Americas Metals &Mining:Daily prices and news,Steelmakers rally on Ross’Section 232remarks
Industrials (/lb): aluminum $0.86 (-0.2%), copper $2.60 (+1.9%), lead $0.95(+1.4%), molybdenum $7.82 (+0.0%); nickel $4.00 (+0.1%); zinc $1.12 (+0.8%);Precious (/oz): gold $1,278 (-0.7%), silver $17.44 (-0.9%); Steel (/mt): ChinaHRC $482 (+1.1%), SHFE Rebar $437 (+0.2%), MB Scrap Index $268 (+0.9%);Bulks: iron ore (/dmt) $56 (+0.5%), coking coal (/mt) $149 (-1.7%), freight (BCI)1,381 (+0.1%); Energy: Brent (/bbl) $47.86 (-0.4%), WTI (/bbl) $45.64 (-0.2%),natural gas (/mmBtu) $3.03 (+0.3%), thermal coal (/t) $79 (+1.1%).
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross expects to wrap up Section 232investigation very soon. Considering the interests of domestic steel producersand consumers, he said the report could have three possible outcomes whichcould be imposing tariffs above the current duties in place, imposing quotas, orimposing a tariff-rate quota where additional tariffs are imposed on importswhich exceed quotas. Post his comments, US steelmakers rallied ~4.5%. (SBB)Chinese steel exports in May at 7mt (+8% MoM, -26% YoY). YTD exports at34mt (-26% YoY). Rebound in exports was expected as shipments werebooked in March and April when prices declined. Higher prices now havedented attractiveness of Chinese material to overseas buyers. Steel importswere 1mt (+3% MoM, +2% YoY). YTD imports were ~6mt (+7% YoY). (SBB)Tanzania to introduce 1% clearing fee on mineral exports till June 2018. Asecond audit of the mining sector is underway after the first audit committeeheld Acacia Mining (Barrick stake ~64%) responsible for holding 10x more goldin containers than it declared as well as undeclared minerals like iron andsulfur. Also, a new rule requiring mining companies to list on the local stockexchange is expected by August 23, which will impact Acacia. (Reuters)US scrap imports reach 7-year high of 516kt in April. YTD (thru April)shipments totaled 1.67mt, highest in 11-years. Multiple outages at Nucor’sdirect-reduced iron facility for 6 weeks and strong flat-rolled demand fromelectric arc furnace mills boosted demand for prime scrap. A strong US dollarrelative to CAD and EUR fueled bulk shipments from Europe (180kt) andCanada (300kt). (SBB)Coral Gold Resources closes sale of Robertson Property in Nevada to BarrickGold. Terms of the agreement require Barrick to pay Coral $16m cash, return~4m Coral shares held by them and a sliding scale of 1% to 2.25% net smelterreturns royalty, which is contingent on gold prices. Robertson Property islocated adjacent to Cortex mine and is an advanced-stage exploration projectwith inferred resources of 2.7m oz. (Company)Alcoa restarts 50% of capacity at Portland smelter, Australia (capacity300kt/pa) after it was crippled by state-wide blackout 6 months ago. Theresumption comes due to government financing the smelter with a $182m 4-year power supply deal with AGL Energy for 510 MW (~10% of state’s load).
Financial aid contingent on smelter staying open till 2021. (Reuters)
