Key data from the pricing sessions in Asia and Europe in the week ended Friday August 9. China Key drivers The price of antimony MMTA standard-grade II, ddp China ended a month of stability last week, dropping after some domestic suppliers lowered their offer prices to secure sales. Concerns over the possible outflow of antimony stocks held in Fanya Metal Exchange warehouses in the nea...Read More
A summary of the financial results for Austrian steelmaking group Voestalpine for the first quarter of its 2019-20 year, April 1 to June 30.In briefEarnings were down due to the fallout from international trade conflicts and the growing weakness of the global economy, which affects Europe's export-oriented industries.Profit margin came under presure from strong increases in...Read More
The Chinese ferro-silicon market softened over the past week in line with weaker demand, in turn fueling expectations of further price weakness in the near term.In Europe, however, the ferro-silicon market was steady after recording a small bounce in the prior week after suppliers held their offer prices ahead of expected uptick in demand. Chinese market prepares for further losses Europe awaits r...Read More
The upward momentum in global ferro-vanadium markets stalled in the week ended Friday August 9, with prices in Europe and China edging down. Chinese, European FeV prices edge down after spot activity slows V2O5 prices weaken in China while European market continues to riseUS ferro-vanadium prices soften amid renewed activityAfter rising for three consecutive weeks, the export price for ferro-vanad...Read More
UG2 chrome ore prices broke their four-week rally after the depreciation of the Chinese yuan raised purchasing costs for the country's importers. UG2 chrome ore prices down by $1 per tonne in China Domestic, imported ferro-chrome prices hold in China Low-carbon ferro-chrome prices halt their decline in Europe High-carbon ferro-chrome prices unchanged in Europe US high-carbon ferro-chrome market re...Read More
U.S. equity index futures moved lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 39 points in pre-opening trade. Index futures responded partially to an inversion in the Treasury yield curve by two year and ten year treasuries and partially to sharp weakness in European equity indices.Tilray dropped $4.62 to $41.40 after reporting a bigger than expected quarterly loss.Canada Goose fell $1.01 to $...Read More
Supply disruptions supporting the fundamentals amid weak demand As the base metals markets generally continue to endure weak demand conditions, mainly due to the US-China trade dispute, the supply side of the equation is setting the fundamental tone, with disruptions in many markets recently price-supportive. Aluminium: Prices tracking our Q3 low case Given aluminium’s oversold technical conf...Read More
Negative macroeconomic backdrop continues to undermine risk appetite Global markets were buffeted again last week by a persistently negative macroeconomic backdrop that continues to undermine risk appetite. US-China trade tensions, a weaker yuan and the sell-off in major indices - various key economic data continue to point to a cohesive global slowdown - are some of the highlights. Trade relation...Read More
Aluminium The LME three-month aluminium price ran into stiff overhead resistance on Monday August 12 after reaching a high of $1,793 per tonne. Sellers were actively defending just below the 50 DMA and managed to produce a rather negative bearish engulfing daily candlestick. With the 20 DMA fast approaching the 50 DMA, a bearish cross-over below it could trigger more downside momentum. The 20...Read More
Fresh buying picks up Copper, which made a gain of nearly 1% last week, enjoyed some fresh buying judging by a rise in LME open interest. The rebound was in part technically driven because the sell-off of 4.1% in the LME copper price in the prior week resulted in oversold conditions. As the market is no longer oversold, renewed weakness in the immediate term cannot be ruled out. The rebound was al...Read More
Bull market in sight after another outage at Port Pirie At their recent highs, lead prices had rallied 19.4% from the May lows. A 20% rally is generally thought of as indicating a bull market is underway, so we wait to see if lead can move above the $2,129 per tonne level to show a 20% rise. News of another production halt at Port Pirie this week has prompted fresh buying – the earlier halt,...Read More
Our focus this week is rounding up the main Q2 production results published this reporting season. Although some big target misses have made the headlines and helped to fuel the price rally, production disappointments are not the whole story, especially if we look at producers who don’t publish their results in the public domain. (Q2 comparisons are year on year unless otherwise stated.) Norn...Read More
The purge continues LME tin continues to trade poorly relative to its peers, suggesting that the purge of the overly long position held by speculative funds is not done yet. It is interesting to notice that only tin and zinc, for which money managers are relatively the most bullish among the complex posted a loss last week. Once the purge is over, however, we believe that tin prices are likely to...Read More
Zinc price extend to fresh lows Zinc prices came under increasing downside pressure across the past week, reflecting risk-off sentiment across wider markets. The LME three-month price has extended to a fresh multi-month low of $2,230.50 per tonne on Monday, August 12, the lowest since October 2016. Zinc demand may be set for seasonal up tick... At the same time, however, stock flows support our vi...Read More
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Click here to download the Selected Demand IndicatorsACCESS RESTRICTEDTo read the rest of this analysis please take a free sample or subscribeFREE SampleReceive a free sample of market analysis and price forecasts.Free SampleSUBSCRIBEReceive unlimited access to all current and archive content going back to 2008 including downloadable pricing data and forecasts.Plus download the lat...Read More
The economic and geopolitical clouds are getting more widespread and darker with unrest in Hong Kong and debt default concerns in Argentina adding to market concerns that are already stressed by the continuing US-China trade dispute, poor global economic data, stalemate over Iran and the potential for a hard Brexit. Gold has pushed up to another fresh multi-year high on Tuesday August 13, of ...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were lower this morning. S&P 500 futures were down 5 points in pre-opening trade.Index futures were virtually unchanged following release of the July U.S. Consumer Price Index at 8:30 AM EDT. Consensus was an increase of 0.3% versus a gain of 0.1% in June. Actual was an increase of 0.3%. Excluding food and energy, consensus was an increase of 0.2% versus a gain of 0.3...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday August 9 that are worth another look.China launched a consultation paper on Friday August 9 to implement a stricter arsenic threshold on copper concentrates imports, a move that could lead to drastic changes in global trade flow of high-impurity concentrates and a further premium on treatment charges of clean concentrates.We...Read More
Prices for steel billet were steady or moved downward in most regions over the week ended Friday August 9 because of reduced prices for iron ore and long steel products, after a rise in the political and trading tensions between China and the United States affected most of the world's ferrous markets.The markets were also affected by the devaluation of the yuan. The Chinese currency broke the leve...Read More