Seaborne iron ore prices weakened on Friday November 30 with market participants remaining cautious in their trading activity.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $65.95 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down by $0.56 per tonne.MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $65.22 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down by $0.56 per tonne.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $68.76 per tonne cfr Qingdao, down by $0.54 per tonne.MB 58% Fe P...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

MUMBAI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) allowed exchanges to start commodity trading an hour earlier to increase participation of different stakeholders, the market regulator said in a statement on Friday.The commodity markets can open at 9 a.m. local time (0330 GMT), instead of 10 a.m. now, the market regulator said.The closing time for agriculture commodities...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

NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - India's economy grew a lower-than-expected 7.1 percent in the July-September quarter from a more than two-year high of 8.2 percent in the previous quarter, government data showed on Friday.The latest quarter's annual pace of growth was lower than a Reuters poll forecast of 7.4 percent.India's $2.6 trillion economy, Asia's third largest, grew 6.3 percent in the July-Se...Read More

(Corrects change in week to unchanged for Brent and an increase for U.S. crude from a drop for both.)* OPEC, Russia expected to agree supply cuts next week* Top three oil producers to attend G20 meeting this weekend* U.S. crude stocks build for 10 straight weeks amid record output* OPEC oil output falls by 160,000 bpd in Nov. - Reuters survey* Glut pushes crude into contango: https://tmsnrt.rs/2Q7...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

Investing.com - Gold prices were lower on Friday as investors moved away from the bullion amid expectations of another interest rate hike this year, while the G20 summit in Argentina was also in focus.Comex gold futures for February delivery slipped 0.16% to $1,228.40 a troy ounce as of 4:54 AM ET (9:54 GMT).Fed meeting minutes released on Thursday showed the central bank is expecting to hike inte...Read More

Manganese miners have reported a sharp drop in demand from manganese alloy smelters in China due to their preference for buying ore from Chinese ports in a bid to keep costs and inventories low ahead of the end of the year. Seaborne low grade manganese ore prices slid on November 30 due to sellers dropping prices amid weaker demand and a drop in silico-manganese futures prices on the Zhengzhou Com...Read More

An overview of the minor metals markets and the reasons for any price moves.Read More