Plate prices in the United States have fallen to their lowest point in more than a year on weak demand, increased imports and shorter mill lead times.Fastmarkets AMM's price assessment for domestic cut-to-length plate dropped to $45.50 per hundredweight ($910 per short ton) on Monday April 22, off by 1.1% from $46 per cwt previously and down by 7.1% from $49 per cwt at the beginning of the ye...Read More
The price of mesh-quality wire rod exported from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has decreased by $5 per tonne over the past week, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday April 23.Fastmarkets' weekly assessment of the price of CIS export wire rod was $500-510 per tonne fob Black Sea on April 23, moving down from $505-515 per tonne fob a week earlier.Limited demand for finished steel in...Read More
The price for steel slab exported from the Commonwealth of Independent States has softened by $5 per tonne week on week, amid low demand and reduced market activity because of the long Easter holiday weekend, market participants told Fastmarkets on Tuesday April 23.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for CIS export slab was $470-480 per tonne fob Black Sea on April 23, down from $475-485 per tonn...Read More
Prices for flat steel products imported into the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia dropped over the past week due to limited demand, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday April 23.End-user demand has been weak recently, so buyers have been unwilling to place orders for large tonnages, they added.The Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when business normally slows down, starts in early...Read More
Rebar producers that re-roll billet in Egypt have appealed to the Egyptian government to reconsider a recently imposed safeguard duty on imports of the semi-finished product.The country's Ministry of Trade & Industry began imposing a temporary import duty of 3-15% for billet on April 15, in addition to a 25% tariff on rebar, following an investigation that began at the end of last month. The provi...Read More
Physical iron ore prices stayed rangebound on Tuesday April 23 while the 65% Fe derivative on the Singapore Exchange traded actively.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $94.53 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $0.05 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $93.31 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $0.05 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $96.88 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $0.13 per tonne. MB 58% Fe Premiu...Read More
Global Atomic's 'transformational discovery' changes everythingSPONSOREDglobal atomic corpAlkane maps own path to world-class critical metals producerSPONSOREDalkane resourcesWestern Atlas drill-ready in NunavutSPONSOREDwestern atlas resourcesHow to monitor and manage your Tailings Storage FacilitySPONSOREDisometrixThe Vancouver-headquartered company that produces coking coal, zinc, co...Read More
The second-tier segment of the seaborne coking coal market took the spotlight on Tuesday April 23, with a transaction being concluded above prevailing prices.A cargo of second-tier hard coking coal, scheduled for loading in end-April, was sold to an end user in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at $191 per tonne cfr China during the day, sources told Fastmarkets.This is $7 per tonne higher than a s...Read More
Egypt, the largest consumer of direct reduced (DR) grade pellets in North Africa, may face a short-term pellet shortage as a result of Vale's production cuts, Fastmarkets heard at the North Africa Iron & Steel Summit in Cairo on April 16-17."There will be a challenge in the next few months to secure DR pellets [a feedstock for direct-reduced iron making] as a knock-on effect of Vale's accident," o...Read More
The London Metal Exchange has abandoned a planned accelerated timeline for its cobalt contract to meet new responsible sourcing principles, chief executive officer Matthew Chamberlain said on Tuesday April 23. This comes as the LME launched a formal market-wide consultation on proposed rules for the application of responsible sourcing principles to all LME-listed brands. These rules build on the s...Read More
Lead prices can find support from any improvement of auto sales in China, while the contraction in automotive sales is losing momentum, ICBC Standard Bank said in a research note on April 17."Any improvement in the autos sector would present an important change for both lead and palladium [prices]," ICBC Standard Bank, a leading financial market and commodities bank, said.The lead cash price on th...Read More
Negative pressure arising from delays in the electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage markets have reduced the demand for Umicore's cobalt cathodes materials, Umicore chief executive officer Marc Grynberg said during a conference call on Tuesday April 23.The previous projections of 100,000 metric tonnes of cathode materials sales in 2019 and 175,000 metric tonnes of capacity by the end of 2021 are...Read More
Chinese battery producer Greatpower Technology Co plans to produce 30,000 tonnes per year of battery-grade nickel sulfate and cobalt sulfate by the end of 2019. Greatpower's projected nickel sulfate production target has been announced in tandem with plans to double cobalt sulfate output by the same deadline from 15,000 tpy of the material now being produced. Nickel sulfate will be produced at Gre...Read More
The great euphoria emanating from these near-record-high stock markets is breathtaking. Traders are again convinced stocks do nothing but rally indefinitely. That everything-is-awesome mindset has stunted gold's latest upleg, since there's no perceived need for prudently diversifying stock-heavy portfolios. But that psychology can change fast, as we saw a half-year ago. Gold investment roa...Read More
Warren Buffett has long championed a buy-and-hold investing strategy. "If you aren't willing to own a stock for 10 years, don't even think about owning it for 10 minutes," he has repeatedly said.Finding quality stocks worth holding for a decade or more can be difficult, but these opportunities do exist. Sometimes, the company has a proven history of execution that you can trust. Other times it ope...Read More
Cameco Corp (TSX:CCO)(NYSE:CCJ) is planning to release its first-quarter results on May 1. The stock has been struggling to generate any momentum as the share price has been stuck in a range this year, up just 2% since the start of 2019. However, that could all end if Cameco comes out with a strong quarter next week, and there’s reason to believe it could be a good one. Let’s take a...Read More
Methanol, potash, wood, gold, and copper — they may seem unrelated at a glance, but these are five of the best materials to get invested in for capital gains, plus some tasty dividends.West Fraser Timber (TSX:WFT)Up 1.5% in the last five days at the time of writing, West Fraser Timber continues to impress with solid stats: from a strong track record typified by one- and five-year past earnin...Read More
The great euphoria emanating from these near-record-high stock markets is breathtaking. Traders are again convinced stocks do nothing but rally indefinitely. That everything-is-awesome mindset has stunted gold's latest upleg, since there's no perceived need for prudently diversifying stock-heavy portfolios. But that psychology can change fast, as we saw a half-year ago. Gold investment roa...Read More
Bob Moriarty ArchivesApr 24, 2019I didan interview a couple of weeks back and predicted that the stock markets would begin a large decline soon. I based that on tea-leaf reading of the DSI readings for the S&P, the Nasdaq and the Nikkei. Since then the DSI for volatility has also dropped to a potential extreme level.In the very first piece I ever wrote about investing in gold and silverI talke...Read More