European nickel premiums climbed in the week to Tuesday June 25 due to tightening availability after some supply was diverted to China, while the import arbitrage window in China closed late last week causing regional premiums to fall. Arbitrage loss sends both Chinese nickel premiums down European premiums rise with some supply being diverted to Asia US briquette premiums slid on lac...Read More
RAPAPORT... The price millennials are willing to pay for an engagement ring has remained stable over the past three years, even as they become more flexible in their stone choices, research shows. The average price couples spent on engagement rings in 2018 was$5,000, the same amount they shelled out in 2017 and 2016, data fromWeddingWire shows. The wedding-services marketplace surveys approxi...Read More
RAPAPORT... Tara Jewels LLC and parent company Tara Jewels Holdings havefiled for bankruptcy, each listingbetween $10 million and $50 million in outstanding liabilities. Wholesaler Tara Jewels LLC currently claims to have between$500,000 and $1 million in assets, according to the June 21 Chapter 11 filing in the Southern District of New York. Theparent company reported up to $50,000 in assets...Read More
Steel H-beam prices in Northern Europe inched up this week after a string of losses, while Southern European prices dipped for the first time in three weeks, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday June 26.Fastmarkets' price assessment for domestic S235-grade, 200x200mm, category-2 H-beam in Northern Europe was ?,?575-610 ($654-695) per tonne delivered on Wednesday June 26, up from ?,?570-605 per to...Read More
RAPAPORT... Mark Cohen, the co-owner and designer at wholesale jewelrybrand J.J. Marco, passed away on May 27 at the age of 63. Cohen and his wife, Julianne Jaffe, founded the company in1990. They ran it for 15 years as a jewelry wholesaler, supplying to clients suchas Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Thepair opened a retail location on New York's Madison...Read More
The New York Daily News (NYDN) reported earlier this week that Joshua Niamehr, the owner of the online jewelry website Enchanted Diamond filed for bankruptcy this month. Just prior to the filing, NYDN had questioned the company about accusations of fraud. NYDN described Niamehr as a Midtown diamond dealer who had allegedly scammed customers out of thousands of dollars in unfulfilled orders,...Read More
RAPAPORT... Rough exports from Belgium dropped 37% year on year to $741.5million in May, reflecting continued weakness in the sector. Rough imports fell16%, according to data from the Antwerp World Diamond Centre. The polishedtrade was more stable, with imports climbing 6% during the month. Polishedexports were flat, as the average price rose to the highest level on record forthe country, offsetti...Read More
Royal Asscher, the Amsterdam, Netherlands-based diamond firm, is celebrating its 165th anniversary with the introduction of two new, patented cuts: the Royal Asscher Oval Cut and the Royal Asscher Cushion Cut.The new cuts are part of the company's long tradition of audacity and innovation in diamond cutting and polishing. In 1908, Joseph Asscher cleaved the famous Cullinan diamond, a story th...Read More
As the 2019 Intersessional Meeting of the Kimberley Process (KP) wrapped up on June 21 in the Indian city of Mumbai, WDC President Stephane Fischler expressed confidence that progress has been made in the effort to reach consensus on the review and reform of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). He called on participants to agree on the measures necessary for strengthening the KPCS�...Read More
European steelmakers have called on the European Commission (EC) to "retroactively remove" the 5% quota volume liberalization of its import safeguard measures, among other requests to ease pressure on the domestic steel industry.The current safeguard mechanism will increase the level of tariff-free quotas for each product category by 5% after each year. The first liberalization will take place on...Read More
A 10-week decline in low-grade manganese ore prices stalled on Friday June 21 and Chinese port ore prices have been rebounding dramatically from 2019 lows reached in early June. Fastmarkets' 37% manganese ore index, cif Tianjin held at $5.26 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on Friday. Fastmarkets' China port index for 37% manganese ore increased by 2.30 yuan to 47.50 yuan per dmtu (equiv...Read More
The weekly price for rebar produced and delivered in Northern Europe remained unchanged on Wednesday, June 26,, as mills maintained price levels ahead of the renewal of EU import quotas on July 1, sources told Fastmarkets.Market activity was "a little quiet this week, and we haven't sold much material in Northern Europe," one European producer source said.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment...Read More
Brazilian mining company Vale will spend an additional $450 million on safety and environmental recovery in the city of Brumadinho, in the country's Minas Gerais state, until 2023 after an iron ore tailings dam collapsed in January, the company said on Wednesday June 26.This adds to the $4.5-billion financial impact already disclosed by Vale in its first-quarter earnings report. Fines, compensatio...Read More
Turkish steel producers continued to be quiet in the deep-sea scrap markets with little demand for July shipment cargoes, sources said on Wednesday June 26.Mills in the country stepped away from the deep-sea markets last week after booking several cargoes for July.Some sources believe that domestic steel producers in Turkey still need a few more cargoes, but told Fastmarkets the mills&nb...Read More
Iron ore prices rebounded on Wednesday June 26 amid strong activity on trading platforms.MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index: $117.63 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $3.17 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Pilbara Blend Fines Index: $115.67 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $2.41 per tonne. MB 62% Fe Iron Ore Index-Low Alumina: $117.85 per tonne cfr Qingdao, up $2.14 per tonne. MB 58% Fe Premium Index: $104.52 per tonne cfr Qingdao, d...Read More
Quality emerges at Galan's blue-chip lithium addressSPONSOREDgalan lithiumLegal & General head of commodity research Nick Stansbury said market responses to global anthropogenic climate change and attempts by policy makers and industry to curb any warming should ultimately result in higher demand for the red metal."The world is waking up to the fact that it cannot continue to bear the...Read More
Greenland shines brightly in the rare earth spotlightSPONSOREDgreenland mineralsBlack Rock readies for race to graphite productionSPONSOREDblack rock miningE25 powering towards Butcherbird PFSSPONSOREDelement 25Finally, a changed mining tech M&A landscapeSPONSOREDatricoIvanhoe said the combined proceeds of US$514 million (C$679 million) from the CITIC and Zijin Mining investments positioned it...Read More
Fastmarkets is extending until July 31 the consultation period for its proposal to launch a daily containerized steel scrap cfr Vietnam assessment.Responses to the original consultation could not definitively define the liquidity of a daily spot market and its suitability for a daily price assessment.The proposed specification is as follows:Assessment: Steel scrap HMS 1&2 (80:20) containerized imp...Read More
Seaborne coking coal prices weakened further on Wednesday June 26, and market participants are not expecting them to pick up anytime soon.A cargo of a top Australian brand, scheduled for loading over July 10-24, was sold to a northeastern end user at $200 per tonne cfr China."Two other top Australian brands were offered at $202 per tonne and $203 per tonne cfr China, so evidently this was the best...Read More
Japan's Tokyo Steel has cut its ferrous scrap purchase price for the sixth time in June on the back of squeezed margins and weak demand.The country's largest operator of electric-arc furnaces, and the domestic benchmark price-setter for ferrous scrap, lowered its purchase prices by ?500-1,000 ($4.67-9.34) on Wednesday June 26.The reduction resulted in the mill paying ?27,000 per tonne...Read More