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This decision follows a one-month consultation, which ended on Monday February 4 without generating further industry feedback. The three weekly prices to be discontinued are:
Lead premium, 99.97% purity, Rotterdam duty-paid FCA $ per tonne Lead premium, 99.99% purity, Rotterdam, duty-paid FCA, $ per tonne Lead premium, 99.97% purity, Italy, duty-paid FCA, $ per tonne
In recent months, market participants have highlighted to Fastmarkets MB price reporters the low spot liquidity in the European lead markets. These markets are conventionally well-covered by contractual supply, which explains the lack of volatility in spot premiums in the past year.
Meanwhile, market participants have challenged the representativeness of standardized lead purity-based specifications amid growing popularity of lead ingots of custom-made specifications, with some also citing a niche demand from European customers for lead ingots with lower bismuth, silver and thallium content. This has made premiums based on standard LME specifications less relevant for spot market participants.
The last assessment of these three European lead premiums will be on February 5. All historical data relating to these premiums prior to their discontinuation will remain available in the pricing section of the Fastmarkets MB website.
Fastmarkets will continue to closely follow market developments in the European physical lead markets.
If you have any comments on the discontinuation of these premiums or want to learn about our global lead coverage, please contact Archie Hunter/ Julian Luk by email at: pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading FAO: Archie Hunter/ Julian Luk, re: European lead premium.
To see all Fastmarkets’ pricing methodology and specification documents go to https://www.metalbulletin.com/prices/pricing-methodology.html