Gay Huey Evans will be the first female chairperson of the London Metal Exchange, replacing Brian Bender when he retires at end of the year, Fastmarkets understands. Huey Evans has spent over 30 years working within the financial services industry. She is currently a non-executive director of Itau BBA International Ltd, deputy chairperson of The Financial Reporting Council and board member...Read More
Gold trades in a range after falling below $1300 in mid-April.The Fed provides little bullish news for gold.The dollar fails again after a new high.Three issues that can propel gold higher.Buying the dip with gold mining stocks.The price of COMEX June gold futures closed 2018 at $1297.60 per ounce after trading to a low at $1189.30 in mid-August. After trading to a high at $1356 on February 20, th...Read More
EU long steel market participants are preparing for a deluge of Turkey-origin material to hit European shores in July when buyers race to fill up new quotas, sources told Fastmarkets. That means the European Commission's year-long quotas for Turkish rebar and wire rod - which begin on July 1 - are likely to be filled up within the same month, the Fastmarkets MB research team believes. Turkey-...Read More
Gold prices finished higher Monday, giving up earlier losses, as investors reacted to a slump in equities after President Donald Trump upended perceived progress on trade talks by threatening to raise tariffs soon on China. Gold has pulled back "with sharp market declines that are reacting to [the] U.S.-China tariff negotiations sudden bump in the road," said George Gero, managing director at RBC...Read More
London Metal Exchange base metals prices failed to rally during the afternoon session on Tuesday May 7, with the furor surrounding fresh trade tension between the United States and China serving only to exacerbate bearish market sentiment. None fared worse than the LME three-month nickel price, which dipped to a low of $11,990 per tonne low on May 7, the first time the price has dropped below $12,...Read More
The United States copper price suffered another bout of selling pressure on Tuesday May 7 morning, with market participants increasingly pessimistic ahead of the Chinese and American trade talks.The copper price for July settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 3 cents to $2.7995 per lb. "The intensified selling pressure in the copper market since the start...Read More
Gay Huey Evans will be the first female chairperson of the London Metal Exchange, replacing Brian Bender when he retires at end of the year, Fastmarkets understands. Huey Evans has spent over 30 years working within the financial services industry. She is currently a non-executive director of Itau BBA International Ltd, deputy chairperson of The Financial Reporting Council and board member...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 market for exports of hot-rolled coil (HRC) and cold-rolled coil (CRC) from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was quiet during the week ended Tuesday May 7 because of the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in the key outlet markets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for CIS-origin exports of HRC was $465-480 per tonne fob Black Sea on May 7, declining from $470-495 per ton...Read More
London Metal Exchange base metals prices failed to rally during the afternoon session on Tuesday May 7, with the furor surrounding fresh trade tension between the United States and China serving only to exacerbate bearish market sentiment. None fared worse than the LME three-month nickel price, which dipped to a low of $11,990 per tonne low on May 7, the first time the price has dropped below $12,...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday May 7 that are worth another look.The temporary truce on tariffs between China and the United States could be over, injecting a new round of uncertainty into the global financial markets and suspending hopes that a resolution to the countries' trade impasse was likely. US President Donald Trump has threatened to raise the t...Read More
Noront Resources of Toronto has chosen the Algoma Steel site in Sault Ste. Marie for its ferrochrome production facility.Four communities - Timmins, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, as well as the Sault - were considered beginning in February 2018. With the help of Hatch engineering firm, they were examined for their environmental and site suitability, capital costs, operating costs, and an assessment of com...Read More
A trade dispute between China and the United States is the main issue causing volatility in metal prices and market participants are braced for stormy conditions to persist, industry sources said in Hong Kong this week.A swift deterioration in China-U.S. trade talks hit global financial markets this week as investors faced the prospect of an escalation rather than an end to a 10-month-old trade wa...Read More
Copper production at Chile's top mines dropped sharply in the first quarter of 2019, Chilean copper commission Cochilco said on Tuesday, amid a perfect storm of operational issues, heavy rains and falling ore grades at the largest deposits.Cochilco said world top copper miner Codelco saw output drop 17% from the same period in 2018 to 371,000 tonnes.BHP's Escondida copper mine - the world's larges...Read More
Ecuador-focused miner SolGold (LON, TSX:SOLG) said Tuesday that recent results from the Porvenir project, held by its wholly owned subsidiary Green Rock Resources, suggest the presence of a "significant" copper-gold system.Mapping and sampling, SolGold said, has extended copper-gold mineralization at Cacharposa Creek on Porvenir, located in southern Ecuador. The samples, the company noted, show...Read More
The United States copper price suffered another bout of selling pressure on Tuesday May 7 morning, with market participants increasingly pessimistic ahead of the Chinese and American trade talks.The copper price for July settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 3 cents to $2.7995 per lb. "The intensified selling pressure in the copper market since the start...Read More
Gay Huey Evans will be the first female chairperson of the London Metal Exchange, replacing Brian Bender when he retires at end of the year, Fastmarkets understands. Huey Evans has spent over 30 years working within the financial services industry. She is currently a non-executive director of Itau BBA International Ltd, deputy chairperson of The Financial Reporting Council and board member...Read More