Fastmarkets' copper concentrates treatment and refining charge (TC/RC) index retreated during the week to Friday March 20 from its one-year high, reflecting expectations about falling supply from South American producers.A weekly brief on the Fastmarkets' copper concentrate index: The copper concentrate TC/RC index, cif Asia Pacific was calculated at $66.70 per tonne/6.67 cents per lb on Friday, d...Read More

Domestic prices in the north of Europe were unchanged day on day on Friday March 20 after a decrease the previous day, sources have told Fastmakets.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was stable day on day at ?,?470.00 ($507.28) per tonne on Friday. This followed a drop of ?,?7.31 per tonne day on day on March 19. ...Read More

Aluminium scrap prices in the United States were steady to weak as the impact of the novel coronavirus spread started to hit the industry, and some market participants continued to operate this past week despite business closures in the automotive industry and beyond."The situation is very fluid right now; our intentions are to continue running at reduced capacity," one US-based consumer said. "We...Read More

Chilean state-owned copper producer Codelco and the Federation of Copper Workers (FTC) - which represents all unions related to the miner - entered into an agreement on Friday March 20 to maintain some level of production in the company during the state of emergency declared by the federal government.While copper output will be adversely affected to some degree during the lockdown, workers and man...Read More

The copper price closed below $5,000 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange, having traded no higher than $4,938 per tonne earlier on Friday March 20.The three-month copper contract ended at $4,810 per tonne, having bottomed out at $4,613 per tonne earlier despite 5,275 tonnes of warrants being cancelled. More than 25,000 lots changed hands.On-warrant copper stocks stand at 183,175 tonnes on Frida...Read More

Anglo American will gradually reduce operations at its Los Bronces copper-molybdenum works in Chile following a government announcement about tackling the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic, it said.It initially plans to minimize activity at the mine until March 31 when a 15-day period of national emergency in Chile is due to expire. This plan will be evaluated on a daily basis, however, the miner add...Read More

Glencore is not experiencing any material disruptions at its operating assets or within its supply chain due to the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), it said, but it has experienced an impact on certain smaller operations where governments have imposed restrictions.The Swiss mining and marketing company did not specify which smaller assets had been affected. Glencore operates in countries such as Per...Read More

The falling price of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange, combined with a weakening supply picture in Europe, is putting pressure on smelters' profit margins, but there are no reports of production cuts in the market yet, Fastmarkets understands.The LME three-month aluminium price benchmark hit a low of $1,579 per tonne during trading on March 19, its lowest since September 2016. Although LME a...Read More

Most flat-rolled steel import prices in South America gave in to global downward pressure in the week to Friday March 20, as concerns about demand sustainability and persistently aggressive bids led to less expensive offers for May shipments.Market participants expressed fears regarding how long demand could hold amid government lockdowns across the continent to contain the novel coronavirus (2019...Read More

Prices for hot-rolled coil in the United States went down on Friday March 20, after certain buyers canceled their orders to prepare for worsened steel demand, market participants said.Fastmarkets' daily steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US was calculated at $28.06 per hundredweight ($561.20 per short ton) on March 20, down by 1.2% from $28.40 per cwt on March 19 and down by 0.7%...Read More

Prices for cold-rolled coil and galvanized sheet in the United States held steady while market participants struggled to measure the impact of the Covid-19 disease on steel availability and demand.Mills did not lower their offers during the week to Friday March 20, while the public-health response to the pandemic in various states expanded restrictions on activities deemed non-essential. Market pa...Read More

Sentiment in the deep-sea scrap market has become even poorer following the sharp downturn in Turkish import prices amid the spread of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus pandemic, sources said on Friday March 20.The Turkish steel producers resumed their deep-sea scrap bookings for April shipment cargoes, sending prices down by almost $24 per tonne on March 18.A steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Can...Read More

Liberty Steel Group will halt operations at its Dudelange-Liege steelmaking sites tomorrow, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday, March 20.Liberty Steel Group will halt operations at its Dudelange-Liege steelmaking sites tomorrow, the company told Fastmarkets on Friday, March 20.A spokesman confirmed that all three Liberty Liege-Dudelange production sites - at Fl?(C)mal...Read More

The London Metal Exchange will temporarily close its open outcry trading floor and go to electronic price discovery from Monday March 23 as a precautionary measure amid the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pandemic, it said. The open-outcry floor, one of the last of its kind in the world, has been operating from its disaster recovery site in Essex for the past week.The exchange said last week it may move t...Read More

The pig iron market in the United States has weakened further due to the general economic slowdown caused by the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) pandemic, sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Friday March 20.Fastmarkets' price assessment for pig iron, import, cfr Gulf of Mexico, US, was $330-340 per tonne on Friday, down from $345-350 per tonne a week ago."Scrap prices will go down...Read More

The inter-merchant spot market for light iron scrap in the UK fell almost 19% over the week, marking an abrupt end to five weeks of stability, as major shredders cut their buying prices on expected weaker demand for steel from UK-based carmakers, sources told Fastmarkets.The move also follows a dramatic fall in European steel scrap export prices into Turkey this week which saw the market move down...Read More

Export prices for pig iron from Brazil softened during the week ended Friday March 20 because of the weakness of the country's Real and lower demand in the domestic market.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for pig iron, export, fob port of Vitoria/Rio, Brazil, was $315-320 per tonne on Friday, down from $320-325 per tonne a week before."A weak Real supports pig iron producers, which are focusin...Read More

The price of ferrous scrap imported into India has continued to fall after changes in exchange rates made imports unviable, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday March 20.Fastmarkets calculated the steel scrap, shredded, index, import, cfr Nhava Sheva, India, at $291 per tonne on Friday, down from $297.50 per tonne one week earlier.There were no deals heard for shredded material in the week, but offe...Read More

The Turkish deep-sea scrap import market was quiet on Friday March 20, following a sharp decline in prices that came earlier in the week, sources told Fastmarkets.On Wednesday, a steel mill in the Marmara region booked a Canadian cargo comprising 18,000 tonnes of HMS 1&2 (90:10), 20,000 tonnes of shredded and 12,000 tonnes of plate and structural (P&S) scrap at an average price of $255 per tonne c...Read More

The market for pig iron exports from the Commonwealth of Independent States softened further during the week ended Thursday March 20 because of buyers' pessimistic mood."Automotive producers [which consume flat steel products made from merchant pig iron in electric-arc furnace based steelmaking] are stopping all over the world due to quarantine measures," one trader said, in reference to the measu...Read More