Over the past few years, there's been rampant speculation as to whether the silver market is manipulated, but we can now remove all doubt...by Chris Marcus via Arcadia EconomicsSilver Manipulation Confirmed: 2008 Price Plunge From $21 to $9 ExplainedOver the past few years there's been rampant speculation as to whether the silver market is manipulated. Finally, I believe it's safe to say that we c...Read More
Iron ore prices continued to rebound on Friday July 26 amid rumors that China could be less strict with its steelmaking restrictions next winter.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe fines, cfr Qingdao: $118.31 per tonne, up by $1.31 per tonne.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines, cfr Qingdao: $118.23 per tonne, up by $1.31 per tonne.Fastmarkets' index for iron ore 62% Fe lo...Read More
Flat-rolled steel prices were under pressure during the week ended Friday July 26 in South America, on discounted deals reported on the Pacific coast and amid lower offers from China.Fastmarkets assessed the price of steel hot-rolled coil, import, cfr main ports South America, at $520-540 per tonne on Friday, down from $540-550 per tonne a week before.At least two deals for August-September delive...Read More
A former employee is suing Gerald Metals, Gerald Holdings and the chief executive officer of both units for alleged fraud, negligent supervision and infliction of emotional distress related to their cobalt activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to court documents filed in the United States.Plaintiff Alain Vignon, who was employed at Gerald from April 2011 until June 2016 a...Read More
Aluminium's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange was lower at the close of trading on Friday July 26, falling by around 1.3% against a flurry of fresh inflows into LME-registered Asian warehouses. Despite just under 70,000 tonnes of material delivered into LME-registered warehouses in Port Klang this week, aluminium's futures price held above the $1,800-per-tonne support level at the clo...Read More
Spot copper concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) continued to fall this week with tenders for nearby cargoes reaching new lows amid concerns over delivery delays from Peru's southern copper belt. At $51.2 per tonne / 5.12 cents per lb on Friday July 26, Fastmarkets' copper concentrates TC/RC index, cif Asia Pacific is slightly down against last Friday's $51.6 / 5.16 cents. The...Read More
An overview of the battery raw materials markets and their latest price moves.Read More
Ajist S Mauskar of Bank Muscat led the base metals leaderboard in the Apex second-quarter 2019 contest, with an accuracy rating of 98.2%, while INTL FCStone's Edward Meir was top of the precious metals table with 98.9% accuracy.For steel raw materials, Daniel Hynes and Soni Kumari of ANZ were at the top of the leaderboard with 96.36% accuracy.Click on the image below to download the full report.Se...Read More
The following Fastmarkets non-ferrous European free market scrap prices changed on Friday July 26:Aluminium scrapFloated frag, delivered consumer Europe, ?,?/tonne: ?,?970-1,000 per tonne...Read More
Chinese scrap buyers are readying to apply for additional import quotas for the fourth quarter from early August, Fastmarkets has learned. China implemented a quota system in July this year to restrict inflow of metal scrap, including scrap copper, aluminium, ferrous and paper. This will be the third round of scrap import quotas issued, with the earlier two rounds totaling 365,429 tonnes of copper...Read More
Russian aluminium producer Rusal reported a more than 20% increase in sales in the second quarter of 2019 compared with the previous quarter on Friday July 26.The company reported sales of more than 1 million tonnes of aluminium in the second quarter, driven by its partial sell-off of its surplus primary aluminium inventory that had accumulated after Rusal was sanctioned by the United States' gove...Read More
The London Metal Exchange's proposed reform of its queue-based rent capping (QBRC) rule could provide support for European aluminium premiums. A consultation process was launched by the LME on July 25 proposing significant reform to its warehousing system. The consultation is open until September 12, 2019. One of the reforms included in the proposal is relaxing QBRC to 80 days, from the current 50...Read More
Prices for steel sheet products in the United States rose during the week ended Thursday July 25 after mills kicked off their third $40-per-ton ($2-per-hundredweight) price increase in a month on Monday July 22.Fastmarkets' weekly assessment for steel cold-rolled coil, fob mill US, was at $36.50 per cwt ($730 per ton) on July 25, up by $1 from one week earlier. Fastmarkets assessed the steel...Read More
Brazil plans to ask the US government to alleviate Section 232 measures against its semi-finished and finished steel products, according to the local steel association, A??o Brasil.The association plans to ask for the removal of Section 232 quotas against imports of slab and an increase in annual limits for finished steel."It is now the moment to ask for a revision of Section 232 measures [against...Read More
Brazilian steelmaker Usiminas expects the realized prices for its domestic flat-rolled steel products to increase by 2-3% quarter on quarter on July-September 2019, chief financial officer Alberto Ono said in a conference call on Friday July 26.The company and its competitors have been finding it difficult to readjust prices in the domestic market because steel demand has been persistently below e...Read More
Brazilian distributors of flat-rolled steel saw their sales volumes increase by 21.90% in June, compared with the corresponding month in 2018, the association for this sector, Inda, said on Friday July 26.Sales amounted to 247,500 tonnes in June, up from 203,000 tonnes a year before, Inda's data showed. Volumes, however, were 8% lower than the 269,100 tonnes sold in May 2019.The June figures were...Read More
The inter-merchant spot market for UK light iron has been unchanged over the week to Friday July 26, extending a steady trend for the fifth consecutive week while being supported on limited volumes of material made available to major processors, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' assessment of the price for steel scrap 5C, loose old light, domestic, inter-merchant, was ?80-100 ($100-125) per t...Read More
Quality emerges at Galan's blue-chip lithium addressSPONSOREDgalan lithiumThe holes, part of a campaign to expand and infill resources, returned highlights of 610.2m grading 0.84% copper, 1.02 grams per tonne of gold and 10.28g/t of silver for 1.66% copper equivalent essentially from surface, its longest intercept to date of >1.5% copper equivalent mineralisation.This sent its stock (T...Read More
Global ferrous scrap prices moved down during the week ended Friday July 26, because of lower priced deals, weak demand and high inventories. Turkish import prices down on fresh deals US export prices down on recent deals Asian import prices down on high inventories Indian prices continue to fall in weak market.TurkeyTurkish steel producers made four cargo purchases this week for August shipments....Read More
Turkish steel producers booked two new cargoes while the week came to an end with prices remaining largely stable, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday July 26.News of both cargoes only emerged on July 26 - both were reportedly sold yesterday, sources told Fastmarkets. A steel mill in the Iskenderun booked a US-origin cargo comprising 11,000-15,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) at $294 per tonne, 5,000-...Read More