A report on the massive scale of Asian futures trading volumes shows that the London Metal Exchange must do everything it can to draw in Chinese retail investors and hedge funds. So shouldn't it open its monthly contracts to them?

Emirates Steel Industries has appointed Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi as ceo, the first Emirati citizen to take the top job

Ukraine-based energy company DTEK has started to supply anthracite coal to ArcelorMittal’s subsidiary operations in Mexico.

Russia’s apparent steel consumption is expected to grow by 5% to 7% annually in the mid-term, according to Metal Expert Consulting senior analyst Vladimir Terlovoy.

Imports of bar products into Iran fell by 45% in the first nine months of the Iranian year, from March 20 to December 20, 2012.

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

International billet prices have been rapidly dropping over the past week as sellers and buyers from several regions tried to adjust to the effects of a weaker ferrous scrap import market in Turkey.

The base metals are for the most part weaker this morning, Friday September 22, the exceptions are tin that is up by 0.2% and zinc that is little changed, while the rest are down by an average of 1.1%. Losses are fairly tightly grouped with prices off between 0.9% and 1.5%. Three-month copper prices are down by 0.9% at $6,397 per tonne.

The annual convention of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) made its biennial visit to the lights and glamour of Las Vegas, in the US state of Nevada, from Saturday April 14 until Thursday April 19.

Japan’s JFE Steel has once again denied it has made any final decision to invest in Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a major integrated steel mill that is being built in Vietnam by Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group (FPG).