Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange are up by an average of 0.5% this morning, Wednesday September 20. Most metals are in positive territory, with three-month copper prices up by 0.5% at $6,563 per tonne, although zinc prices, down by 0.2%, are bucking the uptrend. Volume has been below average with 4,335 lots traded as of 06:31 BST.

Scrap prices in the global market have mostly been stable during the working week from Monday August 21 to Friday August 25, as the Turkish market approached a holiday period and other major markets were showing weak demand.

China’s crude steel output retreated in late December following consecutive increases that began in mid-November.

China’s largest steelmaker Hebei Iron & Steel expects its full-year results for 2013 to remain at low levels on account of the weak the steel market last year.

A Chinese steel mill has suspended blast furnaces after a loan default almost brought the mid-tier mill to bankruptcy.

We were wary that the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement could give the dollar a boost and that it could become a headwind for metals prices and that seems to have been the case. The base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange are down across the board by an average of 1.1% this morning, Thursday September 21.

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

The annual sitting of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference - widely known as the ‘twin sessions’ - in Beijing released a series of stimulus packages for the development of China’s economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

As competition in the global steel markets remains fierce, Metal Bulletin provides an update on the new, progressing and closed trade cases from around the world in April 2017.

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Wednesday March 28.