Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices increased slightly on Tuesday September 29. Demand in India for seaborne materials was good, while most Chinese market participants were awaiting developments in the spot market after the country's Golden Week holiday.Fastmarkets indicesPremium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $134.48 per tonne, up by $0.62 per tonnePremium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $144.9...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.While steel markets in Asia have demonstrated the most strength with regards to pricing through much of 2020, recent weeks have seen prices in Europe and the United States outperform those elsewhere.In a way, much of this is simply catching up on the gains already made by Asian steelmakers. They were able to obtain higher pri...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

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Prices for hot-rolled coil have performed in line with our expectations over the past month, with US domestic HRC prices finding a floor in July in line with the forecast, before improving in August. US HRC prices averaged $473 per short ton in August, compared with our forecast price of $470 per ton.Our prediction that an i...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.We do not consider the average iron ore fines price for September so far above $125 per tonne cfr Qingdao to be sustainable. The bullishness is not likely to last in the long term as we expect Chinese demand growth to slow down. A key factor boosting Chinese steel demand so far has been the stimulus policies from the authori...Read More

The takeaways from the latest edition of the Steel Raw Materials Market Tracker are ready to view.Iron ore prices remained relatively stable last week, signalling an end to the price spike. And for the first time since March, at the time of the Covid-19 lock-down in Hubei, we have seen a consistent downturn in utilization rates in China. Blast furnace utilization rates dropped for a fifth consecut...Read More

RAPAPORT... Watches of Switzerland Group has acquired pre-owned and vintage timepiece company Analog Shift in an effort to capitalize on the rising popularity of the secondhand market.The brands first collaborated in 2018, when the UK-based watch group offered a curated selection of Analog Shift's pre-owned timepieces at its newly opened New York City flagship store. That collection became one of...Read More

RAPAPORT... Sales and profit plummeted at Indian diamond manufacturer Asian Star in the first fiscal quarter as the coronavirus froze the company's activities.Revenue slumped 80% year on year to INR 1.64 billion ($22.2 million) for the three months ending June 30, the Mumbai-based company said earlier this month. Net profit plunged 98% to INR 4.3 million ($58,356).The figures, which include t...Read More

RAPAPORT... Sotheby's will sell a 118.88-carat, royal-blue, unheated Burmese sapphire in Hong Kong next week, the largest of its kind the auction house has offered in 20 years. The cushion-shaped stone, surrounded by pear-shaped diamonds weighing a total of 16.06 carats, will lead the October 7 Magnificent Jewels sale, Sotheby's said Monday. A pear-shaped, 4.84-carat, fancy-vivid-blue, internally...Read More

RAPAPORT... LVMH has filed a countersuit against Tiffany & Co., claiming a legal right to pull out of the companies' tie-up due to Covid-19 and the US jeweler's "mismanagement" of the crisis.The pandemic constitutes a "material adverse effect" that allows LVMH to renege on the $16 billion takeover deal, LVMH argued Tuesday. The catastrophic period will have serious and long-term effects o...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Raiders broke in through the roof of a Kay Jewelers store - part of the Signet group - and fled with an estimated $1m of jewelry.Police responded to an emergency call after the alarm went off in the early hours last Friday morning, but looked through the windows and saw no evidence that anything was amiss.When staff arrived for work hours later at the store in Hinnesville, Georgia,...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The French luxury conglomerate LVMH yesterday countersued Tiffany & Co, claiming the takeover agreement had become invalidated by the coronavirus pandemic. LVMH backed out of its delayed ?, ?16.2bn purchase three weeks ago, citing pressure from the French government over a tariffs war with the US and saying the deal was "no longer possible". Tiffany responded by suing LVMH.&nb...Read More

(IDEX Online) - India's exports of lab-grown diamonds surged by a record 40 per cent in August.They represent a tiny fraction of its overall diamond production, but have shown sustained growth during the pandemic, while sales of natural stones have suffered badly.Year-on year exports of lab-growns were 37 per cent up in June, 22 per cent up in July and 40 per cent up in August, according to t...Read More

Flat steel import prices in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have decreased over the past seven days with demand being weak, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday September 29.Most market participants believed that prices would remain stable or decrease further in the coming few days because of weakening Chinese demand and an upcoming holiday in the East Asian country.China will take a nati...Read More

Turkish steel producers continued to stay away from the deep-sea scrap market on the second working day of the week, in anticipation of a downturn in prices, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday September 29.A steel mill in northern Turkey broke the long-term silence by booking two Baltic Sea cargoes at $296 per tonne cfr late last week - the first trading activity since Se...Read More

The US Midwest aluminium premium declined further on Tuesday September 29, with growing uncertainty surrounding trade actions - not just against Canada - leading many traders to offer discounts in order to move material.Fastmarkets assessed the aluminium P1020A premium, ddp Midwest US at 12.5-14 cents per lb on September 29, down by 7% from 13.5-15 cents per lb previously, where the premium had he...Read More

A summary of base metals premiums from across the globe for the week to Tuesday September 29. Please click...Read More

The formal consultation process for collective dismissal at Alcoa's San Cipri??n aluminium smelter in Spain has ended without an agreement with the workers' representatives, the producer said on Tuesday September 29.Alcoa now have up to 15 days to determine and announce a decision regarding the smelter's 228,000 metric tonnes of annual capacity. An agreement was previously reached with the workers...Read More

Bolivian zinc-lead producer Minera San Crist??bal has achieved full production after reopening from a 21-day outage in mid-September, the company's owner and operator, Sumitomo, confirmed late on Monday September 28."Minera San Crist??bal started mobilizing on September 14, [resumed operation of] the plant on September 16, and [was] at full production [by] September 18," a spokesperson for Sumitom...Read More

The discount paid for ferro-nickel with 26-32% nickel content in China narrowed to the lowest level in three months due to increased buying interest following the big rise in the Chinese nickel pig iron (NPI) price, sources said. Fastmarkets assessed the ferro-nickel premium/discount, 26-32% Ni contained, cif China at a discount of $1,000-1,300 per tonne on Monday September 28, narrowing by $...Read More