A brief fire outbreak at one of Russian multi-metal miner Nornickel's Arctic power plants had led to the death of one worker, the company said on Monday August 3. Fastmarkets understands that the fire, caused by a short circuit, was confined to six square meters and was extinguished quickly, having no material impact on production at the plant. The fire is the latest in a line of incidents at the...Read More

The metals and equity indices were mixed this morning, Monday August 3, with numerous crosscurrents affecting the markets.Data this morning showed China's Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) climbed to 52.8 in July from 51.2 a month earlier, while Japan's manufacturing PMI rebounded to 45.2 from 42.6 over the same comparison. But the continuing spread of the Covid-19 in the world...Read More

A summary of Belgian battery materials company Umicore's results for the first six months of 2020, as stated in its half-year report published on Friday July 31.In brief Revenues from the Energy & Surface Technologies division were down by 8% year-on-year in the first half of 2020, to ?,?557 million ($656 million), due to the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on sales of electric vehicles (EVs). Ear...Read More

A summary of operational results for the second quarter of 2020 from Australian lithium-spodumene producer Altura, published on Friday July 31.In brief The company achieved production of 46,316 wet metric tonnes (wmt) of lithium concentrate for the April-June quarter, up by around 10% from the January-March quarter, it said. Production came to 181,264 wmt of...Read More

The cobalt alloy grade, in-whs Rotterdam trade log, including business, bids and offers reported to Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets publishes trades logs for its key price assessments and indices to bring more transparency into the markets it covers and the pricing process it applies. Fastmarkets assessed...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday August 3 that are worth another look.The year 2020 has been the ultimate stress test for commodity market participants and will stay challenging amid significantly impaired consumer demand trends due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the chief executive officer of Concord Resources. Mark Hansen said the economy is operatin...Read More

A look at hot-rolled coil prices around the globe.Blip or paradigm shift? Prices for hot-rolled coil in the United States last month fell below those in China for the first time since at least 2013. The reversal of normal trends - Chinese prices are typically well below US levels - resulted from US domestic tags plummeting in July while Chinese prices recorded a third consecutive month o...Read More

Prices for carbon steel plate in the United States have continued to hold steady after neither producers nor distributors reported any impetus to offer cheaper prices or to book bigger tonnages.Buyers saw no urgency to book large inventory buys from the mills at the moment, because there is plenty of material on the ground at various service centers that can sell to each other at competitive price...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday August 3 that are worth another look.The year 2020 has been the ultimate stress test for commodity market participants and will stay challenging amid significantly impaired consumer demand trends due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the chief executive officer of Concord Resources. Mark Hansen said the economy is operatin...Read More

Ferrous scrap sellers in Brazil were expecting to raise their prices in new negotiations with steelmakers, with domestic consumption starting to recover and with increases seen in international prices for scrap and local prices for steel rebar, according to national ferrous scrap association Inesfa.After a lackluster first half of the year in terms of scrap demand, which led in turn to higher expo...Read More

Prices for domestic and imported merchant bar quality (MBQ) steel in the United States were again flat in July while demand was generally stable and modest gains in sales volumes were seen in some markets. Fastmarkets' monthly price assessment for steel bar 2 x 2 x 1/4 -inch angle merchant products, fob mill US was $33.80 per hundredweight ($676 per short ton) on Friday July 31, unchanged since...Read More

Turkish steel mills made no moves in the deep-sea scrap markets on Monday August 3 due to the Eid al-Adha religious holiday in the country.Turkey has been out of the market for the eid since Thursday of last week, when the latest known purchases were heard on the market. The holiday will...Read More

Bangladesh is one of the world's fastest-growing import markets for steel scrap. The country's rapid industrialization in recent years and its lack of natural steelmaking raw material resources mean that scrap imports - in addition to domestic material - are of high importance to the country's steelmakers.But why has 2020 been a particularly important year for the Bangladesh market? And how is Ban...Read More

Export billet prices from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region continued to increase in early August in line with higher offers from mills, which were supported by rising import scrap costs globally.Fresh billet offers from both Ukrainian and Russian suppliers were heard within the range of $395-400 per tonne fob Black Sea, while some producers asked for as much as $405 per tonne fo...Read More

The latest forecast from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.As we enter the summer season across the northern hemisphere, almost half a year has passed since the Covid-19 pandemic began to seriously affect Europe and the United States.One would not really be able to tell that such a dramatic event had occurred by looking at stainless steel prices, however, because they are more or less...Read More

The US automotive industry's recovery is a tale of two trends - production and sales - and while a strong rebound in production has a more immediate impact on demand for steel, so far the bounce back has been greater in sales.This has translated into a slower rebound in steel demand, American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) chief economist Timothy Gill said. "The auto market situation has certainl...Read More

Most Italian steel producers plan to stop production for summer maintenance in August, but some have changed their schedule this year and plan shorter stoppages due to demand recovering from the Covid-19-related lockdown in March-April, sources told Fastmarkets. Long steel Major steelmakers in Italy are expected to stop all operations during the second week of August for the usual summer maintenan...Read More

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday August 3 that are worth another look.The year 2020 has been the ultimate stress test for commodity market participants and will stay challenging amid significantly impaired consumer demand trends due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the chief executive officer of Concord Resources. Mark Hansen said the economy is operatin...Read More

Zinc concentrate treatment charges (TCs) rose for the second consecutive month in July after hitting a 19-month low in May, with spot availability increasing slightly.Fastmarkets' price assessment for zinc spot concentrate TCs, cif China was $165-185 per tonne on Friday July 31, up by $5 from $160-180 per tonne on June 26.Mining companies are beginning to recover lost production after Covid-19 pan...Read More

Amid a hot market for copper, China's smelters are jumping in on a profitable niche business dominated by traders.Eight major copper smelting and mining companies - China Gold, China Copper, Baiyin, Daye, Yantai Guoxing, Jinchuan, Minmetals and Nanguo - are lobbying for licenses to import and process complex concentrate, Fastmarkets has learned.     In a race to receive final approv...Read More