EUROPEAN MORNING BRIEF 09/01: DLA tungsten ore, concs sale; Chinese ferro-silicon prices; vanadium pentoxide, ferro-vanadium prices

Good morning from Metal Bulletin’s office in Singapore, as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Tuesday January 9.

Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mostly higher during Asian morning trading on Tuesday, with copper prices finding slight support from potential supply-side constraints, while tin was the lone metal in negative territory.

Check Metal Bulletin’s live futures report here.

LME snapshot at 04.30am London time
Latest three-month LME Prices
  Price ($ per tonne) Change since previous session’s close ($)
Copper 7,133.50 8.5
Aluminium 2,180 5
Lead 2,603 -1
Zinc 3,389 3
Tin 19,940 -60
Nickel 12,600 65

SHFE snapshot at 12.30pm Shanghai time
Most-traded SHFE contracts
  Price (yuan per tonne) Change since previous session’s close (yuan)
Copper (March) 54,780 90
Aluminium (February) 14,955 20
Zinc (March) 26,325 265
Lead (February) 19,570 165
Tin  (May) 144,330 -280
Nickel  (May) 99,320 830

DLA Strategic Materials sold 211,000 lbs of contained tungsten ores and concentrates during December’s material offering, with two companies paying a combined $2.85 million.

Chinese ferro-silicon prices continued to soften over the past week amid operational restarts in the country’s Ningxia province, while the European market reached new highs on tightened supply.

Vanadium pentoxide and ferro-vanadium prices had a strong start to 2018 last week, with supply concerns in focus as the markets came back from the Christmas break

Coal exports from Australia’s metallurgical coal hub of Queensland dropped 3.7% on the year in December.

What to read next
Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Port of Sohar in Oman are becoming tactical workarounds for base metal exports blocked by the Strait of Hormuz closure, with cargo transiting via land-bridge to other Gulf states, such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates – though capacity constraints and elevated logistics costs limit availability, sources with direct visibility of Gulf supply chains told Fastmarkets.
The Mexican aluminium market might be strongly affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with supply constraints and consequently higher premiums, market participants told Fastmarkets on Tuesday March 10.
Lundin Mining and BHP published a preliminary economic assessment on February 16 for their Vicuña joint venture, projecting average annual copper production of 395,000 tonnes over the first 25 years of operation as Argentina’s copper concentrate pipeline continues to build. PSJ Cobre Mendocino separately confirmed on February 14 that its feasibility study was under way.
Chinese lead smelters turned more bearish on the procurement of raw materials in the week to Friday February 13, amid heightened price volatility in silver, which is often contained in lead ores as an important by-product and contributor to smelter profits, sources told Fastmarkets.
Roughly 40,000 tonnes per month of copper cathode that once flowed smoothly into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through Jebel Ali had few options to reroute after the Strait of Hormuz officially closed on Monday March 2, with the only alternative entry points — Khor Fakkan and Fujairah — already straining under the weight of diverted cargo, market sources told Fastmarkets.
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