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

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

The closure of some induction furnaces in China in 2016 followed by the government's crackdown on all unlicensed IFs in mid-2017 freed up some scrap volumes, albeit arguably of low-quality material. Chinese domestic scrap prices came under pressure from the increased supply, which prevented them from keeping pace with the rise in steel and other raw material markets in the fourth quarter of 2016;...Read More

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Last year was a tough one for silver investors and miners. The white metal started the year on a positive note, opening at just over US$17 an ounce, but then the wheels fell off and it plunged to under US$14 per ounce in mid-November 2018.While silver has rallied in recent days, following gold higher, to trade at US$15.70 per ounce, it is still well under US$17 an ounce and down by 8% over the las...Read More

In early December, I'd discussed bullish signs for gold as we prepared to enter the new year. At the time, the spot price of gold had just reached $1,250 per ounce. As of this writing, gold has climbed to nearly $1,300 per ounce. There is good reason to believe that the yellow metal can carry this momentum throughout 2019.The bout of stock market volatility has spilled over into 2019. It shows no...Read More

I was trying to acquire perspective on the world of gold by getting far away from the supposedly experts of all names that no-one had previously heard of, like the Jim Rickard, this other unknown, that other newcomer, etc.... They put their grain of salt on everything as if they were knowledgeable, like << the velocity of money is slowing today >> and << the CIA chief has had a bad night and...Read More

I was trying to acquire perspective on the world of gold by getting far away from the supposedly experts of all names that no-one had previously heard of, like the Jim Rickard, this other unknown, that other newcomer, etc.... They put their grain of salt on everything as if they were knowledgeable, like << the velocity of money is slowing today >> and << the CIA chief has had a bad night and...Read More

The gold stocks’ young uplegis really growing, on a trajectory to become major.  This contrarian sector is breaking out to theupside on multiple fronts technically, which is really improving sentiment.  Traders’ extreme bearishness of late summerhas mostly abated, with bullish shoots taking root.  Fundamentals certainly justify the mountinggold-stock buying, with earning...Read More

RAPAPORT... Dalumi Group has shut down Zoara, its jewelry retail platform,the Israel-based diamond company said.The e-commerce page stopped accepting purchases on January 1,and will complete and ship remaining orders in the next few days, accordingto a message on the site. "It was our honor to provide you with outstanding diamondsand fine jewelry to celebrate the important moments of life," the me...Read More

RAPAPORT... Same-store jewelry sales at Titan Company grew during the thirdfiscal quarter, signaling strong demand for branded jewelry during the Diwali and Dussehra festivalperiod, the Indian retailer said. "Customer demand was buoyant in the festive season ofDiwali-Dussehra," the company noted in a trading update Friday. "Expansion ofthe store network continued as planned, to benefit from the ri...Read More

RAPAPORT... Retail sales of jewelry and other luxury items in Hong Kongdeclined for the first time in 17 months as global economic uncertainties impacted consumer sentiment.Revenues from jewelry, watches, clocks and other valuablegifts dropped 3.9% to HKD 5.88 billion ($750.8 million) in November, themunicipality's Census and Statistics Department reported Thursday. Sales in allretail categories i...Read More