Ecuador, one of the hottest destinations for copper prospectors, aims to more than double the value of mining to its economy by 2021, but projects risks delays and potential halts due to growing local opposition to the extraction of the country's resources.According to the latest report by Fitch Solutions Macro Research, the ongoing expansion of mining exploration in the South American country is...Read More

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Demand for flat steel in Turkey is expected to remain slow throughout January, and prices are not expected to increase because global flat steel prices are falling, market participants told Fastmarkets on Thursday January 3.Local producers have filled their order books until late February, they added.The price falls in December resulted in part from weak demand in the local market as well as the h...Read More

Turkey's flat steel export volumes rose by 139.17% year on year in November, according to the latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK).The reason for the increase in export volumes was strong overseas demand, especially in Europe, as well as weak domestic demand in Turkey, market participants told Fastmarkets.Additionally, export prices for Turkish flat steel products were highly...Read More

The Section 232 tariffs implemented in the United States in 2018 led to a sharp increase in domestic steel prices, driving the hot-rolled coil index to a nearly 10-year peak in July. But how did the tariffs impact the rest of the global supply chain? Fastmarkets' regional experts gave us answers.ChinaChina has exported less hot-rolled coil since the Section 232 tariffs took effect, but soft domest...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

Years ago, the idea that machines would replace humans on the trading floor seemed far-fetched and the suggestion that algorithms might replace humans entirely ridiculous.But both have happened in some shape or form, making the advent of blockchain - now being vaunted as the next game-changer in technology - a lot more realistic than naysayers might initially think.Dozens of trials and projec...Read More

Since its merger with Xstrata, Glencore - previously a trading and marketing firm - has become a mining firm whose earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization is dominated by earnings from its industrial activities. The recent appointment of Peter Freyberg as head of the company's industrial mining assets, a newly created position with oversight and responsibility for all Glenco...Read More

Although base metals are under pressure in the short term, we have a bullish bias to our 2018 price forecasts given the supportive background of solid global economic growth and the fact that all six base metal markets look set to be in fundamental deficit this year. But each has a slightly different supply-side story and this aspect should be the main differentiator. For example, zinc's narrative...Read More

Despite Chinese winter smelter production cuts generally falling short of expectations and domestic stocks continuing to climb - both of which suggest the market remains far more comfortably supplied at this point than aluminium bulls had been anticipating - prices still rallied into the year-end to reach $2,290/tonne for the first time since March 2012.And after a New Year pull-back the strength...Read More

Copper prices were working lower during most of December and in the absence of any bullish triggers we had been expecting that trend to continue. But in late December, fund buying picked up aggressively, driving prices to a fresh multi-year high of $7,203/tonne. There was little fundamental justification for this and we should consider it a warning that speculators and investors feeling optimistic...Read More

Lead prices remain on their steady uptrend since the summer lows last year and in January have been eroding resistance around October's 6-year high above $2,600/tonne. We expect the underlying strengthening fundamentals, especially on the supply side, to maintain the uptrend this year. Primary producers may well struggle to respond to higher lead prices and we doubt there is much hoarded scrap aro...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

For a number of years problems at Ilva, the largest steelworks in Europe, have been casting shadow over the performance of the whole Italian steel industry. Will an acquisition of Ilva by a consortium led by ArcelorMittal, now in its final stage, be a game changer for the market?Following multiple reports of environmental and health problems caused by the Taranto plant, in 2013 Ilva was placed und...Read More

China ended steel production in all of the country's illegal induction furnaces by the end of June last year, it ha claimed.Most operators in China are primarily small private mills that use low-quality scrap to produce substandard rebar. This is mixed with grade III (HRB400) rebar and sold at a discount to construction contractors.For a long period, the government had neither a record of nor cont...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