Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday January 21 that are worth another look.Brazil-based miner Vale and Japanese trading company Mitsui have signed a heads-of agreement to take the first step toward exiting their investment in the Moatize coal mine and the Nacala Logistics Corridor (NLC)...Read More
Austrian steelmaking group Voestalpine has decided to relight the second blast furnace (BF) at its Donawitz site to meet growing demand for long steel, the company said on Thursday January 21.The Donawitz site has two BFs with a total capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year of pig iron, however, for the past seven months only one of the furnaces was operational.One of the two BFs in Donawitz, with...Read More
Brazil-based miner Vale said its sales have not been affected by a fire that impacted one of its piers at the Ponta do Madeira port terminal last week, in the country's northern Maranh??o state.The terminal caught fire on Thursday January 14, but the accident was contained with no victims or environmental damage, according to the miner. The company is investigating the causes of the incident, it a...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday January 21 that are worth another look.Brazil-based miner Vale and Japanese trading company Mitsui have signed a heads-of agreement to take the first step toward exiting their investment in the Moatize coal mine and the Nacala Logistics Corridor (NLC)...Read More
Domestic European prices for hot-dipped galvanized coil rose in the week to Wednesday January 20, with buyers believing that the price has reached its peak, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel HDG, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was ?,?830-850 ($1,006-1,030) per tonne on January 20, up by ?,?20-30 per tonne week on week from ?,?800-830 per tonne.The assessment w...Read More
The price of alloy-grade cobalt was unchanged day-on-day in the assessment on Thursday January 21, breaking a two-and-a-half-week rally, after Chinese buying activity subsided and European demand did not push prices further along.Fastmarkets' price assessment for cobalt, alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam, remained at $18.00-18.50 per lb on Thursday. But this price was up by 14.4% from $15.60-16.30 per...Read More
Tin's forward price on the London metal Exchange rose to near seven-year highs above $22,000 per tonne on Thursday January 21 and aluminium and nickel posted gains just short of 1%, supported during trading by a weaker dollar index. The semiconductor metal rose to as high as $22,360 per tonne in the morning of Thursday, its highest price since July 2014. Tin's three-month price held at $22,000 pe...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday January 21 that are worth another look.Brazil-based miner Vale and Japanese trading company Mitsui have signed a heads-of agreement to take the first step toward exiting their investment in the Moatize coal mine and the Nacala Logistics Corridor (NLC)...Read More
A differentiated fee structure designed to drive member-to-member trade away from the telephone market is being proposed by the London Metal Exchange as part of its discussion paper. The goal is to incentivize trade on the exchange's electronic trading platform, LMESelect, and is proposed to be achieved by cutting fees to trade electronically while raising fees for the telephone market by around 5...Read More
The London Metal Exchange and its clearing house are revisiting a proposal to transition to a different way of calculating its clearing methodology. The exchange announced its discussion paper on the topic on Tuesday January 19. The last attempt was made in 2017 and was rejected by LME members because it would make the provision of credit lines expensive and result in the rapid withdrawal of...Read More
Covid-19 appears to have claimed another casualty: the London Metal Exchange ring trading floor. The closure of the floor, now entering its 144th year, has been proposed in a discussion paper issued by the exchange earlier on Tuesday January 19.The open outcry floor may be old, but it didn't appear to have serious underlying health issues. It has successfully fought back against talk it was set to...Read More
Tin's forward price on the London metal Exchange rose to near seven-year highs above $22,000 per tonne on Thursday January 21 and aluminium and nickel posted gains just short of 1%, supported during trading by a weaker dollar index. The semiconductor metal rose to as high as $22,360 per tonne in the morning of Thursday, its highest price since July 2014. Tin's three-month price held at $22,000 pe...Read More
Hidden under the big headline of the ring closing, the London Metal Exchange's recent discussion paper also asked market participants for feedback on stocks, physical movements and market squeezes. The discussion paper on Tuesday January 19 caught people's attention because of its proposal to close the open-outcry trading ring, but participants told Fastmarkets other topics are far more controvers...Read More
The Singapore Exchange's (SGX) 65% Fe iron ore derivatives contract - which is settled against Fastmarkets' daily index for iron ore 65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qingdao - set a new record for traded volumes at 5.9 million tonnes so far in January, according to SGX published data on Thursday January 21. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $171.51 per tonne, up $0.96 per tonn...Read More
Activity in the European hot-rolled coil market was low on Thursday January 21 because buyers are holding back from making new deals due to an anticipated price fall, sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe at ?,?713.00 ($864.26) per tonne on Thursday, down by ?,?2.50 per tonne day on day from ?,?715.50 per tonne on...Read More
Negative sentiment prevailed in the Turkish deep-sea scrap import market on Thursday January 21, with offer prices continuing to slide, sources told Fastmarkets.The most recent deal heard by sources - a Baltic Sea cargo on Wednesday January 20 - put the HMS 1&2 (80:20) price at $440 per tonne cfr.The number of offers has increased since then and prices have gone down acco...Read More
As many as one-third of the current global portfolio of tailings storage facilities (TSFs) are impaired and in need of urgent intervention, according to the Switzerland-based Responsible Mining Foundation (RMF).This means that more than 730 million tonnes of tailings pose a risk, from among the roughly 223 billion tonnes of tailings stored in more than 30,000 TSFs, including active, inactive and a...Read More
Aurubis expects high copper prices and consequent availability of scrap metal to boost its earnings for its 2021 financial year beyond previous forecasts, it said in a release to investors on Thursday January 21. The German smelting company, which is Europe's largest copper and tin producer, raised its forecast earnings for the financial year ending September 2021 before taxes to ?,?270-330 m...Read More
A summary of Canada-headquartered Lundin Mining's output figures for the fourth quarter and full-year 2020, as stated in its production report published on Wednesday January 20.In brief Lundin's full-year production was in line with its previous guidance of 217,000-232,000 tonnes for copper, 142,000-146,000 tonnes for zinc and 15,000-18,000 tonnes for nickel....Read More
Hidden under the big headline of the ring closing, the London Metal Exchange's recent discussion paper also asked market participants for feedback on stocks, physical movements and market squeezes. The discussion paper on Tuesday January 19 caught people's attention because of its proposal to close the open-outcry trading ring, but participants told Fastmarkets other topics are far more controvers...Read More