Buyers in the export market for flat steel from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have accepted high offers from suppliers on further price growth expectations, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday February 11.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for CIS-origin exports of hot-rolled coil (HRC) spiked to $500-510 per tonne fob Black Sea on February 11, up from $460-480 per tonne a week ago...Read More
The Turkish deep-sea scrap import markets remained steady in the latest deals heard at the beginning of this week, sources said on Monday February 11.The most recent transaction was for a Canadian cargo, sold to a steel mill in the Iskenderun region, comprising 25,000 tonnes of shredded at $338 per tonne and 25,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (90:10) at $336 per tonne cfr.Using those prices as a guide, most...Read More
There has been a fundamental shift in central banks' behavior with respect to gold over the past decade. The 2008 financial crisis led central banks to re-evaluate the relevance and importance of gold on their balance sheets. Check out the sudden change in sentiment that occurred in 2009, as central banks shifted from being net sellers to net buyers for the first time in 20 years.While central ban...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday February 11 that are worth another look.The London Metal Exchange could face a significant financial challenge if the European Union wins a legal battle with the British government over tax breaks on commodity derivatives trading. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has put his weight behind calls for a reduction of...Read More
Stocks were mixed on Friday, as investors hesitated following Thursday's decline and a short-term profit-taking action. The S&P 500 index got closer to the 2,700 mark again last week. So is this just a downward correction or some new downtrend?The U.S. stock market indexes were mixed between -0.3% and +0.1% on Friday, as investors hesitated following the Thursday's decline. The S&P 500 ind...Read More
• The continuation of the recent USD rally to six-week tops prompts some fresh selling. • Risk-on mood/a goodish pickup in the US bond yields add to the prevalent selling bias. Gold kept losing ground through the early North-American session and is currently placed at the lower end of its daily trading range, below $1305 level. A combination of negati...Read More
• The USD climbs to 6-week tops and exerts some fresh downward pressure. • Risk-off mood/resurfacing US-China trade tensions might help limit losses. Gold met with some fresh supply at the start of a new week and is currently placed at the lower end of its daily trading range, just above $1310 level. The precious metal struggled to build on last week&...Read More
Gold convincingly crossed the falling channel hurdle on Friday, signaling an end of the corrective pullback from recent highs above $1,325. So far, however, the bull breakout has not emboldened the bulls. 4-hour chart The falling channel breakout seen in the above chart represents a bearish-to-bullish trend change. Put simply, the doors have been opened for a test of the recent high of...Read More
Gold is doing its seasonal thing, up from $1,200/oz in Q4 2018 to its current price of $1,314/oz.Further, gold miners, particularly 3 Canadian developers: Pure Gold Mining, Marathon Gold, and Sabina Gold and Silver have outperformed not only gold but the mining ETFs, GDX and GDXJ, ytd.The outperformance of the aforementioned Canadian developers are worth tracking as they could be signaling that in...Read More
Zinc's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange fell at the close of trading on Monday February 11, hampered by broad strength in the dollar index while low LME inventories failed to limit downward price action. The three-month zinc price has also fallen by 6% since reaching a July 2018 high of $2,800 per tonne last week. Since then, open interest in zinc has dwindled by more than 11% from a...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were predominantly lower during morning trading on Monday February 11, with nickel the only metal to trade in positive territory, while continued strength in the dollar index fuels selling momentum. Chinese market participants have returned from their week-long Lunar New Year break. Yet despite a return of Chinese stimulus resulting in higher volumes...Read More
China's return to the market after a week-long break for Lunar New Year has not brought with it a rush to restock and that has led to some disappointed selling across the base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, with the complex down by an average of 0.9% this morning, Monday February 11.The three-month zinc price led the decline with a 2% drop, while the three-month tin price was down by...Read More
Southern Copper Corp said on Monday that it earned $293.2 million in net profit the fourth quarter, compared to a $287.5 million loss it posted in the same period a year earlier.The company, controlled by Grupo Mexico, said its copper production rose 4 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period in 2017. It added that a 112 percent rise in net income in all of 2018 was due mainly to higher...Read More
Mexican miner and transport company Grupo Mexico on Monday reported a net fourth quarter profit of $74.7 million, down by 32 percent compared to the year earlier period.The company reported $2.567 billion in revenues for the fourth quarter, down slightly from a year earlier.(By Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Delphine Schrank)Read More
Peru's environmental agency OEFA is investigating what looks like a tailings spill from Southern Copper's Cuajone mine into a river as the area where the operation is located has been inundated by heavy rains in the past four days.The authority detected a "flow of a greenish solution" into the nearby Torata River in the waste deposit area of the operation, located in the Moquegua region approximat...Read More
The European spot market price of ferro-silicon stabilized in the week ended Friday February 8 after recent falls, with the range holding at lows last seen in February 2017; while in the United States, prices narrowed during a slow trading week. Europe stabilizes losses, with trading activity expected low key until March US prices narrow amid limited trading activity China set to retu...Read More
Turkey's biggest steel producer, Erdemir Group, reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) for 2018 of TRY8.302 billion ($1.579 billion*), up 52.24% from TRY5.453 billion for 2017. The group sold 7.482 million tonnes of flat steel products in January-December 2018, down by 1.47% from the 7.594 million tonnes sold in 2017, it said last week. The increase in ear...Read More
Canada's Cameco (TSX:CCO) (NYSE:CCJ), the world's largest publicly traded uranium miner, is in no rush to resume production at its idled operations due to "ongoing challenging and uncertain" uranium market conditions.The Saskatchewan-based miner indefinitely shut last year its flagship McArthur River mine - the world's biggest - and also the Key Lake mill, which has helped the market. But while...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday February 11 that are worth another look.The London Metal Exchange could face a significant financial challenge if the European Union wins a legal battle with the British government over tax breaks on commodity derivatives trading. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has put his weight behind calls for a reduction of...Read More