As Fastmarkets begins a series on the use of blockchain in commodities, we take a look at the basic concepts in a guide for beginners. What is blockchain?Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets. In other words, it is a record of deals and data that can be shared among members of a network and that cannot be changed.Wait, s...Read More
Timely access to reliable data has been a key factor hindering the success of trade finance for years. Fastmarkets looks at what the problem is and how blockchain has set out to overcome it.Trade finance, the complex management of capital required for international trade to flow, has made huge strides in developing blockchain networks designed to ultimately replace more traditional methods.It is a...Read More
Iranian export billet and slab prices continued to fall this week, with sanctions leading suppliers to cut offers, but with little success.Billet offers from Iran were heard at $395-405 per tonne fob, depending on the producer, down from $405-412 per tonne fob last week.However, most customers have held back from purchasing Iranian material."It is too risky to buy Iranian steel...Read More
CIS export billet price dropped further on Wednesday December 12 with negative sentiment in the market curbing trading activity."People are just scared to buy because they know that tomorrow they will be able to get a lower price," a trader said.Most market...Read More
The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Thursday December 13.Base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange had mostly drifted lower by the close on Wednesday December 12 but were confined to tight ranges throughout what was an unexceptional trading day. Read more in our live futures report.Here are how prices looked at the close of trading:A historic backwardation in zinc forwar...Read More
The latest metal markets news and price moves to start the North American day on Wednesday December 12.London Metal Exchange base metal prices have made a typically tentative start to trading on Wednesday December 12, with copper, aluminium and zinc all trading down against yesterday's close. Here is how the LME base metals complex looked at 11.40am London...Read More
Good morning from Fastmarkets MB's offices in Asia as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Wednesday December 12.Base metal prices, barring those for aluminium, on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were up across the board during Asian morning trading on Wednesday December 12, with the complex continuing to find support from positive trade headlines. Check Fastmarkets MB's live futures...Read More
London Metal Exchange members are considering a multitude of ways to continue to service their EU clients in the event that a financial services deal is either not forthcoming or does not go far enough when the UK finally leaves the European Union. Some companies have even told their LME sales teams they need to be prepared to move to another major European city to be able to legally service their...Read More
If Brexit - the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union on March 29, 2019 - isn't on your radar, it should be. With the annual London Metal Exchange Week now in full swing, the exchange, its members and their customers need to have contingency plans in place if they are expecting to be affected in any way by Brexit. And as with anything political, an element of brinkmanship will na...Read More
When the London Metal Exchange finished its 12-step warehouse reform package, it proved once more that you cannot please all of the people all of the time. It faced some inevitable criticism of the rules, in particular that the LME went too far in certain areas and should consider tweaking or rolling back some of its reforms. In particular, the focus of attention was on the load-in, load-out (LILO...Read More
A historic backwardation in zinc forward prices has its first major casualty, with Thailand's foremost zinc distributor set to close that part of its business as a result.Padaeng Industry, formerly a primary zinc smelter which pivoted into the renewable energy industry, will close its 50,000 tonne per year zinc metal distribution business at the end of 2018, the company said in a Stock Exchange of...Read More
A historic backwardation in zinc forward prices has its first major casualty, with Thailand's foremost zinc distributor set to close that part of its business as a result.Padaeng Industry, formerly a primary zinc smelter which pivoted into the renewable energy industry, will close its 50,000 tonne per year zinc metal distribution business at the end of 2018, the company said in a Stock Exchange of...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange had mostly drifted lower by the close on Wednesday December 12 but were confined to tight ranges throughout what was an unexceptional trading day.Volumes were thin while market participants slowed their trading ahead of the looming end of the year. In copper, around 10,000 lots traded by the 5pm close compared with more than 22,000 lots on Friday. Th...Read More
The launch of a high-grade iron ore derivative by the Singapore Exchange last week represents a "leap forward for the [ferrous] industry, particularly those that are exposed to the high-grade product," according to Andrew Glass, head of iron ore trading at Anglo American.SGX launched the world's first high-grade iron ore derivative contract, settled against the daily MB 65% Fe Iron Ore Index publi...Read More
Although base metals are under pressure in the short term, we have a bullish bias to our 2018 price forecasts given the supportive background of solid global economic growth and the fact that all six base metal markets look set to be in fundamental deficit this year. But each has a slightly different supply-side story and this aspect should be the main differentiator. For example, zinc's narrative...Read More
The Indian government's plans of hitting 300 million tonnes of steel capacity by 2030 sounds overambitious in the current scenario given that output only managed to reach the 101 million tonne mark in 2017 - indicating three-fold (Read More
After suffering for some seven years through to 2015, the world's steelmakers have had cause for cheer over the past couple of years. After some heavy losses and write-downs, they finally appear to have emerged from the wreckage of the global financial crisis. An economic upswing has taken root in most regions of the world, Chinese steel output and export growth has slowed noticeably, and steel pr...Read More
For a number of years problems at Ilva, the largest steelworks in Europe, have been casting shadow over the performance of the whole Italian steel industry. Will an acquisition of Ilva by a consortium led by ArcelorMittal, now in its final stage, be a game changer for the market?Following multiple reports of environmental and health problems caused by the Taranto plant, in 2013 Ilva was placed und...Read More
China ended steel production in all of the country's illegal induction furnaces by the end of June last year, it ha claimed.Most operators in China are primarily small private mills that use low-quality scrap to produce substandard rebar. This is mixed with grade III (HRB400) rebar and sold at a discount to construction contractors.For a long period, the government had neither a record of nor cont...Read More
Iron ore prices fell sharply in the second half of November after climbing through October, with prices for higher-grade material pioneering the decline.Fastmarkets MB daily benchmark for 65% Fe fines dropped by 22% by Monday November 26 after peaking on October 29. The 62% Fe iron ore index declined by 16% over the period, as some Chinese steelmakers started to seek larger volumes of cheaper ores...Read More