ASIAN MORNING BRIEF 12/12: LME copper price jumps on LME; Saudi Arabia’s rebar imports hit by weak domestic demand; Middle East steel market outlook picks up on higher oil pricing

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Wednesday December 12.

Base metal prices rose on the London Metal Exchange by the close on Tuesday December 11, with copper surging after market sentiment was boosted by positive news of easing tensions between China and the United States. Read more in our live futures report.

Here are how prices looked at the close of trading:

Saudi Arabia has not imported rebar in 2018 and cannot utilize its full production capacity due to weak domestic demand, Ahmed Al-Hussain, rebar director of Saudi National Committee for Steel Industry, said at Fastmarkets MB’s Middle East Iron and Steel Conference in Dubai on December 11.

The outlook for the Middle East steel market is improving because of higher oil prices, Abu Bucker Husain, chief executive officer of United Arab Emirates-based Al Ghurair Iron & Steel, said in his presentation at the Dubai conference on Tuesday.

Flat steel import prices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been stable over the past week due to limited demand near year end, sources said on Tuesday.

US ferrous scrap exports were pushed higher in October, with lower ferrous scrap export prices sparking healthy demand from Mexico and Asia and offsetting significantly reduced shipments to Turkey.

Brazil’s Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio will invest 30 million Reais ($7.7 million) to increase its aluminium billet production capacity, the company’s primary operations director, Luis Jorge Nunes, told Fastmarkets MB on Monday.

TradeCloud is set to allow its users to report business concluded on the platform to Fastmarkets automatically, TradeCloud CEO Simon Collins said.

What to read next
Copper demand in data centers is accelerating as artificial intelligence drives higher power needs, advanced cooling systems and greater infrastructure requirements. This trend highlights both the opportunities and challenges around sustainability, domestic production and global supply chains.
Fastmarkets proposes to clarify and amend some of the specifications for MB-ZN-0005 Zinc SHG min 99.995% ingot premium, ddp Midwest US, US cents/lb; MB-PB-0006 Lead 99.97% ingot premium, ddp Midwest US, US cents/lb; MB-SN-0011 Tin grade A min 99.85% ingot premium, ddp Midwest US, $/tonne; MB-NI-0240 Nickel 4x4 cathode premium, delivered Midwest US, US cents/lb; and the corresponding all-in prices for all of these including the quality, unit and location.
The publication of Fastmarkets’ MB-ALU-0002 Alumina index, fob Australia, $/tonne for Monday September 8 was delayed because of a reporter error. Fastmarkets’ pricing database has been updated.
Aurubis has secured long-term access to 75,000 tonnes per year of copper-gold concentrate from Troilus Gold's Quebec project starting as early as 2028, as the German smelter responds to what it describes as an "increasingly constrained" market for clean copper concentrate.
Tristan Pascall, chief executive officer of Vancouver-based First Quantum Minerals, gave an exclusive interview with Fastmarkets on Friday August 29, in which he explains why Africa is the best place to build large copper mines, and gave his opinion of the outlook for the nickel, gold and copper sectors.
Cost and availability concerns around copper have accelerated aluminium substitution in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, with aluminium now used in an estimated 40% of global units, Lionel Chapis, Norsk Hydro’s senior vice president of Hydro Precision Tubing, told Fastmarkets in an exclusive interview on Tuesday August 26.