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

  Daily Nickel/Stainless Steel Briefing (8:00 AM CST is 1PM in London)

  • Dow Jones reports three month nickel closed Monday’s trading session at $6.24/lb . Indicators at 7:00 am CST today show 3 month nickel trading around $.03/lb higher, with other London traded base metals trading mixed and mostly higher. Stockpiles of nickel stored in LME approved warehouses rose to its eighth all time record high on Monday and totalled 244,938 tonnes. Cancelled warrants rose to another record high as well, over 39%. Traders appear to be confused about news coming from Indonesia that two government officials have reportedly verified that Indonesia will institute the ban on nickel ore, but also left the door open for a time extension. At least for the moment, nickel appears to be getting a slight boost from the news, and hovers above support at $6.17/lb. One of the reasons the government official gave as why the ban would eventually come, was to protect those that have made investments, or are making investments in Indonesia nickel smelters. And another group just happened to pick today to announce their entry into the Indonesia smelter building spree.
  • Average price of cash nickel so far this month – $6.32/lb
  • Average price of LME traded nickel in 2012 – $7.95/lb / avg 2011 – $10.36/lb / avg 2010 – $9.89/lb / avg 2009 – $6.64/lb
  • (USGS) Metal Prices in the United States Through 2010 – pdf here
  • Baltic Dry Index – (current) (chart)
  • Dollar trading graph – (chart of dollar index) (live java chart)
  • Reuters metals morning –

  Reports

  • Reuters Metals Insider – pdf here
  • Commodities Daily – here
  • Commonwealth Daily Alert – pdf here
  • Oakvale Daily Market Report – more
  • KBC Commodity Report – here
  • Angel Metals Fundamental Report – here
  • Weekly Market Report – pdf here
  • DNB Metals Weekly – pdf here
  • Mico Metals Weekly – pdf here  
  • Hedge Equities Commodity Report – pdf here
  • MacNicol Morning Notes – pdf here
  • Alpari Global Markets Daily – pdf here
  • Mangal Commodities Metals & Energy – pdf here
  • Danske Weekly Focus – pdf here

  Commodity/Economic Comments

  • China E-Stainless Daily Price Index –
  • 2013 Reuters Nickel Price Forecasts – more (World Bank forecast 2013 – $8.16/lb)
  • China Stainless Steel Scrap Market News / Price – more
  • Yieh Daily Asian Stainless Steel News – more
  • Stainless Steel Daily Scrap Prices – more
  • Gerdau Steel Market Update – more
  • European Debt Crisis Live – more
  • 100 Years of Stainless Steel – more
  • (LGMI) China’s average daily crude steel output rose in first 10 days of November from the previous ten days to reach 2.144 million tonnes, the China Iron & Steel Association data showed on Monday.
  • Four-Part Series on the Ring of Fire – by Stan Sudol – more
  • Aussie Mine 2013 – more
  • U.S. taper, debt crisis threaten global recovery: OECD – more
  • Tropical Pacific expected to remain ENSO-neutral this summer – more

    Indonesia Weighs Ore Ban as Citigroup Increases Nickel Forecast –  Indonesia will press on with a ban on raw-mineral exports next year, while signaling the curbs may be amended in practice, according to two officials who addressed a conference in the largest mined nickel producer. Prices rose. – more

    Protest outside New Caledonia’s Vale nickel plant – About 300 people in New Caledonia have been protesting near the Vale nickel plant whose operation has been suspended since last week after it became public that an effluent pipe had broken. – more

    Forum says no to mining in Solomon Islands’ Isabel – Plans for mining in Solomon Islands Isabel province are on hold following a forum that aired strong opposition to the activity. – more

    China’s Trade of Molybdenum in Jan-Sept 2013 =Import is up by 14% from year-earlier period, and export is still grossly down from year-earlier period= According to the calculation to figure out volumes in pure Mo equivalent based on China’s customs statistics, the export volume in the period from January to September in 2013 was 6.2226 million lbs (down by 47.3% from the year-earlier period) and the import volume was 10.7049 million lbs (up by 14.6% ditto). – more

    Harita to Build $320m Nickel Smelter – Harita Group, an Indonesian business group, plans to spend $320 million to build a nickel smelter in South Halmahera’s Obi island, in North Maluku province. – more

    Sirius hopeful of nickel price turnaround – Sirius Resources is hopeful of a turnaround in the lowly nickel price by the time it comes into production in 2017. – more

    September Recovery Continues into October – October shipments grew at virtually the same rates in the United States and Canada as in September. Inventory positions continued to improve across the board. – more

    Courtesy AISI – In the week ending November 16, 2013, domestic raw steel production was 1,856,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 77.5 percent. Production was 1,744,000 net tons in the week ending November 16, 2012, while the capability utilization then was 70.1 percent. The current week production represents a 6.4 percent increase from the same period in the previous year. Production for the week ending November 16, 2013 is up 1.5 percent from the previous week ending November 9, 2013 when production was 1,829,000 net tons and the rate of capability utilization was 76.3 percent.

  Morning Nickel Price Statistics & Figures

  • Today’s almost official prices here  /  Yesterday’s actual LME official prices here or here
  • Shanghai Jinchuan nickel price – available here or here (updated)
  • India MCX Nickel Price – more  more
  • 100 Years of Stainless Steel Video – online here
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