London Metal Exchange three-month base metals prices were universally trading lower in the morning session on Thursday September 24, with sustained strength in the dollar index - trading at a six-week high - and macro uncertainty driving down futures prices. The dollar continues to trade above 94 today, most recent trading around 94.53 this morning, acting as an effective headwind for metals tradi...Read More
China's imports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products increased by more than eightfold on a year-on-year basis in August, according to Chinese customs data released on Wednesday September 23.This follows a more-than-sixfold increase in the country's light metal imports in July.Copper imports also...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday September 24 that are worth another look.Brazilian ferrous scrap association Inesfa expects further decreases in export volumes from the levels seen in August, with demand rising among local steelmakers amid a heated steel market, the group's president, Clineu Alvarenga, said...Read More
Slovak ferro-alloys producer OFZ Slovakia is producing a reduced rate of ferro-silicon, compounding other European plants that have cut production in response to the fall in consumption from steelmakers struggling to tackle end-user demand, an industry source told Fastmarkets.OFZ Slovakia is operating only two of its four ferro-silicon producing furnaces, with the rest of its furnaces producing ma...Read More
The initial public offering (IPO) by Chinese battery materials producer CNGR Advanced Materials Co Ltd has been approved, according to a document filed to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Wednesday September 23. CNGR has been given the greenlight to be listed on the second-board market and the company plans to sell up to 56.97 million shares to domestic investors. The battery materials producer expe...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Thursday September 24 that are worth another look.Brazilian ferrous scrap association Inesfa expects further decreases in export volumes from the levels seen in August, with demand rising among local steelmakers amid a heated steel market, the group's president, Clineu Alvarenga, said...Read More
Several Bangladeshi steelmakers have exited the market for imports of steel scrap in recent days, piling further pressure on already-weakening prices, market participants told Fastmarkets on Thursday September 24.No deep-sea bulk imports have been booked into Bangladesh over the past week, while deals for material in containers were closed at lower prices than in the previous week."I think Banglad...Read More
Turkish steel producers have continued their silence in the deep-sea scrap markets in hopes of pushing prices downward, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday September 24.The country's steelmakers have been staying away from the deep-sea scrap market since September 9, when bookings were made at $301 per tonne cfr for HMS 1&2 (80:20).Although some US and Baltic Sea...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were down across the board this morning, Thursday September 24, while risk-off gathered pace on concerns that the Covid-19 pandemic is spreading aggressively again. US central bankers also warned on Wednesday that the US economy remained in a "deep hole" of joblessness and weak demand. Base metals prices on the LME are all dropping from high ground,...Read More
Share this article Tesla Motors Ltd. [TSLA-NASDAQ] CEO Elon Musk has outlined improvements the company has made in its battery manufacturing capabilities and said he doesn't want to be constrained by the availability of key battery ingredients such as nickel."I actually spoke with the CEO's of the major mining companies of the world and asked them to please make more nickel," said Musk during a...Read More
(Updates prices, changes comment, dateline; previous LONDON) * U.S. labor market slowing as fiscal stimulus fades * Oil dips as frail demand outlook offsets U.S. stock fall * COVID-19 Global Tracker: By Rodrigo CamposNEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - An index of stocks across theglobe fell on Thursday and the dollar rose for a fifth sessionrunning on lingering concern about another economic hit from t...Read More
Share this article If you are an investor in resource stocks, then the first and a half months of 2020 have been very kind to you, especially so if your portfolio has been over-weighted to the gold/silver sector.I don't know the exact numbers, but I'm pretty sure that other than the high flying technology sector, the gold/silver sector has been the top performing market segment so far this year...Read More
Lithium market participants and observers have generally reacted positively to US electric vehicle maker Tesla's recent announcements because they support the view that demand for the metal is likely to soar in the medium term, sources have said.But sources surveyed by Fastmarkets have cast doubts on the potential of the new lithium extraction process announced by the company during its Battery Da...Read More
We learned from Ron Thiessen, President and CEO of Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (TSX: NDM; NYSE American: NAK) that they own one of the world's largest, undeveloped, copper and gold resources, called the Pebble Project in Alaska. Pebble is one of the greatest stores of mineral wealth ever discovered, with a current resource estimate of 6.5 billion tonnes, in the measured and indicated categories...Read More
$9.1 billion...This is the combined value of the treatment market for Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease: two diseases that wreaked havoc on my grandmother and great-grandmother.I'm not going to lie: Watching my loved ones suffer from these horrible diseases was not easy.And in fact, one of the reasons I'm often investing in the biotech space is because I want to be a part of any potentia...Read More
The initial public offering (IPO) by Chinese battery materials producer CNGR Advanced Materials Co Ltd has been approved, according to a document filed to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Wednesday September 23. CNGR has been given the greenlight to be listed on the second-board market and the company plans to sell up to 56.97 million shares to domestic investors. The battery materials producer expe...Read More
Indian steel mills have held back their offers of hot-rolled coil for export shipments in November because the fob value of the bids they have received has fallen to less than $500 per tonne, Fastmarkets heard on Thursday September 24."Currently, [Indian] mills are neither issuing offers for HRC exports nor responding to bids," one market participant said.Bids for HRC exports received this week by...Read More
In my Wednesday interview with Jim Goddard, I continue to make the case for caution on precious metals stocks as we head into the US presidential debates. I reference recent insider selling and the big move of the gold/silver ratio as indicators of concern. In the second segment, I discuss innovation and improvisation as an investment theme as we work our way through the pandemic.In the final sec...Read More
Reduced availability of hot-rolled coil in Europe from both mills within the region and from overseas suppliers has been supporting domestic prices, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at ?,?487.81 ($569.82) per tonne on Thursday September 24, up by just ?,?0.20 per tonne from ?,?487.61 per tonne on Wednesday.Th...Read More
Imported billet prices in Egypt fell this week because of lower offers in the market, while local rebar prices remained unchanged, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday, September 24.However, no bookings have been heard over the past seven days due to weak end-user demand.Demand has been hit by a slowdown in construction activity stemming from the government's building ban...Read More