Gold has big year in 2020 and outlook for this year robust. Learn about monetary expansion and gold future prices.Read More
The gold futures price reached US$1,767/ounce this week before retreating, which was the second time it has surpassed US$1,760 in the past two months, marking some of gold's highest levels in several years.Read More
Comex copper prices sank once again on Thursday morning in the United States, with persistent bearish overtones and short-covering hampering the red metal.The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 0.60 cents to $2.6485 per lb. "Although we acknowledge that market participants prefer to adopt a cautious stance toward copper for now,...Read More
Privately-owned Sigma Broking Ltd has approached members of the London Metal Exchange to acquire B shares as it moves forward with a plan to become the first new Category I ring-trading entity since 2007, well-informed sources told Fastmarkets. "There have been conversations between Sigma and LME members - it is well known who is long B shares and happy to sell them," one source close to the matte...Read More
Although base metals are under pressure in the short term, we have a bullish bias to our 2018 price forecasts given the supportive background of solid global economic growth and the fact that all six base metal markets look set to be in fundamental deficit this year. But each has a slightly different supply-side story and this aspect should be the main differentiator. For example, zinc's narrative...Read More
The Indian government's plans of hitting 300 million tonnes of steel capacity by 2030 sounds overambitious in the current scenario given that output only managed to reach the 101 million tonne mark in 2017 - indicating three-fold (Read More
After suffering for some seven years through to 2015, the world's steelmakers have had cause for cheer over the past couple of years. After some heavy losses and write-downs, they finally appear to have emerged from the wreckage of the global financial crisis. An economic upswing has taken root in most regions of the world, Chinese steel output and export growth has slowed noticeably, and steel pr...Read More
Freeport McMoRan Inc shares slid 9 percent on Thursday after the world's second-largest copper miner posted lower-than-expected quarterly profit and forecast a drop in 2019 production.A 14 percent dive in copper prices slammed the company in the fourth quarter, yet the chief executive officer said U.S. demand remains strong and underpins Freeport's plans for a major expansion in the United States....Read More
Imperial Metals has published its fourth quarter and year-end numbers for its operations. For the full year, the company produced 75.3 million lb. of copper and 79,056 oz. of gold.At the Red Chris copper-gold mine 80 km south of Dease Lake, Q4 production was 15.6 million lb. of copper (up 15% from Q3) and 12,366 oz. of gold (up 41% from Q3). Mill throughput for 2018 averaged 29,228 t/d and annual...Read More
Indonesia, the world's top exporter of palm oil, has issued new rules requiring exporters of natural resources to receive earnings in the local banking industry, among new measures Jakarta announced last year to support the then falling rupiah.The rupiah hit its weakest since the 1998 Asian financial crisis in October 2018 due to capital outflows linked to rising U.S. interest rates, the U.S.-Chin...Read More
For a number of years problems at Ilva, the largest steelworks in Europe, have been casting shadow over the performance of the whole Italian steel industry. Will an acquisition of Ilva by a consortium led by ArcelorMittal, now in its final stage, be a game changer for the market?Following multiple reports of environmental and health problems caused by the Taranto plant, in 2013 Ilva was placed und...Read More
Political uncertainty means there's no time like the present when it comes to commodities trading, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.Traders are less willing to buy and sell long-dated futures because of increasing risks associated with trade wars and other geopolitical fissures springing up around the globe, Jeff Currie, head of commodities research at Goldman, said in an interview on Bloomber...Read More
Once seen as a laggard in the global mining industry, U.S. copper deposits have quietly drawn more than $1.1 billion in investments from small and large miners alike as Tesla and other electric carmakers scramble for more of the red metal."Fifteen years ago, U.S. mining was thought to be a dead industry, but now it's a profitable area for us"Four U.S. copper projects are set to open by next year -...Read More
Orinoco Gold (ASX: OGX) announced that it has just started working with AngloGold Ashanti (JSE:ANG) (NYSE:AU) on establishing an in-country joint venture entity in Brazil, an undertaking that should be completed in the first quarter of 2019.The announcement was made after both companies confirmed the original terms of an earn-in agreement they signed back in 2017.The regional exploration joint ven...Read More
Global miner Anglo American (LON: AAL) ended 2018 on a high note, posting strong fourth quarter production results on Thursday despite setbacks at its iron ore operations in both South Africa and Brazil.Output of copper, one of the miner's main commodities, reached a five-year high, with overall output for the last quarter of 2018 rising 7% as a result of operational changes that boosted efficie...Read More
China ended steel production in all of the country's illegal induction furnaces by the end of June last year, it ha claimed.Most operators in China are primarily small private mills that use low-quality scrap to produce substandard rebar. This is mixed with grade III (HRB400) rebar and sold at a discount to construction contractors.For a long period, the government had neither a record of nor cont...Read More
China's month-on-month new electric vehicles (NEV) sales rebounded in August after month-on-month declines in June and July. The drop in sales between May and June was the first drop since September 2016, but Fastmarkets MB had expected Chinese NEV sales to dip temporarily after the June subsidy changes came into effect because consumers and NEV manufacturers would have to adjust to the new subsid...Read More
Iron ore prices fell sharply in the second half of November after climbing through October, with prices for higher-grade material pioneering the decline.Fastmarkets MB daily benchmark for 65% Fe fines dropped by 22% by Monday November 26 after peaking on October 29. The 62% Fe iron ore index declined by 16% over the period, as some Chinese steelmakers started to seek larger volumes of cheaper ores...Read More
The steel scrap sector in the United States still depends on exports to Turkey, a member of the Fastmarkets research team said during the ferrous session at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) conference in London.This dependence persists despite the changes in the international markets created by the US' imposition of its Section 232 tariffs on imports of steel products, metals analyst Le...Read More
Seaborne pig iron has become relatively competitive versus ferrous scrap over the past year in most regions, and China is no exception. As the first chart below illustrates, the gap between the MBR's proxy for imported pig iron price in China and the Metal Bulletin's Chinese domestic heavy melt scrap price assessment had shrunk by late 2017. The premium averaged $17 per tonne this year to date, co...Read More
The closure of some induction furnaces in China in 2016 followed by the government's crackdown on all unlicensed IFs in mid-2017 freed up some scrap volumes, albeit arguably of low-quality material. Chinese domestic scrap prices came under pressure from the increased supply, which prevented them from keeping pace with the rise in steel and other raw material markets in the fourth quarter of 2016;...Read More
Chile state development agency Corfo said on Thursday it reached a deal with world top lithium miner Albemarle Corp in a long-running contract dispute and would not file a previously threatened arbitration suit against the U.S-based producer.The dispute centered around a contract term that requires Albemarle to provide as much as 25 percent of its annual production of lithium at a discount to comp...Read More