Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange, with the exception of aluminium, closed down in the afternoon session on Monday March 9 while problems arising from the 2019-CoV coronavirus continued to weigh on global economies and demand for commodities."There was no shortage of negative developments over the weekend while recently-affected economies took drastic measures to limit th...Read More

If global financial markets had been operating under a pervading sense of uncertainty due to the impact of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), they now appear to be veering on panic.Oil prices have suffered their biggest one-day collapse since the 1991 Gulf War following Saudi Arabia's declaration of a price war on Russia through a shock move to hike oil production. S&P Dow Jones Indices was forced...Read More

Futures prices on the Dalian Commodity Exchange and the Singapore Exchange were downon Monday March 9, with physical seaborne market trading muted while buyers take a wait-and-see approach. Fastmarkets iron ore indices62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $87.96 per tonne, down $2.23 per tonne.62% Fe low-alumina fines, cfr Qingdao: $89.27 per tonne, down $2.01 per tonne.58% Fe fines high-grade prem...Read More

SD Outlook: Silver fell over 6% last night, peak to trough, but it's unlikely silver continues to perform as a "commodity". Here's why...The commodities are crashing!Check out the candle that crude oil is developing today:That's one serious gap down!Copper has finally made a new low on the daily chart:Recall copper bottomed below $2.00 when the commodities were bottoming at the end of 2015 and the...Read More

Fastmarkets published its Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) export billet index later than scheduled on Monday March 9 due to a technical error but it is now appearing as normal.Fastmarkets calculated the steel billet index export, fob Black Sea, CIS at $392 per tonne on Monday March 9. The index was published in Fastmarkets' pricing database, MInD, later than scheduled, however, due to a t...Read More

Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange, with the exception of aluminium, closed down in the afternoon session on Monday March 9 while problems arising from the 2019-CoV coronavirus continued to weigh on global economies and demand for commodities."There was no shortage of negative developments over the weekend while recently-affected economies took drastic measures to limit th...Read More

If global financial markets had been operating under a pervading sense of uncertainty due to the impact of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), they now appear to be veering on panic.Oil prices have suffered their biggest one-day collapse since the 1991 Gulf War following Saudi Arabia's declaration of a price war on Russia through a shock move to hike oil production. S&P Dow Jones Indices was forced...Read More

Fastmarkets' minor metals, ores and alloys team answers some of the key questions raised during our recent web seminar, discussing what could be in store for the minor metals markets now that most of the stocks formerly held by the Fanya Metal Exchange in China have been sold off in auctions.If you missed it, follow this link to listen to the free recording.The whereabouts of minor metal stocks he...Read More

Soci?(C)t?(C) le Nickel (SLN) resumed operations and ore shipments at its Thio mine in New Caledonia on Monday March 9, a spokesperson for French parent company Eramet confirmed to Fastmarkets on the same day. "Operations and subsequently the loading of ore carriers at Thio have restarted today," a spokesperson for Eramet told Fastmarkets. SLN was forced to completely cease production at the...Read More

The Chinese silicon grade 5-5-3 export price declined by $10-20 per tonne on Friday March 6 after overseas buyers retreated on stocks secured in February and fears of a weak downstream aluminium alloy market, sources said.Fastmarkets assessed the price of silicon export 98.5% Si min, fob China at $1,600-1,650 per tonne on Friday, down by 0.9% from the previous week.Chinese exporters lowered offers...Read More

Treatment charges (TCs) for spot lead concentrates have continued to rise, with smelters cherry-picking deals with terms as high as $200 per tonne.Fastmarkets assessed the lead spot concentrate TC, high silver, cif China, at $180-200 per tonne on Friday February 28, up $30 from $150-170 per tonne the previous month. The corresponding assessment for lead spot concentrate TC, low silver, cif China,...Read More

London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices declined in morning trading on Monday March 9, with fears over the economic effect of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) leading investors to hedge exposure to risk assets, while nickel futures took the biggest hit.Nickel's outright price on the LME was recently at $12,360 per tonne, down over 3.6% from Friday's closing price of $12,840 per tonne...Read More

Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States have fallen to a 12-week low due to mounting anxiety over the growing economic impact of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and a free fall in oil prices, Fastmarkets has learned. Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $28.58 per hundredweight ($571.60 per short ton) on Monday March 9, down by 5.4% from $30...Read More

Domestic prices for hot-rolled coil in Northern Europe have been fairly stable over the past week, with minor fluctuations indicating buyers' uncertainty about the future direction of price movements.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, ex-works Northern Europe, was ?,?484.64 ($547.15) per tonne on Friday March 6. This was down by ?,?0.26 per tonne week on week from ?,?484.90...Read More

The recent extension of the health quarantine area in the north of Italy will not affect steel production or deliveries, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday March 9.On March 8, Italian authorities ordered a lockdown across the whole of Lombardy and in 14 provinces in the regions of Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont and Marche in an attempt to control the outbreak of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus.A large...Read More

Weak sentiment persists in the Asia hot-rolled coil markets, with spot price negotiations trending down amid talk of transactions being concluded at lower prices, market participants said.Fastmarkets' assessment of steel HRC import, cfr Vietnam, which mainly looks at Chinese 2-3mm re-rolling-grade SAE1006 HRC and equivalent products sold into Vietnam, was $465-470 per tonne cfr for the week ending...Read More

Prices for rebar imports into Singapore were stable over the past week because of thin trading activity, market sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar) import, cfr Singapore - which mainly looks at cargoes sold into Singapore on a theoretical-weight basis - was $440-445 per tonne for the week to Monday March 9, unchanged from a week earlier.B...Read More

Turkish steel mills remained out of the deep-sea scrap markets at the start of the week, but expect to resume purchases soon, market sources said on Monday March 9.There have been no new bookings so far in March. The last cargo was sold on February 24, which put the price of Baltic Sea- and United States-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) at around $280 per tonne cfr.Suppliers, especially those in the US, hel...Read More

RAPAPORT... Sotheby's will hold an exhibition and sale of pieces Parisian jewelry house Mellerio made for royals including Marie Antoinette.The exhibition, which will showcase some of the jeweler's most important commissions, is set to take place from March 28 to 31. It will feature 17 items made by the 407-year-old brand, which have been worn by Marie de Medici, former queen of France, as we...Read More

RAPAPORT... Star Diamond Corporation has started legal proceedings against Rio Tinto, accusing the mining giant of failing to comply with the terms of a joint-venture agreement.In 2017, Rio Tinto closed a deal with the Canadian miner, giving it the right to acquire shares in the Star-Orion South exploration project in Saskatchewan. In November, five years earlier than its original deadline, R...Read More