The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:?EUR?In a strong start to the year, January saw ore and alloy pricing gains across all markets priced by Fastmarkets - with the exception of Chinese silicon metal export prices, which retreated slightly last month after posting impressive gains in December 2020.The combination...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Fastmarkets analysts were invited to present our outlook for the coking coal market at Coaltrans Asia, held online on November 23-25. One of the key topics at the event was the trade tensions between China and Australia, which overtook Mongolia to become the largest coking coal exporter to China this year...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron ore remains the most bullish commodity of the year, with prices fuelled by Chinese demand and supply disruptions in Brazil, along with bullish sentiment. But prices are expected to come down because Brazilian exports have begun to recover, and have reached their highest level since the Brumadinho dam disaster in 2019. W...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In the iron ore market, supply issues including heavy rains at the start of the year, followed by staffing problems during the Covid-19 pandemic, have affected exports from Brazil. This has helped Australia gain a larger market share, but since June, Brazilian export volumes have returned to levels last seen before the...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

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Recent weeks have brought two key developments with regard to trade policy on stainless steel products that will be to the detriment of consumers.In China, the country's stainless steelmakers no longer enjoy a 13% export rebate as of May 1, reducing greatly their incentive to export and instead leading them to focus on supply...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices and margins for stainless steel producers have risen notably over the past few months in both Europe and the United States, but there are now signs that the rally is petering out.A clear reason for the halt to rising prices comes from the near 20% drop in nickel prices seen in late February/early March,...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.With nickel prices down by almost 20% over the space of around ten days during late February and early March, one might have been expecting us to be reporting sharply-lower prices of stainless steel, at least for the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel.This is not the case, at least in Europe and the Unite...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.We spoke in our previous tracker of stainless steel prices ending 2020 on a high. That trend has continued during early 2021 and, in fact, the upward rally in prices has increased its momentum.Compared with the monthly price increase of some 5% seen at the end of 2020, prices for grade-304 stainless steel in al...Read More

Positive sentiment as demand outpaces supply. US retail upbeat; May jewelry sales +203% year on year and +45% vs. May 2019, says Mastercard. Rising expectations for 2H but concern that inflation surge will curb consumer spending. Some jewelers delaying inventory replacement until more polished becomes available. Suppliers' polished prices firm amid escalating rough costs and anticipated Alrosa pri...Read More

RAPAPORT... Swiss watch exports saw a limited recovery in May as the coronavirus continued to affect activity in several major markets.Global shipments were 12% lower than in the same month of 2019, amounting to CHF 1.8 billion ($1.97 billion), the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry said Thursday. Exports rose 174% year on year, but that reflected a comparison with the Covid-19 downturn in May...Read More

RAPAPORT... Debswana, De Beers' joint venture with the Botswana government, has discovered a 1,098-carat rough diamond, one of the largest in history.The company found the "high gem-quality" stone at its Jwaneng mine on June 1, it said on Wednesday. It will work with the government and De Beers to value and sell the diamond, aiming to maximize returns for the people of Botswana."This is the l...Read More

RAPAPORT... Two philosophies have emerged regarding how the lab-grown market will develop.The first sees synthetics in the same space as natural stones, graded according to carat size, cut, color and clarity, and priced at a discount to the equivalent natural diamond. That is how the market has evolved organically.The second ideology is the one De Beers has touted in releasing its Lightbox line. I...Read More

(IDEX Online) - American rapper Post Malone has spent $1.6m having a pair of "diamond teeth" fitted.He had 12 carats specially cut to fit between existing teeth and replace his upper canines.Twenty-five-year-old Post Malone - real name Austin Richard Post - has 77 tattoos on his face and elsewhere, and has amassed an estimated net worth of $30m since his debut album Stoney in 2016.His dentist, Bev...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A huge rough diamond, described as the third largest in the world at 1,098 carats, has been recovered by Debswana at its Jwaneng mine, in Botswana.The biggest diamond ever is the 3,106-carat Cullinan found in South Africa in 1905 - used in the British Crown Jewels - followed by the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona discovered in Botswana in 2015.The newly-recovered stone (pictured) measur...Read More

The upward momentum in cobalt spot prices continued on Thursday June 17 with prices rising for the second consecutive day, and traders becoming aggressive in the market after sensing a return of demand.Fastmarkets' price assessment for cobalt, standard grade, in whs Rotterdam, was $20.20-20.95 per lb on Thursday. This was up from $20.10-20.70 per lb the previous day.https://www.metalbulletin.com/M...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Chow Tai Fook, the largest jewelry retailer in Asia, has joined CIBJO in a move that's been described as a "giant milestone".CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, promotes international cooperation in the industry and describes itself as "the United Nations of the jewellery business".Kent Wong, managing director at Chow Tai Fook, which has over 4,590 stores, said: "It is i...Read More

The whole London Metal Exchange complex fell on Thursday June 17 due to a high US dollar, with zinc and lead the hardest hit.The US Dollar Index touched 91.93 on Thursday, its highest level since April 13. This followed a more hawkish view expressed by the US Federal Reserve regarding inflation and interest rates, delivered on June 17.The three-month price of zinc fell the furthest, to $2,911.50 p...Read More

The United States has published a strategy for lithium-ion battery manufacturing which calls for the elimination of cobalt and nickel from the cathode by the end of the current decade.It intends to achieve this through research and development into new technologies, with the goal of establishing a domestic battery supply chain that meets the demands of the growing electric vehicle (EV) and electri...Read More

Joseph Carrabba, formerly chairman, president and chief executive officer of Cleveland-Cliffs, has been named CEO of ElementUS Minerals, the company has said.Carrabba was at Cleveland-Cliffs, at one point known as Cliffs Natural Resources, from 2005 to 2013. Prior to this, he had spent more than 20 years in executive leadership at Rio Tinto, holding positions in its North American, Australian, Asi...Read More