Swiss commodities trader Glencore is to privatize its Katanga operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and have it delisted from the Canadian bourse.Glencore, which currently owns 99.5% stake, will buy the rest of the shares of the Toronto-listed Katanga Mining Ltd, according to a statement issued by the company on Wednesday April 22.Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Aluminium: 4-million-tonne surplus for 2020We have made further downward revisions to our aluminium demand expectations for 2020 and, although there have been smelter capacity reduction in China too, the net effect is that our forecast for the global surplus this year has swelled to 4 million tonnes, from 2.7 million tonnes...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Average LME aluminium price down by 2.5% week on weekAlthough LME aluminium began this week on the rebound, prices extended their recent downtrend further last week, approaching the $1,400-per-tonne level. The weekly average LME aluminium cash price was down 2.5% last week to $1,432.50 per tonne from previous week's $1,469.6...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Despite these unprecedented times, US sheet prices moved in line with our expectations over the past month. While we maintain our view on the direction of pricing during 2020 and the length of the pricing downturn, as the Covid-19 crisis deepens we have increased the magnitude of the price declines through the second quarter...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.While downward pressure mounts on the steelmaking raw material markets, premiums for higher-grade iron ores have been sustained despite narrowing operating margins at Chinese steelmakers. Chinese mills are operating with shrinking margins since the end of last year but the premium for high-grade ores remains high. Historical...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This week Fastmarkets' analysts and price reporters shared their views and recent findings in a webinar revealing some distinct fundamental tensions for steel, refining alloys and, of course, steelmaking raw materials such as iron ore.While the outlook for chrome and manganese ores and alloys is balanced, as far as market pa...Read More

The three-month copper price on the London Metal Exchange was the standout performer at the close of trading on Wednesday April 22, with its price action breaching nearby resistance at $5,100 per tonne, while nickel futures lost ground over the day. Copper's outright price on the LME closed at $5,126 per tonne on Wednesday afternoon, climbing from an intraday low of $4,973 per tonne, while turnove...Read More

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

RAPAPORT... Sales of rough from Mountain Province's Gahcho Ku?(C) mine grew 2.4% to 659,318 carats in the first quarter, the company said Monday.The Canada-based miner also saw a 6% uplift in its average price, yielding $75 per carat compared to $71 per carat in the first quarter of 2019. Together, these factors increased the company's revenue by 7% to $49.2 million for the three months endin...Read More

RAPAPORT... Luk Fook's same-store sales dropped 57% in the fourth fiscal quarter amid extensive retail closures for the first two months of the year and sluggish footfall in March.The jeweler saw a 60% year-on-year slide in same-store sales - at self-operated branches open for at least a year - across Hong Kong and Macau for the three months ending March 31, it reported last week. This follow...Read More

RAPAPORT... The 2020 JCK Las Vegas and Luxury shows have been canceled, the events' organizer has confirmed, as the coronavirus continues to sweep across the globe."This decision was made in response to the unprecedented challenges faced by JCK's jewelry community," Sarin Bachmann, Reed Jewelry Group's vice president for the shows, said Tuesday. "We know [it] impacts the entire industry and i...Read More

(IDEX  Online) - India's government should halt imports of rough diamonds to help its cutters and polishers recover from the COVID-19 crisis, says industry veteran Chaim Even-Zohar.In an exclusive and far-reaching Memo for IDEX Online he proposes a three-month moratorium to help over-stocked producers stuck in the "uncomfortable mid-stream" to shift existing inventories totalling up to $...Read More

(IDEX Online) - JCK Las Vegas has been canceled. The biggest jewelry show in North America was postponed last month by organizers Reed Jewelry Group in response to the coronavirus crisis. They have now confirmed that it will not take place at all this year, nor will sister event Luxury 2020. JCK Las Vegas attracts over 30,000 of the world's most influential industry professionals, and wa...Read More

A roundup of production suspension schedules at automotive facilities in the United States.Automakers began suspending production at their facilities in the United States in the second half of March. Those suspensions were driven by public health and safety orders from federal, state and local governments, and...Read More

Glencore' Katanga Mining subsidiary has cut its 2020 cobalt production guidance to 26,000 tonnes of cobalt contained in concentrates and hydroxides but has retained its copper guidance at 270,000 tonnes. The company had previously said it would produce 29,000 tonnes of cobalt this year. Katanga, which operates its 75%-owned subsidiary Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo...Read More

Japanese carmaker Nissan will restart its operations in the UK later this week, conducting pilot activity before moving to restore full production at an unspecified future date, while its European plants will restart from April 27, the company announced on Wednesday April 22.As a result of worldwide shutdown measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, Nissan's vehicle production operations have been...Read More

RAPAPORT... The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) has named Yoram Dvash as acting president following Ernie Blom's decision to stand down temporarily.The WFDB's executive committee elected the Israel Diamond Exchange president in a Zoom meeting Sunday, it said in a statement. He had already been named president designate at a previous WFDB congress."The diamond industry, like all oth...Read More

Swiss commodities trader Glencore is to privatize its Katanga operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and have it delisted from the Canadian bourse.Glencore, which currently owns 99.5% stake, will buy the rest of the shares of the Toronto-listed Katanga Mining Ltd, according to a statement issued by the company on Wednesday April 22.Read More

Global nickel premiums were flat in the week to Tuesday April 21, with the impact of Covid-19 in all regions continuing to weigh heavily on spot demand for nickel and keeping already-low physical premiums at their current levels. China premiums steadied by lack of arbitrage opportunity. US premiums tempered by lack of liquidity. Europe premiums maintain low levels amid lackluster spot demand. Clos...Read More

Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States are still below $24 per hundredweight ($480 per short ton), but potential good news from the ferrous scrap export market could help flat-rolled sheet mills to put a bottom line on prices, sources said.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $23.89 per cwt ($477.80 per ton) on Wednesday April 22, up by 0.5% from...Read More