Global Metal News, Metal Prices & Analysis

MMTA chairman invites views on warehouse rules, defends Steinweg right to privacy
April 26, 2013 - 20:07 GMT
Minor Metals Trade Assn chairman Roy Walton has invited members to express their concerns if they feel it necessary for the organisation to review its policies regarding the independence of approved warehouses.
COMMENT: Those damn discounts
April 26, 2013 - 16:34 GMT
A widely known but little-examined practice broke into the light earlier this month, when ArcelorMittal USA, followed by Severstal North America and Nucor, said they intended to stop selling hot rolled coil (HRC) at a discounted rate to CRU’s HRC index for the US midwest.
DAILY SCRAP REPORT: Index falls sharply on fresh US, European trades
April 26, 2013 - 16:05 GMT
The Metal Bulletin daily scrap index for HMS 1 & 2 (80:20) imports into Turkey fell sharply on Friday April 26, on new cargoes traded into the country.
European secondary Al flat as producers look to UK
April 26, 2013 - 12:20 GMT
European secondary aluminium ingot prices stayed flat on Friday April 26, with some producers looking to sell into the UK for the first time, as continental prices offered no margin against high scrap prices.
Chinese selenium prices drop further; end-users start importing directly
April 26, 2013 - 11:35 GMT
Selenium prices fell further in China on continuing trader destocking, while shifting purchasing strategies by end-users may “change the rules of the game”, market sources told Metal Bulletin.

Base metals

Who is most likely to buy the Las Bambas copper project in Peru?

COMMENT: Those damn discounts

A widely known but little-examined practice broke into the light earlier this month, when ArcelorMittal USA, followed by Severstal North America and Nucor, said they intended to stop selling hot rolled coil (HRC) at a discounted rate to CRU’s HRC index for the US midwest.
COMMENT: Glencore and Mofcom – the fight over tight

Copper’s rout in recent weeks was punctuated on Tuesday April 15 by news that China’s regulator, the ministry of commerce (Mofcom), and Glencore had agreed the conditions by which the former would approve the trader-producer’s takeover of Xstrata in a process that began over a year ago.
SPOTLIGHT: Freeport Cobalt – the new cobalt superpower

Four months after the world’s first mine-to-battery cobalt operation was effectively created, the agreements have been signed, the refinery and sales offices have been renamed and Freeport’s marketing team has been revealed.

MB COMPANY DATABASE: Chile's top 10 copper mining projects
These are the top ten biggest copper mining projects in Chile, according to Metal Bulletin Company Database (www.mbdatabase.com), a service that tracks over 1,000 mining projects and 12,000 companies active in the metals and mining market.
VIDEO: The London Metal Exchange explained
Metal Bulletin’s Andrea Hotter looks back over the history of metal trading in London, talks to the London Metal Exchange’s ceo Martin Abbott about the future of the exchange – set up in 1877 and bought last year by Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing for £1.39 billion ($2.1billion) – and asks a broker to demonstrate and explain some of the hand signals by which business is still carried out on the last open outcry trading floor in Europe.
MB RESEARCH VIEW: Bingham Canyon slide adds to copper mine disruptions
Copper supplies are being hit by mine disruptions but the market is still dominated by fears of falling global demand.
SPOTLIGHT: Japanese steelmakers welcome monetary stimulus
Japan’s steelmakers have welcomed new government policies aimed at pulling the country out of its decades-long decline, but warn that the steel industry will not feel the benefits for some time.
Guinea cuts taxes, royalties in revised mining code in bid to woo investors
Guinea has cut its tax and royalty demands to woo investors and push forward existing projects in the impoverished West African country.