The LME’s first steel contract made its “soft launch” this past Monday ahead of full service being introduced in April of this year. The contract allows for steel billets in 65 ton lots to be traded 6 months forward for delivery to either the Marmara region in Turkey or Dubai, UAE for the Mediterranean contract […]

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Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two part series. The first part appears here
So what can we expect in the years ahead, not so much from ArcelorMittal, Lakshmi Mittal himself is a young man and will no doubt continue on this path as long as the competition authorities will allow him. No I […]

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One of our men on the ground in China left a message on my cell phone Sunday night, “Lisa I have to discuss a US import issue with you.” Hmm I thought, it seemed a little dire. I wondered what this was going to be about. I awoke to an urgent email, “As you know, […]

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Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series
I was reading an interesting article the other day in that most informative of publications, the Economist, about the rise Lakshmi Mittal. Mittal has become the world’s fifth richest man worth some $37b principally through his 43% stake in the world’s largest steel maker ArcelorMittal. Mittal […]

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Sorry for the rhyming. I’m in one of those moods…
Buried in the bowels of it’s Sunday edition, the Wall Street Journal had an article on how Rio Tinto Alcan became the subject of an anti-trust investigation filed by the European Commission. According to the article, the EC “charges Alcan with having abused its dominant position […]

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My husband bought a box of cereal a few weeks ago promoting the fact that it was 75% organic. Never mind what the remaining content contained. Always the skeptic, I expect that a good percentage of these marketing claims are just that…”claims”. Over on SpendMatters editor Jason Busch joked that L’Oreal (the make-up company) had […]

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If you caught the first part of our series on green innovations in the metals industry, you’ll know that the MetalMiner staff is excited about following the growth and development of “green metals.” We love hearing about eco-friendly improvements and new practices in the metals industry. The men and women behind GreenAlloys™ share this excitement […]

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Forget oil, coal prices have been going through a bull market for the last year with the curve taking on hockey stick proportions over the last four weeks. Spot prices for thermal coal used in power stations reached $130/ton last week, a 37% increase from the beginning of the year following a 73% rise in […]

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Metal Bulletin recently reported the predictions of V. Mahadevan, president of the Indian Institute of Foundrymen. Within three years, he said, India could replace Japan as the third largest producer in the world of castings. The expansion is driven by the demands of the rapidly developing Indian auto industry — not just demands for domestic […]

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I can’t say that I am shocked by these survey results which were just released over the weekend by buying consortium Prime Advantage. According to the press release, of the 100 member companies that responded to the survey, 46% said that raw materials, “which include stainless steel, nickel, copper and other metals and plastics were […]

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