Dalian iron ore futures dipped on Friday, deepening weekly losses as traders reassessed demand prospects in top steel producer China and exercised caution after market regulators repeatedly warned against excessive price speculation. The steelmaking ingredient’s most-active May contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange DCIOcv1 ended daytime trade 0.4% lower at 853.50 yuan ($126.52) a tonne, after earlier hitting a fresh two-week low of 834 yuan. The contract has declined 1.2% so far in the week. On the Singapore Exchange, benchmark March iron ore SZZFH3 was headed for its first weekly ...

The benchmark index of international food commodity prices declined in January for the tenth consecutive month, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported Friday. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 131.2 points in January, 0.8 percent lower than the previous month and 17.9 percent below its peak reached in March 2022. The index tracks monthly changes in the international prices of commonly-traded food commodities. The price indices for vegetable oils, dairy and sugar drove the January decline, while those for cereals and meat remained largely stable. In ...

Steel demand in the European Union is expected to drop 1.6% this year, hit by raging inflation, supply chain problems and cheap imports, industry group Eurofer said on Thursday. That is slightly more optimistic than the 1.9% drop in apparent steel demand the group forecast when it last updated its outlook in October. Apparent steel demand measures steel output plus imports net of exports and incoming material being further processed in the bloc. However, it downgraded its estimate for demand in 2022 to a slide of 4.6% compared to a ...

Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp 8002.T on Friday raised its forecast for net profit and the dividend for the year to March 31, thanks to stronger gains from its U.K. electric power business and higher prices for coking coal and iron ore. Annual net profit is now forecast at a record 530 billion yen ($4.1 billion), up 4% from its November outlook of 510 billion yen, while the dividend is now expected at 78 yen per share against 75 yen previously. “Earnings of our U.K. wholesale and retail power unit ...

The annual output of unconventional natural gas in north China’s coal-rich Shanxi Province increased by 20.2 percent year on year to 11.33 billion cubic meters in 2022, a record high. Unconventional natural gas mainly includes shale gas, coalbed methane, and tight sandstone gas. Data show Shanxi has an estimated reserve of 8.31 trillion cubic meters of coalbed methane within 2,000 meters below ground, accounting for about 30 percent of the country’s total. The proven reserve of coalbed methane stands at 667.5 billion cubic meters. Shanxi aims to become a national ...

Zinc prices slid on Friday after a surge in inventories and as metals demand in China remained lacklustre despite the world’s top metals consumer having scrapped COVID-19 controls. Three-month zinc CMZN3 was the biggest loser on the London Metal Exchange (LME) as it dropped 1.7% to $3,325.50 a tonne by 1110 GMT, having gained 12% so far this year. Zinc stocks on the LME have sunk to the lowest levels since 1989 but have soared in China. Inventories in warehouses registered with the Shanghai Futures Exchange ZN-STX-SGH have more than ...

Chicago soybean futures eased on Friday, giving up an earlier rise as much stronger than anticipated U.S. jobs figures triggered a jump in the dollar. Soybeans remained on course for a weekly gain, however, as participants assessed crop weather in drought-hit Argentina. Wheat extended an earlier fall as it moved back from a one-month peak on Thursday. Corn also eased. The dollar surged after data showed that employers added significantly more jobs in January than economists expected, potentially giving the Federal Reserve more leeway to keep hiking interest rates. A ...

Malaysian palm oil futures edged higher on Friday on a weaker ringgit and profit-taking ahead a long weekend, but they still posted weekly losses. The benchmark palm oil contract FCPO1! for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 97 ringgit, or 2.59%, to 3,848 ringgit ($904.14) a tonne by the end of trading hours on Friday. The contract declined 1.38% for the week. “Since coming Monday is a holiday, market may wish to book profit while waiting for fresh lead next week,” a Kuala Lumpur-based trader said. The ...

Agriculture consultancy IKAR has cut its forecast for Russia’s 2023 wheat harvest to 84 million tonnes from 87 million tonnes previously, its head Dmitry Rylko told Reuters. He added that this was a preliminary forecast. Analysts started lowering their estimates for the 2023 crop this week due to poorer weather conditions. Grain transport firm Rusagrotrans lowered its forecast for 2023 by 1 million tonnes to 81.5 million tonnes due to the state of the winter crop. According to preliminary data from the agricultural ministry, Russia may harvest 80-85 million tonnes ...

Ukrainian farms had harvested 53.2 million tonnes of grain in bunker weight from 97% of the expected area as of Feb. 2, the agriculture ministry said on Friday. The ministry said farmers had harvested 11.1 million hectares of crops, with the grain yield averaging 4.79 tonnes per hectare. It said farmers had completed the 2022 wheat and barley harvests, threshing 20.2 million and 5.8 million tonnes respectively. The total volume also included 25.9 million tonnes of corn, harvested from 91% of the expected area, with a yield of 6.72 tonnes ...

U.S. farmers expanded plantings of winter wheat by 11% from a year ago to an eight-year peak, encouraged by high prices tied to concerns over food supplies following Russia’s invasion of major wheat producer Ukraine, as well as relatively low input costs and expanded crop insurance programs. But even with the added acres, a multi-year drought that has gripped the key Plains wheat belt puts harvest prospects in doubt, especially in states like top producer Kansas and Oklahoma, the No. 3 winter wheat producer last year. An uptick in precipitation ...

Global miner Anglo American’s fourth-quarter production rose 10%, boosted by its Quellaveco copper mine in Peru and rough diamond output from De Beers. The group reported a 52% surge in quarterly copper output to 244,000 tonnes thanks to the ramp-up of Quellaveco. A bright spot among miners hunting for minerals to power the green energy boom, Anglo American registered a 3% rise in annual output of copper, which is used in rechargeable batteries and charging stations for electric vehicles. That was in contrast to copper production declines reported by other ...

In the stainless steel spot market, SMM survey shows that the downstream demand rose slowly in the first week after the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, but the stainless steel factories have increased the distribution of goods. As a result, the stocks available in the spot market has accumulated significantly. In addition, the vendor managed inventory of stainless steel factories jumped, and the inventory under warrants also expanded to a high level. Therefore, the spot prices trended lower under the pressure of high inventory. In terms of cost, the NPI ...

Base metals have enjoyed a strong start to the year, the London Metal Exchange (LME) index rising by 9.4% over the course of January on high hopes for China’s post-COVID reopening. However, analysts are cautious that China’s recovery may not live up to bullish expectations and that prices have got ahead of themselves, judging by the latest Reuters base metals poll COMMODITYPOLL01. Median 2023 price forecasts for all the core LME base metals are lower than both last year’s price and current trading levels. Depleted exchange inventories are seen limiting ...

Copper prices inched higher on Friday, but were set for a weekly decline as investors fretted about a slow demand recovery in top consumer China and the U.S. dollar held firm. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 was up 0.2% at $9,070 a tonne by 0413 GMT. For the week so far, the contract was down 2.1%. Citi Research economists said they believed a softer-than-anticipated China recovery and sustained manufacturing-sector weakness outside China would keep metals demand under pressure. The bigger-than-usual inventory build-up in China over the Lunar ...