Seaborne coking coal prices were largely stable on Friday June 25 in both the cfr and fob market following the previous record-high transaction prices over the week, market sources said.

Robust demand for steel scrap in the Japanese domestic market is supporting Japanese export prices, creating a wide bid-offer gap and making it very tough for Chinese buyers to clinch any deals, sources told Fastmarkets.

Steel scrap buyers in Vietnam sought out deep-sea bulk cargoes from the United States and Australia in the week to Friday June 25 amid high offers for Japanese material, sources told Fastmarkets.

Fastmarkets is proposing to launch a new weekly China hot-briquetted iron (HBI) import price assessment to enhance its growing editorial coverage of the Asian market for the steelmaking raw material.

While copper and tin prices are showing some hesitancy on the London Metal Exchange, most of the other base metals are looking robust this morning, Friday June 25, and all the base metals in Shanghai are upbeat too.

The likely introduction of an export tax on Russian semi-finished steel products could cause tight supplies and a jump in prices for steel billet in Asia over the second half of 2021, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday June 25.

Consolidation has set in across the base metals on the London Metal Exchange this morning, Thursday June 24, while in Shanghai, moves were mixed in response to the combination of yesterday’s strength and this morning’s weakness on the LME.

Fastmarkets AgriCensus details four of the main challenges surrounding Argentina’s agriculture sector, and discusses its impact across logistics and trade dynamics.

The already short supplies of steel wire rod and rebar in the north of Europe are likely to get even tighter in the coming weeks after a fire led to the suspension of operations at the Thy-Marcinelle long steel mill in Belgium, sources told Fastmarkets on Wednesday June 23.

Rebounds were under way in the base metals in London and Shanghai this morning, Wednesday June 23, but we will have to wait to see how the metals react to today’s manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) data.