Many aluminium and steel market participants are increasingly optimistic that automotive production will bounce back in the second half of the year and hopeful that the semiconductor chip shortage will be resolved by 2022.

Buyers of bulk cargoes of scrap imports in the key Southeast Asian market of Vietnam were largely on the sidelines during the week to Friday June 11, due to falling domestic scrap and steel prices in the country, sources told Fastmarkets.

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mainly lower this morning, Monday June 7, after the rally sparked by Friday’s worse-than-expected US employment report ran out of steam.

An accident at Kaohsiung port, Taiwan, in which a tower crane collapsed on Thursday June 3 will likely have minimal impact on discharge rates for containerized ferrous scrap in the coming days, market sources told Fastmarkets.

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange have attracted dip-buying this morning, Friday June 4, after weakness on Thursday when prices fell across the board by an average of 2.2%.

Mammoth steel-scrap margins and high-grade premiums prevalent in recent months are likely to persist in the short term but should fall away by the end of the year, panelists at the ferrous session of this week’s Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Convention said.

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange were generally weaker on Thursday June 3 morning, although nickel bucked the trend on both exchanges.

Green shoots are forming in the approach to clean steelmaking in the United States, with a new administration putting an increased emphasis on sustainability. The topic will be a key part of Fastmarkets' Steel Success Strategies conference, to be hosted June 21-24 in conjunction with World Steel Dynamics.

Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk once described the ongoing use of fossil fuels and their generation of a vast carbon footprint as “the dumbest experiment in human history.”

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries have reaffirmed their commitment to fair trade and criticized the use of subsidies that create excess capacity, including in steel and aluminium.