Tata Steel’s recycling business in India is to offer domestically produced shredded material to the Indian market, adding to its existing offering, the company told Fastmarkets on Wednesday April 7.

A shortage of truck drivers and flat-bed trucks is delaying steel shipments at critical points in the supply chain and further driving up shipping costs and lead times, Fastmarkets has learned.

Electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries feature prominently in US President Joe Biden’s $2-trillion plan to rebuild the country's infrastructure and economy.

China-based nickel and stainless steel producer Tsingshan Holding Group will invest 10.3 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) to build a lithium-ion battery plant in the southern China province of Guangdong, it said on April 1.

A global shortage of steel slab is a key factor in rocketing flat steel prices, market sources told Fastmarkets this week.

Fastmarkets has launched four implied prices based on the weekly published copper concentrates treatment charge/refining charge (TC/RC) index, with data available from April 2021.

Market sources believe hot-rolled coil prices in the Northern European domestic market will remain on an upward trend into the second quarter despite reaching a new peak this week, with steelmakers widely seen as having in the upper hand in current market conditions that have shown no signs of easing.

Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were weaker on Wednesday March 31, while they track the movement of three-month prices on the London Metal Exchange on Tuesday, but LME prices have found support this morning.

A green-tinged recovery from Covid-19 sees readjustment in iron ore price dynamics.

Total crude steel output across 64 major producer countries was 150.2 million tonnes in February 2021, down by 8% month on month but up by 4% from February 2020, the World Steel Association (Worldsteel) said on March 23.