Stainless Steel News and Nickel Prices, Molybdenum, Metal Pricing, Ferrochrome
Daily Nickel/Stainless Steel Briefing
- Nickel closed Tuesday’s trading session at
$5.21/lb
($11,480/tonne). Indicators at 6:15 am CST today show nickel trading around $.08/lb 
lower. Stockpiles of nickel stored in LME licensed warehouses fell on Tuesday and started the new month just under the 228,800 tonne level. Nickel, while lower this morning, is trading in the middle of a range it has been in for some time now. Nearly everything is trading lower this morning, both equities and commodities, as predictions for covid-19 fatalities in ‘best case scenario’s’ continue to climb. Over the weekend, the numbers the White House released were 100-200,000. Last night, that official forecast rose to 100-240,000. We past the 4,000 level last evening, and the forecasted numbers are staggering. The President warned that the next two weeks would be very painful for the country, and we suspect the pain will last much longer than that. The US will cross the 200,000 active case threshold today, and likely reach a quarter million by Friday. In other words, the elephant in the room is not being quiet. We want to take the opportunity to thank our March sponsor Texas Pipe again, for their multi-month sponsorship. For April, we introduce Scott Stainless Steel. We thank them for making this site free for visitors during the month of April, and invite you to visit their web site. Lot of industry news today so we leave you with it. May April bring the world a healthier outcome than March did. - Average price of LME traded cash nickel so far this month – $5.39/lb
- LME nickel chart – here / Euro/US Dollar chart – here
Reports
- Reuters metals morning – Copper falls as fast-spreading coronavirus threatens demand – more
- Reuters Daily Inside Metals – pdf here
- SMM Evening Comments – more
- Dallas Fed US Economic Activity – pdf here
- Vale Covid-19 Update – pdf here
- U.S. Imports of Stainless Steel Mill Products – more
- USGS Chromium Statistics and Information Dec 2019 – pdf here
- Metalforming Magazine April 2020 – online here
- Barchart 304 SS Scrap Index – $.245/lb
| Coronavirus By The Numbers – here Coronavirus by John Hopkins – here States with/without stay at home orders – more Coronavirus deniers take aim at hospitals as pandemic grows – more (This change is frustrating because it appeared to be quite obvious from the very beginning that masks were a necessity. The government said no, giving three reasons – two of which basically implied Americans weren’t smart enough to use them right. In reality, evidence seems to be coming to light that the country had a limited supply, and still does, and wanted emergency workers to have priority access. So, while their motive was honorable, and emergency workers should and must have priority access to the full range of PPE’s, the government appears to have misled the American public ….. yet again. Anyone surprised?) March 16 – Governor of Florida refuses to shut down beaches crowded with out of state spring breakers March 23 – Governor of Florida orders mandatory 14 day self quarantine for all arriving visitors from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. March 31 – Florida still has no statewide stay at home order even though it is a major retirement state and ranks fifth in number of cases in the United States – more map of cases (moved into 5th place yesterday, bumping Massachusetts – 1 of only 7 states to grow in new cases by over 1,000 yesterday. Washington, one of the earlier states to put stay at home orders in place, grew by only 232 cases yesterday. ) Captain of aircraft carrier asks U.S. Navy to evacuate crew amid ‘accelerating’ COVID-19 outbreak – more |
Why Stainless Steel
- Alloyed for Lasting Value video – here
- Self Repairing for Lasting Value video – here
- 100 Years of Stainless Steel Video – here
- Stainless steel: The role of nickel – here
- The Life of Nickel – pdf here
Tuesday’s market review – Copper suffers worst quarter since 2011 as coronavirus crushes demand – Copper prices rose on Tuesday after data showed an unexpected rebound in factory activity in China, but were set for their worst quarter since 2011 as the coronavirus outbreak shut down swathes of the global economy, reducing the need for metals. – more
South Africa lockdown squeezes global chrome supply – Samancor Chrome, one of the world’s biggest ferrochrome producers, has declared force majeure because of South Africa’s 21-day coronavirus lockdown, removing further supply from global chrome markets. – more
Worker at Russia’s Nornickel vessel tested positive for coronavirus – Russian nickel and palladium producer Norilsk Nickel said on Tuesday that a mechanic at one of its vessels tested positive for the coronavirus. – more
Raymond James lowers metals forecasts for 2020 – Raymond James has updated its metal price forecasts for the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. – more
China-owned PNG nickel plant output down in 2019 after spill – Production at Metallurgical Corp of China’s (MCC) Ramu nickel-cobalt project in Papua New Guinea dropped in 2019 from the prior year due to a plant shutdown last October, a company spokesman said on Wednesday. – more
Taiwan’s Tang Eng plans to reduce stainless steel production due to coronavirus epidemic – The outbreak of coronavirus epidemic gave a press on demand for stainless steel worldwide, and the demand in market will remain weak in the short term. – more
Miner South32 files request for arbitration in Colombia royalty dispute – Mining company South32 has filed a request for arbitration at the World Bank over a dispute with Colombia concerning royalty payments from its majority-owned Cerro Matoso ferronickel mine, the company confirmed on Tuesday. – more
Anglo American seeking to mine on indigenous lands in Brazil’s Amazon – Anglo American, one of the biggest mining companies in the world, and its two Brazilian subsidiaries have submitted nearly 300 applications to dig for gold and other minerals inside indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon, records seen by Mongabay show. – more
Vale donates $100,000 to Sudbury Food Bank – Nickel miner Vale has donated $100,000 to the Sudbury Food Bank to help address community demand, which is expected to increase as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. – more
FMA economist: Turning the coronavirus corner in four to five weeks – Social distancing will continue to diminish spread of COVID-19 and help revive U.S. economy – more
EU Covid-19 response: hope for support of European metal industry and other businesses – While the coronavirus rages on its destructive path across the world, the European metals industry is bracing for a major disruption and painful losses throughout the year. – more
Home office: how the metal industry can leverage digitalisation now – The metal industry ´home office worker´ has become a normal feature in a once so traditional industry. – more
Virus Slump Expected to Rival Historically Big Recessions – Analysts found that many downturns are set to be deeper than those endured in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008. – more
Courtesy AISI – In the week ending on March 28, 2020, domestic raw steel production was 1,670,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 71.6 percent. Production was 1,913,000 net tons in the week ending March 28, 2019 while the capability utilization then was 82.2 percent. The current week production represents a 12.7 percent decrease from the same period in the previous year. Production for the week ending March 28, 2020 is down 9.8 percent from the previous week ending March 21, 2020 when production was 1,852,000 net tons and the rate of capability utilization was 79.4 percent. – more
Other News
- Reuters The Day Ahead – pdf here
- U.S. Futures Fall With Europe Stocks; Bonds Climb: Markets Wrap – more
Morning Nickel Prices
- Yesterday’s LME official prices here
- Shanghai Jinchuan nickel price – here
- Shanghai Futures Exchange Stainless – here
- India MCX Nickel Price – more
- Baltic Dry Index – chart