The price of oil has come down significantly over the last week or so falling from over $147/barrel to $126/barrel as of this writing. Is this the top of the chart and if it continues to fall what can we expect for metals?
Some are still predicting $250/barrel for oil next year, though others have called $50/barrel. Both seem […]

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For those that follow the new LME Billet contract, or those that want to once we launch our new premium service, MetalMiner IndX (SM) which daily tracks this and many other metals, there has been a telling development in the prices over the last week few weeks or so. Amid continuous reports of rising steel costs, prices for […]

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Good news for those on the hunt for cheap ferrochrome: Prices are steadily falling. But since this fall is due to a lack of heavy demand, the prices should increase after stainless steel mills ramp up production. For now, however, summer slowdowns have impacted prices. Also leading to these lows is “the continued collapse in sales […]

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Compared to the previous year, U.S. auto sales plummeted more than 18 percent last month, falling to numbers that indicate the worst sales in more than a decade. In fact, these subdued sales could even mark a 15-year low. According to one FreePress report, “June sales were off from a year ago by a breathtaking […]

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What a mess the Chinese domestic coal industry is in. Criticized for an appalling safety record the government has made admirable strides in recent years to close the small and most dangerous coal mines. From 1995 to 2008 the number of mines has fallen by 80% to 16,000 today and at the same time the […]

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If the investors or speculators on the futures markets have been the prime movers in the price of commodities (and there are arguments for and against on their affect) then maybe the 3rd quarter could see a long awaited adjustment in metals, oil and agricultural commodities according to a Reuters report in Mineweb .
The main […]

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The big three automakers have moved from public auctions to discrete swaps and return deals with the steel producers in return for new coil. They are fixing the prices via agreed upon formulas which presumably are more to the auto makers’ liking than the auction prices they were previously getting (and had expressed disappointment in). 
By […]

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Although metals and mining stocks have seen an average 40 percent appreciation since the beginning of the year, the same sector was hit with declines of approximately 16 percent during the past few trading days.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Among the biggest decliners on the session were several metals and mining companies, even though […]

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Citicorp produced an extremely bullish report this week predicting that copper prices would be sharply higher in 2009 and 2010. Specifically they forecast copper to rise to $5lb by the end of 2008 and $5.50lb by the end of 2010. The reasons given were a tight concentrates market, slower supply growth than had originally been […]

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We reported earlier that steel prices may have peaked and our own anecdotal evidence also supports this claim. We understand that one major steel producer shipped July orders early because of weak demand. And all of this ‘demand’ that everyone seems to talk about, is well, not exactly meeting expectations.
Every single steel producer and probably […]

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