Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were up across the board during Asian morning trading on Tuesday June 25, with a softening dollar helping to ease the bearishness engulfing the market amid continuing geopolitical uncertainty.The dollar index, which measures the value of the US dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, fell by 0.08% to 95.93 as at 10.27am Shanghai time. This...Read More
The Commonwealth of Independent States' (CIS) export billet market has started to show signs of recovery, with market participants' sentiment positive amid increased steel prices in China and a plateau in Turkish import scrap prices."I think we have hit the bottom for now perhaps. At the end of the day, final customers are still demanding and rebar is still being sold. Let's see what level the nex...Read More
European distributors of flat steel products reported a 3.8% year-on-year drop in shipment volumes in the first four months of 2019, Eurometal said this week.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for domestic hot-rolled coil (HRC) in Northern Europe was ?,?485-500 ($552-569) per tonne ex-works on June 19. Prices had been falling since the middle of May due to poor demand, but&nb...Read More
RAPAPORT... De Beers' rough-diamond sales slumped to a 20-month low of $390 million in June amid weak sentiment in the manufacturing sector. Sightholders noted the price cuts De Beers implemented on certain categories were not enough to stimulate demand. "The reaction to the price adjustments was lukewarm," observed one Antwerp-based manufacturer who attended last week's sale in Gaborone...Read More
Most prices for flat steel products imported in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia decreased over the past week, except for hot-dipped galvanized (HDG) coil, while demand for material was limited, sources said on Tuesday June 25. UAE Offers for hot-rolled coil (HRC) were at around $500-510 per tonne cfr India and Japan, but no major deal was heard because of weak end-user demand. Work...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds has recovered a 135-carat yellow at its Let??engmine in Lesotho, the third significant colored-diamond discovery at the depositthis year. The company retrieved the high-quality, type I stone on June21, three months after the mine yielded a similar quality yellow diamondweighing 134 carats. Those discoveries follow a two-year gap in the recovery ofyellow diamonds weighing m...Read More
Fastmarkets proposes changes to the location specification of its northern China domestic hot rolled coil price assessment.The new location will be Tangshan instead of Beijing after market participants increased their focus on Tangshan's HRC prices. This amendment will allow Fastmarkets to consider more spot liquidity within its assessment of domestic HRC prices in north China.The consultation per...Read More
RAPAPORT... The International Institute of Diamond Grading and Research(IIDGR) has changed its name to De Beers Group Industry Services to enableconsumers to clearly identify it as part of the De Beers group. "[The rebranding] will make things clearer and simpler forcustomers, and [will] make the business's position as part of De Beers Groupmore obvious," David Johnson, head of strategic clie...Read More
Chinese vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) producers may be unable to achieve their scheduled production ramp-up plans in 2019 due to cost pressures stemming from the comparatively low V2O5 price so far this year and persistent stringent environmental inspections across the country, market sources told Fastmarkets MB. Many Chinese V2O5 producers planned to ramp up their operations in 2019, encouraged by ha...Read More
RAPAPORT... Online retailer Enchanted Diamonds has gone into liquidation with liabilities of $1.7 million.The company, which also had a showroom in Times Square, Manhattan, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in New York federal court on June 20. This follows a suspension of the company's Better Business Bureau (BBB) A+ accreditation, with BBB confirming it had received a spike in consumer complai...Read More
China's hot-rolled coil producers raised export prices on Tuesday June 25 amid continual gains in the domestic market.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,910-3,920 yuan ($568-570) per tonne, up 10-20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,850-3,860 yuan per tonne, up 10-20 yuan per tonnePrices rose further during the day with more and more participants becoming more bullish about the market.The...Read More
Following the United States' decision - by means of a decree by President Donald Trump - to withdraw benefits under the Generalised System of Preference (GSP), the price of polished diamonds exported by India to the US will increase with seven to eight percent, according to rating agency CRISIL. Currently, the US accounts for about half of the India's diamond exports to the US, at...Read More
The leading India daily Times of India (ToI) reported that "due the slum in [the] diamond industry for the past couple of years," two large companies, one in Mumbai and one of Surat are unable to pay off their debts to their banks, saw their credit lines withdrawn, and are basically bankrupt. One Mumbai-based diamond manufacturing and trading company is said to be "saddled with huge borrowings fr...Read More
India's Enforcement Directorate (ED) has termed as a facade an affidavit submitted by the fugitive Indian diamantaire and jewelry manufacturer Mehul Choksi in which Choksi claimed that his health problems prevent him from doing so. The ED consequently offered to provide an ambulance and a team of medical experts to bring Choksi back from Antigua and to provide him with all necessary treatment...Read More
Aim-listed Kefi Minerals on Friday reported that fieldwork had started at its Hawiah exploration licence, in Saudi Arabia.The fieldwork began with a modest cost but a potentially high-impact induced polarisation and resistivity geophysical survey aimed at better defining the large volcanogenic massive sulphide target for drilling.AdvertisementThis survey follows the previous self-potential (SP) ge...Read More
The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) welcomed 1,868 new companies to its free zone in 2018, a 12 percent increase compared to 2017. The construction of Uptown Dubai, DMCCs new district, is also well underway to accommodate the demand for additional space, DMCC announced. "We have established our position as the preferred free zone for companies looking to set up their businesses in the region...Read More
The Namibian reported earlier this week that businessman David Shimwino denied having any links to Gem Diamonds, the company that won a N$300 million contract to valuate Namdeb diamonds over the next five years. Namibia's Central Procurement Board (CPB) awarded the N$300 million contract to Gem Diamonds Namibia, while Global Diamond Valuators Namibia, the firm that currently provides the val...Read More
De Beers' fifth sales cycle of its "Global Sightholder Sales and Auction Sales" of 2019 was reported to be as low as $390 million. Bruce Cleaver, CEO, De Beers Group, said: "While overall retail sentiment for diamond jewelry in the US remains solid, a more challenging environment in China and higher than normal polished diamond inventories in the midstream resulted in a cautious approach from...Read More
Turkish steel mills remained silent in the deep-sea scrap markets amid firm offers and reduced material requirements for July, sources said on Tuesday June 25.Turkey's domestic steel producers reduced their deep-sea scrap purchases last week after booking a number of cargoes for July.Producers still need some more scrap for July shipment, however, sources said, adding that this would make supplier...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 oreVale, tender, 100,000 tonnes of...Read More