State-owned Steel Authority of India (Sail) has joined the list of steelmakers in the country to reduce production levels following the lockdown imposed in India earlier this week.Sail is a major integrated producer of rebar, wire rod and hot rolled coil (HRC), and has a total crude steel capacity of around 21 million tonnes.In light of increasingly...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday March 27 that are worth another look.European flat steel producers have reduced output, and some of them have stopped operating certain equipment, in their attempts to balance supply and demand after multiple automotive producers suspended their operations because of the Covid-19 pandemic.The Zambian government will remove the 5% im...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday March 27 that are worth another look.European flat steel producers have reduced output, and some of them have stopped operating certain equipment, in their attempts to balance supply and demand after multiple automotive producers suspended their operations because of the Covid-19 pandemic.The Zambian government will remove the 5% im...Read More

Metals, mining and alloy producers have been scenario-planning in response to the novel coronavirus. The South African government appears to have just removed all but one option.President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered the country's mineral resources industry to shut underground mines and furnaces from Thursday March 26, unless they can be operated remotely. The shutdown will last for three weeks an...Read More

The 2019-nCoV pandemic is definitely a black swan event, one which nobody saw coming. Global business sentiment has taken a massive hit, with major industries grinding to a halt on travel bans, quarantine orders and border controls. Major airlines such as Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways have grounded their fleets, stock markets have collapsed with exchanges closing and tourism is taking a pun...Read More

The London Metal Exchange has closed its open outcry trading floor and is using its electronic trading platform for price discovery as a precautionary measure amid the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pandemic.The only other time the 143-year-old metals exchange temporarily closed was during World War II, when - in the absence of electronic trade - the venue was forced to shut entirely. The move to c...Read More

The big wildcard is COVID-19-fear-driven government orders to shutter businesses and even the mines themselves... by Adam Hamilton of Zeal LLCThe carnage in the silver miners' stocks has been apocalyptic, fueled by the astounding COVID-19 stock panic. As terrified traders frantically dumped everything and ran for the hills, silver and its miners ' stocks crashed. That catastrophic anomaly has...Read More

The new issue of Aluminium Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers key insights and forecasts into aluminium markets around the world.Aluminium price down 2.3% week-on-week amid stock market sell-offGlobal markets remain rattled by the spread of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCOV) across Europe and the United States. Panic-sellin...Read More

The new issue of the Seamless OCTG & Linepipe Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers analysis of seamless OCTG and linepipe across international markets:Covid-19 underscores pipe outlookUnsurprisingly, the concern in the seamless pipe markets across the regions is the effect of the spread of Covid-19 on public health and econo...Read More

The new issue of the Steel Market Tracker is now online at metalbulletinresearch.com.In this edition, Fastmarkets' research team delivers key insights and forecasts into the long and flat products markets.This week's risks to our latest flat-rolled forecasts:The Chinese government is stepping up help to the economy, increasing banks' liquidity. But the spread of the coronavirus worldwide is likely...Read More

RAPAPORT... Rough prices slumped at Petra Diamonds' March tenders in South Africa and Antwerp as the severe slowdown in the market virtually wiped out demand.Goods from Petra's South Africa mines sold for 24% less than in February on a like-for-like basis, the company reported Friday. As a result, it chose to sell only 75% of the available volume - or 50% by value - and export the rest to Ant...Read More

RAPAPORT... The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) will contribute a sum from its own reserves to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.The trade group plans to donate INR 500 million ($6.7 million) to aid the country's daily-wage workers in the gem and jewelry industry whose livelihood is directly impacted by the virus, it said last week. Some of the funds will also be spent on...Read More

RAPAPORT... De Beers will reduce its worker head count at its sole diamond mine in South Africa by around 75% in response to the country's measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, parent company Anglo American said Friday.The move at its Venetia deposit in the Limpopo province follows consultations Anglo American held with the government, it noted. The group is also scaling back its wo...Read More

RAPAPORT... COVID-19 heavily affected sales at Hong Kong-based jeweler Chow Sang Sang in the first two months of 2020, as a lockdown in China forced it to shut most of its stores in the country."The first three weeks into 2020 [were] promising [but] unfortunately, the positive trend was quickly derailed by the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in the last week of January," the company said...Read More

Signet, the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry, reported an improved performance for the last quarter of 2020, but will be borrowing $900m as it faces the uncertainty of coronavirus.The company, whose brands include Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared, James Allen, Peoples and Piercing Pagoda, last week closed all its 3,200 stores.It saw same-store sales grow 2.3 per cent overall and 2.9 per...Read More

London-listed Petra Diamonds has, in accordance with what the Department of Minerals Resources and Energy expects from miners during South Africa’s 21-day lockdown period, scaled down its operations.The diamond miner advised on March 27 that it had scaled down operations to operate at a minimum level to maintain the underground block caves.AdvertisementThe company has four operating mines in...Read More

Union bosses are threatening to file a grievance against the owners of Canada's Ekati Diamond Mine after it was closed last week. Calgary-based Dominion Diamond Mines, said the move was aimed at reducing travel to and from the mine's remote location, close to the Arctic Circle and minimizing the spread of coronavirus. But the Union of Northern Workers, which represents some of the 1...Read More

RAPAPORT... Pandora has hired Martino Pessina as chief commercial officer as part of its efforts to restructure the company and implement a turnaround.In the newly created role, Pessina will lead the Danish retailer's 10 new regional groups, and report directly to CEO Alexander Lacik, the company said Tuesday. He will be responsible for commercial operations across the company's more than 100...Read More

Cardinal heading down familiar gold roadSPONSOREDcardinal resourcesSarama right in the middle of big exploration, corporate build-upSPONSOREDsarama resources Exore excels in Cote d'IvoireSPONSOREDexore resourcesThe ESG bar has just been raised... Who will get over it?SPONSOREDstrategia worldwideThe research group said February M&A was worth only US$1.26 billion, 18.4% up on January but 61....Read More

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