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

  Daily Nickel/Stainless Steel Briefing 

  • Nickel closed Monday’s trading session at

    $4.94/lb

    ($10,890/tonne). Indicators at 6:10 am CST today show nickel trading around $.12/lb higher. Stockpiles of nickel stored in LME licensed warehouses fell on Monday and started the day just over the 230,200 tonne level. Nickel, along with just about everything else trade able, is trading higher this morning. Markets are desperately looking for good news and there are hints that the worst may be passing in Italy. If you look at our virus section below, you will see why we think the optimism behind this news will be short lived. According to French media, Glencore is shutting down production at their Koniambo mine in New Caledonia in order to protect employees from the covid-19 outbreak. I have yet to find a secondary source for this news, so hopefully we are giving you reliable information. Nickel traded below the $11,000/tonne level yesterday, for the first time since January 2019. It’s rebounding today and while it is way, way too early to call it, the industry is desperately looking to nickel traders to find a floor – preferably sooner than later. Social distancing has given way to stay at home orders, which, while still being resisted by many governors, is gaining traction every day. Have a safe day.

  • Average price of LME traded cash nickel so far this month – $5.50/lb
  • LME nickel chart – here   /   Euro/US Dollar chart – here

  Reports

  • Reuters metals morning – Copper rebounds on Fed stimulus, supply concerns – more
  • Reuters Daily Inside Metals – pdf here 
  • SMM Evening Comments – more
  • Barchart 304 SS Scrap Index – $.236/lb
  • NAB US Economic Update – March 2020 – pdf here
  • Sales of electric vehicles fell to 15,000 PEV’s in February, a 65% decrease YOY
Coronavirus By The Numbers – here
Coronavirus by John Hopkins – here Yesterday’s worldwide numbers – 350,536 cases / 15,328 deaths = 4.37% fatality rate When the Surgeon General of the United States told NBC yesterday that it was going to get bad this week, he wasn’t kidding. Based on our research of the numbers, Italy’s daily gains in confirmed infections is running around 5000 new cases per day and appears to be leveling off. The United States is currently running around 10,000 new cases per day, and that number is growing. Considering Italy only leads the United States by approximately 20,000 cases, it is very possible that by weeks end, the United States could have more total cases than any other country in the world, except China. On Monday, China only had 5,120 cases still listed as active. The United States, still rather new to the outbreak, had 42,609 active cases yesterday, second only to Italy with 50,418. These figures are given per numbers given on worldometers linked above. 

Coronavirus: Strict new curbs on life in UK announced by PM – 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

     Monday’s market review – LME ring goes dark as aluminum lurches to 45-month low – The London Metal Exchange open-outcry ring went dark for the first time since World War II on Monday and aluminum prices slumped to their lowest since June 2016 on fears of a severe global recession. – more

      Coronavirus supply disruptions are the next worry for metals: Russell – The spread of the coronavirus across the world has focused metals markets on the risks to demand, causing prices to plummet, but so far investors have largely ignored the mounting threats to supply. – more

      Service Centers Essential Business in Illinois – MD Metals, a Bedford Park, Ill., metal service center, has been informed it qualifies as an essential business under Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s state at home executive order. – more

      Metals Buckle Under Virus Double Whammy – Lockdowns imposed to control the coronavirus have battered China’s appetite for everything from coal to copper, pushing stockpiles of raw materials higher and global prices lower.  – more

       February 2020 crude steel production – World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 143.3 million tonnes (Mt) in February 2020, a 2.8% increase compared to February 2019. – more

      Outokumpu’s business operation not affected by novel coronavirus epidemic – Outokumpu, the largest stainless steel manufacturer in Europe, said the epidemic outbreak of novel coronavirus hasn’t affected its business operation, and the current order volume was even stronger than before, which might be due to cautious customers not to order from foreign countries, and the business in the Americas continued growing. – more

      MN Court of Appeals sends PolyMet permit back to MPCA – The Minnesota Court of Appeals sent an air-emissions permit for the PolyMet copper-nickel mine back to state regulators for further review on Monday, giving another victory to environmental groups who oppose the project. – more

   Other News

  • Reuters The Day Ahead – pdf here
  • U.S. Stock Futures Hit Limit Up While Dollar Drops: 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