Metal Bulletin rounds up some of the key news and price moves across the global metal markets this week.Base metalsAntofagasta aims to increase copper capacity by 70,000 tonnes per year via a rebuild of its Los Pelambres mine in Chile at a cost of $1.3 billion, the Chilean copper producer said.The US Beer Institute has called on the United States government to scrutinize aluminium price...Read More
Astor Management, a private company based in Switzerland, plans to pursue European copper producer Atalaya Mining in the UK Supreme Court for $18 million in so-called "uptick payments", the Swiss company said on Thursday November 15.An earlier dispute over loans and investment agreements between the companies in the years between 2000 and now was settled by the UK High Court and Court of Appeal.Th...Read More
Base metals futures on the London Metal Exchange rebounded at the close of trading on Friday November 16, led by a strong performance in the three-month lead price while a marked downturn in the US dollar index prompted follow-up buying. Trading for a time above $2,000 per tonne, the three-month lead price posted significant gains amid total LME lead stocks and remained at its lowest level since 2...Read More
Chile's Copper Commission, or Cochilco, has lowered its copper price estimates for 2018 and 2019, while expecting an increase in prices for 2020, the state-run board said on Thursday November 15.In its quarterly report on the copper market, average copper prices should be $2.97 (297 cents) per lb this year, according to Cochilco, down from a previous $3 per lb forecast in July. The commission expe...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their price moves from the past week.Read More
Fastmarkets MB presents the key things we learned when the ferro-alloys community gathered for a busy week of meetings and contract negotiations in Lisbon at the 34th International Ferro-alloys Conference on November 11-13. The global vanadium deficit will continue: Ferro-vanadium and vanadium pentoxide prices sit at or near historic highs due to significant global supply concerns, and market part...Read More
Comex copper prices hit a multi-week high in morning tradingin the United States on Friday November 16, amid improving macroeconomic fundamentals and with trade talks to be held between the US and China.The copper price for December settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose by 2.25 cents to $2.7690 per lb on Friday. Earlier in the trading session, the contract peake...Read More
The US Beer Institute has called on the United States government to scrutinize aluminium price irregularities and distortions, referring to speculative activity to warehouse and withhold metal as being among the reasons for high premiums. James McGreevy, president and chief executive officer of the Beer Institute, noted past comments by US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross that "antisocial behavio...Read More
(Kitco News) - Palladium and rhodium continue to be the two shining starts in the precious metals sector, both seeing surging momentum this week due to a growing imbalance in their supply and demand fundamentals.Palladium is closing out the week at a new record high; December palladium futures last traded at $1157.90 an ounce, up 5.5% from the previous week. Meanwhile, rhodium is currently trading...Read More
(Kitco News) - Optimism in the gold market is picking up as prices bounced off critical support to end the week in positive territory.However, some analysts are warning investors to not expect too much excitement in the near-term as markets will see a shortened trading week as American investors celebrate Thanksgiving. December gold futures last traded at $1,223.10 an ounce, up 1% from the previou...Read More
Metal Bulletin reviews the major stories that have affected the steel market during the week ended Friday November 16.Raw MaterialsThe Singapore Exchange will launch high-grade iron ore derivatives settled against the daily MB 65% Fe Iron Ore Index published by Fastmarkets MB in the first week of December.Asia ferrous scrap prices are still falling due to weak demand from steel mills and ample sup...Read More
(Kitco News) - Fifteen market professionals took part in the Wall Street survey. Nine respondents, or 60%, predicted higher prices by next Friday. There were three votes, or 20%, for both lower and sideways prices.Meanwhile, 502 people responded to an online Main Street poll. A total of 311 respondents, or 60%, called for gold to rise. Another 123, or 26%, predicted gold would fall. The remaining...Read More
Cold-rolled coil and coated steel base prices declined this past week in the United States, in line with lower feedstock pricing.Fastmarkets assessed the price of domestic CRC at $45.50 per hundredweight fob Midwest mill on Thursday November 15, down by 1.1% from $46 per cwt a week earlier.Fastmarkets' assessment for the hot-dipped galvanized base price also dropped to $45.50 per cw...Read More
As you read this, the calendar is halfway into November. For some folks, this means heading south to a warm place like Florida. For some, it means breaking out the winter coats and hats. For top resource investors, it means tax loss selling bargain season. It means Christmas comes early...and the presents can lead to hundreds of thousands - even millions - of dollars in extra profit. At the end...Read More
(Kitco News) - Gold prices are solidly higher and setting new daily highs in early U.S. trading Friday, on safe-haven demand as U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward lower openings when the New York day session begins. The U.S. dollar index is also selling off and hitting its session low, further supporting buying interest in the precious metals markets. December gold futures were last up $9.60 a...Read More
Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were either little changed or stronger on the morning of Friday November 16.Zinc and aluminium prices were up by the most with gains of 0.6% and 0.4%% respectively, while the rest were little changed with copper down by 0.1% at $6,195 per tonne. Volume has been above average with 6,330 lots traded as at 07.10am London time. This morn...Read More
(Kitco News) - The surplus in the global silver market will rise to 35.3 million ounces in 2018, an increase from 2.4 million in 2017, the GFMS team at Refinitiv reported late Thursday.Johann Wiebe, lead analyst for the GFMS team, reported on the GFMS/Silver Institute Interim Silver Market Review during the annual silver industry dinner hosted by the Silver Institute. The report includes provision...Read More
Palladium prices hit a record high Thursday and at one point were within $30 an ounce of gold, Commerzbank says, although the spread has since widened again. Nevertheless, palladium’s recent gains may have been “excessive,” Commerzbank says. “We attribute the price surge - which happened very quickly - to buying on the futures market, as the trading volume yesterday was twi...Read More
Domestic prices for steel coil products in Turkey were expected to move down due to limited demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday November 16."Demand is barely there, and there were hardly any deals done this week," a source said."There might be more activity seen next week, but most likely the mills will not be able to maintain the current level of prices," he added.Fastmarkets' weekly price...Read More
Editor's Note: Welcome to Kitco's new Bitcoin Daily Technical Alert. Every trading day veteran Kitco technical analyst Jim Wyckoff will provide you with a concise and easy-to-understand near-term technical brief on Bitcoin. Importantly, Jim will glean the short-term charts and technical studies, and then alert you to the signals he sees regarding upcoming potential bigger price moves or price tren...Read More