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.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 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

What is it with billionaires and gold?When billionaire Sam Zell warned at the end of December that the dollar’s status as the world’s principal reserve currency was in jeopardy, it nudged something in the back of the mind about the number of billionaires over the past year who issued similar warnings. The wealthiest among us, it seems, are also the most vocal and proactive about the da...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

Gold and silver continue tobe bullish, the gold miners are mixed and bitcoin continues to outperform. Despitethe unprecedented events of 2020 the precious metals have had a positive year,the pandemic brought volatility to the market with a sharp drop followed by acontinuation of the upward trend that had begun before Covid disrupted ourlives.Unprecendented globalliquidity since the pandemic has be...Read More

Well, it’s been a year like noother in so many ways. “Unprecedented” is an often-overused term. But theretruly is no precedent for much of what transpired in public health, politics,the monetary system, the economy, and markets.More than 300,000 Americansreportedly lost their lives while infected with COVID-19.  Less widely publicized was a spike in deathsof despair due to l...Read More

RAPAPORT... Hong Kong saw its first quarterly rise in polished-diamond imports for more than two years as global trading picked up following a slump in early 2020. Shipments into the municipality rose 4% year on year to $3.55 billion for the October-to-December period, according to calculations based on data released this week by the Diamond Federation of Hong Kong, China.Hong Kong Trade Data...Read More

Domestic prices in Europe for steel cold-rolled coil were fairly stable over the week to Wednesday February 10 because buyers have been holding back from making new deals until a settled price trend is seen, sources have told Fastmarkets.Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel CRC, domestic, exw Northern Europe, was ?,?800-810 ($968-980) per tonne on February 10, unchanged over the week.The...Read More

RAPAPORT... Petra Diamonds has begun an investigation into new claims of violence at its Williamson mine in Tanzania following a lawsuit last year.The fresh allegations were of assaults and human-rights violations by Tanzanian guards and the miner's security contractor between November 2020 and January 2021, Petra said Wednesday. Many of the incidents required force to defend people and prope...Read More

RAPAPORT... Belgium's polished-diamond exports fell 10% year on year to $547 million in January, with both volume and the average price declining. That followed a positive December, in which shipments jumped 9% to $634 million, according to data the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) released this week. For 2020 as a whole, polished exports dropped 41% to $5.81 billion, as a second-quarter s...Read More

RAPAPORT... Alrosa's sales rose in January as manufacturers continued to restock inventory and consumer demand picked up in China and the US.Diamond revenues climbed 6% year on year to $430 million, with rough sales growing 8% to $421 million, the Russian miner said Wednesday. Polished sales dropped 39% to $9 million. While overall revenue was not as high as the previous month - manufacturers typi...Read More

Domestic prices for steel heavy plate started to decline across Europe over the week to Wednesday February 10 due to soft demand, sources have told Fastmarkets.Heavy plate prices had gone up by ?,?50 per tonne in the South and by ?,?60-70 per tonne in the North of Europe from mid-January to the start of February this year, due to rising costs for slab feedstock and some demand recovery.Fastmarkets...Read More

(IDEX Online) - The GIA lab in Johannesburg has identified three cases of synthetic moissanite being submitted for grading with a fraudulent inscription.It's a new development by unscrupulous dealers trying to pass off simulants as genuine diamonds.The lab says most fakes are easily spotted, but in the first of three cases a colorless 1.02-ct round brilliant gem bore a GIA number correspondin...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Alrosa today reported total rough and polished sales of $430m for January, up six per cent year-on-year.Demand was firming, especially in China and the USA, said the miner, which has allowed zero-buyouts during most of the pandemic.The figure was higher than for any month in 2020 apart from December, when the disposal of  accumulated stock and sale of the record-breaking Spiri...Read More

(IDEX Online) - Petra Diamonds has outlined its 10-point plan for change at the Williamson mine, in Tanzania, following claims that its security staff had been "ruthless and militaristic" in their dealings with illegal diggers. It also provided details of some of the 79 recorded incursions onto its site in the three months to the end of January, to indicate the scale of the problem it faces. Petra...Read More

A summary of London Metal Exchange warrant premiums from across the globe for the week to Wednesday February 10.Please click...Read More

Tin's cash/three-month spread came to a new historic backwardation on Wednesday February 10, on the same day that a low dollar index propelled the futures contracts for all London metal Exchange base metals prices - except for zinc - to new 2021 highs. Tin's benchmark spread widened to a $2,490 per tonne backwardation during trading on Wednesday, the most on record, further proving the ongoing squ...Read More

Waiting times for aluminium at warehouses across Asia increased throughout January, according to the London Metal Exchange's latest queue report. New queues have emerged in the aluminium hub of Port Klang, Malaysia, with Istim warehouses no longer having the longest wait time. Waiting times for aluminium at Istim warehouses in Port Klang were at 23 days at the end of January, from 20 days at the e...Read More