Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States climbed for the eighth consecutive business day while tight supply continued to bump up against rising demand.

The electric vehicle (EV) and autonomous vehicle (AV) markets will have a large impact on the automotive industry and there are technological advances happening in steel that could contribute to this auto evolution, according to a panel discussion during the Steel Success Strategies 2020 virtual conference this week.

There are reasons to believe the worst is over for a domestic steel market rattled by the Covid-19 pandemic, Nucor Corp president and chief executive officer Leon Topalian told attendees of Fastmarkets’ Steel Success Strategies Online conference on Monday October 26.

Australian spodumene producer Altura Mining has entered receivership, according to a filing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Monday October 26.

Uncertainty about next year’s aluminium fundamentals and consumer hesitance to commit to long-term, large-tonnage contracts has Alvance chief operating officer Guillaume De Goys expecting an active spot market in 2021.

Mongolia shipped twice as much metallurgical coal to the Chinese market than Australia in September, confirming its position as the key supplier of the steelmaking raw material to China.

Import scrap buyers in Taiwan failed to keep prices stable in the week to Friday October 23 after the bellwether market in Turkey reported price increases, sources said.

Fastmarkets proposes to amend the specifications of its premium hard coking coal indices to align more closely with the most prominent low-vol products traded in the spot market. These amendments will apply to both the fob DBCT and cfr Jingtang indices.

US hot-rolled coil prices continue their upward march as sources increasingly debate not whether the trend is sustainable into 2021 but for how long into next year current price levels might hold.

Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were collectively lower during morning trading on Thursday October 22, with the LME nickel price notching the biggest decline, while a continued impasse over a US coronavirus fiscal stimulus package cooled rallies seen earlier in the week.