Falsified steel production records are undermining China's crackdown on industrial pollution, especially in key steelmaking city Tangshan, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Thursday March 11.Unannounced checks by ministry officials on four steel mills in the city had found that the mills had "doctored and deleted production records" and "tipped each other off" about the spot checks....Read More
During the 1970's, the U.S. experienced adecade of below-trend economic growth combined with rising interest rates – andeventually – massively higher gold and silver prices.Some sectors boomed while others lagged,and then as now, the majority of the population struggled with rising home andcommodity prices, bookmarked by lofty interest rates.This stilted and challenging environmen...Read More
Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Tisco) plans to triple its annual output of stainless steel products by 2025, according to its general manager Gao Jianbing.The mill - China's second-largest stainless steel producer - plans to raise its annual crude steel output to 25 million tonnes by that year. Of these,...Read More
Falsified steel production records are undermining China's crackdown on industrial pollution, especially in key steelmaking city Tangshan, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Thursday March 11.Unannounced checks by ministry officials on four steel mills in the city had found that the mills had "doctored and deleted production records" and "tipped each other off" about the spot checks....Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday March 11 that are worth another look.Europe's proposed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) has been approved by a firm majority in the European Parliament and is expected to help to preserve the region's steel supply chain, industry...Read More
Vedanta Zinc International's Gamsberg zinc mine in South Africa could post a production loss of up to 40,000 tonnes in 2021, a source with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed to Fastmarkets.Mining activity temporarily halted at the Gamsberg mine after a pit collapse in November 2020, but restarted in January. The mine has a capacity of 250,000 tonnes per year of zinc in concentrate....Read More
Aluminium billet premiums in Europe reached all-time highs on Friday March 12, with the US billet premium now barely below a record high, and supply squeezed across the globe.EuropeBillet premiums in Europe continued to soar on Friday due to continued supply tightness and logistics issues.The premium has overtaken the multi-year highs reached when US sanctions imposed on producer Rusal caused pani...Read More
Brazilian steel slab export prices increased in the week to Friday March 12 with demand still high in most buying markets for the semi-finished material.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel slab, export, fob main port Brazil, was $780-800 per tonne fob on March 12, up by $20-40 from $740-780 per tonne fob previously.Producers increased their offer prices because they saw increased bids f...Read More
The South American import market for flat-rolled steel remained on an upward trend in the week to Friday March 12 with more expensive offers from China and Japan, but acceptance of these became less common with ship availability still low and freight rates remaining high, holding prices back.Two main factors were putting pressure on the market: the bulk freight situation and a potential cut in the...Read More
A key topic reverberating around the Asian steel market over the past month has been the possibility of China reducing steel export rebates to 9% from the current 13%, or possibly axing them altogether.Market chatter on this topic has grown increasingly louder, with industry sources in China hearing more and more details about these plans from late January onward."This is likely in line with China...Read More
A shortage of containers to ship commodities around the world and the consequent soaring in associated freight rates have led to a revival of interest in breakbulk cargoes. Producers and physical traders of metals, agricultural, chemical and timber products have been starting to book shipments in breakbulk vessels, which cost far less and doesn't require vast amounts of equipment in port. On the m...Read More
The Biden administration's focus on US manufacturing and domestic supply chains will benefit established and developing minerals and metals sectors, including steel, rare earths, graphite and lithium.US President Joe Biden's executive order on the strengthening of American manufacturing, which he signed during his first week in office, is expected to have a direct effect on demand for US-produced...Read More
"Frozen stocks" of manganese ore that previously sat at Chinese ports have thawed after suppliers' average costs decreased as a result of them booking cheaper cargoes late last year against the backdrop of a buoyed port market since November, sources told Fastmarkets. The volumes of frozen stocks were seen to have diminished in 2020 compared with a year earlier, and today, there is little sign of...Read More
Extraordinary volatility in London Metal Exchange trading, particularly in tin, may have been prevented, or at least significantly reduced, if the open-outcry trading floor had not been temporarily closed due to Covid-19, the global head of metals at ED&F Man Capital Markets has said.Fred Demler, who is also executive vice president at the Category 1 member of the exchange, said that there had als...Read More
The London Metal Exchange expects participation in trading its contracts to rise if it pushes ahead with incentivizing its electronic platform, based on conversations it has had.But its chief executive officer declined to specify by how much the exchange expects its volumes to increase, nor who the participants are, it added.Addressing the issue during a panel discussion at the virtual Fastmarkets...Read More
Deliverable stocks of base metals at Shanghai Futures Exchange-registered warehouses all grew in the week to Friday March 12, with lead gaining the most in percentage terms at 29.9%.Lead inventories stood at 58,070 tonnes on Friday, up by 13,368tonnes from 44,702 tonnes a week ago.The largest inflows went to the Zhejiang Tianchuan warehouse, up by 8,455 tonnes, or 35.7%, week on week to 32,149 ton...Read More
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