Fastmarkets has amended the holiday pricing schedule for the aluminium P1020A, fob Indonesia premium assessment, with the changes taking effect from Tuesday July 7.

Prices for tungsten hexafluoride (WF6), a specialty gas used in advanced semiconductor manufacturing and increasingly linked to AI-driven chip demand, have surged in recent months amid tightening supply and growing expectations for next-generation memory production.

Chinese molybdenum-related stocks have rallied in recent months on the heels of a surge in the semiconductor sector driven by the AI boom, given the transition from tungsten to molybdenum in the manufacturing of next-generation memory chips, sources told Fastmarkets.

China’s direct flat steel trade with the EU was already thin, at just 3-5% of total exports, or around 2 million tonnes a year, thanks to years of anti-dumping and countervailing duties. That leaves little room for the bloc’s newly tightened import quotas to inflict much additional direct damage, sources told Fastmarkets.

Fastmarkets will publish the following eight China containerboard price assessments on Thursday December 31, 2026 at 2pm Beijing time due to the New Year’s Day holiday on Friday January 1, 2027.

Fastmarkets' assessments for MB-AS-0001 Arsenic 99% min As, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb, MB-RE-0001 Rhenium APR catalytic grade, in-whs dup Rotterdam, $/kg Re, MB-RE-0002 Rhenium metal pellets 99.9% Re min, in-whs dup, Rotterdam $/lb and MB-HF-0001 Hafnium, max 1% Zr, in-whs global locations, $/kg were incorrectly published because of a reporter error.

The subsidiaries of the German FBB producer FOLBB Baiersbronn Frischfaser Karton and Folding Boxboard Eerbeek have filed for the initiation of insolvency proceedings and a suspension of payments.

Fastmarkets is proposing to change the price formation process of 26 global tube and pipe prices to calculations from assessments, effective September 9, 2026.

The transition of the iron ore market to a 61% Fe pricing benchmark is reshaping trading dynamics and leading participants across the value chain to reassess grade preferences, emerging demand centers and the growing importance of product quality in a decarbonizing steel sector, according to panelists speaking at the panel discussion “The benchmark transition ​and its implication from different voices​” at Iron Ore Decoded 2026, a conference co-organized by Fastmarkets and Horizon Insights.​

As the market entered May, spring demand has not lived up to expectations with weakness reported to have been compounded by a stock overhang.