Turkish steel producers have continued to book deep-sea scrap with prices going down further, sources said on Tuesday May 7.A steel mill in the Iskenderun region booked a US cargo, comprising 23,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $300 per tonne and 5,000 tonnes of bonus at $310 per tonne...Read More
Canadian diamond miner Mountain Province on Monday announced that former Peregrine Diamonds CEO Tom Peregoodoff and former Lucara Diamond Corp CEO William Lamb would join its board of directors following the annual general meeting (AGM) next month.Investment professional Brett Desmond, who is also the son of Mountain Province’s major shareholder Dermot Desmond, would also join the company&rs...Read More
Turkish domestic ship scrap prices went down in line with the weakening of the country's lira during the week ended May 6, while auto bundle scrap prices remained largely stable, sources said on Tuesday May 7.Three steel mills lowered their buy prices for ship scrap to $305 per tonne delivered, while a fourth mill kept its buy price flat at $310 per tonne delivered.As a result, Fastmarkets' weekly...Read More
The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for iron ore, pig iron, direct-reduced iron and other steelmaking raw materials.Latest transaction: iron oreIron oreRio Tinto, tender, 170,000 tonnes of 61% Fe Pilbara Blend fines, traded at $93.30 per...Read More
Iron ore prices jumped above $95 per tonne cfr again on Tuesday May 7 after further disruption at Vale's Brucutu mine in Brazil.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $96.15 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $1.81 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $94.83 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $1.46 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $98.86 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $1.89 per tonne. MB 58% Fe Premium Ind...Read More
The seaborne coking coal market picked up some strength on Tuesday May 7, with the gap between bids and offers narrowing on the Global Coal trading platform.A cargo of branded materials, scheduled for loading in June, was first made at $216 per tonne fob Australia earlier in the day before being revised downward to $213 per tonne fob.Meanwhile, a bid for the same cargo went from $205 per tonne fob...Read More
Brazil's Vale is expecting its 2019 iron ore and pellets sales to fall between the bottom and the middle of its targeted 307-332 million tonnes, after a court decided to stop its 30-million-tonne-per-year Brucutu mine once again.The Minas Gerais Court of Justice has "monocratically decided" to suspend the effects of the ruling by the Lower Public Treasury Court of Belo Horizonte in March that auth...Read More
Altech ticks boxes on path to production SPONSOREDaltech chemicalsFirst pass mapping and sampling at Target 15 at Porvenir has extended the porphyry copper-gold mineralisation at Cacharposa Creek on the Porvenir 2 concession, where rock sampling returned anRead More
Altech ticks boxes on path to production SPONSOREDaltech chemicalsFunding under the KfW IPEX facility will follow repayment of the company's existing Red Kite Mine Finance senior debt facility, in effect replacing the Red Kite debt to reduce debt service costs,Read More
Lithium export prices from the world's second-largest producing nation fell in the first quarter, marking the first decline for the mineral that is key to electric vehicle batteries since at least 2014.Chile exported lithium carbonate at an average price of $12,183 per ton, 0.9 percent down from the same period a year earlier, according to data from Chilean customs compiled by Bloomberg. Prices ha...Read More
China's domestic hot-rolled coil prices edged up further on Tuesday May 7 on tight supply, which lent strength to the export market.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 4,070-4,090 yuan ($602-605) per tonne, up 10-20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,940-3,950 yuan per tonne, up 10 yuan per tonneTrading was described as moderate during the day amid stable demand, several sources told Fastmark...Read More
Cobalt trade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets. Cobalt trade log including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets. Unless otherwise stated, all prices are per lb on an in-warehouse basis. Delivered prices are netted back. Fastmarkets prices Click here for Fastmarkets' price assessment for standard-grade cobalt, in-warehouse, $ per lb Click here fo...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 18 points in pre-opening trade. Investors remain concerned about trade negotiation between the U.S. and China.Canadian Pacific (CP $298.86) is expected to open higher after increasing its dividend by 27.5%.WestJet (WJA $18.84) is expected to open higher after reporting higher than consensus first quarter earnings.Boei...Read More
China imported around 901,767 tonnes of chrome ore and concentrates in March, a drop of 20.6% month on month and a fall of 41.9% year on year, according to official but unconfirmed data seen by Fastmarkets. Meanwhile, China's chrome ore imports from South Africa, the world's largest chrome ore producer, came to 660,503 tonnes in March, accounting for around 73.2% of total shipments despite recordi...Read More
The US ferro-silicon price continued its precipitous fall last week amid pressure from the softer prices in global markets. Meanwhile, the European market found temporary stability amid shifting sentiment.US ferro-silicon market continues to weakenUS spot prices for ferro-silicon softened to 88-93 cents per lb on Thursday May 2, down by 2.7% from 92-94 cents per lb a week earlier, according to Fas...Read More
I know it seems like I'm picking on Senator Elizabeth Warren lately, but that's not my intention. Rest assured, I dislike the vast majority of politicians just as much. It just so happens that, in a runup to the 2020 election, it seems like Warren is trying to make big headline splashes by taking on populist whipping boys like the student loan crisis and, more generally, big banks.Meanwhile, I wan...Read More
President Trump shocked markets yesterday when he announced that a new, heavy round of tariffs on Chinese goods will take effect this Friday. Complacent markets had assumed that a trade deal would get done, that it was just a matter of sorting out the details. Now that is far from certain. Failing a last minute deal, which is certainly possible, the trade war is back. And it could get worse.What m...Read More
The cannons are readied, bayonets are fixed... the bugle is ready to blow.Diplomacy has failed.The trade war will resume this Friday - should 11th-hour negotiations fail.The 10% tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese wares becomes 25%.And President Trump threatens to order 25% imposts on an additional $325 billion "soon."Existing tariffs are "partially responsible for our great economic results,"...Read More
We have spent the past two days contemplating the nature of money... and the international monetary system.We hypothesized that there is no actual money in monetary policy. And that central banks are helpless giants, tissue paper tigers, all mush and milk.We even vented the extravagant theory that a "shadow banking system" governs the global monetary system.Today we sink deeper into the shadows...Read More
The announcement came issuing at 2 p.m. EST.As roundly expected... Jerome Powell and his fellows sat idly upon their hands.The fed funds rate remains chained in place, at 2.50%.Mr. Powell, by way of explanation:We think our policy stance is appropriate at the moment and we don't see a strong case for moving in either direction. We say in our statement of longer-run goals and monetary policy strate...Read More