China's steel futures fell during morning trading on Monday March 26, while raw materials contracts ended the session largely unchanged from their opening prices. Futures closing prices - morning session Shanghai Futures Exchange May rebar: 3,369 yuan ($533) per tonne, down 16 yuan per tonne May hot-rolled coil: 3,507 yuan per tonne, down 57 yuan per tonne Dalian Commodity Exchange May iron ore: 4...Read More
Price losses have deepened in the Chinese ferro-silicon spot market as restarted production increasingly weighs on supplier sentiment, although demand from the magnesium market is giving some support. China market weakness persists... ...but Mg sector demand stems price losses Europe eases with lower offer pricesUS suppliers cut prices amid competition Renewed supply drags down Ch...Read More
South Korea is working to ease the steel import quota limits imposed by the United States following its Section 232 investigations, the Korea Iron & Steel Association (Kisa) said on Monday March 26.The 70% quota is based on the average US import volumes from South Korea for 2015-2017, which is about 74% of 2017's total, and was imposed after the US exempted South Korea from the Sect...Read More
Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange are down across the board by an average of 0.5% this morning, Monday March 26, led by a 1.1% fall in copper to $6,577 per tonne. Volume has been high with 12,433 lots traded as of 07:18 am London time. In precious metals, gold prices are off by 0.2% at $1,344.89 per oz, while silver and platinum prices are little changed and palladium prices are up b...Read More
South Korea is working to ease the steel import quota limits imposed by the United States following its Section 232 investigations, the Korea Iron & Steel Association (Kisa) said on Monday March 26.The 70% quota is based on the average US import volumes from South Korea for 2015-2017, which is about 74% of 2017's total, and was imposed after the US exempted South Korea from the Sect...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – Nonferrous metals faced pressure from a potential trade war as SHFE nickel led the loss with a drop of over 3%. Copper fell after losing support at 50,000 yuan/mt and closed 2.5% lower. Aluminium, lead, and tin edged down, while zinc inched up.The ferrous complex remained weak. Coke slid over 3%, rebar lost nearly 3%, hot-rolled coil fell over 2% and iron ore di...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – Nonferrous metals faced pressure from a potential trade war as SHFE nickel led the loss with a drop of over 3%. Copper fell after losing support at 50,000 yuan/mt and closed 2.5% lower. Aluminium, lead, and tin edged down, while zinc inched up.The ferrous complex remained weak. Coke slid over 3%, rebar lost nearly 3%, hot-rolled coil fell over 2% and iron ore di...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – Nonferrous metals faced pressure from a potential trade war as SHFE nickel led the loss with a drop of over 3%. Copper fell after losing support at 50,000 yuan/mt and closed 2.5% lower. Aluminium, lead, and tin edged down, while zinc inched up.The ferrous complex remained weak. Coke slid over 3%, rebar lost nearly 3%, hot-rolled coil fell over 2% and iron ore di...Read More
U.S. equity index futures were higher this morning. S&P 500 futures were up 39 points in pre-opening trade. Futures moved higher on news that the U.S. Administration has been negotiating terms for trade with China prior to imposing tariffs.USG jumped $7.04 to $40.55 after Berkshire Hathaway offered its 31% stake in the company to Knauf Entities for $42 per share. Marathon Oil added $7.04 to $4...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – After it was forecast that Tangshan's air pollution is likely to reach the orange level, the city activated its emergency level ?...? response to heavy air pollution at 20:00 on March 25 until further notice, SMM learned.An orange-level alert is the second-highest in China’s four-level air pollution warning system. An orange-level alert indicates that...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – After it was forecast that Tangshan's air pollution is likely to reach the orange level, the city activated its emergency level ?...? response to heavy air pollution at 20:00 on March 25 until further notice, SMM learned.An orange-level alert is the second-highest in China’s four-level air pollution warning system. An orange-level alert indicates that...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – After it was forecast that Tangshan's air pollution is likely to reach the orange level, the city activated its emergency level ?...? response to heavy air pollution at 20:00 on March 25 until further notice, SMM learned.An orange-level alert is the second-highest in China’s four-level air pollution warning system. An orange-level alert indicates that...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM)? 1/4 ? China releases data on its import and export of copper in Feruary 2018 (Unit: mt): Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – The price spread between spot nickel briquette and Russian nickel plate stood at just 200 yuan/mt during the week ended March 23, compared with a typical price spread of 600-700 yuan/mt.This is because traders have held back from selling nickel briquette and offered high given their losses in imports, SMM believed.The average weekly loss of imported nickel briquette...Read More
Brazil has launched an anti-dumping investigation into imports of steel rolling-mill rollers from China, according to the country's foreign trade secretariat, Secex.The decision follows indications that Chinese rollers were entering the country at lower prices than domestic products, resulting in significant dumping margins, Secex said...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last weekend and what is expected today.Last Friday nightGrowing trade tension dragged the US dollar index down to a month-low of 89.496, down 0.4% during the day and 0.8% over the week.Such bearish sentiment also led base metals to fall across the board except for zinc. SHFE copper saw a smaller decline but fell cl...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – Spot copper in the Shanghai market was offered at a discount of 200-150 yuan/mt on the morning of Monday March 26, SMM learned. This compared with discounts of 190-130 yuan/mt on the morning of Friday March 23. For editorial queries, please contact Daisy Tseng at daisy@smm.cn For more information on how to access our research reports, please email service.e...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – High-grade nickel pig iron (NPI) plants in China saw mixed profits as of late-March mainly due to their locations and furnaces, SMM research showed.While some high-grade NPI plants in Shandong province registered profits of more than 30% higher than their cash costs, those in Jiangsu and Fujian provinces saw profits between 20-30%. In Inner Mongolia, however, profits...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) –Copper: While the market was rattled by the rising trade tension, crude oil saw a big jump in prices, which may give certain support to copper prices. We expect LME copper to trade at $6,620-6,670/mt today with SHFE copper at 49,700-50,200 yuan/mt. In the physical market, spot discounts are seen at 140-220 yuan/mt with thin trading activity as downstream consumers tak...Read More
SHANGHAI, Mar 26 (SMM) – This is a roundup of global macroeconomic news last weekend and what is expected today.Last Friday nightGrowing trade tension dragged the US dollar index down to a month-low of 89.496, down 0.4% during the day and 0.8% over the week.Such bearish sentiment also led base metals to fall across the board except for zinc. SHFE copper saw a smaller decline but fell cl...Read More