Three-month prices on the London Metal Exchange were broadly unchanged from Monday's prices and remained around their peaks on Tuesday December 8 morning.Nickel was back to high ground after dipping slightly on Monday, with its three-month price at $16,415 per tonne at 9:05am - rising to $16,440 per tonne shortly after - up 0.25% from Monday's 5pm close. Nickel declined slightly also, do...Read More

RAPAPORT... India's international trade in gems and jewelry improved in November as the government and the industry pulled together to weather this year's unprecedented crisis, according to the country's Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).The decline in the country's exports narrowed to 4%, for a total of $2.48 billion, compared with $2.58 billion in November 2019, the organ...Read More

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China-based alumina producer Hangzhou Jinjiang Group (HJJ) in hope of securing an alumina supply. The MoU serves as a framework to form a strategic potential collaboration between both entities to secure Alba's alumina requirements. The agreement will remain in effect for three years and can be extended upon mutual agreem...Read More

Chinese exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products rose slightly in November from the month prior but still declined on a year-on-year basis, customs data released on Monday December 7 shows.China exported 424,000 tonnes of unwrought aluminium and...Read More

RAPAPORT... Dominion Diamond Mines has reached a deal to sell its Ekati mine in Canada to two of its bondholders amid mounting debt that caused it to seek creditor protection.DDJ Capital Management and Brigade Capital Management will acquire nearly all of Dominion's assets, with the exception of its 40% stake in the Diavik mine, which it shares with joint-venture partner Rio Tinto, Dominion said M...Read More

(IDEX Online) - An Indian farmer unearthed a "pebble" that turned out to be 14.98 carat diamond - that has now been sold at auction for over $80,000.   Lakhan Yadav, 45, was prospecting last month on a rented patch of land in an area of the central Madhya Pradesh state known for its diamond deposits.   He bought a motorbike with the pre-auction deposit he received from the local diamond...Read More

(IDEX Online) - India's gem and jewelry exports rebounded last month, approaching pre-Covid levels for the first time since the pandemic hit.Manufacturing is almost back to normal and after a series of voluntary embargoes, rough imports rose in October by almost 70 per cent.Foreign sales for November were within four per cent of the same month in 2019, signaling a sharp upturn in demand. ...Read More

European distributors of flat steel products have reported a 3.3% year-on-year rise in shipment volumes during October 2020, regional steel industry association Eurometal said on Tuesday December 8.Over the first 10 months of 2020, however, flat steel distributors' shipments dropped by 14.0% year-on-year.Eurometal did not disclose individual product volumes.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel h...Read More

The export price for steel slab from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) surged during the week to Monday December 7 on new sales and a strong hot-rolled coil market, sources said.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel slab, export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $570-580 per tonne on December 7, up by $45 per tonnefrom $525-535 per tonne a week earlier.CIS suppliers increased s...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Canada's Dominion Diamond Mines has agreed to sell its Ekati mine to investment managers following the collapse of a rescue deal in October.The troubled miner filed for insolvency in April and had been seeking a buyer since then for the deposit in Northwest Territories.It's being acquired by DDJ Capital Management and Brigade Capital Management, representing holders of Do...Read More

The price of steel billet from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) exported via the Black Sea increased sharply this week on a deal heard to Peru, with offers rising amid a shortage of supply, Fastmarkets heard on Tuesday December 8.The booking to Peru was heard at $520 per tonne fob Black Sea and was understood to have been concluded on December 7 for a volume of 10,000 tonnes, although...Read More

Steel billet and rebar prices in the United Arab Emirates increased this week while demand was strong, sources said on Tuesday December 8.Domestic rebarThe country's steel producers were offering rebar at 1,985 dirhams ($540) per tonne ex-works for orders to be produced in December before closing their order books and should announce new prices soon, sources said.Market participants in the UA...Read More

Genesis opens new chapter at UlyssesSPONSOREDgenesis minerals'Best discovery in my time': De Grey on the march at HemiSPONSOREDde grey miningPantoro bullish on bigger production profileSPONSOREDpantoro limitedOceanaGold commits to net zero emissions by 2050SPONSOREDoceanagoldNova Resources, the buyout vehicle backed by KAZ chairman Oleg Novachuk and non-executive director Vladimir Kim, has...Read More

Flat steel import prices in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia have gone up over the past week because of globally strong demand, sources said on December 8.The UAE was on national holidays on December 1-3, so buyers had only recently returned to the market.But demand within the country was moderate because recent price increases had been too sharp for buyers to accept, and they wante...Read More

Scoped for growth: Nevada Copper shifts into production modeSPONSOREDnevada copper corp.The first hole at the Cacharposa target hit promising visual mineralisation back in October. Final assays have now been received, with the hole returning 899.3m at 0.53% copper equivalent (0.Read More

The export market for long steel products from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) went up again during the week to Monday December 7 amid strong billet prices and higher offers, sources told Fastmarkets.Thus, Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel wire rod (mesh quality), export, fob Black Sea, CIS was $600-620 per tonne on Monday, up by $20 per tonne from $580-600 per...Read More

The Turkish steel producers largely slowed down their deep-sea booking activity after the latest spike in the prices, sources said on Tuesday December 8.A steel mill in the Marmara region was heard booking a Baltic Sea cargo at $370 per tonne cfr for 14,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20).But the supplier was not a traditional one and several market participants believed that the cargo would not be repr...Read More

The base metals remain upbeat this morning, Tuesday December 8, and the underlying story remains the same, infrastructure spending, economic recovery, a mass of liquidity and the potential for more US stimulus.Although there are some potential headwinds – political tensions between the United States and China, a no-deal Brexit and a correction in equity prices as harder lockdowns are forced o...Read More

There is no short-term fix for the container shortage that has sent freight cost to record highs, nor is there a need for regulatory authorities to put a lid on freight rates, Lars Jensen, chief executive officer of SeaIntelligence Consulting, said in an interview with Fastmarkets. "We are now seeing the consequences of carrier cancellations several months ago that led to a shortage of empty conta...Read More

Iron ore prices increased on Tuesday December 8 on support from bullish swaps prices, sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets iron ore indices 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $148.35 per tonne, up $1.42 per tonne62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $148.17 per tonne, up $1.17 per tonne58% Fe fines high-grade premium, cfr Qingdao: $135.01 per tonne, up $0.90 per tonne65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qing...Read More