The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: SHFE tailwind for LME pricesAs we are entering the traditional strong demand season, we expect Chinese aluminium demand to show further recovery, and we expect demand from existing end-user sectors, new infrastructure projects and the export sector to show some increases. As a result, we believe that S...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of base metals analysts are ready to view, including an upgrade to our aluminium price forecasts.Aluminium: Price forecasts raisedWe correctly expected the macro reflationary theme to raise the prices for all base metals but, with it being the base metal with by far the weakest fundamentals, we had expected the price of aluminium to underperform relative...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.These include an increase in our copper mine disruption estimates, upgrades to our production outlook for Indonesian nickel pig iron (NPI), a smaller refined zinc surplus, and an upgrade to our zinc price forecasts.Aluminium: Big disconnect between price and fundamentalsAluminium has extended its uptrend on the London Metal...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view. We also review our price forecasting accuracy for the second quarter 2020.Q2 2020 price forecast performance review According to the results of Fastmarkets' Apex for the second quarter of 2020 published this week, Fastmarkets' base metals research team was the second most accurate price forecaster for nickel (99.06%), lead...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Although we correctly forecast a significant rise in hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices in the United States in September 2020, our price forecast proved too conservative.An impressive V-shaped recovery in key economic fundamentals critical to steel consumption is driving stronger demand for steel at the start of the fourth quarte...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Across the regions, producers of welded linepipe and oil-country tubular goods (OCTG) saw their margins shrink with substrate costs increasing in the third quarter of 2020.Many have been attempting to protect margins with higher prices, with varying degrees of success. Europe-origin commodity-grade steel hot-rolled coil and...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.While steel markets in Asia have demonstrated the most strength with regards to pricing through much of 2020, recent weeks have seen prices in Europe and the United States outperform those elsewhere.In a way, much of this is simply catching up on the gains already made by Asian steelmakers. They were able to obtain higher pri...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.US flat-rolled prices began to recover in August, as we expected. The monthly average of our daily HRC index hit $473 per ton ($521/tonne), which was $3/t above our forecast.The upward momentum has since continued and has done so more quickly than we expected - sentiment has turned around dramatically on fundamental developm...Read More

RAPAPORT... Diamonds Do Good will hand out $150,000 in grants to support members of the industry who most need assistance with maintaining their programs, it said Tuesday.The nonprofit, which helps develop diamond communities and empower local citizens in those areas, will distribute money to the Flaviana Matata Foundation, which supports education, entrepreneurship, youth empowerment and hig...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloys forecast highlights:Prices across most ore and alloy markets trended higher in September, buoyed by improving demand from steelmakers with the end of the summer holiday season in Europe and the United States, as well as maintained demand from Chinese steel mills. Tightening of alloy inventories...Read More

RAPAPORT... More than half of consumers plan to treat themselves and others to luxury products this year during the holidays, feeling that indulgence is important at this time, according to a survey by Accenture.This comes despite the fact that two out of every five shoppers intended to spend less for the seasonal period than they did last year, the professional services company noted in its 14th...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:Prices across most ferro-alloy markets trended stable to lower in August as demand remained subdued in major markets, apart from China where steel output continues to rise at a rapid pace, supporting demand for ferro-alloys. As alloy makers seek to remedy supply/demand imbalan...Read More

RAPAPORT... Petra Diamonds has resolved its contract issues with South African workers following a strike threat stemming from a failure to reach a pay agreement.The miner has signed a one-year deal with employees who are members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Petra said Tuesday. The company will make a one-time bonus payment of ZAR 5,000 ($302) and an increase of 5.5% for the year to...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:Numerous ore and alloy markets enjoyed upward pricing momentum in the first half 2020, with supply-side constraints supporting prices despite collapsing demand from steelmakers and other key end users. While supply side issues related to Covid-19 lockdowns have been resolved,...Read More

Filmmaker Laurent Cartier follows the determined men who search Sierra Leone's Sewa River for natural diamonds.RAPAPORT... Fifty-year old John is a diamond diver in Sierra Leone, one of a few hundred or thousand such divers out of some 1.5 million artisanal miners worldwide. His work is arduous: Going 5 to 10 meters underwater without a mask, he relies on his teammates and his faith. Divers do not...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Scientists have discovered the largest ever diamonds in outer space - and say they were formed by the enormous heat and pressure of planets colliding.They're convinced that they weren't produced deep beneath the surface of the planet, like diamonds found on Earth.Researchers at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, found tiny extra-terrestrial diamonds, as well as graphi...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Chinese blast furnace (BF) utilization rates have stagnated and iron ore port stock volumes are rising, reaching their highest levels since March, which suggests that iron ore supply is becoming excessive while demand is not growing. Unsurprisingly, prices dropped last week and we expect the trend to continue. The market has...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A dealer is facing up to 10 years in prison for attempting to bring diamonds into the USA with bogus Kimberley Process certificates.Stanley Tipton, 45, from Ohio, admitted violating the Clean Diamond Trade Act in a prosecution that "sets an international precedent," according to the US Attorney's Office.He told an undercover Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) special agent...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A Japanese collector paid $15.7m for a 102-carat, D-color, flawless diamond - a record high price for a gem in an online auction.But it was nowhere near as much as experts had predicted.  Before Monday's sale by Sotheby's Hong Kong, there was speculation that the exceptionally rare diamond, offered without reserve, could fetch over $30m.Nevertheless, it smashed the p...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.We do not consider the average iron ore fines price for September so far above $125 per tonne cfr Qingdao to be sustainable. The bullishness is not likely to last in the long term as we expect Chinese demand growth to slow down. A key factor boosting Chinese steel demand so far has been the stimulus policies from the authori...Read More