Copper prices extended a decline on Tuesday to a 17-month low as a cocktail of factors from aggressive interest rates, a spike in COVID-19 cases in China, potential recession and rising inventories weighed on investor sentiment. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped 1.5% to $7,888 a tonne, as of 0719 GMT, its lowest since February 2021 and down for a fourth straight session. The most-traded August copper contract in Shanghai ended daytime trading down 1.9% to 60,110 yuan ($8,975.66) a tonne by the midday trade. “There was a ...

Ferrous metals prices took a nosedive across the board at the opening of today’s daytime session. As of noon, iron ore futures closed at 5.5% at 722 yuan/mt, rebar futures closed down 3.11% at 4,181 yuan/mt, while HRC closed down 3.4% at 4,202 yuan/mt. Ferrous metals market saw a brief rally last week, but fell again at the beginning of this week. Covid-19 infections in Anhui, Jiangsu and other places of China increased over this past weekend. A major property developer defaulted, weighing on market sentiment. In terms of fundamentals, ...

Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Tuesday for a third straight session on concerns that Indonesia’s plan to increase export quota would hurt demand. The benchmark palm oil contract FCPOc3 for September delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 1.13% to 4,301 ringgit ($973.96) per tonne during early trade. It extended a 7.6% loses posted on Monday. FUNDAMENTALS * Indonesia proposed raising palm oil export quotas and is considering increasing mandatory levels of biodiesel in fuel mixes to prop prices for farmers at a time when domestic palm oil ...

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, 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 demand for copper concentrates will likely be supported in the third quarter by healthy margins and an increase in smelter production capacity in China, while clean copper concentrate output ...

The most-traded stainless steel futures contract consolidated after a steep fall on June 24 with downward potentials. The contract dropped again after opening today, and fell to a low of 16,290 yuan/mt since December 22, 2021, and recorded a loss of 1.03% as of 14:08 Beijing time. In the spot market, the average price of spot 304/2B coil (burr edge, in Wuxi) was flat from last Friday at 17,500 yuan/mt. Looking back at the beginning of last week, the spot prices of 300-series stainless steel dropped significantly below 18,000 yuan/mt ...

Global copper smelting activity declined in June, hit by a stoppage in top producer Chile, data from satellite surveillance of metal processing plants showed on Monday. Chilean state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, said on June 8 that it stopped its Ventanas smelter and refinery to carry out maintenance. The move in Chile along with weak activity in China and Europe weighed on global copper smelting, according to a joint statement from commodities broker Marex and SAVANT, the satellite analytics service Marex launched with Earth-i in 2019. The data ...

China’s covid lockdowns and recessionary risks hit iron ore Iron ore prices have fallen significantly from their year-to-date high of US$171/t seen back in March to as low as $108/t recently. China’s attempts to squash outbreaks of Covid-19 have seen fairly tough restrictions, which have not been supportive for demand. In addition, there are growing concerns over the macro-outlook. Soaring inflation is seeing central banks, particularly the US Federal Reserve having to take a more aggressive approach to monetary tightening. The concern is that the Fed will struggle to rein ...

Dalian and Singapore iron ore futures tumbled on Monday, weighed by a gloomy demand outlook for the steelmaking ingredient in China, where many steel mills are nursing losses and cutting production. The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange ended daytime trade 5.8% lower at 719.50 yuan ($107.49) a tonne, extending losses to a third session and touching its lowest since June 23. On the Singapore Exchange, the front-month August contract was down 4.8% at $109.15 a tonne, as of 0709 GMT. Mills in top steel producer ...

Brazilian farmers have harvested nearly a third of their second corn in center south fields, as dry weather and the higher temperatures that prevailed last week continued to favor the work, especially in top grower Mato Grosso. According to agribusiness consultancy AgRural on Monday, farmers harvested 30.7% of second corn fields so far in the season, or nearly 25 million tonnes. With second corn, which is planted after soy is harvested in the same areas, Brazil can compete with suppliers like the United States in global corn export markets during ...

China is likely to announce a 20 million-30 million mt, or 2-3% year on year, decline in its steel output cut target for 2022 in July, according to industry sources. The steel output cuts at this level may not provide much upside momentum to the Chinese steel market, as annual steel demand, undermined by debt-strapped property sector, may drop even faster. Some sources expect Chinese steel prices to continue to fluctuate in the second half of the year but in a narrower range than in H1. China’s annual steel demand ...

Russian wheat export prices fell last week due to pressure from the new crop, which farmers have just started harvesting, a reduced export tax and a decline in Chicago prices, analysts said on Monday. Sanctions-hit Russia reduced its grain exports taxes sharply last week to support shipments in the July-June marketing season. Prices for the new wheat crop with 12.5% protein content and for supply from Black Sea ports fell by $25 to $375 per tonne free on board (FOB) at the end of last week, the IKAR agriculture consultancy ...

China’s grain security will not be disrupted by the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and soaring prices of many agricultural products across the world this year, as its self-sufficiency in staple grain production remains high amid growing external problems, said experts and business leaders. Despite global food and agriculture sectors facing uncertainty over crop yields and global trade flows, in the context of climate challenges, COVID-19-related turmoil and logistics challenges, experts and business leaders said China, backed by its 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of arable land, new farming ...

Guinea’s mines minister has ordered all work related to the Simandou iron ore mine project halted after the two companies involved missed an extended deadline to agree on a joint venture, a letter seen by Reuters showed on Monday. Rio Tinto RIO.L and Chinese-backed consortium Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS) had showed a “lack of willingness” to work on a partnership, Mines Minister Moussa Magassouba said in the letter, which was dated July 3. “Despite the significant concessions the Guinean State has been kind enough to make, it is clear the ...

Coal India Ltd floated its first import tender on behalf of power companies, where Adani Enterprises Ltd came out to be the lowest bidder, a report in The Economic Times said. The company quoted Rs 4,033 crore for the supply of 2.416 million tonnes of coal on a freight-on-road (FOR) basis, the report added. Behind Adani were Mohit Minerals and Chettinad Logistics, who quoted Rs 4,182 crore, and Rs 4,222 crore, respectively, the report said. The bids opened on Friday. Between January and June, Gautam Adani-led Adani Enterprises bagged multiple ...

The premium for aluminium shipments to Japanese buyers for July to September was set at $148 a tonne, down 14% from the previous quarter, to reflect weak demand for automobiles and rising local inventory, five sources directly involved in pricing talks said. The figure is lower than the $172 a tonne paid in the April-June quarter and marks a third consecutive quarterly drop. It is also below initial offers made by producers of $172-$177. Japan is Asia’s biggest importer of the light metal and the premiums for primary metal shipments ...