- Keith Weiner, Monetary MetalsWe will start this off with a pet peeve. Too often, one is reading something about gold. It starts off well enough, discussing problems with the dollar or the bond market or a real estate bubble... and them bam! Buy gold because the dollar is gonna be worthless! That number again is 1-800-BUY-GOLD or we have another 1-800-GOT-GOLD in case the lines on the first n...Read More
With things shaping up so well for gold, we can certainly take any short-term correction in our stride, and more than that, we can seize upon it as an opportunity to build positions further across the sector, whether by means of ETFs, stocks or options, and of course, gold itself.Several factors suggest that a modest short-term correction is likely before the major breakout occurs. Gold is overb...Read More
By: Avi GilburtThe last three years have been extremely difficult for metals enthusiast. If you speak with them, you would assume that gold has been going down for the last three years. Well, at least that is the impression you would get based upon their "sentiment."But, in fact, all gold has been doing for the last three years is move sideways. In other words, it has been consolidating....Read More
China is importing steel slab from Iran and Brazil to get around production limits placed on blast furnace operations in the country, industry sources told Fastmarkets MB in the past week.Iranian slab had recently been sold to China at 3,200 yuan ($462) per tonne, including 13% value-added tax (VAT), market sources said. This is equivalent to $408.73 per tonne cfr on an import parity basis.More th...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday June 17 that are worth another look.Base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange posted marginal gains by the afternoon kerb on Monday June 17, buoyed by dovish whispers from the United States Federal Reserve and a weakened US dollar index. The exceptions were nickel and tin, which both logged losses. A number of US alumi...Read More
The high in gold of $1,362.20 completed the pattern into the weekly sell 1 level.The market closing above the average price means that the market is coming into next week with a neutral to bullish trend momentum.If the market closes below $1,343, it negates the bullishness and activates the buy 1 (B1) level of $1,325 to the buy 2 (B2) level of $1,305.We used the proprietary Variable Changing Price...Read More
China is importing steel slab from Iran and Brazil to get around production limits placed on blast furnace operations in the country, industry sources told Fastmarkets MB in the past week.Iranian slab had recently been sold to China at 3,200 yuan ($462) per tonne, including 13% value-added tax (VAT), market sources said. This is equivalent to $408.73 per tonne cfr on an import parity basis.More th...Read More
The low-vol pulverized coal injection (PCI) segment of the seaborne coking coal market - particularly the fob Australia one - tumbled on Monday June 17 with a cargo changing hands nearly $10 per tonne below prevailing levels.A miner sold a shipment of low-vol product in that segment, scheduled for loading over July 8-17, to a Chinese trader at $121.28 per tonne fob Australia via a tender during th...Read More
China's hot-rolled coil prices declined further on Monday June 17, with mills coming under pressure to secure orders.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,750-3,780 yuan ($541-546) per tonne, down 30-50 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,740-3,750 yuan per tonne, down 40 yuan per tonneA few mills gave discounts to their long-term contract customers during the day to secure orders for delivery...Read More
SD Outlook: If you're not sure why silver is still under fifteen bucks as we firmly enter the second half of 2019, then...Last week I unplugged.I disconnected.Tuned-out.Info.From last Monday through now, I haven't seen one external piece of information other than mere interference.That is to say, I blocked-out all of the information that I could, and that which I could not block-out, I paid no min...Read More
China's rebar prices tumbled on Monday June 17 after the billet market plunged over the weekend.Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,820-3,850 yuan ($552-556) per tonne, down 50 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Beijing): 3,680-3,730 yuan per tonne, down 100 yuan per tonneRe-rollers stopped production in Tangshan's Fengrun district as instructed by local authorities in an effort to stem emissions, res...Read More
The tightness in copper concentrates supply and suspensions at major mines resulting from strikes and accidents have pushed treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) for copper concentrates lower over the past two weeks.Fastmarkets' Asia-Pacific TC/RC index dropped to $54.10 per tonne/5.41 cents per lb on Friday June 14, its lowest since the index launched in June 2013. It was $56.10 per tonne/...Read More
The price of pig iron exported from the south of Brazil decreased over the week ended Friday June 14 in line with the price decline for steel scrap material.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for pig iron exported from the southeastern Minas Gerais region of Brazil was $315-320 per tonne fob on June 14, down by $5 per tonne week on week. "Scrap prices dropped, so we have reduced our offers," one...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday June 17 that are worth another look.Base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange posted marginal gains by the afternoon kerb on Monday June 17, buoyed by dovish whispers from the United States Federal Reserve and a weakened US dollar index. The exceptions were nickel and tin, which both logged losses. A number of US alumi...Read More
Newmont Goldcorp's Pe??asquito mine, the largest gold-silver mine in Mexico, has resumed production after a community blockade hindered its production since late April. The New York-listed gold miner said on Monday June 17 that concentrate shipment, delivery of supply and workers orientation have already resumed at Pe??asquito mine. Operations at Pe??asquito, which produced 272,000 oz of gold last...Read More
A number of US aluminium consumers are lobbying for the introduction of the Aluminum Pricing Examination (APEX) Act, designed to enhance regulatory oversight over benchmarking entities for the Midwest premium.These consumers - the Beer Institute, the American Beverage Association, the Brewers Association and the Can Manufacturers Institute - say that aluminium users have faced dramatic supply chai...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly suppressed during morning trading on Monday June 17 amid fragile risk sentiment. Continuing trade tensions between the United States and China and fresh geopolitical tension between the US and Iran, coupled with a slew of lackluster economic data from China, are capping any significant price gains."Whatever gains we seeing today are too m...Read More
The global macroeconomic backdrop remains riddled with high amounts of uncertainty this morning, Monday June 17, as the trade conflict between China and the United States drags on with seemingly little progress being made toward an amicable resolution while tensions between the US and Iran look set to ratchet up in the coming days.Meanwhile in Asia, protests in Hong Kong over a controversial extra...Read More
Malaysia Smelting Corp (MSC) has denied reports that its tin shipments are delayed, but sources have been telling Fastmarkets for weeks that MSC not only has issues delivering metal it has refined but a more fundamental problem of having almost no tin concentrate to refine.Some of these supply-side sources say MSC's concentrate shortages will be an ongoing problem, predicting that reduced output f...Read More
Malaysian rebar is ready to be sold into Singapore after a major Malaysian producer Alliance Steel achieved Cares certification, market sources told Fastmarkets."A major trading company had previously applied for the certification so that [it could] import Malaysian rebar into Singapore," a source told Fastmarkets on Friday June 14.The Cares certification will allow major buyers in Singa...Read More