The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets’ team of analysts is ready to view.

Following a consultation period, Fastmarkets will change the minimum tonnage of its weekly price assessments for steel hot-rolled coil for export, fob main port Turkey, to a minimum of 2,000 tonnes (with no set maximum), from the current 500-1,000 tonnes, with effect from Monday August 24.

Crude steel production in Germany was down by 24.70% year on year in July due to capacity being cut to balance the drop in demand caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, German steel federation WV Stahl said on Monday August 24.

Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were up during morning trading on Monday August 24, with market optimism over a Covid-19 vaccine rising after US regulators approved the use of convalescent blood plasma as a treatment option, while continued weakness in the US dollar index also provided support.

US steel mills are on pace to add more than 13.5 million tons of electric-arc furnace (EAF) flat-rolled steelmaking capacity at a cost of at least $6.3 billion over the next three years, according to Fastmarkets’ research.

Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly down during morning trading on Friday August 21 after the release of key purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data out of Europe disappointed, while copper futures took the brunt of the decline over the morning in a 1.2% drop.

Markets were for the most part upbeat this morning, Friday August 21, with all of the base metals on the London Metal Exchange firmer, as were most Asian-Pacific equities, although they are firmer within consolidation patterns.

Fastmarkets is proposing an amendment to the specification of its assessment for steel cold-rolled coil domestic, delivered Eastern China domestic to including DC01 products.

Fastmarkets is prosing to launch three new Bangladesh ferrous scrap import prices to widen the coverage of the growing South Asian market.

Peruvian steelmaker Aceros Arequipa is currently loading the country’s first ever shipment of steel billet to China, according to a company official.