Slashing costs, streamlining businesses, making savings: these are the top priorities for Glencore following its $44 billion merger with fellow Switzerland-registered commodities major Xstrata earlier this year.

Metal Bulletin reviews the major stories affecting the steel market over the past week.

Metal Bulletin reviews some of the key news from the past five days in the metals markets.

Singapore Exchange’s 65% Fe iron ore derivative contract continues to lend transparency to the high-grade segment, with trades registered for August-December 2019 months on Thursday December 20 and physical prices up amid active trading.

Interest in building a new primary aluminium smelter in the United States appears to be growing among some in the industry, largely due to the 10% tariff on imports of the product signed by President Donald Trump last month.

Iron ore prices slumped again on Thursday June 6 as bearish sentiment returned to the market, snuffing out a modest mid-week recovery.

The tentacles of US sanctions may be starting to reach further afield, special correspondent Andrea Hotter muses in the latest Hotter on Metals column.

The official end of the winter heating season in China – the world’s largest iron ore consumer – a few days ago has coincided with a pick-up in market interest in the price spreads between different grades of the steelmaking raw material.

The world’s newest commodities trading house, Caravel, has taken its name from a style of small, highly manoeuvrable, 15th-century Portuguese sailing ship – a good fit for the “nimble and niche” new venture, founder Harindarpal “Harry” Banga told Steel First.

Goldman Sachs’ latest comments on the steel industry and its raw materials pricing will make headlines. The bank’s analysts believe that the iron ore market could revert to annual benchmark pricing within the next few years if quarterly mechanisms are abandoned. “It would not be surprising to find the industry revert to the old annual contract system within a few years, though an attempt to move to a pure spot market first is possible,” Goldman said in the report. .