News and market analysis

Lundin Mining and BHP published a preliminary economic assessment on February 16 for their Vicuña joint venture, projecting average annual copper production of 395,000 tonnes over the first 25 years of operation as Argentina’s copper concentrate pipeline continues to build. PSJ Cobre Mendocino separately confirmed on February 14 that its feasibility study was under way.

Chinese lead smelters turned more bearish on the procurement of raw materials in the week to Friday February 13, amid heightened price volatility in silver, which is often contained in lead ores as an important by-product and contributor to smelter profits, sources told Fastmarkets.

This decision was proposed in a methodology note published on February 9, which you can view here. This decision follows preliminary discussions with the market as well as internal meetings to review relevant Fastmarkets data, which suggested that there was low spot liquidity and price volatility. No negative feedback was received during the consultation period. The […]

Discover the key trends shaping the global packaging market in 2026, with a focus on sustainable innovations and regional dynamics impacting the market.

The outbreak of conflict between the US, Israel and Iran on February 28 has brought shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to a near halt, disrupting China’s steel exports to a region that accounted for 14% of its total finished steel export volume in 2025.

The recent wave of anti-dumping measures approved in Brazil has been met with some concern in China — the country most affected by the Brazilian government’s decisions in this case — but despite the negative impact, Chinese participants see the moves as just another phase of doing business.

Key takeaways: The indices for locally produced brown testliner and fluting showed minor drops in February. Fastmarkets calculated its monthly PIX Testliner GCC index at $462.20 per tonne on March 3, down by $0.18 per tonne (0.04%) from $462.38 on February 3. Fastmarkets calculated its PIX Fluting GCC index at $438.15 per tonne on March […]

The war between Israel, the United States and Iran is already affecting the flow of agricultural commodities from South America to Iran, particularly feed, with some soymeal cargoes said to have been washed out, market sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Thursday March 5.

This consultation was done as part of our published annual methodology review process. No feedback was received about a methodology change during the consultation period and therefore no changes will be made to the methodologies at this stage. This consultation sought to ensure that our methodologies continue to reflect the physical CFR Manila steel billet market, in […]

The publication of Fastmarkets’ assessments for MB-IRO-0002 Pig iron export, fob main port Black Sea, CIS, $/tonne; MB-IRO-0014 Pig iron import, cfr Italy, $/tonne; and MB-FE-0004 Hot-briquetted iron, cfr Italian ports, $/tonne were delayed on Thursday March 5 because of a reporter error. Fastmarkets’ pricing database has been updated.