It comes at a time when political tensions in Venezuela are reaching boiling point, with the oil-rich, but cash-poor, country in the midst of the Western Hemisphere's worst humanitarian crisis in recent memory.In a statement published Monday, 11 of the 14 members of the Lima Group called for world powers to "take measures to prevent the Maduro regime ... from doing business in oil, gold and other...Read More
Turkey's imported flat steel volumes fell by 17.66% year on year in 2018, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) last week.Turkey imported 6,908,686 tonnes of flat steel in January-December 2018, down from 8,390,305 tonnes in 2017.The decrease was largely due to weak demand for steel in Turkey's local market through 2018, especially in the second half of 2018, sourc...Read More
How you can transform lagging indicators into leading indicators.Despite the strong January kick-start to 2019, many investors are still apprehensive of what's to come, especially considering some of the latest market-moving events -- think Fed policy announcements, U.S.-China trade negotiations, and earnings season, to start.While it's certainly no crystal ball, becoming familiar with the various...Read More
Elevated stock market valuations, reduced liquidity support by central banks and increased risk of recession are not a good mix for equity investors.Retail investors are entering the market at an increasing rate, while some of the best fund managers are doing exactly the opposite.Pension funds might pose one of the biggest systemic risks to the financial system.Counter-intuitive to the riskier env...Read More
A summary of base metals premiums from across the globe for the week to Tuesday February 5.Please click...Read More
Copper's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange continued its uptrend at the close of trading on Tuesday February 5, with moderate volumes and a surge in the US dollar index doing little to curb the metal's upward price movement, while the rest of the complex broadly consolidated.Climbing above $6,200 per tonne for the first time since October 2018, the three-month copper price continued t...Read More
Russian steelmaker Severstal is forming a joint venture with global tube & pipe producer Tenaris to build a oil country tubular goods (OCTG) plant in the Surgut area of West Siberia.The welded pipe plant will be "in close proximity to the main oil and gas companies," Severstal said on Tuesday February 5. The Russian steelmaker will have a 51% interest in the JV, while Tenaris will own the rem...Read More
• Over the past 24-hours or so, the precious metal has been oscillating in a narrow range and consolidating the overnight bearish break through confluence support. • The mentioned region - comprising of 100-hour SMA and 23.6% Fibo. level of the $1277-$1326 recent upsurge, might now act as a key pivotal point for short-term traders. ...Read More
Turkish deep-sea scrap import prices went up on Tuesday February 5 following the sale of a higher priced cargo, sources told Fastmarkets.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Baltic cargo comprising 25,500 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (80:20) scrap at $321.50 per tonne cfr and 7,500 tonnes of bonus at $331.50 per tonne cfr.This new cargo price is an increase when compared to the sale of a European carg...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday February 5 that are worth another look.Honda Motor Co Ltd aims to electrify around two-thirds of the vehicles it produces by 2030, Honda managing officer Noriya Kaihara said at the 25th Mining Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa.Japan's Panasonic is considering investing in the upstream part of the battery raw materials indus...Read More
We can certainly point to the drastic appreciation of gold over the last 20 years.Sovereign debt must be a factor in gold's ascendance, too.Apparently, gold purchases are driven more by central bank policy than by economic factors per se.What do 72 countries - including developed nations such as Canada, Australia, Japan, and Sweden; emerging giants such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, I...Read More
• A modest USD uptick keeps a lid on the attempted recovery move. • Fading safe-haven demand further collaborates towards capping gains. Gold surrendered a major part of its early modest gains and is currently placed in the neutral territory, around the 1313-12 region. The precious metal did attempt to build on the previous session's late rebound...Read More
Manganese ore prices are showing signs of recovery after a poor start to 2019 that was blamed largely on bearish sentiment around silico-manganese and steel markets in China.Low-grade manganese ore prices have edged up in late January amid a flurry of demand ahead of Chinese New Year, which meant some of the firmer offers in the market were successful, despite the fact that some miners had cut off...Read More
Consumption of ferrous scrap in the United Kingdom will continue to increase over the coming years amid an expansion in the UK operations of international metals group Liberty House, Fastmarkets MB's research team believes. UK scrap demand in 2018 is on course to rise for the first time in four years after Liberty restarted a second electric arc furnace (EAF) at its site in Rotherham, northern Eng...Read More
Here's a look at the biggest trends affecting the silver market in 2019, as well as a prediction for the average silver price throughout the year... from The Silver InstitutePosted on 02 05, 2019(Washington D.C. - February 5, 2019) Last year, the silver market faced a challenging environment which was reflected in a muted price performance. Preliminary estimates point towards a minor 0.3 percent...Read More
It's been nine months since the United States announced Section 232 tariffs, and over six months since a 10% tax was applied to imports of aluminium from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. There's been a huge debate over how successful the tariffs - imposed on the grounds of national security and also applied at a 25% rate to steel - have been. Much depends on who you talk to, and what their s...Read More
Base metals trading fund Commodities World Capital has brought in Kevin Connors as its new chief executive officer, it said on Tuesday February 5. He will take on the role to allow founder and co-chief...Read More
Copper's three-month price on the London Metal Exchange continued its uptrend at the close of trading on Tuesday February 5, with moderate volumes and a surge in the US dollar index doing little to curb the metal's upward price movement, while the rest of the complex broadly consolidated.Climbing above $6,200 per tonne for the first time since October 2018, the three-month copper price continued t...Read More
Comex copper prices in the United States shrugged off earlier losses in morning trading on Tuesday February 5, with the base metals complex temporarily boosted by the lack of Chinese participation while the East Asian country begins its Lunar New Year holiday.The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rebounded by 2.20 cents on February 5 to $2....Read More
Even those who don't follow mining or invest in it could probably tell you that a global energy transition will mean the world is going to need a lot more copper.B.C. is Canada's largest copper producer, with six operating mines and a couple of dozen projects at the early or late exploration stage that could become new mines one day.So is copper golden in BC?Judging by presentations made last week...Read More