Dalian iron ore futures snapped a three-session slide on Friday buoyed by fresh stimulus from top consumer China, but posted a weekly loss amid concerns about demand from the ailing property sector. The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended daytime trade 1.5% higher at 779 yuan ($107.45) a metric ton. The contract was down 2.75% on a weekly basis. The benchmark August iron ore SZZFQ4 on the Singapore Exchange was 1.94% higher at $101.85 a ton, as of 0715 GMT. It has fallen 4.41% ...

Coal-fired power plants generated 59.6% of China’s total electricity output during the opening half of 2024, the first time on record that coal produced less than 60% of the country’s total electricity during that period. China’s coal-fired generation from January to June was 2,793.5 terawatt hours (TWh), which was up 2.4% from the same months in 2023 and the highest tally for the opening half of the year since at least 2015, data from energy think tank Ember shows. However, coal’s share of China’s total generation mix declined to new ...

Some farmers in Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa and the central region of Dnipro have started harvesting the sunflower crop much earlier than usual, analyst ASAP Agri said. Last year the first report on sunflower seed harvesting was published in late August, the consultancy said on Thursday. Ukrainian producers, analysts and forecasters have said that anabnormal heat nationwide in July could cause a drop of 25% to 35% in the yield from late crops. Ukraine is a major global grower of sunseed and exporter of sunoil, harvesting almost 12 million ...

Indonesian copper miner PT Amman Mineral Internasional AMMN.JK said on Friday its concentrate production in January to June period rose 90% annually to 444,143 dry metric (dmt), while concentrate sales rose 145% to 337,929 dmt in the same period. The company said its full year guidance will remain unchanged after the government granted it a copper concentrate export permit until December. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by John Mair)

Ukraine had harvested around 20 million metric tons of grains as of July 25, the farm ministry said on Friday. Farmers had threshed 14.7 million tons of wheat from 3.5 million hectares and with an average yield of 4.2 tons per hectare, the ministry said. They also harvested 3.87 million tons of barley with a yield of 3.79 tons per hectare and 416,300 tons of peas with a yield of 2.19 tons per hectare. The ministry said 3.08 million tons of rapeseed had also been threshed. Last month the ministry ...

Ratings of French soft wheat fell again last week to hit another eight-year low with now only half of the crop in good condition, while harvesting remained well behind average as wet weather throughout the cycle continued to weigh on crops. An estimated 50% of soft wheat was in good or excellent condition by July 22, down from 52% a week earlier and 78% a year ago, farm office FranceAgriMer said in a cereal report. This is below the score at the same point in 2020, another year marked by ...

Chicago soybean and corn prices fell on Friday but were set for weekly gains of around 4% with welcome rain forecast for parched U.S. crop belts. Wheat rose, but was still down around 1% on the week, with traders weighing positive reports on U.S. crops and cheap prices offered by Black Sea exporters against rain delaying and damaging west EU harvests. Chicago Board of Trade most-active soybeans Sv1 were down 0.4% to $10.74-1/4 per bushel at 1038 GMT. Corn Cv1 was down 0.3% to $4.19-1/2 a bushel while wheat Wv1 ...

Malaysian palm oil futures on Friday gained someground lost this week and snapped a three-session decline onrobust exports data, while also tracking a rise in other oils. The benchmark palm oil contract FCPOc3 for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange climbed 23 ringgit, or0.59%,to 3,941 ringgit ($846.62) a metric ton. However, the contract logged a 0.5% weekly decline. Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for July 1-25 rose 31% year on year, cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Amspec Agri said on Thursday. Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de ...

Copper prices were on track for a third consecutive weekly decline on Friday on concerns that a return of physical buying could be short-lived in top consumer China as the economy remains sluggish in the absence of significant stimulus. Three-month copper CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.1% at $9,133 a metric ton during official rings. It was down 2.1% for the week. More Chinese copper consumers returned to the market after a tepid two months, attracted by prices that had retreated by 17.8% from their record ...

Brazilian miner Vale VALE3.SA, one of the world’s largest iron ore producers, said on Thursday its second-quarter net profit soared to $2.77 billion, triple the year-earlier period and above analyst estimates as sales jumped. Analysts polled by LSEG were expecting a $1.70 billion net profit. The result was also 65% higher than in the first quarter, when net profit totaled $1.68 billion. In addition to higher iron ore sales, Vale said net profit had a positive impact of $1.05 billion resulting from the divestment of PT Vale Indonesia that concluded ...

Iron ore futures prices lost further ground on Thursday, weighed by strong global supply and top consumer China’s persistently weak steel market, although hints of heavier monetary stimulus helped limit losses. The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) fell for a fifth straight session to close daytime trade with a loss of 1.55% to 764.5 yuan ($105.50) a metric ton. The benchmark August iron ore SZZFQ4 on the Singapore Exchange dipped below the key psychological level of $100 a ton, falling 1.14% to $99.75 a ...

This report is part of the S&P Global Commodity Insights’ Metals Trade Review series, where we dig through datasets and digest some of the key trends in iron ore, metallurgical coal, copper , alumina, cobalt , lithium , nickel and steel and scrap. We also explore what the next few months could bring, from supply and demand shifts to new arbitrages, and to quality spread fluctuations. Asian steel markets are set to face headwinds in the third quarter amid seasonally sluggish demand and continued bearish property and construction sector outlooks ...

The negative trend in the steel market observed in the first half of 2023 has persisted and become more acute over the last three quarters. The severe consequences of the war in Ukraine and the deteriorating manufacturing outlook, along with the overall economic environment, continued to take their toll. Apparent steel consumption in the EU decreased (-3.1%) in the first quarter of 2024, after a rise (+2.9%) in the preceding quarter which was mainly due to the comparison with the very low volumes seen one year earlier. After a significant ...

Copper prices dipped below $9,000 per metric ton on Thursday for the first time since April on funds selling, but prices are likely to be supported by improved buying interest from China. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 traded 0.69% lower at $9,019.5 per metric ton by 1047 GMT. It earlier dipped to $8,900 to its lowest since March 28, breaking support level at $8,981.99, the 200-day moving average. “Funds continued to sell after overshoot since May and they are still not stopping,” a trader said. The most-traded ...

Chicago wheat and soybeans eased on Thursday while corn ticked up, as investors weigheda dry spell in part of the U.S. crop belt against favourable field conditions so far this year. The dry weather in a swathe of the northern United States and Canada supported two-week peaks for corn and soybeans this week, but high yield estimates from a U.S. spring wheat crop tour this week tempered concern about potential damage. Plentiful global supply and export competition from cheaper South American and Black Sea suppliers were also capping U.S. grain ...