Steel billet prices in the global markets remained firm as demand in Asia remained strong during the working week from Monday July 10 to Friday July 14.

The base metals are looking a bit firmer and better placed to work higher this morning, Tuesday July 11.

Base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange are on divergent paths this morning, Friday September 15, with losses in aluminium (-0.6%), nickel (-0.5%) and copper (-0.1%) at $6,496 per tonne, while zinc is up 0.3% and lead and tin are little changed.

Green shoots or fool’s gold? The signs are there if you look for them. Last week light long product prices continued to rise in some regions as mills took advantage of a slight resurgence in demand to push through increases and pass on rises in scrap and billet costs. Even stainless steelmakers seemed to benefit, pushing through an 11% increase on base prices in Europe.

With Chinese participants returning from holiday, they have taken to selling into the recent metal price gains, with the three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange for the most part weaker during morning trading on Tuesday September 25.

Base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange are mainly weaker this morning, Wednesday February 28, with prices off by an average of 0.4%.

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange are for the most part weaker this morning, Wednesday August 2. Aluminium is the exception, its prices are up 0.7% at $1,923 per tonne, while the rest are off by an average of 0.2%, with zinc prices off 0.5% and copper prices off 0.3% at $6,328 per tonne. Volume has been high at 12,379 lots as of 07:15 BST – this may be due to it being option declaration this morning.

Copper prices continued to rally this morning, Wednesday July 26, reaching $6,400 per tonne, which was up by 2.3% from Tuesday’s close. The rest of the complex is split with nickel and zinc off around 1%, while the rest are little changed, although they have been choppy.

Base metals prices are for the most part firmer this morning, Wednesday January 18, with prices up an average of 0.4%.

Base metals prices are firmer by an average of 0.3% this morning, Wednesday January 11, with three-month copper prices leading with a 0.6% gain to $5,778 per tonne, aluminium prices are up 0.5%, zinc prices are up 0.4%, nickel prices are up 0.2%, while the rest are little changed.