Turkish steel producers have gone through Thursday without making any deep-sea scrap purchases, because the political situation in the country has changed and the value of the country's lira has become more volatile, sources said on Thursday April 18.Turkey's supreme committee of elections (YSK) has declared opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu the winner of the recent mayoral election in Istanbul,...Read More
Imported and domestic prices for steel billet in Turkey have gone down slightly over the past week, while export prices were stable, sources said on Thursday April 18.Suppliers in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) lowered their offers to $445-450 per tonne cfr, while some material from eastern Ukraine was offered at prices as low as $435 per tonne.But Turkish customers were bidding arou...Read More
Oman's Jindal Shadeed, part of India's Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL), has successfully commissioned a new billet caster with a capacity of 2 million tonnes per year at its mill in Sohar in northern Oman, equipment provider SMS Group said on Thursday April 18"[The new billet caster] is currently operating with six strands and produces rebar billets of 165 millimeters square section at a casting speed...Read More
The import price for steel billet retreated in Egypt in the week ended Thursday April 18, while domestic rebar prices increased, Fastmarkets has heard.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel billet imported into Egypt was $450-455 per tonne cfr on Thursday, falling from $455-458 per tonne cfr last week.CIS-origin billet was offered to the country at $470 per tonne cfr, but demand was very w...Read More
Base prices in Europe for stainless steel grade-304 bright bar edged higher this week because of steel mills' ambitions to strengthen their margins, traders told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 18.The outlook for demand was fairly pessimistic, however, and some traders believed that the gains would be short-lived as a result."April will be quite weak, I believe, once we can see the whole month. And...Read More
Tibnor, the distribution arm of Swedish steelmaker SSAB, has increased its footprint in Denmark, following the completion of its acquisition of Sanist??l, Denmark's second largest steel distributor, it said on Thursday April 17.The acquisition, worth around 630 million Swedish krona ($68.15 million), includes Sanist??l's automated steel distribution center in Taulov, Denmark, four sales offices in...Read More
Oman's Jindal Shadeed, part of India's Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL), has successfully commissioned a new billet caster with a capacity of 2 million tonnes per year at its mill in Sohar in northern Oman, equipment provider SMS Group said on Thursday April 18"[The new billet caster] is currently operating with six strands and produces rebar billets of 165 millimeters square section at a casting speed...Read More
Tibnor, the distribution arm of Swedish steelmaker SSAB, has increased its footprint in Denmark, following the completion of its acquisition of Sanist??l, Denmark's second largest steel distributor, it said on Thursday April 17.The acquisition, worth around 630 million Swedish krona ($68.15 million), includes Sanist??l's automated steel distribution center in Taulov, Denmark, four sales offices in...Read More
China's output of crude steel and finished steel in the first quarter of 2019 both increased significantly year on year on good demand and healthy profits.The country produced a total of 231.07 million tonnes of crude steel over the first three months of 2019, up 9.9% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday April 17. Chinese mills produced 269.07 million tonn...Read More
Global ferrous scrap prices rebounded in the week to Thursday April 18 on returning demand from Turkish steel mills. Export prices on the United States' East Coast moved up as a result.But demand was limited in the key import market of Vietnam due to a mill stoppage, while Taiwanese steel mills remained well-stocked. Turkey demand returns US market picks up on East Coast Mill stoppage in Vietnam d...Read More
Base prices in Europe for stainless steel grade-304 bright bar edged higher this week because of steel mills' ambitions to strengthen their margins, traders told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 18.The outlook for demand was fairly pessimistic, however, and some traders believed that the gains would be short-lived as a result."April will be quite weak, I believe, once we can see the whole month. And...Read More
Austenitic alloy steel scrap prices in the UK increased in the week ended Thursday April 18 because of higher demand this month compared with the first quarter of the year, and despite lower nickel prices.Another supporting factor was the concessions given by stainless steel mills during April for the price paid for the nickel component of the metal.Traders said that further concessions in May wer...Read More
Prices for coated flat steel products in Turkey remained stable in the week ending Thursday April 18, with demand soft in the domestic market.Demand failed to improve because of the weak Turkish lira and the current economic uncertainty.The lira was trading at TRY100 to $17.3698 on April 18, compared with TRY100 to $17.4791 on April 12 and TRY 18.7654 on March 1, according to exchange rate...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday April 18 that are worth another look.The decision by the European Commission to suspend carbon emissions allowances issued by the UK government under the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme is expected to remain valid until the UK is able to reach a deal with the EU on the country's exit from the union, Richard Warren, head of p...Read More
Jeff Gerard has been appointed chief executive officer of Katanga Mining, effective May 2, following the resignation of Danny Callow.As well as being CEO of Katanga Mining, Gerard will be head of Glencore's assets in the...Read More
Bearish sentiment on LME-traded base metals pervaded the market throughout trading on April 18 with the majority of the complex continuing to trade down at the end of the trading day. Pessimism continued to mount on the back of weak European PMI data throughout the day's trading, dissipating any of the previous day's bullish sentiment on the basis of positive Chinese economic data. Suppressed appe...Read More
A forecast downtrend in the mid-to-long-term London Metal Exchange cash zinc price could bring about a shortage of zinc mining projects, BMO Capital Markets analyst Kash Kamal said in a presentation at Fastmarkets' International Lead & Zinc conference on Monday April 15. Although the LME zinc cash price performed well in the second half of 2018, it dipped by 9.7% to a $2,644 per tonne average in t...Read More
Participants took a breather from the seaborne coking coal spot market on Thursday April 18 following a flurry of trades earlier this week."We are not in a hurry to offer at the moment, especially since the loading dates for our shipments have been pushed back to May," a Chinese trading source said.Meanwhile, at the Port of Jingtang in China's steelmaking hub of Tangshan, a brand of premium low-vo...Read More
Most prices for steel coil products in Turkey decreased again over the week to Thursday April 18, with buying activity remaining subdued.Demand in the local market was still soft because of the continuing weakness of the Turkish lira and the expectation that prices will fall further.The lira was trading at TRY100 to $17.3698 on April 18, compared with TRY100 to $17.4791 on April 12 and TRY 18.7654...Read More
Bearish sentiment on LME-traded base metals pervaded the market throughout trading on April 18 with the majority of the complex continuing to trade down at the end of the trading day. Pessimism continued to mount on the back of weak European PMI data throughout the day's trading, dissipating any of the previous day's bullish sentiment on the basis of positive Chinese economic data. Suppressed appe...Read More