As the global financial system heads closer to the abyss, production of the 2nd most important precious metal, silver, continues to deal with big problems...by Steve St Angelo of SRSrocco ReportAs the world financial system heads closer to the abyss, global production of the second most important precious metal, silver, continues to deal with serious problems. According to Peru's Ministry of Ene...Read More
Despite China's ban of low-quality copper scrap imports since the beginning of 2019, the volume of copper units contained in scrap imports has defied expectations by rising in the first five months of this year. Between January and May this year, China imported 682,508 gross tonnes of copper scrap, according to customs data. All of the imports are of the higher-grade category 6 scrap. This is down...Read More
Nickel market participants cite technical squeezes as the root cause of a 9% increase in nickel prices over June, with Shanghai and London exchange contracts targeted amid slack supply and demand.The LME three-month nickel price peaked at $12,850 per tonne on the morning of Monday July 1, its highest since April and an increase of more than 9% from a low of $11,605 per tonne on June 7.Despite a 2....Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange was lower at the close of trading on Monday July 1, failing to sustain recent gains while poor data from China's manufacturing sector damped buying sentiment.Three-month nickel futures closed at $12,350 per tonne during the afternoon, down by a little less than 3% from an intraday high of $12,850 per tonne, its highest level since April.Marke...Read More
Nickel market participants cite technical squeezes as the root cause of a 9% increase in nickel prices over June, with Shanghai and London exchange contracts targeted amid slack supply and demand.The LME three-month nickel price peaked at $12,850 per tonne on the morning of Monday July 1, its highest since April and an increase of more than 9% from a low of $11,605 per tonne on June 7.Despite a 2....Read More
Pessimism grew in the seaborne coking coal market on Monday July 1, with transactions and offers declining further.A shipment of premium low-vol hard coking coal, scheduled for loading over July 4-14, was sold to an end user in northern China over the weekend at $192.94 per tonne cfr China, according to various sources.This is down around $4 per tonne compared with a transaction last Friday involv...Read More
Nickel market participants cite technical squeezes as the root cause of a 9% increase in nickel prices over June, with Shanghai and London exchange contracts targeted amid slack supply and demand.The LME three-month nickel price peaked at $12,850 per tonne on the morning of Monday July 1, its highest since April and an increase of more than 9% from a low of $11,605 per tonne on June 7.Despite a 2....Read More
Turkish steel producers continued to book more deep-sea scrap cargoes for August shipments, with prices rising further, sources said on Monday July 1.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Baltic Sea cargo, comprising 20,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $293 per tonne and 20,000 tonnes of bonus at $303 per tonne cfr, late on June 28.The same mill also booked a European cargo on Friday, compri...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday July 1 that are worth another look.Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange fell at the close of trading on Monday July 1, failing to sustain recent gains while poor data from China's manufacturing sector damped buying sentiment.Vanadium producer Largo Resources "has adopted the conservative strategy" of...Read More
Copper stocks in Shanghai-bonded warehouses in June were at their lowest since late in January because of better import opportunities in China in May and June, while China's less refined copper imports in the second quarter dropped after a top importer had less credit issued to it.Nickel stocks in the Shanghai-bonded zone dropped in June due to an abrupt opening of the import arbitrage window, whi...Read More
Fastmarkets is standardizing the names of some of its base metals price assessments principally to identify whether they are premiums or all-in prices.Although Fastmarkets is specifying in the description of each affected price, this is not new information - the methodology for the discovery of those prices is unchanged. We will, however, update our price methodology documents to reflect the stand...Read More
The outcome of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Japan that was held on June 28-29, saw the United States and China agree to resume trade talks, which has boosted optimism for a trade deal. This has given most non-haven markets a lift, this despite further weakness in manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) data.China's Caixin manufacturing PMI dropped to 49.4 from 50.2, Japan's manufacturing...Read More
Nickel's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange remained elevated during morning trading on Monday July 1, but fell by 2% across European trading hours despite continued outflows. The metal's futures price reached an intra-morning high of $12,850 per tonne, its highest level since April. Trading volumes were strong over the morning session, with more than 5,000 lots of nickel exchange...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) haslaunched an international awareness campaign, highlighting the unique featuresof natural diamonds.The bourse will promote its "I lovenatural diamonds" campaign - which it says is the first internationalinitiative by a global diamond center to differentiate real diamonds fromsynthetics - over social media. It will feature several short videos, releas...Read More
RAPAPORT... Luk Fook's revenue and profit grew in fiscal 2019, driven by an expansion of its network in mainland China.Overall revenue for the Hong Kong-based jewelry retailer rose by 9% to HKD 15.86 billion ($2.03 billion) in the year ending March 31, it reported last week. Net profit grew 10% to HKD 1.5 billion ($192.6 million).The company's retail revenue in mainland China rose 18% to HKD...Read More
Plate prices in the United States have continued to fall due to supply and demand concerns, market participants said. Fastmarkets AMM's price assessment for domestic cut-to-length plate was at $37.50 per hundredweight ($750 per short ton) on Friday June 28, down by 2.6% from $38.50 per cwt a week earlier.Product was said readily available at mills, with lead times averaging two to three weeks. But...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds has appointed Mazvi Maharasoa, the former head of itsLet??eng mining operation in Lesotho, as a non-executive director for the group,it reported Monday. Maharasoa has more than 20 years of senior-management experience,including at Let??eng Diamonds, where she was CEO from 2009 to 2017. She wasalso the founder and president of the Lesotho Chamber of Mines, and has serv...Read More
Merchant bar quality (MBQ) steel prices in the United States' domestic market have dropped once again after mill cuts in mid-June, and market sentiment remains mostly bearish with some sources anticipating further reductions. Nucor Corp, Bayou Steel Group and Gerdau Long Steel North America announced price reductions of $40 per short ton ($2 per hundredweight) effective Thursday June 13. ...Read More
Like in previous months, price developments in rounds remain few and sporadic with mixed trends and especially in sizes under a carat rather subdued. The important 1.00-1.25 carat group, a significant market gauge, remained very stable, with only a couple of categories showing some growth. As during previous months, categories above two carats continue to show increased volatility compared to...Read More
MarketWatch.com reported that "China is unlikely to surpass the U.S. in retail sales this year as previously expected thanks to the damaging effect of the current trade conflict between the two powers, but that milestone is likely to happen in 2021." MarketWatch said that a recent forecast made and published the research company eMarketer had said that it was expecting China retail sales to domina...Read More