Participants in the seaborne coking coal market are maintaining a bearish outlook amid quiet trading, with many divided on the price gap between premium low-vol and mid-vol cargoes.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $134.16 per tonne, up by $1.78 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $146.36 per tonne, up by $1.28 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $123.21 per tonn...Read More

Prices for mid-grade seaborne iron ore slid below $85 per tonne cfr China on Monday November 4, the first time since August 30.Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $83.27 per tonne, down $2.29 per tonne.62% Fe Pilbara Blend fines, cfr Qingdao: $83.09 per tonne, down $2.29 per tonne.62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $82.71 per tonne, down $2.23 per tonne.58% Fe fines high-pre...Read More

Copper miner Antofagasta has cut its 2019 copper production guidance by 10,000 tonnes after demonstrations and unrest affected its operations in Chile.Antofagasta reduced its full-year output guidance to 750,000-770,000 tonnes of copper, from its previous estimate of 750,000-790,000 tonnes.Production from the company's mines was halted amid walkouts from unionized workers and road blockades, but h...Read More

The UG2 chrome ore index slid again in China after poor demand prompted suppliers to lower their offers in the week to Friday November 1, while falling ferro-chrome supply in Europe helped the regional high-carbon market edge up by 0.6%. Suppliers cut offers for chrome ore amid weak demand  Chinese spot alloy prices flat in thin trading  Alloy supply tightens in Europe  US price ma...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday November 4 that are worth another look.AM Investco, the consortium led by ArcelorMittal that was put together to purchase Italian steelmaker Ilva, is pulling out of the deal, ArcelorMittal said on November 4.Shanghai-bonded copper stocks continued to fall in October, but the decline was slower than in September due to the re...Read More

The T?-a Mar?-a copper project in Peru, run by Southern Copper Corp (SCC), is still short of the approvals needed to move towards operation, despite being green-lit by the country's mining council, minister of energy and mines, Juan Carlos Liu, said in a statement on Sunday November 3.SCC was only authorized to begin construction of the site's copper processing plant on October 30, and its environ...Read More

AS Mauskar and N Bhavsar of Bank Muscat led the base metals leaderboard again in the Apex third-quarter 2019 contest, with an accuracy rating of 96.9%, while UBS' Glyn Lawcock was top of the precious metals table with a rating of 97.6%. For steel raw materials, Fastmarkets was at the top of the leaderboard at 90.6% accuracy. Click on the image below to download the full report. Second on the base...Read More

Shanghai-bonded copper stocks continued to fall in October, but the decline was slower than in September due to the relatively limited amount of metal available, wide arbitrage losses and fewer working days last month.Fastmarkets assessed Shanghai-bonded copper stocks at 253,000-256,000 tonnes at the end of October, a drop of 13.3% from 292,000-295,000 tonnes at the end of September, which was pub...Read More

The three-month zinc price on the London Metal Exchange was higher during morning trading on Monday November 4, with price action keeping comfortably above the $2,500 per tonne support level due to high turnover and tight forward spreads. Zinc's outright price on the LME was recently $2,529 per tonne, with more than 2,000 lots exchanged as of 9am London time. Fresh zinc outflow of 625 tonnes this...Read More

The nickel market must switch its focus to class-one nickel production if it is to meet projected battery demand, analysts said during London Metal Exchange Week 2019. Analysts are concerned that traditional production focus on stainless steel may prevent adequate supply of battery-preferential nickel coming online even though this sector will eventually eclipse stainless steel demand. "The exciti...Read More

Turkey imported 602,707 tonnes of flat steel in September 2019, down by 5.07% from the corresponding month in 2018, when 634,898 tonnes arrived in the country, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) said last week.Turkey's domestic market has been in the doldrums since September 2018, when trade relations with the United States soured after US President Donald Trump doubled the import tariff on...Read More

CIS export wire rod prices have softened at the beginning of November on limited demand in the major sales outlets, according to market sources.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel wire rod (mesh quality), export, fob Black Sea, CIS, was $420-430 per tonne on Monday November 4, down by $10 on the lower end.Recent offers for Russian wire rod were heard at $430 per tonne fob last week. No...Read More

AM Investco, the consortium led by ArcelorMittal that was put together to purchase Italian steelmaker Ilva, is pulling out of the deal, ArcelorMittal said on Monday November 4.The consortium has sent a notice to the Ilva commissioners indicating that it intends to withdraw from the agreement for the lease and subsequent conditional purchase of the Ilva business and certain subsidiaries.ArcelorMitt...Read More

With competition in the global steel markets still fierce, Fastmarkets provides an update on the new, progressing and closed trade cases from around the world in October 2019.The case list below includes only updates. For other continuing cases,...Read More

RAPAPORT... De Beers has restated its estimation of global diamond-jewelry sales following a new study valuing the diamond content in jewelry purchases since the 2008 recession. The group also revised its production data to reflect lower output than previously believed, stemming from an overestimation of the artisanal mining sector. Global diamond jewelry demand rose 2.4% to $76 billion in 2018, d...Read More

A summary of the financial results of German metals distributor Kl??ckner & Co for the third quarter of 2019.Kl??ckner & Co attributed a significant year-on-year decrease in operating income to low steel prices and weak demand,Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) ?,?26 million, down from ?,?59 million in...Read More

RAPAPORT... Revenue from the retail division of Berkshire Hathawayincreased 5% to $4.04 billion in the third quarter, the company reportedSaturday. The improvement in the division, which includes jewelrychains Borsheims, Helzberg Diamonds and Ben Bridge Jeweler, was buoyed in largepart by the company's car business, including sales of pre-owned vehicles,automotive financing, and repair work....Read More

RAPAPORT... Two gem labs have joined forces to identify a method for determining whether a pink diamond came from the Argyle mine in Australia, and are issuing lab reports confirming their provenance.Beginning in 2014, the team, led by Branko Deljanin,director and colored-diamond specialist at Canadian Gemlab (CGL), begancollecting natural pink diamonds from the mine in Western Australia...Read More

RAPAPORT... The diamond industry has much riding on this holiday season, having endured tough market conditions in 2019. While the trade reduced inventory levels in the third quarter, a large quantity of less popular items remain available. Meanwhile, US jewelry retailers are growing more conservative about buying inventory, taking more goods on memo and increasingly using technology to boost sale...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Christie's New York has become embroiled in a dispute over the sale of a $40 million pink diamond known as The Princie Diamond. The diamond was sold by a member of the Qatari royal family in 2013.A lawsuit by Amedeo Angiolillo claims that the auction house sold the diamond despite his objections. As reported by The Telegraph, Christie's said that not only does Angiol...Read More