Spot availability for cobalt hydroxide remained tight in late June, with many suppliers sold out for July cargoes and taking time to gauge how much material they will be able to offer in August amid shipment uncertainties from South Africa, sources told Fastmarkets this week.Fastmarkets' cobalt hydroxide payable indicator, min 30% Co, cif China stood at 65-67% on Wednesday July 1, unchanged since...Read More

Brazilian iron ore export volumes increased by 1.3% year on year in June, according to figures released by the country's economy ministry on Wednesday July 1.Shipment volumes totaled 30.05 million tonnes last month, compared with 29.66 million tonnes in June 2019.Exports also rose by 40% from May's total of 21.5 million tonnes.In May, there were concerns about the supply of iron...Read More

Tariffs on low-carbon aluminium imports into the European Union should be eliminated to help power the region's Covid-19 recovery package and climate transition strategy, according to the chairman of En+ Group. Warning against the widespread use of high-carbon metals, Lord Gregory Barker said the removal of tariffs would be an urgent measure that can help European manufacturers grow a global marke...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday July 1 that are worth another look.Brazilian iron ore pellet producer Samarco is on schedule to resume operations by the end of 2020 despite health and safety measures taken to prevent Covid-19 from spreading among workers, the company told Fastmarkets on July 1.Industry associations up and down the steel and metals supply chain...Read More

Stefan Gleason, Money Metals ExchangeAs third quarter trading kicks off following a tumultuous first half of the year, investors are hoping for an auspicious July.Both stocks and precious metals posted impressive advances in the second quarter. The S&P 500 finished the April-June period with a gain of nearly 20%, its best quarterly performance since 1998. The Dow Jones Industrials, meanwhile, po...Read More

By: Jan Nieuwenhuijs, Voima GoldAn interview with the gentlemen behind the website "WTF Happened in 1971?" The last remnants of the gold standard were abandoned in August 1971, when President of the United States Richard Nixon decided to close the gold window (foreigners couldn't redeem dollars for gold at the Treasury anymore). From 1945 until 1971, the U.S. dollar was backed by gold, and serv...Read More

I've been wondering what might provide the catalyst to push the Dow above 30,000, and this may be it, from Bloomberg: "A strain of virus spreading in Chinese pigs has shown it can also infect humans, with researchers suggesting that another pathogen with pandemic potential waits in the wings behind Covid-19." There's no telling how much stimulus we'd see if a new virus takes wing before we've...Read More

Industrial metal demand and energies demand will be much higher than the second quarter. World will never be in lockdown mode for the rest of the year. Cities, localities, districts may be locked down but never a nation. Demand for metals and energies will be there. Pace of demand will vary each month in every nation. Human have to live with COVID. Wearing mask and other precautions need to be t...Read More

The mining industry does a huge amount of good for local communities, to say nothing of its essential contribution to society through the materials it produces. Unfortunately, it all too often manages to give itself a bad name, worsening negative perceptions of the sector through accidents, spills and a failure to act as a steward of the environments in which it operates. In the past month alone,...Read More

The threat of Section 232 tariffs on aluminium imports from Canada into the United States has, like the great white shark following the Brody family in the universally panned film, 'Jaws: The Revenge,' returned - akin to a truly awful horror movie franchise. And that's how Neil Herrington, senior vice president for the Americas, US Chamber of Commerce, views reports that the US administration is c...Read More

The London Metal Exchange recently reiterated its willingness to facilitate spot trading of low carbon aluminium. While not a new concept for the exchange, it would serve two important purposes. First, it would provide more transparent, digitalized data on the specification of its aluminium brands and determine whether people are actually paying more for low carbon metal. Second, it would pro...Read More

The London Metal Exchange three-month copper price was slightly higher at the close on Wednesday July 1, with high turnover and strong demand from Asia keeping price action firmly above nearby support levels, while lead futures lagged behind over the day. LME copper's outright price closed at $6,061 per tonne on Wednesday, climbing from an intraday low of $5,995 per tonne, while daily turnover bre...Read More

The London Metal Exchange may introduce significant changes to its options offering, with plans to develop an electronic options market in tandem with the exchange's current inter-office method. The exchange sent out a discussion paper to members on Wednesday July 1 detailing proposed changes it says could attract a host of new customers into trading its products. Options would be traded through t...Read More

The London Metal Exchange three-month copper price held the previous day's gains, trading up 0.8% to $6,063.50 per tonne during the morning on Wednesday July 1, with ongoing supply concerns and positive China PMI shoring up demand and buoying copper futures."Copper advanced on Wednesday. It gained more than 20% in the second quarter, making up for the loss in the first three months of the year," M...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Capped by oversupplyA lack of a meaningful supply adjustment to the Covid-19 demand hit is keeping the aluminium physical market oversupplied and weighing on prices, limiting the success of more buoyant macro and technical forces on prices. Our premium forecasts are under review in light of threats from the U...Read More

And for gold? They can't let the markets show the fear after it was discovered Shanghai had far more Copper than Gold in their...submitted by J. Johnson via JS MinesetGreat and Wonderful First Day of July Folks, They can't let the markets show the fear after it was discovered Shanghai had far more Copper than Gold in their Gold bars with Gold now down $4.80 at $1,795.70 after a new high wa...Read More

A WHOPPER amount of silver is standing for deliver on the COMEX...by Harvey Organ of Harvey Organ BlogJUNE 30//GOLD UP A STRONG $16.50 TO $1783.50//SILVER UP 39 CENTS TO $18.20//GOLD STANDING FOR JULY 13.96 TONNES/SILVER STANDING FOR JULY 84 MILLION OZ/CORONAVIRUS UPDATES//USA REVOKES HONG KONG'S SPECIAL STATUS//CHINA'S XI PASSES THE NATIONAL SECURITY LAWS//EU BANS USA TRAVEL ENTRIES//SWAMP STORI...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Poised for a technical breakoutFears over a second wave of Covid-19 continue to grow, forcing prices of aluminium and the other base metals to take a pause. Our base-case scenario is that countries will respond more efficiently to contain the virus spread, so economic activity and metal demand should continue to r...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Demand outlook revisedWe are not surprised to see aluminium prices retreat from last week's high after flagging up in recent reports that they had become overbought. 'Sell-the-rally' traders will be targeting the April high now, down at $1,534 per tonne. This week we have reviewed our aluminium demand forecasts fo...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Short-term upside targets achievedLME aluminium's price recovery to $1,600 per tonne has been driven by macro forces acting on all metals, and amplified for aluminium by technical factors after prices became so oversold at the double-bottom lows in April and May. With a 4-million-tonne supply surplus this year, al...Read More