelorMittal increased its official offers for HRC to ?,?750 ($910) per tonne ex-works across the EU, up by ?,?20 per tonne from previous offers. And Swedish steelmaker SSAB has b...Read More