The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was lower during morning trading on Monday January 27, with macro risk-off sentiment prompting a 2.5% decline, while zinc futures followed lower. Nickel's outright price on the LME was recently seen at $12,655 per tonne, below Friday's closing price of $12,950 per tonne with some 1,800 lots exchanged as of 9:20am London time. Prompting down...Read More

The CIS slab export price strengthened in new deals in the week to Monday January 27, as customers accepted higher prices amid positive dynamics in the finished flat steel market, sources said.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel slab, export, fob Black Sea, CIS, rose by $5 or 1% to $425-430 per tonne on Monday, from $420-425 per tonne previously.Early last week, a cargo of Ukrainian sla...Read More

Bank Muscat's Nishant Bhavsar and Ajit Mauskar led Fastmarkets' Apex 2019 leaderboard for base metals analysis with an accuracy rate of 97.93%. In second place for base metals, SP Angel's John Meyer, Sergey Raevskiy and Simon Beardsmore notched an accuracy rating of 97.31%, while Emirates NBD's Edward Bell took third place at 97.11%. Capital Economics' Kieran Clancy was in fourth place with a...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday January 27 that are worth another look.The Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the United States will be applied to select downstream steel and aluminium products, President Donald Trump announced late on Friday January 24.The discount for copper scrap imported into China has narrowed in Ja...Read More

The discount to the price of ferro-nickel in China has fallen to an all-time low amid building competition from Indonesian NPI supply and larger discounts assigned to quarterly contracts, Fastmarkets heard.Fastmarkets' assessment for ferro-nickel with 26-32% nickel content, cif China fell to a discount of $1,800-2,000 per tonne on Monday January 27, refreshing last month's lowest level and down 58...Read More

Greek authorities will liquidate majority-state-owned multi-metal miner Larco, one of Europe's largest ferro-nickel producers, before selling off assets to investors, the country's energy minister Kostis Hatzidakis said on Monday January 27.The company has been in difficulty for some 35 years and is currently one of the worst-performing in Greece, with debts totalling in excess of ?,?400 million w...Read More

The uranium spot price has hovered around US$25 per lb. over the better part of the last year and long-term pricing is at the US$32 per lb. level. The prolonged bear market and weak macro-environment continue to erode investor confidence in the primary uranium producers, which in some cases have been forced to curtail output to trim operating costs and stem losses.Market stresses on uranium produc...Read More

ONTARIO - The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announced that it has signed a number of agreements with landowners in South Bruce, Ont., that will allow sufficient access to land for studies at a potential deep geological repository location.In a press release, the NWMO said the community is one of two potential host areas that remain in the site selection process for the project. The...Read More

The discount for copper scrap imported into China has narrowed in January with the level expected to remain flat until the scrap renaming policy takes effect in July.Fastmarkets assessed the copper scrap No2 copper (birch/cliff) imported into China 94-96%, LME/Comex discount, cif China at 33-37 cents per lb on Monday January 27, compared with 35-40 cents per lb a month earlier. Deals were reported...Read More

The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was lower during morning trading on Monday January 27, with macro risk-off sentiment prompting a 2.5% decline, while zinc futures followed lower. Nickel's outright price on the LME was recently seen at $12,655 per tonne, below Friday's closing price of $12,950 per tonne with some 1,800 lots exchanged as of 9:20am London time. Prompting down...Read More

Brazil's apparent steel use fell in both December 2019 and over the full year, compared with the corresponding figures for 2018, because of weaker domestic sales and imports, local steel association Instituto A??o Brasil said on Thursday January 23.Apparent consumption was 1.52 million tonnes in December, a 4.1% year-on-year decrease from 1.58 million tonnes, according to the association.Flat-roll...Read More

RAPAPORT... Diamcor Mining's rough-diamond sales were flat year on year in the third fiscal quarter, as a shift to lower-quality goods led to a drop in the average price.The company sold 13,218 carats for $1.4 million during the period ending December 31 at an average price of $107 per carat, it said last week. That compared to the $1.4 million it earned during the same period the previous ye...Read More

RAPAPORT... Petra Diamonds' shares fell 11% in early trading Monday after the miner reported a slide in revenue resulting from weak rough prices.Revenue fell 6% to $193.9 million in the first fiscal half ending December 31, while sales volume was stable at 1.7 million carats, Petra said Monday.Rough prices fell 10% due to the weak market, while a poorer product mix from Petra's Finsch mine in...Read More

Steel plate prices in the United States are stable, with market participants reporting lackluster restocking rates at service centers and short lead times at mills. "It appears that the prices are stalling out," one plate consumer said. Some market participants said that mills' price increases at the end of 2019 were premature. The hikes might have pulled forward some buying that otherwise wo...Read More

RAPAPORT... Martin Rapaport will be one of a number of speakers at this year's Palm Beach Show, where he will give a lecture explaining the challenges and opportunities in the diamond trade.The 17th edition of the annual event, previously known as the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show, will feature exhibitors from the jewelry, art, antique and design industries in one location.Other...Read More

RAPAPORT... Rough-diamond sales at Alrosa fell 26% in 2019 as an oversupply in the midstream led to weaker demand.Revenue for the year dropped to $3.27 billion, while the average selling price slid 16% to $98 per carat, the Russian miner said last week. Sales volume slipped 12% to 33.4 million carats, with manufacturers purchasing fewer diamonds in an effort to offload excess inventory.Produc...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Sales of fine jewelry and fine watches continued to rise in November 2019, increasing 3 percent compared to November 2018, as seen in the graph below. This marks the fifth successive month of positive sales. If the results are down slightly over October - just 0.2 of a percent - it's still evidence that there is some momentum in the market. OutlookWhile many jewelry retai...Read More

Sentiment in the rough diamond market was “slightly more optimistic” towards the end of 2019 and has remained “relatively positive” as the market prepares for the first selling cycle of 2020, Canadian miner Mountain Province reports.The company, which is a 49% participant with De Beers in Gahcho Kué diamond mine located in Canada's Northwest Territories, states t...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Petra Diamonds Limited has announced that while its production for the six months ended December 2019 was up 3 percent to 2,070,240 carats (H1 FY 2019: 2,019,147 carats), revenue for the same period was down 6 percent. Revenue fell to $193.9 million from 1,743,807 carats (H1 FY 2019: $207.1 million from 1,736,357 carats).The decline in revenue comes from lower diamond prices and th...Read More

The price of steel billet fell in most regions during the week ended Friday January 24, due to the continuing slide in ferrous scrap prices in Turkey.The downturn in Turkish deep-sea scrap import prices hit scrap prices in other regions and resulted in a further fall in billet prices.A steel mill in the Iskenderun region booked a UK cargo comprising 22,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $277 per ton...Read More