RAPAPORT... US retail sales rose in June, amid improved consumersentiment and a healthier economic outlook, according to the National RetailFederation (NRF). Total purchase value grew 2.3% year on year in June, withthe three-month moving average, which includes April, May and June sales, up3.7% over the same period a year ago. The moving average for the three monthsto May rose 3.3% over the y...Read More

RAPAPORT... Botswana Diamonds has raised the funds needed to continueoperations, and expects to hold its first sale by the fourth quarter. The company, which has struggled with challenges that hitits bottom line, had questioned itsability to continue as a going concern. It had previously recorded losses due to currency fluctuations, an impairment charge, and the cost of buying Alrosa out of a...Read More

RAPAPORT... Shares in Petra Diamonds slipped 6% in early trading Monday after the minerreported it would lower its production for fiscal 2020. The company expects to produce about 3.8 million carats inthe financial year ending June 2020, as opposed to 3.9 million caratsin fiscal 2019, it said Monday. While run-of-mine production is expected toremain flat, the decrease will come from lower pro...Read More

The global steel slab market has been squeezed by increased competition, higher production costs and modest demand in the principal sales outlets at the start of the third quarter of 2019.Suppliers in Russia, Ukraine and Brazil were facing low sales to the United States market because of the protectionist measures in place there. As a result, these suppliers have begun to look for alternative dest...Read More

European buyers have already bought about 30% more than the yearly quota for imports from China of hot-dipped galvanized coil (HDG) grades used by the automotive industry, market sources have told Fastmarkets.The full annual quota allocated to material from China for the period from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, was 527,164 tonnes. This quota was fully taken up just a couple days after the new q...Read More

The United States Department of Commerce has revised the final dumping and subsidy margins, and cash deposit rates, to be imposed on imports of rebar from Turkey.These were based on affirmative final determinations by Commerce and by the US International Trade Administration, published on July 18.Commerce determined that several companies "received countervailable subsidies during the period of re...Read More

RAPAPORT... The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) will no longer provide financial backing to the city's diamond-technology unit, citing difficult conditions in the local industry. "As a result of the high cost of labor in our country,almost the entirety of our diamond manufacturing has relocated abroad," AWDCspokeswoman Margaux Donckier said Friday. The AWDC established the Scientific and Techn...Read More

China's hot-rolled coil prices regained some strength on Monday July 22 after local authorities in Tangshan, the steelmaking hub in northern China, reiterated production cuts for steelmakers under their jurisdiction.DomesticEastern China (Shanghai): 3,880-3,900 yuan ($564-567) per tonne, up 20 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Tianjin): 3,850-3,860 yuan per tonne, up 10 yuan per tonneSpot prices rose...Read More

Quality emerges at Galan's blue-chip lithium addressSPONSOREDgalan lithiumIn its latest sustainability technical report, Antamina said it planned to reconfigure the ore crusher platform and use a semi-mobile crusher with a 13,200 tonnes per hour capacity, which will see the operation process some 85 million tonnes per year of material.The company also plans to optimise the internal water manag...Read More

Lake Resources prepares to make a splash in lithium SPONSOREDlake resourcesStars aligning at Stellar for PolarXSPONSOREDpolarxMetro Mining promises low-cost bauxite for Chinese smeltersSPONSOREDmetro miningNamdini moves toward 300,000ozpa realitySPONSOREDcardinal resourcesProfepa—the federal attorney for environmental protection—temporarily shut the facilities following two visits on t...Read More

Vale's production of iron ore fines dropped by 33.80% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018, amid restrictions resulting from a tailings dam accident at Brumadinho in Brazil and poor weather conditions in the north of the country.Production totaled 64.06 million tonnes from April to June, down from 96.76 million tonnes a year before, Vale said on Monday July 22.Output also dropped by 12.10% f...Read More

Trading activity in the seaborne coking coal market was muted on Monday July 22 after an active stretch last week.A cargo of premium hard coking coal was offered at $175 per tonne fob Australia on the Global Coal trading platform during the day, down $1 per tonne from last Friday, sources said.A Chinese end-user source said that mills in the country were concerned about uncertainties associated wi...Read More

The iron ore concentrate and pellet segments remain lackluster, with prices underperforming in comparison with the general seaborne market last week.ConcentrateThe weekly Fastmarkets index for iron ore 66% Fe concentrate, cfr Qingdao stood at $122.88 per tonne last Friday July 19, up $1.03 per tonne from a week earlier.The daily Fastmarkets index for iron ore 65% Fe Brazil-origin fines, cfr Qingda...Read More

Rising tension over Iran and a reduction in expectations on the size of the next US Federal Reserve rate cut were weighing on sentiment this morning, Monday July 22.Last week the market started to price-in a 50-basis-point cut in the US benchmark interest rate at the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) July 30-31 meeting, but now a 25-basis–point cut now seems more likely as the proba...Read More

China's rebar prices increased slightly on Monday July 22 on concerns that the country's steelmaking hub in the north would tighten production curbs over the remainder of this month.Domestic Eastern China (Shanghai): 3,970-4,000 yuan ($577-581) per tonne, up 10 yuan per tonneNorthern China (Beijing): 3,900-3,930 yuan per tonne, up 10-20 yuan per tonneA steelmaker in Tangshan was reported to have i...Read More

U.S. equity index futures moved higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 9 points in pre-opening trade.Walt Disney gained $1.40 to $141.25 after its latest movie, the relaunched "The Lion King" booked $185 million sales over the weekend in the U.S. Crude Oil added $0.64 to $56.27 after Iran captured a British licenced tanker near the Straits of Hormuz late on Friday. Halliburton gained $0....Read More

ERG has appointed Telf AG the exclusive offtaker for cobalt hydroxide produced at its Metalkol Roan Tailings & Reclamation (RTR) project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Fastmarkets understands. Telf will market all saleable material produced at RTR, excluding any sent to Chambishi for refining into metal. Production at Chambishi restarted last month. RTR started production late last yea...Read More

I want to cover an important topic that is a little more technical, so put on your thinking caps!I'm talking about options trading. Options are by no means new, and I've talked about it options plenty of times before. But I find options trading is something that many traders are scared of because they don't understand it. And it makes sense! You shouldn't trade something that you don't understand....Read More

Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia and Europe for the week ended Friday July 19. China Key drivers The price of antimony MMTA standard-grade II, ddp China, was unchanged week on week after some major suppliers held prices firm despite thin spot trading activity. citing the multi-year-low prices as causing them severe losses.A few antimony producers, however, were heard to have lowered the...Read More

Key data from the July 19 pricing session in London. Key drivers:  Prices show stability at the low end of the ranges; some sellers decline to offer cheaper, while slow spot activity gives limited test to others' appetite to cut their offers. Market participants eye modest recovery in metal...Read More