LME copper prices took a significant hit following US President Donald Trump's announcement of a potential 50% tariff on copper imports. The uncertainty surrounding the timeline and implementation of the tariff has left market participants hesitant, with analysts noting its immediate impact on price momentum and trading activity.

Read Fastmarkets' monthly base metals market for May 2025 focusing on raw materials including copper, nickel aluminium, lead, zinc and tin.

Fastmarkets proposes to amend the frequency of Taiwan base metals prices from biweekly to monthly, and the delivery timing for the tin 99.99% ingot premium from two weeks to four weeks.

The MB-SN-0011 rationale mistakenly read “The tin grade A min 99.85% ingot premium, ddp Midwest US, was $1,550-1,660/t on Tuesday May 6, unchanged week on week.” This has been corrected to read “The tin grade A min 99.85% ingot premium, ddp Midwest US, was $1,550-1,660/t on Tuesday May 6, unchanged since March 4.” Fastmarkets’ pricing database has […]

A second pricing notice will follow when the pricing database has been updated.  The following prices have been affected by this:MB-AL-0256 Aluminium fixing price for LME trade, rand/tonne MB-CU-0338 Copper fixing price for LME trade, rand/tonne MB-PB-0064 Lead fixing price for LME trade, rand/tonne MB-NI-0093 Nickel fixing price for LME trade, rand/tonne MB-SN-0005 Tin rand fixing price for LME trade, […]

After a month-long consultation period, Fastmarkets has amended the frequency of these US base metals, following mostly positive feedback from market participants and internal data analysis.  The main pricing day will continue to be Tuesdays at 3-4pm London time, but these tin, lead and nickel premiums will be assessed once a month instead of fortnightly […]

The publication of Fastmarkets’ price assessments for MB-SN-0011 tin Grade A min 99.85% ingot premium, ddp Midwest US, $/tonne; MB-SN-0036 tin 99.85% ingot premium, in-whs Baltimore, $/tonne; and MB-ZN-0005 zinc SHG min 99.995% ingot premium, ddp Midwest US, US cents/lb for Tuesday December 10 was delayed due to an editor error.

Fastmarkets proposes to amend the frequency of the publication of several US base metal price assessments to a monthly basis, including MB-PB-0006 lead 99.97% ingot premium, ddp Midwest US; MB-SN-0036 tin 99.85% premium, in-whs Baltimore; MB-SN-0011 tin 99.85% premium, ddp Midwest US; MB-NI-0240 nickel 4x4 cathode premium, delivered Midwest US and MB-NI-0241 nickel briquette premium, delivered Midwest US.

Market participants shared insight into the market dynamics for copper, nickel, zinc, lead and tin during LME Week, which ran September 30-October 4

Supply headwinds in the tin market so far in 2024 and the recent sell-off in the futures market show that demand is recovering more slowly than anticipated because of the poor macro-economic climate, but in the long-term, market participants still expect demand to grow due to the energy transition