Turkish billet prices have continued to fall this week, amid sluggish demand and a downturn in Asian steel prices, sources said on Thursday November 29.Suppliers in the CIS region have already reduced their billet offers to Turkey to $460-465 per tonne cfr, but demand in the country was very weak...Read More
The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Friday November 30.Base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange registered some gains on Thursday November 29 following a rise in crude oil futures but market sentiment remained uncertain, with commodities facing macroeconomic headwinds. Read more in our live futures report.Here are how prices looked at the close of trading:Nors...Read More
Aluminium prices should trade downward going forward once China's demand expectations sour, Novelis' South American chief operating officer Francisco Pires told Fastmarkets on Tuesday November 27.In Brazil, ingot premiums are expected to continue following US Midwest levels, although there are very different dynamics applied to each market, according to Pires. Buyers are currently negotiating 2019...Read More
China's refined tin production is set to fall by 29% year on year in the fourth quarter, mostly due to a lack of concentrate from Myanmar, the International Tin Association (ITA) said in a note on Thursday November 29.Myanmar's tin concentrate shipments account for 40% of China's raw material feed. Stocks held in warehouses in China and at the ports in Myanmar have been depleted since August, the...Read More
The timeframe remains uncertain for a return to 100% capacity operations at the Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil, owner Norsk Hydro said at its Capital Markets Day in London on Thursday November 29.Alunorte has been running at 50% capacity since March, after a court in the state of Par?? halted operations of the refinery's DRS2 bauxite residue disposal unit for environmental reasons. A Brazilia...Read More
Aurubis has resumed production at its Hamburg and Pirdrop primary copper smelting plants after both were suspended for unscheduled boiler maintenance earlier this week, the company said on Thursday November 29. "Our plants in Hamburg and Pirdrop are back in operation already, we expect L? 1/4 nen to be back by the end of next week," a spokesperson said in an...Read More
Comex copper prices were under pressure on Thursday morning in the US, in the aftermath of US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's dovish comments made on Wednesday.The copper price for March settlement on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange reversed down 1.55 cents to $2.7980 per lb. Powell said interest rates were, "just below neutral levels" while speaking at the New...Read More
Xinfa Group's two aluminium smelters in the Chinese province of Shandong have been exempted from this year's winter production curtailments, according to a document seen by Fastmarkets MB. The two smelters, which are both located in Liaochen city, will be allowed to operate unimpeded during China's winter heating season which runs from November 15 until March 15 next year, a document released by t...Read More
Domestic prices for cold-rolled coil (CRC) in the EU have been under pressure from slow trading, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday November 29.Demand has been reduced by a combination of seasonal de-stocking activity and a general 'wait-and-see' attitude among buyers due to the lack of market clarity about further price trends.European buyers have also been reported to have sufficient stocks of...Read More
Turkish domestic rebar and wire rod prices have continued to decrease amid poor demand and a stronger lira, sources said on Thursday November 29.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for domestic rebar in Turkey was TRY2,950-3,085 ($562-588) per tonne ex-works, including 18% VAT, compared with TRY3,080-3,220 per tonne of last week.A steel mill in the Izmir region was heard offering rebar to local.....Read More
Turkish long steel export prices continued to fall over the past week on sluggish demand and a downturn in Asian steel prices, sources said on Thursday November 29.Steel mills in Turkey cut their offers to $490-495 per tonne fob on an actual-weight basis, but had attracted almost no interest at those prices, sources told Fastmarkets."We are trying to keep our offers at $495 per...Read More
The economic sanctions imposed by the United States against Iran since early August have had direct and indirect negative effects not only on the Middle Eastern country's steel exports but also on its domestic consumption.This may lead to lower steel output by the country in the future, Fastmarkets was told on Thursday November 29.The first tranche of sanctions imposed by the US was intended to pr...Read More
World silico-manganese supply reached 1.62 million tonnes in October, up 16.1% year on year and 9.9% from September, driven by production increases in China and India, according to data from the International Manganese Institute (IMnI). In the first 10 months of the year, global silico-manganese production rose 25.5% year on year, according to the IMnI, which did not provide total year-to-date pro...Read More
The European molybdenum-oxide market has climbed 20 cents in trading by mid-week, with deals and offer prices reported above $12 per lb and returning to a level unseen since the start of November.Some oxide trading, however, has been in South Korea where major steelmaker Posco settled a tender for around 100 tonnes of oxide last week at about $12-12.10 per lb. The company is due to settle another...Read More
Ferroglobe is set to idle almost one-fifth of its silicon metal production capacity in Europe and the United States, cutting it to an annualized rate of 341,000 tonnes from 417,000 tonnes, because of the weaker prices seen this year.The UK-based metals company is planning to idle 36,000 tonnes per year of production capacity in the US. This will be done its plant at Selma, in the state of Alabama,...Read More
China's leading stainless steel mills - Tsingshan Group, Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Tisco) and Baosteel - have lowered their December tender prices for high-carbon ferro-chrome after falling stainless prices hit profits. Early on Tuesday November 27, Tisco announced that its December tender price for high-carbon ferro-chrome was 6,700 yuan ($963) per tonne, 50 yuan per tonne lower than its Novembe...Read More
The latest metal markets news and price moves to start the North American day on Thursday November 29.Base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange were higher during morning trading, with market confidence boosted by US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell saying that the central bank may soon be in a position to pause the interest rate hikes. Rising 2.27%, LME three-month tin traded the most...Read More
South African miner Tharisa produced a record 1.4 million tonnes of chrome concentrate for the year to September 30, 2018, while a sharp weakening of chrome prices offset the benefit of a higher platinum group metal (PGM) basket price.Tharisa's chrome concentrate production rose 8.8% year on year and sales rose 24.8% to 1.6 million tonnes. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortizati...Read More
Turkish steel mills extended their absence from the deep-sea scrap market on persistently poor demand for finished steel and with no recovery in sight, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday November 29.After booking three deep-sea cargoes from the United States and the United Kingdom at the end of the last week, steel mills in Turkey paused their buying activity because of the sluggish demand...Read More
Fastmarkets proposes to refine the specifications for three pig-iron price assessments in the United States and Brazil to reflect existing market conditions.Fastmarkets invites market participants to take part in a market consultation to refine the specifications of the three prices below. Fastmarkets has added the chemical compositions into the specifications to specify the phosphorous content of...Read More