The London Metal Exchange base metals failed to hold on to the excitement from US President-elect Joe Biden’s speech overnight, with zinc and nickel the hardest hit and copper once again falling below $8,000 per tonne on Friday January 15 and most of complex trading in negative territory.

United Arab Emirates producers Emirates Steel and Conares Steel have increased their rebar prices for February production with effect from Wednesday January 13.

After strong gains on the London Metal Exchange on Tuesday January 12, when prices closed up with gains averaging 1.8%, prices were for the most part little changed this morning, with nickel the main mover.

Mining and metals producer Assmang has declared force majeure on its medium-carbon ferro-manganese production in South Africa, a source told Fastmarkets this week.

Freight Investor Services (FIS) completed the first brokered trade of the CME Group’s cash-settled cobalt futures contract on Thursday January 7, the company told Fastmarkets.

Markets remained upbeat on the morning of Thursday January 7 despite the outbreak of violence in Washington, DC, with nickel joining copper and tin in setting fresh new multi-month highs but gold turning lower.

Markets seem to be anticipating a Democratic win in the Georgia Senate run-off this morning, Wednesday January 6, and that could be bullish for commodities because a Democratic-controlled US Congress could push through larger fiscal stimulus packages.

Global silico-manganese output dropped by 4.5% month on month in November 2020 to 1.5 million tonnes, due to production cuts in Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States region, according to the latest data from the International Manganese Institute (IMnI).

Strong gains were seen across the base metals on the London Metal Exchange at the start of the week and most of the metals in London and all the metals on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were up again this morning, Tuesday January 5.

The new year has started with optimism in the air and base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were up by an average of 1.8% and 1.4% respectively this morning, Monday January 14.