The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Comfortable consolidationAluminium appears comfortable consolidating for the moment, and this will leave prices in a stronger position to challenge overhanging long-term trend-line resistance from the May 2018 high, which stands at $1,670 per tonne currently.Copper: Consolidation unlikely to lastCopper reached its...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: Upside breakout last weekThe price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange surprised us with a break to the upside in the week ended July 10, when prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange raced to three-and-a-half-year highs. While we think there is more short-term upside potential if technical and liquidity fact...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.US market under pressureUS prices for welded pipe products were under pressure because market participants, especially distributors, have started to take steps to generate cash and were moving material if they were able to do so, even if it meant selling at low prices.We expect more such "fire sales" in the coming months, bu...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.August 2020 has seen the prices of most steel products move up in tandem around the world, in contrast to recent months when steel prices have moved in different directions depending on the market.This dynamic has been seen in most coated steel markets as well, with the prices for hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG), pre-painted...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.US market at risk of slidingPrices for pipe products were at a floor in the United States in mid-August, and have been broadly stable at that level since the start of the second quarter, but they are at risk of declining further in the coming months.Drilling rig counts have yet to find a floor and have fallen below most esti...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key North American steel forecast highlights:US domestic prices for hot-rolled coil moved down in line with our expectations, averaging $461 per ton in July versus our forecast price of $460 per ton. Although domestic HRC prices slipped to less than $450 per ton in late July/early August, we maintain the view th...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

RAPAPORT... The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) has named Kim Pelletier as CEO of its Get Diamonds trading platform, it said Monday.Pelletier is a former vice president for sales and marketing at diamond-trading site Polygon. She was most recently president of IGC Jewelry & Diamonds, has served as vice president of Hearts On Fire, Memoire and John Hardy, and was a field directo...Read More

RAPAPORT... The organizers of Swiss gem and jewelry show GemGen??ve have canceled this year's event as travel restrictions and health precautions have made it too challenging.The coronavirus "has made it impossible for GemGen??ve to be the interactive experience that we intend it to be," the group said Sunday.GemGen??ve will fully reimburse all exhibitors who signed up for the fair, which was due...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In previous reports, we noted that upside risks to our forecasts existed. These were based on Chinese steel production, and in turn alloy consumption, outperforming our expectations.Chinese crude steel production is rising each month in a year-on-year comparison, prompting our revised view that Chinese alloy consumption will...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Troubled Petra Diamonds has yet to receive any offers from potential buyers as its debts mounts and revenue slumps.The UK-listed miner launched a formal sales process in June to sell the company either as a whole or in parts.Petra, founded by Adonis Pouroulis in 1997, bought the famous Cullinan mine, in South Africa, and other deposits deemed unprofitable by De Beers, including the...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.The Covid-19 pandemic and the associated impacts on steel production, mining and manufacturing activity, end-use consumption, and trade and transportation continue to dominate ferro-alloy markets. US steel mills are operating at around 50% of capacity, with similarly low operating rates evident in Europe as well. Chinese ste...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Ultra-rare pink diamonds from the soon-to-close Argyle mine are expected to fetch $750,000 at auction in Australia.Rio Tinto's closure of the famed deposit in in Western Australia after 37 years is likely to boost demand and prices."This pink diamond is beyond rare and is in extremely high demand world-wide so we feel very privileged to see one a year but to have a few in the...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Tiffany & Co has reported encouraging signs of a recovery, with a rise in monthly worldwide net sales from May to July, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Retail sales in mainland China picked up in April and increased about 90 per cent in May, said the luxury jeweler in an earnings statement, and online sales more than doubled.   "Increased sales in mainland China and global...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The GIA could close its Antwerp lab with the loss of 51 jobs in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.Trades union bosses fear the premises in the Belgian city could become nothing more than a drop-off point for stones to be sent abroad."Apparently, over the past few months, they immediately forwarded incoming diamonds to the United States," Yves Toutenel, of ACV Transcom told the Provi...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In the year 2020 to date in late August, the Fastmarkets 62% Fe iron ore benchmark has powered along and reached six-year highs, supported by Chinese demand, and despite the global economic uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic. Iron ore demand has weakened almost everywhere except in China, where it has continued to...Read More

RAPAPORT... Rough trading does not incur India's new e-commerce tax, the country's Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) confirmed after meeting with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.India introduced the equalization levy on April 1 for all overseas e-commerce operators. The minister explained that the new tax applied only to digital consumer sales and not business-to-business...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.There has been an increasing bullishness in Chinese steel market sentiment recently, with rising post-Covid-19 optimism about the country's economy for the second half of 2020, especially after the government announced an infrastructure spending boost. Although we believe that high prices are justified, they remain far from...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Heavy rains in China, which can negatively affect iron ore supplies and pig iron production, and bolster demand for scrap, continued in July 2020. Although this was more an upside risk to our bearish base case one month ago, Chinese scrap prices remained strong. The firm prices gained support from the rains and from a more g...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This year has come with several unexpected events which increased the bullish case for iron ore prices, while the Chinese government's spending on infrastructure is likely to boost iron ore demand and add upside support to prices. But supply disruptions and a demand surge which caused price spikes are now easing. We do not e...Read More