Stainless Steel News and Nickel Prices, Molybdenum, Metal Pricing, Ferrochrome

  Daily Nickel/Stainless Steel Briefing 

  • Nickel closed Monday’s trading session at

    $6.88/lb

    ($15,165/tonne). Indicators at 6:05 am CST today show nickel trading around $.03/lb higher. Stockpiles of nickel stored in LME licensed warehouse rose over 1000 tonnes and started today, just over the 236,900 tonne level. Nickel ended lower yesterday, but is back on the positive side this morning, despite a stronger U.S. Dollar. Whether he awards a contract or not, or whether any mining company does or does not get a contract, Elon Musk has shaken up the nickel industry, by dangling a huge contract out there. This time a few years ago, executives at BHP had given up on nickel, and appeared to be concentrating their energy back on their core metal – iron ore. Now, they, like many of their competitors, are trying to ‘out green’ one another in their future nickel operations. Making Vale’s Goro on New Caledonia ‘greener’ must have been an impossible task, or Musk could probably buy his own mine on the cheap. Lots of news below, so we leave you with it. Stay safe and have a great day!

  • Average price of LME traded cash nickel so far this month – $6.64/lb
  • LME nickel chart – here   /   Euro/US Dollar chart – here

  Reports

  • Reuters metals morning – Shanghai aluminium at 2-1/2-year high as supply concerns lift prices – more
  • Refinitiv Inside Commodities – pdf here
  • ING The Commodities Feed – daily here
  • SMM Evening Comments – here
  • Barchart 304 Stainless Steel Scrap Index – $.2946/lb
  • SHFE Stainless Steel  Futures –  14,280

  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

     Monday’s market review – Copper nears multi-year highs on Chinese demand – Copper touched a three-week high on Monday as demand from top consumer China and the threat of strikes by miners in Chile pushed prices closer to 27-month highs reached in September, though a strengthening yuan limited gains. – more

      EU’s AD imposition on stainless steel HRC may benefit Taiwan’s exporting – Since the European Steel Association (EUROFER) complained last year that China, Taiwan, and Indonesia had dumped stainless steel hot-rolled coil (HRC) at prices lower than fair value, the European Commission started an investigation in August 2019 and later on announced a temporary anti-dumping (AD) duty on the countries in April this year. – more

      BHP delays sulphate output until first-half 2020, pushes green battery supply chain – BHP Group BHP.AX will begin production of nickel sulphate by the middle of next year as it focuses on improving the green credentials of operations that will supply battery materials to the automotive industry, an executive said on Tuesday. – more

      Indonesia to create firm to build up electric vehicle battery industry – A group of Indonesian state-owned companies will form a venture to make batteries to power electric vehicles, the Mining Industry Indonesia chief executive said on Tuesday. – more

      Nornikel Prosecuted By Court In Connection With Norilsk Accident – The arbitration tribunal of Krasnoyarsk Krai has granted a petition to include Norilsk Nickel, a major shareholder of Norilsk-Taimyr Energy Company as a liable party in a legal claim for 148 billion rubles (1,92 billion Dollars) filed by Russian Federal Consumer Rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor. – more

      SA’s ferroalloys industry facing destruction owing to unstinting electricity tariff increases – South Africa’s ferroalloys industry faced “destruction” owing to a sixfold increase in the electricity tariff provided by the country’s power utility, Eskom, said BusinessLive. – more

      Minnesota Supreme Court to take up PolyMet mine dispute – A dispute over the future of the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine goes before the Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday. – more

      Zimplats sinks US$200m – Australian Stock Exchange-listed resources giant Zimplats is scouring Zimbabwean landscapes to unlock fresh opportunities, possibly bolstered by fresh policies giving foreign investors the right to hold controlling stakes in mines. – more

      Courtesy AISI – In the week ending on October 10, 2020, domestic raw steel production was 1,502,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 67.9 percent. Production was 1,805,000 net tons in the week ending October 10, 2019 while the capability utilization then was 78.0 percent. The current week production represents a 16.8 percent decrease from the same period in the previous year. Production for the week ending October 10, 2020 is up 1.2 percent from the previous week ending October 3, 2020 when production was 1,484,000 net tons and the rate of capability utilization was 66.6 percent. – more

   Other News

  • Reuters The Day Ahead – pdf here
  • Stocks Drift With U.S. Futures as Earnings Roll In: 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
Coronavirus By The Numbers – here
Coronavirus by John Hopkins – here
CDC Cases in the US – here
Coronavirus Recovery Tracker – more
US Fed MN Covid Economic Dashboard – more
US Fed NY Weekly Economic Index – more
Resurgence – how is your state faring? – more