UG2 chrome ore prices continued to rise in the week to Friday January 17 after sellers reported higher bids due to a stronger yuan and market sources are eyeing stronger demand after the Chinese New Year holiday (January 24-30). Fastmarkets' chrome ore South Africa UG2 concentrates index basis 42%, cif China edged up by $1 or 0.7% to $136 per tonne on Friday from $135 per tonne in the previous wee...Read More

Fastmarkets will host a free web seminar on Wednesday February 26 at 10am London time, to discuss the current trends for alumina and the evolution of its pricing.Benchmark alumina prices have been static below $280 per tonne for the past month, with Chinese demand underpinning the market. Register here to join the webinar. Date Wednesday February 26, 2020Time 10am London timeJoin our market expert...Read More

Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia and Europe in the week to Friday January 17.ChinaKey drivers The price of antimony, MMTA standard grade II, ddp China, gained some upward momentum in the latest assessment period, ending Wednesday January 15, after many suppliers raised their offer prices amid a growing number of inquiries.Several antimony consumers, who had maintained low inventorie...Read More

Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia, Europe and the rest of the world for the week ended January 17.ChinaKey drivers Export price for silicon increased by 1.3% week on week amid higher offer prices in the market.Overseas inquiries picked up. Exporters, on average, raised their prices by $20-30 per tonne given the appreciation of the yuan and tight spot supply. There were no deals...Read More

The Turkish deep-sea scrap import markets remained quiet at the beginning of the week, following the sharp price decline that was seen late last week, sources said on Monday January 20.A steel mill in the Izmir region booked a US cargo of 35,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (95:5) at $295 per tonne cfr late on January 15.This would have put the HMS 1&2 (80:20) price at $288 per tonne, compared with a previou...Read More

Ferrous scrap prices in the global markets continued to weaken during the week ended Friday January 17, following the sharp decline in the Turkish market.Turkish prices decline sharply with fresh US tradeUnited States East Coast prices down; West Coast to followPrices in Taiwan and Vietnam fall steadily on soft demandInternational downturn drags down Indian pricesTurkeyPrices for ferrous scrap imp...Read More

The Chinese government published the long-awaited non-ferrous scrap metal renaming criterion on its website late on Friday January 17. This is the latest policy adopted by the world's biggest scrap metal importer. Copper scrap, of copper content ranging 94-99.9% and meeting certain impurities thresholds, will be renamed under five categories of renewable materials. Below is a table translated and...Read More

Broader markets were generally firmer but quiet on Monday January 20, with equities in Asia mainly stronger, as were the base metals, while gold was holding up in high ground.Equities in Asia are consolidating recent gains, but multi-year highs in many regional equity indices suggests sentiment is bullish overall. Markets quiet ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, which start on Friday in China....Read More

Argentinian lithium miner Orocobre has signed two contracts for lithium sales linked to a pricing mechanism for delivery over the next three years.The contracts, for the supply a combined 10,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate to two Chinese cathode manufacturers, follow a trend of companies looking at pricing mechanisms to hedge their risk against price volatility.Lithium carbonate prices have gone d...Read More

* Zinc breaks 200-day moving average * Historically low zinc inventories offer price support(Updates with closing prices)By Pratima DesaiLONDON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Zinc prices rose to two-monthhighs on Monday after a break of key technical levels triggereda flurry of buying and as the market worried about historicallylow inventories.Benchmark zinc on the London Metal Exchange (LME)ended 0.6% up at...Read More

Today is Monday, January 20, 2020, and this is your daily gold market update. Let's look at the latest price of gold, value of the dollar, gold/silver ratio, Commitment of Traders data, and exchange-traded fund (ETF) prices to get a sense of how the yellow metal is faring today.Gold PriceThe price of one troy ounce of gold in U.S. dollars today is $1,563.80. It's up 0.42% from yesterday and up 22....Read More

Today is Monday, January 20, 2020, and this is your daily oil stocks roundup. Today we're looking at the valuations of Alliance Resource Partners LP (NASDAQ: ARLP), Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK), and Callon Petroleum (NYSE: CPE).Alliance Resource Partners LP (NASDAQ: ARLP)Alliance Resource Partners LP (NASDAQ: ARLP) is a $1.409 billion company today with a one-year return of -39.79%. L...Read More

Thank you for joining us in a weekly technical look at the mid-cap oriented INK Canadian Insider (CIN) Index. Last week, the INK CIN found a new gear and took off at top speed. The Index notched a brand new 2020 high, gaining 11.92 points or 1% to 1204.92.MACD added 1.1 points to 0.57. RSI rose 4 points or 5.8% to 69.43. Here we note the Index has so far shrugged off negative divergence and has p...Read More

Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe have increased with support from good demand and a lack of competitive import offers, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday January 20.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, ex-works Northern Europe, rose to ?,?449.48 ($498.39) per tonne on January 20, up by ?,?5.70 per tonne from ?,?443.78 per tonne on January 17.The index was...Read More

China's steel refining and rerolling industry's capacity utilization rate was 80.2% in the fourth quarter of 2019, above the national industrial average of 77.5%, according to figures from the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Friday January 17.The country's industrial capacity utilization rate of 77.5% was 1.5 percentage points higher than the corresponding period a year e...Read More

Prices in Asia's hot-rolled coil market are poised for more upticks immediately after the Lunar New Year holiday, according to industry sources."There is a sense of tightness in HRC supply in Asia, especially with fewer cargoes heading to the region from March and April," a source at a major re-roller in Vietnam said.This is largely due to an expected decrease in shipments from Indian steelmakers...Read More

A summary of the financial results for Russia's largest steelmaker, Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), for both the fourth quarter of 2019 and the full year.In briefOutput and sales over the full year of 2019 were both affected by the major works being carried out on the company's blast furnace at Lipetsk, but these began to recover in the fourth quarter once the work was completed.Full year 2019 Steel out...Read More

China's steel refining and rerolling industry's capacity utilization rate was 80.2% in the fourth quarter of 2019, above the national industrial average of 77.5%, according to figures from the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Friday January 17.The country's industrial capacity utilization rate of 77.5% was 1.5 percentage points higher than the corresponding period a year e...Read More

Falling ferrous scrap prices have dulled sentiment in Singapore's rebar import market over the past week. The weekly Fastmarkets price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) import, cfr Singapore - which mainly looks at cargoes sold into Singapore on a theoretical-weight basis - was $455-465 per tonne for the week to Monday January 20, widening from $465 per tonne a week earlier.Turkish reba...Read More

Bill Holter is currently a writer for Miles Franklin and Jim Sinclair's Mineset where he posts weekly commentaries on gold and financial markets. Prior to joining Miles Franklin in 2012, Bill Holter Worked as a retail stockbroker for 23 years, including 12 years as a branch manager at A.G. Edwards. Later, he left Wall Street to avoid potential liabilities related to management of paper assets. Bil...Read More