Gold has big year in 2020 and outlook for this year robust. Learn about monetary expansion and gold future prices.Read More

The gold futures price reached US$1,767/ounce this week before retreating, which was the second time it has surpassed US$1,760 in the past two months, marking some of gold's highest levels in several years.Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Key ferro-alloy forecast highlights for the coming months:?EUR? A strong recovery in both bulk and noble alloys is expected in 2021 but the markets are unlikely to return to the levels seen before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. We have seen a quicker-than-expected recovery across various regions amid the economic fal...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Prices for most ferro-alloys maintained their upward momentum into October, solidifying previous gains and reflecting the improved demand from steelmakers, the rebuilding of depleted inventories, and the supply-side concerns following both planned and unplanned outages. Gains were noted for ferro-silicon, silicon metal, mang...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloys forecast highlights:Prices across most ore and alloy markets trended higher in September, buoyed by improving demand from steelmakers with the end of the summer holiday season in Europe and the United States, as well as maintained demand from Chinese steel mills. Tightening of alloy inventories...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Fastmarkets analysts were invited to present our outlook for the coking coal market at Coaltrans Asia, held online on November 23-25. One of the key topics at the event was the trade tensions between China and Australia, which overtook Mongolia to become the largest coking coal exporter to China this year...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Iron ore remains the most bullish commodity of the year, with prices fuelled by Chinese demand and supply disruptions in Brazil, along with bullish sentiment. But prices are expected to come down because Brazilian exports have begun to recover, and have reached their highest level since the Brumadinho dam disaster in 2019. W...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In the iron ore market, supply issues including heavy rains at the start of the year, followed by staffing problems during the Covid-19 pandemic, have affected exports from Brazil. This has helped Australia gain a larger market share, but since June, Brazilian export volumes have returned to levels last seen before the...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Chinese blast furnace (BF) utilization rates have stagnated and iron ore port stock volumes are rising, reaching their highest levels since March, which suggests that iron ore supply is becoming excessive while demand is not growing. Unsurprisingly, prices dropped last week and we expect the trend to continue. The market has...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.We spoke in our previous tracker of stainless steel prices ending 2020 on a high. That trend has continued during early 2021 and, in fact, the upward rally in prices has increased its momentum.Compared with the monthly price increase of some 5% seen at the end of 2020, prices for grade-304 stainless steel in al...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Prices of stainless steel are generally set to reach highs for the year as 2020 comes to a close. For the most common nickel-containing grades of stainless steel, this upward trend is being driven above all by rising nickel prices, which themselves are hitting relatively high levels into the end of 2020.The price increases si...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.While much commentary has been written about Asian economies performing far better than those elsewhere this year during the global Covid-19 pandemic, it is stainless steel markets in Europe and the United States that are ending the year in better shape than their Asian counterparts.We do not talk of demand levels or demand g...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.While a world leader in many areas, the United States is a relatively small player when it comes to stainless steel. It produces a small amount of material, both in absolute and relative terms (i.e. compared to the size of its population), while a large share of its industry is in the hands of bigger European companies. Never...Read More

Domestic prices for hot-dipped galvanized coil in Europe increased again over the week to Wednesday March 10, due to a material shortage combined with good demand, sources told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel hot-dipped galvanized coil, domestic, exw Northern Europe was ?,?890-900 ($1,061-1,073) per tonne on March 10, compared with ?,?870-900 per tonne a week earlier.The...Read More

Positive trading amid US and China retail recovery. Jewelry continues to perform well as consumers seek meaningful products that retain value. US jewelers optimistic after Senate approves $1.9 trillion stimulus bill and as vaccine rollout gains momentum. Jewelry sales +6% in Feb., Mastercard reports. Large manufacturers emerging from pandemic with improved liquidity, profit and market share. Miner...Read More

RAPAPORT... The Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) will reopen its trading floor this Sunday for vaccinated members, recovered Covid-19 patients, and those who can produce a negative virus test result from the previous 48 hours.New bourse president Boaz Moldawsky and the IDE board made the decision on Wednesday following a national drop in infections, the exchange said. People inside the hall will...Read More

RAPAPORT... The sale of previously owned items could boost luxury companies' revenues by up to 20% in the next 10 years and help it reach a broader audience, according to a report by Bain & Company.Resale will also enable the businesses to generate extra demand for new items, Bain said in its "A Vision of Sustainable Luxury" report, which it released Wednesday in partnership with sustainabilit...Read More

Aluminium's futures price on the London Metal Exchange rose $10 after an over 330,000-tonne inflow entered Malaysian warehouses on Thursday March 11, with the rest of the complex finishing higher too with tin closing in on $26,000 per tonne and zinc's price up by 2%.Aluminium's price was at $2,178 per tonne at Thursday's close despite a total of 332,975 tonnes of aluminium being delivered into Por...Read More

RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds has proposed paying its first dividend since 2016 after annual profit more than doubled on the back of a sales recovery.Net profit jumped to $24.3 million for 2020, compared with $10.6 million in 2019, the miner reported Thursday. The company, which owns the Let??eng deposit in Lesotho, was one of the few major diamond producers to record revenue growth for the year,...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Alrosa sold $372m of rough and polished in February, a modest seven per cent increase on last year.By contrast De Beers, its biggest rival, saw comparative sales rise more than 50 per cent.Alrosa described the current balance between supply and demand as "comfortable" both for miners and rough buyers."The recovery in demand for diamond jewelry in key markets well continued in early...Read More

(IDEX Online) - De Beers reported sustained midstream demand as it sold $550m (provisional) from its latest sight, 52 per cent up on last year ($362m).The figure was down, as expected, on January's $663m - a three-year high buoyed by strong US sales from the US holidays, Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year. De Beers extended Sight 2 in Gabarone beyond its usual week because of...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Family-owned Gunderson's Jewelers has bought the 135-year-old watch and jewelry retailer JB Hudson, based in Minneapolis, USA. Gunderson's, founded by watchmaker George Gunderson in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1945, now has five stores in the Midwest and is owned and run by his grandson Brian Gunderson.It bought JB Hudson from the Pohlad Companies, a holding company for mor...Read More