Hot-rolled coil prices in Asia continued to gain last week, but some buyers in Vietnam have started to delay making further purchases amid expectations that the market could start to pull back.Fastmarkets' assessment for steel HRC import, cfr Vietnam, which mainly looks at Chinese 2-3mm re-rolling-grade SAE1006 HRC and equivalent products sold into Vietnam, was $450-460 per tonne cfr Vietnam&...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday November 25 that are worth another look.Brazilian rebar suppliers ArcelorMittal and Gerdau have announced a price hike of up to 12% for January orders, Fastmarkets understands.Seaborne manganese ore prices for both grades rose by more than 1% in the week ended Friday November 22 after sentiment improved in response to r...Read More
Brazilian rebar suppliers ArcelorMittal and Gerdau have announced a price hike of up to 12% for January orders, Fastmarkets understands. Steelmakers have been trying to increase the price of rebar in the country since September, with Gerdau pushing for a 7% rise in that month. But the market only started to recover in October and the hike was lower than suppliers expected. Fastmarkets' most recent...Read More
Steel producers in the Middle East asked for more protectionism against cheap imports in 2019 and this trend is expected to continue in 2020.GCCThe Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries started a safeguard investigation on several steel products in October this year. The investigation covers the period from January 2014 to June 2019 and focuses on hot-rolled flat products, rebar, wire rod, sec...Read More
StrengthsThe best performing precious metal this week was palladium, up 3.85 percent. Shipments of palladium from Switzerland to Hong Kong rose to a five-year high in October. In the weekly Bloomberg survey of gold traders and analysts, most respondents were surprisingly bullish on the yellow metal for next week, expecting further tension between the U.S. and China over Hong Kong. President of...Read More
Turkish steel producers made no deep-sea scrap purchases on the first working day of the week, but are still expected to buy more cargoes for December delivery, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday November 25.Mills booked four deep-sea cargoes last week at steady prices. The latest bookings were from the Baltic Sea region and sold at $260 per tonne and $261 per tonne cfr for HMS 1&2 (80:20)."I thin...Read More
Seaborne iron ore prices rose further on Monday November 25, with the 62% Fe index getting back above $90 per tonne cfr for the first time in over a month.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $90.92 per tonne, up $2.84 per tonne.62% Fe Pilbara Blend fines, cfr Qingdao: $90.95 per tonne, up $2.84 per tonne.62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $90.31 per tonne, up $2.84...Read More
Steve's 2016 prediction that the Fed would eventually be forced to return to QE and why current events prove it trueCosts and benefits of QE in the real worldPrivate debt and the inflated corporate bond market as a result of QE translates to higher risk for the next financial crisisSteve Keen is an Australian-born, British-based economist and author. He considers himself a post-Keynesian, criticis...Read More
These are the good times, but why are subprime credit cards, auto loans, and short-term installment loans blowing out?Wolf Richter is the founder of Wolf Street Corp and the publisher of WolfStreet.com. Wolf has over twenty years of C-level operations experience, including turnarounds and a VC-funded startup. He has a BA, MA, and MBA (UT at Austin). In his prior life, he worked in Texas and Oklaho...Read More
Today's guest, Kerry Lutz, shares his thoughts on the economy and why he thinks the financial system is in big trouble. During our discussion Kerry outlines the problems and then shares his approach towards preparing for an uncertain future. Read More
"Manufacturers are virtually immune from product liability, so the incentive to develop safer products is much diminished. Manufacturers may even refuse to makeContinue...Read More
The most shocking thing about the House impeachment hearings to this point is not a "smoking gun" witness providing irrefutable evidence of quid pro quo. It's not that President Trump may or may not have asked the Ukrainians to look into business deals between then-Vice President Biden's son and a Ukrainian oligarch.The most shocking thing to come out of the hearings thus far is confirmation that...Read More
Harley Schlanger's work can be found at LaRouchePAC.com.Read More
If Trump should be impeached for asking Ukraine to "investigate" when Biden demanded to end an investigation, then shouldn't Biden have been impeached as well?Continue...Read More
China is slowly and surely going down the path of Japan. It is aging rapidly as bad bank debts pile up.Continue...Read More
The most likely scenario is that U.S. companies have largely eaten the cost of tariffs by dealing with lower profit margins.Continue...Read More
Bitcoin fell $3,000 in just a month as China accelerated its crackdown on companies involved in cryptocurrency operations.Continue...Read More
"The gold symbolizes the strength of the country." Continue...Read More
Risk appetite is in vogue to start the week after China said over the weekend it will step up its efforts to protect intellectual property rights.Continue...Read More
Seaborne iron ore concentrate and pellet prices rose last week amid a general rebound in the market. ConcentrateFastmarkets' weekly index for iron ore 66% Fe concentrate, cfr Qingdao rose by $6.58 per tonne to $100.55 per tonne last Friday November 22. The daily Fastmarkets index for iron ore 65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qingdao averaged $98.30 per tonne last week, up $4.80 per tonne from an av...Read More