The London Metal Exchange base metals prices remained under pressure on Wednesday September 23, with the benchmark prices for all metals retreating during the day's trading.Fastmarkets analyst Boris Mikanikrezai noted that the US dollar pushed higher for a fourth consecutive day, "producing deflationary pressure on commodity prices."The general dollar index was last seen at 94.22, up by 0.24."Copp...Read More

Long lead times and a reduced domestic output have combined with a lack of competitive import offers to drive up the local price for hot-rolled coil in Europe, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?487.61 ($572.17) per tonne on Wednesday September 23, up by ?,?2.26 per tonne from ?,?485.35 per tonne on Tuesd...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday September 23 that are worth another look.A blast furnace at Usiminas' Ipatinga unit in Brazil's southeastern Minas Gerais state caught on fire during maintenance work on Tuesday, only a month after being restarted, but there were no expectations of any effect on deliveries,...Read More

Chinese stainless steel producers have increased their consumption of stainless steel scrap in the last two months in an attempt to reduce their input costs, particularly those for ferro-alloys, with nickel prices soaring since mid-July, sources told Fastmarkets.Chinese stainless steel producers typically use a combination of nickel pig iron (NPI), stainless scrap and ferro-alloys for production.T...Read More

The London Metal Exchange base metals prices remained under pressure on Wednesday September 23, with the benchmark prices for all metals retreating during the day's trading.Fastmarkets analyst Boris Mikanikrezai noted that the US dollar pushed higher for a fourth consecutive day, "producing deflationary pressure on commodity prices."The general dollar index was last seen at 94.22, up by 0.24."Copp...Read More

Seaborne coking coal prices across the board continued their uptrend on Wednesday September 23, with the premium hard coking coal fob price taking the lead. Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $133.77 per tonne, up $4.76 per tonne Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $141.69 per tonne, up $2.85 per tonneHard coking coal, fob DBCT: $110.18 per tonne, up $1.83 per tonneHard cok...Read More

The London Metal Exchange's new package of sustainability proposals should aid the discovery process of low-carbon aluminium pricing, chief executive officer Matthew Chamberlain said.Speaking at the Fastmarkets International Aluminium Conference on Wednesday September 23, Chamberlain said the exchange wants to provide the market with the tools to source sustainable material and provide transparenc...Read More

"...what's the follow-through?...means the silver market is markedly tighter at..."by Keith Weiner of Monetary-MetalsOn Monday, the dollar rose from 1.16 grams silver, to 1.26g.Conventional monetary thinkers believe that the dollar can be measured either in terms of the euro, pound, yuan, etc. Or in terms of consumer prices.But these are not units of measure.And that's because consumer prices are...Read More

There's a flash sale on silver right now, but it won't last long! Here's why...*****UPDATE 1 An appropriate expression could be "the beatings will continue until morale improves":The cartel apparently doesn't really care about actual smart people buyin' up all the shiny phyzz at bargain basement prices, however, so, um, yeah.Something big must be coming, in a false flaggy kind of way, be it real,...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.US flat-rolled prices began to recover in August, as we expected. The monthly average of our daily HRC index hit $473 per ton ($521/tonne), which was $3/t above our forecast.The upward momentum has since continued and has done so more quickly than we expected - sentiment has turned around dramatically on fundamental developm...Read More

A reduced regional surplus supported the tin trade in the United States while European traders, eyeing a rising contango, held back from the market in the two weeks to Tuesday September 22.Both tin premiums rise in the US, their first move in three months.The London Metal Exchange tin price remains near a two-year high, but is not matched by physical demand in Europe.China sees little trade, given...Read More

RAPAPORT... Dominion Diamond Mines has sold $46 million worth of rough at its first diamond sale since March, enabling the company to repay some of its debts amid insolvency proceedings.The miner expects to sell approximately $8 million of smaller rough in a second sale this week. If it achieves that total, the combined revenue from the two sales would exceed Dominion's reserve price of $52 millio...Read More

RAPAPORT... Zimbabwe's state-owned diamond miner has hired Mark Mabhudhu as CEO in an effort to help it achieve its goal of reaching $12 billion in revenue from its mining projects by 2023.Mabhudhu will step down as executive director of the diamond division at Vast Resources to begin his new role at Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) immediately, Vast said Tuesday. Vast is currently in...Read More

An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More

RAPAPORT... De Beers lowered prices of rough diamonds below 1 carat as the positive sales momentum that began last month continued during this week's sight, sightholders told Rapaport News.The reductions for the September sight are between 5% and 10%, and follow the miner's August price cut for rough above 1 carat.De Beers and rival Alrosa had maintained prices throughout most of the pandemic...Read More

(IDEX   Online) - More than 1,000 police officers were deployed in a crackdown on diamond smuggling in China earlier this month, customs bosses have revealed.The gems were being brought in through Hong Kong to Shenzen, home to over 2,000 diamond factories, to evade a four per cent import tax.Further details of the operation, on 1 September, have now been disclosed, according to the China...Read More

(IDEX Online) - A new set of standards for grading polished diamonds has been drawn up and published by the ISO.The Geneva-based organization certifies the quality of a vast range of 23,000 products, services and systems across the world.It has now issued a ground-breaking 55-page document for the diamond industry specifying the terminology, classification and methods are used for grading and desc...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Total sales of jewelry and watches in the US continued their recovery with a remarkable nine per cent bounce in July. Perhaps we should no longer be surprised by extremes in the way markets behave during a global pandemic. Overall sales plunged by a record 50 per cent in April - worse than the 1929 Wall Street Crash - the first full month to suffer the impact of global lockdowns a...Read More

Continued production from inefficient smelters along with market forces are key reasons behind alleged overcapacity in the aluminium market, not excess output by companies in China and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region, according to key industry executives. Speaking during the executive panel at the Fastmarkets International Aluminium conference on Tuesday September 22, the international...Read More

Glencore International has won a public tender to supply South Korea's Public Procurement Service (PPS) with 500 tonnes of London Metal Exchange-registered brands of aluminium ingot. The tender was awarded at a premium of $102 per tonne, cif basis Busan port, according to a notice published by the state agency on Tuesday September 22. The premium is paid on top of the LME's official cash price for...Read More