Millions of tonnes of material are likely to be redirected to steel markets outside of the United States if US President Donald Trump levies strict tariffs or quotas on imports after the Section 232 investigation.

Chinese industrial profits were down by 14% in January-February compared with a year ago, marking the biggest fall since 2011. The data paints a worrying picture while the negative economic impact from China’s deleveraging activities in 2018, as well the bitter US-China trade war, continue to take a heavy toll on major industrial sectors.

Turkish steel producers have managed to get lower prices from the US East Coast this week, taking the advantage of strong supplies, while Taiwanese and Indian scrap import prices followed a similar trend.

Three-month base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were down across the board by an average of 0.7% during morning trading on Friday October 26.

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Tuesday July 17.

The uncertainty created by the announcement of import tariffs under Section 232 in the United States kept Turkish steel mills out of the deep-sea scrap markets during the working week from Monday March 19 to Friday March 23, although strong demand in the US domestic market kept sentiment positive.

Japan’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for May surprised to the upside at 52.8, having been expected to remain at April’s level of 52.5, while China’s Caixin PMI came in at 51.1, which was unchanged from April’s reading. Taking into account yesterday’s better-than-expected reading on China’s official PMI, economic data may be picking up again, which could bode well for the metals.

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Thursday August 16.

Barring those for tin, base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were all up during the morning trading session on Tuesday July 30, with the complex benefiting from rising hope amid continuing US-China trade talks.

The sharp declines in the European ferro-vanadium market have paused with prices only moving down slightly last week. Meanwhile, the Chinese ferro-vanadium export market stabilized on firm offers.