Copper-zinc miner Hudbay has appointed former Nevsun chief executive Peter Kukielski its interim chief executive officer after longstanding executive Alan Hair stood down from the post.Hair had been president and CEO of the company since 2016, having been at Hudbay for more than...Read More
Flat steel producer ArcelorMittal Italia, formerly known as Ilva in Taranto, Italy, received an order from the Taranto Public Prosecutor on Tuesday July 9 to shut down the No2 blast furnace at its plant, the company said on Wednesday.Authorities' demands are related to a fatal accident at the plant in 2015, "when the Taranto public prosecutor ordered the seizure of the blast furnace," the com...Read More
Russia has initiated a dispute at the World Trade Organization against the United States' anti-dumping duties on Russian hot-rolled coil products, according to notice from the WTO's website dated Tuesday July 9. "The [anti-dumping] measures at issue appear to be inconsistent with the WTO obligations of the United States," a WTO document states. "The measures appear to null...Read More
RAPAPORT... LDC, a jewelry manufacturer based in East Providence, RhodeIsland, has acquired precious-metals caster First Casting Company. First Casting was founded by Jerry Traficante and his wife,Susan, in 1980, with the couple continuing to run the company, according to itswebsite. Operating out of Johnston, Rhode Island, it offers casting in preciousand non-precious metals. The business will fu...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa's sales continued to slump in June, closing off afirst half that saw a heavy drop in demand for its rough. The Russian miner's total sales slid 43% to $222.4million for the month, it reported Wednesday. Rough-diamond sales, whichaccount for the vast majority of that revenue, also declined 43% to $219.3million, with polished sales falling 53% to $3.1 million. The manufacturing a...Read More
Iranian steel billet and slab prices pushed up in the week to Wednesday July 10 after customers in Asia accepted higher prices following generally positive sentiment in global finished steel markets. Fastmarkets weekly price assessment for Iranian export billet price was $385-390 per tonne fob on Wednesday July 10, up from $375-385 per tonne...Read More
RAPAPORT... Amid the tech boom that is shaping the diamond industry, a growing number of companies are challenging the grading laboratories, arguing that assessing the 4Cs should not be a subjective science."Five to 10 years from now, diamond grading won't be done by gemologists," claimed Haim Volner, the owner of Shirtal Diamonds, whose subsidiary Shirtal DiaCam is developing an automated solutio...Read More
RAPAPORT... At JCK Las Vegas, lab-grown-diamond exhibitors havemushroomed nearly as much as opinions about the stones themselves. Toaccommodate growing market needs, organizers debuted the Lab-Grown DiamondNeighborhood at the 2018 edition of the trade fair."There may have been exhibitors that had lab-grown in theshow in earlier years, but they weren't grouped together in a neighborhooduntil 2018,"...Read More
Second-hand luxury retailer The RealReal went public earlier this month with an initial goal to raise $270 million. The company ultimately sold 15 million shares at $20 each for $300 million. The RealReal was founded in 2011 by Julie Wainwright and the prospectus is valued at $1.6 billion for the largely online reseller, which also operates three brick-and-mortar stores. The company claims 1.4 mil...Read More
RAPAPORT... Global rough-diamond shipments dropped last year,reflecting slower trading in India and Belgium, according to new data from theKimberley Process (KP). Total rough imports slipped 3% to $48.49 billion for 2018,with volume down 7% to 424.2 million carats, the figures showed last week.Rough exports fell 1% to $49.52 billion, while volume declined 6% to 428.6million carats. India's rough i...Read More
The Indian economic media reported earlier this week that India's government had tabled a proposal to increase import duties on precious metals with 12.5 per cent. This move would have a significant impact on consumer prices paid for gold, other precious metals and the jewelry items these are made with. "It is proposed to increase custom duty on gold and other precious metals from 10 per cent...Read More
The Namibian Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy, Kornelia Shilunga urged African diamond producers to formalize artisanal and small-scale diamond miners to maximize benefits from the sector. According to the South African news source The Southern Times, the minister said this during the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA) 6th Ordinary Experts meeting in Windhoek earlier this week. "...Read More
Brent Eiseb, the new CEO of the Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC) has made it crystal clear that under his watch, the NTDC will not hold any tenders or auctions of its rough diamond stocks. In an interview with the Windhoek Observer, he stated that the NDTC will distribute its rough through a Sight system. " This Sight System is premised on NDTC entering into long-term supply con...Read More
Stainless steel scrap prices in the United States were unchanged this week, but sources indicated that the market outlook could change dramatically if nickel prices on the London Metal Exchange breach the $6-per-lb threshold."LME keeps moving up," one dealer said. "Sooner or later, [price or demand] has to break, and either the market gets slaughtered or demand and prices start to perk up."While t...Read More
Ferrous scrap prices appear to have reached a bottom in the United States and many market participants believe that while August will unlikely bring a meaningful increase, the tightness in shredded scrap hints that a recovery could be closer than initially expected. Shredded scrap supply is currently tight, with several mills still in the market for material for July, sources said.A...Read More
Turkish steel producers paused their deep-sea scrap bookings again to take in the latest downturn in steel prices, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday July 10.After a steel mill in the Iskenderun region paid $288 per tonne cfr for UK-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20), on Tuesday July 9, the daily scrap indices went down by $14.78 per tonne.The drop was...Read More
Quality emerges at Galan's blue-chip lithium addressSPONSOREDgalan lithiumThe junior, which remains suspended from trading in Australia because of its infractions at its Cangai copper mine in New South Wales, and now says it will be several weeks before it expects to returnRead More
Seaborne iron ore prices fell back on Wednesday July 10, after buyers appeared to adopt a wait-and-see stance in response to rising steel product inventories.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $120.96 per tonne, down $0.61 per tonne. Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines, cfr Qingdao: $120.88 per tonne, down $0.61 per tonne. Fastmarkets' index for iron...Read More
The seaborne hard coking coal market regained some strength on Wednesday July 10, with a term-contract shipment being agreed at a higher price than some participants had expected. A cargo of top-quality materials in the second-tier segment was heard to have been traded at $174.10 per tonne fob Australia, sources told Fastmarkets during the day. The sale is believed to be part of a long-term contra...Read More
China will allow another 5,550 tonnes of ferrous scrap imports in the second half of this year, according to a notice seen by Fastmarkets today.The China Solid Waste & Chemicals Management Center listed another four companies in northern and southern China that have been awarded quotas to import ferrous scrap through Xingang, Nanhai and Nansha ports in the cities of Tianjin, Foshan and Sihui.The c...Read More