Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday March 14 that are worth another look.Metal trading funds and the metal commodities industry in general are increasingly focused on trading copper spreads and staying away from bets on outright price, panelists at the International Copper Conference said on Wednesday March 13. At Fastmarkets' 20th Asian Ferro-alloys confere...Read More

Ahead of Fastmarkets' Battery Materials 2019 conference in Shanghai, Fastmarkets looks at use of lithium in next-generation vehicles and other battery uses, as well as soaring prices, which have spurred interest in lithium and boosted its importance in recent years as a battery material. In June 2016, the spot price in China peaked at $27 per kg, more than three times the global contract price, ac...Read More

In contrast to the clear skies outside, a cloud hung over discussions among Indian scrap traders attending the opening session of the annual conference of the Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI) earlier this month in Kochi, southern India.Secretary-general Amar Singh praised the superior air quality in the host city, compared with the metropolises of New Delhi and Mumbai. But delegates...Read More

Section 232 tariffs on aluminium and steel raised $3.6 billion in their first nine months, and revenues for the last two months are likely to push that figure up by around another $1 billion, US government data shows.That figure would be enough to cover the shortfall in funding sought by United States President Donald Trump for border security. In other words, aluminium and steel tariffs could fun...Read More

The prices for nickel and copper were the poorest performers in trading on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday March 14, Fastmarkets has heard.Weaker data on China's industry drove the LME three-month nickel price down by 2.2% to $13,185 per tonne at the close of trading."The January-February combined data on Chinese industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investment failed to provid...Read More

The United States copper market failed to hold onto previous gains during morning trading on Thursday March 14, with weaker-than-expected Chinese data capping the base metals space.The copper price for May settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 4.30 cents to $2.8925 per lb. Data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) at around 10am Shangha...Read More

Investing.com - Gold prices fell on Thursday in Asia even after China reported weaker-than-expected industrial output data.Gold Futures for April delivery were down 0.5%, at $1,303.35 per ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange by 1:11 AM ET (05:11 GMT). The precious metal remained above the key $1,300 level after hitting a near two-week peak of $1,309.60 on Wednesday.China...Read More

Iron ore prices jumped on Thursday March 14 amid a positive destocking of steel products in China and signs of loosening restrictions on steelmaking operations.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $87.26 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $2.48 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $86.38 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $2.48 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $89.50 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $2.80...Read More

The Indian government's plans of hitting 300 million tonnes of steel capacity by 2030 sounds overambitious in the current scenario given that output only managed to reach the 101 million tonne mark in 2017 - indicating three-fold (Read More

After suffering for some seven years through to 2015, the world's steelmakers have had cause for cheer over the past couple of years. After some heavy losses and write-downs, they finally appear to have emerged from the wreckage of the global financial crisis. An economic upswing has taken root in most regions of the world, Chinese steel output and export growth has slowed noticeably, and steel pr...Read More

China's month-on-month new electric vehicles (NEV) sales rebounded in August after month-on-month declines in June and July. The drop in sales between May and June was the first drop since September 2016, but Fastmarkets MB had expected Chinese NEV sales to dip temporarily after the June subsidy changes came into effect because consumers and NEV manufacturers would have to adjust to the new subsid...Read More

Iron ore prices fell sharply in the second half of November after climbing through October, with prices for higher-grade material pioneering the decline.Fastmarkets MB daily benchmark for 65% Fe fines dropped by 22% by Monday November 26 after peaking on October 29. The 62% Fe iron ore index declined by 16% over the period, as some Chinese steelmakers started to seek larger volumes of cheaper ores...Read More

The steel scrap sector in the United States still depends on exports to Turkey, a member of the Fastmarkets research team said during the ferrous session at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) conference in London.This dependence persists despite the changes in the international markets created by the US' imposition of its Section 232 tariffs on imports of steel products, metals analyst Le...Read More

Seaborne pig iron has become relatively competitive versus ferrous scrap over the past year in most regions, and China is no exception. As the first chart below illustrates, the gap between the MBR's proxy for imported pig iron price in China and the Metal Bulletin's Chinese domestic heavy melt scrap price assessment had shrunk by late 2017. The premium averaged $17 per tonne this year to date, co...Read More

Backers of Freepoint Commodities have given the merchant trader approval to make further long-term investments in copper assets, the firm's commodities strategist, David Wilson, said at the International Copper conference in Amsterdam on Wednesday March 13. "Internally I can see that there is more appetite for us to invest in copper assets as well as trading. There's definitely a change in sentime...Read More

Turkish steel producers have continued their bookings of deep-sea scrap cargoes with prices remaining stable, sources said on Thursday March 14.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a European cargo, comprising 25,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (75:25) at $317 per tonne and 5,000 tonnes of bonus at $331 per tonne cfr.The same mill...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday March 14 that are worth another look.Metal trading funds and the metal commodities industry in general are increasingly focused on trading copper spreads and staying away from bets on outright price, panelists at the International Copper Conference said on Wednesday March 13. At Fastmarkets' 20th Asian Ferro-alloys confere...Read More

Metal trading funds and the metal commodities industry in general are increasingly focused on trading copper spreads and staying away from bets on outright price, panelists at the International Copper Conference said on Wednesday March 13.This shift has been helped by diminishing volatility in copper's outright price, and better visibility over market fundamentals ahead of a macroeconomic environm...Read More

Price-spread backwardations for copper on the London Metal Exchange, with nearby dates, have reduced after 34,950 tonnes of material were delivered into the exchange's warehouses on Thursday March 14, doubling the on-warrant inventory.At 17:18 London time on Thursday, 50 lots of LME cash-March spreads traded in a $2.50 per tonne contango on the exchange's Select platform, after starting the day in...Read More

The United States copper market failed to hold onto previous gains during morning trading on Thursday March 14, with weaker-than-expected Chinese data capping the base metals space.The copper price for May settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 4.30 cents to $2.8925 per lb. Data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) at around 10am Shangha...Read More