Scrap supply tightness and continued purchasing of billets by China have continued to drive Vietnamese import prices up in the week to Friday November 20, market sources told Fastmarkets.

The base metals were generally upbeat this morning, Friday November 20, supported by demand expectations and a weaker dollar.

Fastmarkets today, Friday November 20, launches a steel hot-rolled coil import (Japan, Korea, Taiwan-origin), cfr Vietnam, $/tonne price assessment.

Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices in both fob DBCT and cfr Jingtang markets edged up on a daily basis on Friday November 20 although the ongoing restriction from China on Australian coal imports has caused a widening differential between the prices since late October.

US copper scrap exporters are waiting to see how China’s new regulations affect the flow of scrap metal to the Asian country, which could have a significant impact on domestic copper scrap prices.

Hot-rolled coil prices in the United States have shot above $37 per hundredweight ($740 per short ton) for the first time in nearly two years on a supply-chain squeeze potentially made worse by rising Covid-19 infections, market participants said.

The premium of Brazilian soyoil over Argentine soyoil collapsed this week after the Brazilian government...

Commodity traders have long forecast that there would be consolidation in their own industry, and in some of the world’s biggest centers for metals business that has already started to happen.

The base metals were consolidating recent gains but generally holding up near high ground this morning, Thursday November 19 – this despite some nervousness emerging in wider markets about the rapid spread of Covid-19.

Fastmarkets has partnered with CME Group to launch a cash-settled cobalt contract to be settled against Fastmarkets’ daily benchmark cobalt price assessment.